Squid, what is it good for? You can eat it and you can make ink or dye from it, and now a Penn State team of researchers is using it to make a thermoplastic that can be used in 3-D printing.
"Most of the companies looking into this type of material have focused on synthetic plastics," said Melik C. Demirel, professor of engineering science and mechanics. "Synthetic plastics are not rapidly deployable for field applications, and more importantly, they are not eco-friendly."
The team from The University of Nottingham and Queen Mary University of London, spent ten months studying to the ways cows communicate with their young, carefully examining acoustic indicators of identity and age.
They identified two distinct maternal 'calls'. When cows were close to their calves, they communicated with them using low frequency calls. When they were separated - out of visual contact - their calls were louder and at a much higher frequency.
ANN ARBOR--It's not unusual for people to use war metaphors such as "fight" and "battle" when trying to motivate patients with cancer.
But a new University of Michigan study indicates that using those words can have an unintended negative effect.
David Hauser, a U-M doctoral student in psychology, and colleague Norbert Schwarz of the University of Southern California, found in three studies that exposure to metaphoric language relating cancer to an enemy significantly lessens the extent to which people consider cancer-prevention behaviors.
A survey of more than 300 college students reveals that college students who use "fake weed" or synthetic THC are most likely to have tried the drug because they were curious.
This news release is available in French.
The ways animals play with inedible objects may be precursors of functional behaviors such as tool use and goal directed object manipulation. For these reasons, species of high technical intelligence are also expected to play intensely with inanimate objects when no obvious goal is pursued.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Scientists at Indiana University and colleagues at Stanford and the University of Texas have demonstrated a technique for "editing" the genome in sperm-producing adult stem cells, a result with powerful potential for basic research and for gene therapy.
The researchers completed a "proof of concept" experiment in which they created a break in the DNA strands of a mutant gene in mouse cells, then repaired the DNA through a process called homologous recombination, replacing flawed segments with correct ones.
PEOPLE who have problems with numbers may be more likely to feel negative about bowel cancer screening, including fearing an abnormal result, while some think the test is disgusting or embarrassing, according to a Cancer Research UK supported study* published today (Monday) in the Journal of Health Psychology.
The researchers** sent information about bowel cancer screening to patients aged from 45 to 59 along with a questionnaire which assessed their numerical skills and attitudes to the screening test, which looks for blood in stool samples.
E-cigarette use among teenagers is growing in the U.S., and Hawaii teens take up e-cigarette use at higher rates than their mainland counterparts, a new study by University of Hawaii Cancer Center researchers has found.
The findings come as e-cigarettes grow in popularity and the Food and Drug Administration is considering how to regulate their sale. Some public health officials are concerned that e-cigarettes may be recruiting a new generation of young cigarette smokers who otherwise might not take up smoking at all, and the study's results bolster this position.
While serious infections can be transmitted from donated organs, the risk of passing Ebola virus disease from an organ donor to a recipient is extremely small. In a new editorial published in the American Journal of Transplantation, experts explain how simple assessments of donors can help ensure that the organ supply is safe, while having little impact on the donor pool.
Baltimore MD-- We would not expect a baby to join a team or participate in social situations that require sophisticated communication. Yet, most developmental biologists have assumed that young cells, only recently born from stem cells and known as "progenitors," are already competent at inter-communication with other cells.
TORONTO, ON - Consider the relationship between an air traffic controller and a pilot. The pilot gets the passengers to their destination, but the air traffic controller decides when the plane can take off and when it must wait. The same relationship plays out at the cellular level in animals, including humans. A region of an animal's genome - the controller - directs when a particular gene - the pilot - can perform its prescribed function.
The miracle ingredient for fighting obesity may already be in your pantry: A simple potato extract may limit weight gain from a diet that is high in fat and refined carbohydrates, according to scientists at McGill University.
Radiotherapy uses X-rays to destroy cancer cells but this can often lead to a severe skin reaction involving redness, pain and blistering similar to sunburn. A recent study found that a topical steroid cream frequently used to treat common skin conditions, can be used to improve dermatitis in cancer patients.
White adipose tissue stores excess calories as fat that can be released for use in other organs during fasting. Mammals also have small amounts of brown adipose tissue, which primarily acts as an effective fat burner for the production of heat. Now researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have uncovered the mechanism by which white fat cells from humans gets reprogrammed to become browner.