CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Worldwide, nearly 2 million people per year die from diarrhea, the vast majority of them in poor countries in Africa and Asia. The disease accounts for 18 percent of all deaths among children — and yet is almost always preventable with proper treatment. Now, new research from MIT indicates that underlying, low-level undiagnosed infection may greatly add to the severity of a significant number of these cases. This realization could lead to changes in health-care strategies to address the problem.
Brain
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.— Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, San Diego have developed a set of molecular tools that provide important insight into the complex genomes of multicellular organisms. The strategy promises to clarify the longstanding mystery of the role played by vast stretches of DNA sequence that do not code for the functional units—genes—that nevertheless may have a powerful regulatory influence.
Processes that laid the foundation for life on Earth -- star and planet formation and the production of complex organic molecules in interstellar space -- are yielding their secrets to astronomers armed with powerful new research tools, and even better tools soon will be available. Astronomers described three important developments at a symposium on the "Cosmic Cradle of Life" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, IL.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- That irresistible craving for a cheeseburger has its roots in the dramatic growth of the human brain and body that resulted from environmental changes some 2 million years ago.
Higher quality, nutritionally dense diets became necessary to fuel the high-energy demands of humans' exceptionally large brains and for developing the first rudimentary hunting and gathering economy.
Although scholars have realized that families of higher income and education levels talk more with their children and speak to them in complex sentences, the new study is the first to connect gesture, vocabulary and school preparedness.
It's safe to say that humans are smarter than animals, but a University of Iowa researcher is investigating the extent of that disparity in intelligence.
And, it may not be as great a gap as you suspect, according to UI psychologist Ed Wasserman, who presents his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting today in Chicago.
LA JOLLA, CA—Our eyes are in constant motion. Even when we attempt to stare straight at a stationary target, our eyes jump and jiggle imperceptibly. Although these unconscious flicks, also known as microsaccades, had long been considered mere "motor noise," researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that they are instead actively controlled by the same brain region that instructs our eyes to scan the lines in a newspaper or follow a moving object.
Alzheimer's disease
Athens, Ga. – As diseases go, toxoplasmosis is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Its effects are usually mild, though infection is for life, and two out of five Americans are chronically infected. Those with compromised immune systems can, however, face serious complications. And the disease can also have serious effects on a human fetus if contracted by a mother.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Parents and educators who favor traditional classroom-style learning over free, unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten may actually be stunting a child's development instead of enhancing it, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies childhood learning and literacy development.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- President Obama spurred a dramatic change in the way whites think about African-Americans before he had even set foot in the Oval Office, according to a new study.
Florida State University Psychology Professor E. Ashby Plant and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Patricia Devine have documented a decrease in racial prejudice during the Fall 2008 period between the Democratic Party's nomination of Barack Obama and the Nov. 4 election. They call it the Obama Effect.
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The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, and the 454 Life Sciences Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut, will announce on 12 February during the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and at a simultaneous European press briefing that they have completed a first draft version of the Neandertal genome.
Policy makers and mental health services need to take urgent action to ensure that people with serious mental illnesses receive greater guidance about sexual health, including the risk of HIV, especially if they suffer from schizophrenia.
A UK survey of nearly 300 mental health workers, published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing, found that although 80% agreed that promoting sexual health was an important part of their role, only 30% routinely discussed sexual health issues with service users.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that a drug now being tested to treat a range of human cancers significantly inhibited colon cancer development in mice. Because the agent appears to have minimal side effects, it may represent an effective chemopreventive treatment in people at high risk for colon cancer, the investigators say.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- In a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, a team of researchers led by Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Mark Frye, M.D., attempted to identify what factors make some people with bipolar depression more likely to experience treatment-emergent mania (TEM).