DNA ANALYSIS: A new and astonishing chapter has been added to North American prehistory in regards to the first hunters and their hunt for the now extinct giant mammoth-like creatures – the mastodons. Professor Eske Willerslev's team from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, has in collaboration with Michael Waters' team at the Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Texas A&M, shown that the hunt for large mammals occurred at least 1,000 years before previously assumed.
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Using one of the largest DNA data sets for a group of birds and employing next-generation sequencing methods, Smithsonian scientists and collaborators have determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers.
Not only have the researchers determined the types of finches that the honeycreeper family originally evolved from, but they have also linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands.
Frequent spitting up, irritability and unexplained crying in infants are often very distressing to parents. Physicians frequently prescribe acid-suppressing drugs for these symptoms. However, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an uncommon cause of these symptoms in otherwise thriving infants, and in his commentary published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Eric Hassall cautions against over-diagnosis of GERD and over-prescription of acid-suppressing drugs in children under one year of age.
Culture is not a trait that is unique to humans. By studying orangutan populations, a team of researchers headed by anthropologist Michael Krützen from the University of Zurich has demonstrated that great apes also have the ability to learn socially and pass them down through a great many generations.
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center today announce findings published in the October 20 issue of Nature that show for the first time the inhibition of both microRNA-33a and microRNA-33b (miR-33a/b) with chemically modified anti-miR oligonucleotides markedly suppress triglyceride levels and cause a sustained increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) "good" cholesterol.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study concludes that men who experience persistently moderate or high levels of stressful life events over a number of years have a 50 percent higher mortality rate.
In general, the researchers found only a few protective factors against these higher levels of stress – people who self-reported that they had good health tended to live longer and married men also fared better. Moderate drinkers also lived longer than non-drinkers.
New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2011—Spas that offer massage therapy using fragrant essential oils, called aromatherapy, may have elevated levels of potentially harmful indoor air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ultrafine particles, according to an article in Environmental Engineering Science, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.. The article is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ees
Bed bugs, largely absent in the U.S. since the 1950s, have returned with a hungry vengeance in the last decade in all 50 states. These insects have developed resistance to pyrethroids, one of the very few classes of insecticide used for their control. A research team at Virginia Tech has discovered some of the genetic mechanisms for the bed bug's resistance to two of the most popular pyrethroids -- deltamethrin and beta-cyfluthrin.
As microbes grow increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics, scientists are looking in new directions for drug development. A new paper, published Oct. 19 in the online journal PLoS ONE, reports the synthesis and testing of a family of potential antimicrobial molecules and finds that their therapeutic effect is comparable to that of many currently used antimicrobial agents.
Scientists have been unclear for some time about how most probiotics work. A new study has found a scientific 'design' for a probiotic that could be used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's disease.
The research by academics at the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences and the School of Clinical Medicine is published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
Osteoporosis is blamed for backbone fractures. The real culprit could well be our own vertebrae, which evolved to absorb the pounding of upright walking, researchers at Case Western Reserve University say.
Compared to apes, humans have larger, more porous vertebrae encased in a much thinner shell of bone.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) may be alleviated by the anti-cancer drug Rituximab, suggesting that the source of the disease could lie in the immune system, according to a new study published Oct. 19 in the online journal PLoS ONE. Uncertainty about the cause of CFS, which is characterized by extreme, unexplained exhaustion, among other symptoms, has led to much debate, but the authors of this recent study believe they may have found the answer.
STANFORD, Calif. — We know that our environment — what we eat, the toxic compounds we are exposed to — can positively or negatively impact our life span. But could it also affect the longevity of our descendants, who may live under very different conditions? Recent research from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests this could be the case.
Scientists are reporting that household washing machines seem to be a major source of so-called "microplastic" pollution — bits of polyester and acrylic smaller than the head of a pin — that they now have detected on ocean shorelines worldwide. Their report describing this potentially harmful material appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.