Brain
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have shown for the first time that when one optic nerve in the eye is damaged, as in glaucoma, the opposite optic nerve comes to the rescue by sharing its metabolic energy.
In doing so, however, the undamaged optic nerve becomes vulnerable to further metabolic stress, which could explain why the neurodegeneration observed in this and other diseases spreads between brain regions.
A study by Natalia Maloshonok and Irina Shcheglova, research fellows of the HSE University, examines how and why gender stereotypes can disempower female students, leading to poor academic performance and high dropout rates. According to the study, more than one in three (35%) young women have been led to believe in men's superior mathematical ability.
Women's Share
KANSAS CITY, MO--Cavefish may not seem like a big deal. They're small, they live in tucked away places humans rarely go, and they're common enough that you can find them on every continent except Antarctica. But researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research see them as a potential way to understand more about the rise in autoimmune diseases in humans.
Seniors who can identify smells like roses, turpentine, paint-thinner and lemons, and have retained their senses of hearing, vision and touch, may have half the risk of developing dementia as their peers with marked sensory decline.
FRANKFURT/JENA. An interdisciplinary team from Frankfurt and Jena has developed a kind of bait with which to fish protein complexes out of mixtures. Thanks to this "bait", the desired protein is available much faster for further examination in the electron microscope. The research team has christened this innovative layer of ultrathin molecular carbon the "smart nanosheet". With the help of this new development, diseases and their treatment with drugs can be better understood, for example.
ST. LOUIS, MO, July 20, 2020 - Fungal diseases cause substantial losses of agricultural harvests each year. The fungus Botrytis cinerea causing gray mold disease is a major problem for farmers growing strawberries, grapes, raspberries, tomatoes and lettuce. To mitigate the problem, they often resort to applying chemical fungicides which can lose their effectiveness over time.
In a famous parable, three blind men encounter an elephant for the first time. Each touches a part--the trunk, ear, or side--and concludes the creature is a thick snake, fan, or wall. This elephant, said Kang-Kuen Ni, is like the quantum world. Scientists can only explore a cell of this vast, unknown creature at a time. Now, Ni has revealed a few more to explore.
Philadelphia, July 16, 2020 - It is estimated that in the United States, environmental heat stress in cows costs the dairy industry more than $1.5 billion annually due to decreased milk production, impaired reproductive performance, increased rates of illness, and shortened lifespans. But what effects do heat stress in pregnant cows have on the productivity and health of their female offspring in the future, and how much might this affect dairy producers' costs?
Boston - A new study shows that 29 percent of private post-acute care facilities in Massachusetts explicitly discriminated against hospitalized individuals with opioid use disorder, rejecting their referral for admission. Led by researchers at Boston Medical Center's (BMC's) Grayken Center for Addiction, the study showed that 15 percent of the rejections among patients with substance use disorders were denied due to a substance use disorder diagnosis or because they were being treated for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine or methadone.
MUNICH -- Indigenous knowledge, including oral histories, mythologies, place names, and classification schemes, can span many generations, preserving information that has helped native communities adapt to natural hazards as well as gradually changing conditions. Although Western scientists have historically deemed such information unreliable, during the past decade there has been increasing recognition of the advantages of bicultural approaches to scientific research, including demonstration of reliability.
Tsukuba, Japan -- A common school-age stereotype is that smart kids are unathletic. However, as a recent study lead by Associate Professor Keita Kamijo at the University of Tsukuba and Assistant Professor Toru Ishihara at Kobe University shows, physical activity is linked to better cognitive ability, which is in turn related to academic performance in school. Understanding the effects of physical activity on cognition has been difficult for several reasons.
Researchers at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, used the liquid crystal elastomer technology to demonstrate a series of micro-tools grown on optical fibers. The 200-micrometer gripers are controlled remotely, without electric wiring or pneumatic tubing, with green light delivered through the fibers - absorbed light energy is directly converted into the gripper jaws' action.
UC Davis researchers have found that combining a Western-style high-fat diet with antibiotic use significantly increases the risk of developing pre-inflammatory bowel disease (pre-IBD).
Although carrion crows and hooded crows are almost indistinguishable genetically, they avoid mating with each other. Researchers from Ludwig-Maximlian-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have now identified a mutation that appears to contribute to this instance of reproductive isolation.
Inspired by a coral polyp, this plastic mini robot moves by magnetism and light.
Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology developed a tiny plastic robot, made of responsive polymers, which moves under the influence of light and magnetism. In the future this 'wireless aquatic polyp' should be able to attract and capture contaminant particles from the surrounding liquid or pick up and transport cells for analysis in diagnostic devices. The researchers published their results in the journal PNAS.