Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a host of different diseases.
Tanycytes are cells in the brain that tell the brain about the food we have eaten
When they are stimulated by light researchers from the University of Warwick found that appetite increases
Researchers have concluded that tanycytes are glial cells, and deliver signals to neurons in the brain to activate appetite
Replacing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a new "ecosystem" measure reveals the enormous value of the natural world, new research shows.
GDP - widely used by decision-makers around the world - summarises the value of all goods and services bought and sold in a country during a specific period as a single figure.
But it takes no account of how nature contributes to economic activity and human wellbeing.
To have a more sustainable world, people need to put a dollar value on nature's contributions.
In this week's interdisciplinary journal - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international group of scholars show that gross domestic product (GDP) fails to fully capture nature's contributions to economic activity and human well-being. In addition to the D - domestic, there needs to be an E for ecosystem. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) summarizes the economic value of nature's contributions to humans.
Color awareness has long been a puzzle for researchers in neuroscience and psychology, who debate over how much color observers really perceive. A study from Dartmouth in collaboration with Amherst College finds that people are aware of surprisingly limited color in their peripheral vision; much of our sense of a colorful visual world is likely constructed by our brain. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Hollings Cancer Center researcher Chanita Hughes-Halbert, Ph.D., said this is illustrated in two recent health disparity studies, both reported online in April in the medical journal Ethnicity and Disease.
RICHLAND, Wash. - Marine scientists from around the world spent the last four years reviewing numerous studies and other data on the possible environmental effects of marine renewable energy (MRE) devices and found that the potential impact to marine life is likely small or undetectable.
However, scientists say there is still uncertainty around some issues, as there have been relatively few sizable deployments of MRE devices around the world where data can be collected.
RENO, Nev. - New evidence identifies 64 pesticide residues in milkweed, the main food for monarch butterflies in the west. Milkweed samples from all of the locations studied in California's Central Valley were contaminated with pesticides, sometimes at levels harmful to monarchs and other insects.
The study raises alarms for remaining western monarchs, a population already at a precariously small size. Over the last few decades their overwintering numbers have plummeted to less than 1% of the population size than in the 1980s - which is a critically low level.
USC researchers have discovered that an old antibiotic may be a powerful new tool against a deadly superbug, thanks to an innovative screening method that better mimics conditions inside the human body.
The antibiotic, rifabutin, is "highly active" in fighting multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, a significant cause of life-threatening infections in medical facilities, researchers found.
The study appears today in Nature Microbiology.
Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom found boys' poor reading skills in adolescence, combined with the social attitudes about women attending college, can help explain why fewer men than women enroll in higher education or other types of post-high school education.
Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Mobile apps are helping track the spread of COVID-19 to contain the outbreak, but the apps also raise concerns about personal privacy.
We tend to like people who like us--a basic human trait that psychologists have termed "reciprocity of attraction." This principle generally works well to start relationships because it reduces the likelihood of rejection. Yet, making the chase harder also has its upsides. Which one then is the better strategy for finding a partner?
Opponents to the felling of the statue of Edward Colston argue that it was vandalism and represents an attempt to erase history. But the statue has its own peculiar story – and it is far removed from the Colston who lived from 1636-1721.
The statue was erected in 1895, more than 170 years after his death. Colston’s reputation was cemented and writ large over the 19th century of Bristol in south-west England because influential men in the city wanted to create a paternalist local idol.
Primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder that begins in childhood and adolescence. Various defects in the enzyme alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase cause an overproduction of oxalate in the liver, which is excreted in the urine (hyperoxaluria). It leads to the formation of recurrent kidney stones, renal calcification (nephrocalcinosis) and kidney injury, even kidney failure; many such patients require dialysis even before they reach adulthood.
Monkeys can overcome their aversion to animated monkeys through a more realistic avatar, according to research recently published in eNeuro.
Humans feel more comfortable toward life-like humanoid robots, but if a robot gets too life-like, it can become creepy. This "uncanny valley" effect plagues monkeys, too, which becomes a problem when scientists use animated monkey faces to study social behavior. However, monkeys overcome the uncanny valley when presented with a sufficiently realistic monkey avatar created using movie industry animation technology.