Scientists have gained clues into how a Parkinson's disease treatment, called deep brain stimulation, helps tackle symptoms.
The early-stage study, by researchers at Imperial College London, suggests the treatment boosts the number and strength of brain cell 'batteries' called mitochondria. These batteries in turn provide power to brain cells, which may help reduce problems with movement and tremors.
Weaving stories and intriguing names into children's education about the natural world could help to engage them with species' conservation messages, new research shows.
A team at the University of Birmingham carried out a study to explore the potential of species' cultural heritage for inspiring the conservationists of the future. Focusing on magpies, one of the UK's most easily recognised birds, the researchers presented schoolchildren with information about the birds, and then asked them questions about their attitudes to magpies and the conservation of the species.
Scientists looking for signs of life beyond our solar system face major challenges, one of which is that there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone to consider. To narrow the search, they must figure out: What kinds of stars are most likely to host habitable planets?
A new study finds a particular class of stars called K stars, which are dimmer than the Sun but brighter than the faintest stars, may be particularly promising targets for searching for signs of life.
Employees bullied by their bosses are more likely to report unfairness and work stress, and consequently become less committed to their jobs or even retaliate, according to a Portland State University study.
The findings, published recently in the Journal of Management, highlight the consequences of abusive supervision, which is becoming increasingly common in workplaces, said Liu-Qin Yang, the study's co-author and an associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology in PSU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
As Benjamin Franklin once joked, death and taxes are universal. Scale-free networks may not be, at least according to a new study from CU Boulder.
The research challenges a popular, two-decade-old theory that networks of all kinds, from Facebook and Twitter to the interactions of genes in yeast cells, follow a common architecture that mathematicians call "scale-free."
The Manaro Voui volcano on the island of Ambae in the nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean made the 2018 record books. A NASA-NOAA satellite confirmed Manaro Voui had the largest eruption of sulfur dioxide that year.
The volcano injected 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the upper troposphere and stratosphere during its most active phase in July, and a total of 600,000 tons in 2018. That's three times the amount released from all combined worldwide eruptions in 2017.
Prescribing antibiotics immediately for elderly patients with urinary tract infections is linked with a reduced risk of sepsis and death, compared with patients who receive antibiotics in the days following diagnosis, or none at all.
These are the latest findings from researchers at Imperial College London and Public Health England, published in the BMJ.
Brain cells recorded as among the least electrically active during a specific task may be the most important to doing it right.
Results of new experiments in rodents, led by neuroscientists at NYU School of Medicine, challenge the assumption in brain research that the most active brain cells, or neurons, involved in any complex activity are also the most important in controlling that behavior.
New research from King's College London suggests one in 13 young people in the UK have had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before reaching age 18. The first UK-based study of its kind, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found 31% of young people had a traumatic experience during childhood, and those who were exposed to trauma were twice as likely as their peers to have a range of mental health disorders.
LOS ANGELES (EMBARGOED UNTIL FEB. 20, 2019, AT 2:00 P.M. EST) -- A new study has identified a drug that potentially could make a common type of immunotherapy for cancer even more effective. The study in laboratory mice found that the drug dasatinib, which is FDA-approved to treat certain types of leukemia, greatly enhances responses to a form of immunotherapy that is used against a wide range of other cancers.
Male flies kept awake do not die earlier than those allowed to sleep, leading researchers to question whether sleep, in flies at least, is essential for staying alive.
The team behind the research, from Imperial College London, suggest that for flies sleep may not perform a vital biological function in the way that food does.
Superficial but deliberate changes in someone’s facial appearance – such as a new hairstyle or complexion - are surprisingly effective in identity deception, new research suggests.
In the study, led by researchers at the universities of York and Huddersfield, participants were often fooled by disguises when asked to judge whether two photographs showed the same or different people.
1. Despite rising prevalence of heart disease in China, primary preventive treatment rates remain low
Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M18-1932
Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M18-3301
URLs go live when the embargo lifts
In two back-to-back symposia at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 1:30 and 3:30 PM respectively, a cross-disciplinary cohort of scientists will present the first comprehensive investigations of how humans interacted with plant and animal species in different cultures worldwide through time. By compiling and comparing detailed data from pre-industrial and modern societies, the researchers are sketching a picture of humans' roles and impacts in sustainable and unsustainable socio-ecological systems.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Even Georgia O'Keeffe noticed the pin-sized blisters bubbling on the surface of her paintings. For decades, conservationists and scholars assumed these tiny protrusions were grains of sand, kicked up from the New Mexico desert where O'Keeffe lived and worked. But as the protrusions began to grow, spread and eventually flake off, people shifted from curious to concerned.