There are an estimated 90 fatalities a year in the UK caused by drivers pulling out into the path of an oncoming motorcycle. New research by psychologists at the University of Nottingham suggests this sort of crash may often be the result of a short-term memory failure rather than the driver not seeing an approaching motorcycle.
Berkeley -- From habitat loss to climate change, amphibians around the world face immense threats to their survival. One emerging and sinister threat is the chytrid fungus, a mysterious pathogen that kills amphibians by disrupting the delicate moisture balance maintained by their skin, and that is decimating frog populations around the world.
In adults that are born blind, the "visual" cortex is activated in a similar way during a listening task, according to new research in JNeurosci. The results answer questions about how development can override anatomy to influence brain function.
Previous research observed that the "visual" cortex in blind people is recruited for other functions, but it was not known if the new purpose was consistent or varied from person to person.
ANN ARBOR--Research led by the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute has solved a nearly 50-year-old mystery of how nature produces a large class of bioactive chemical compounds.
The findings are scheduled for publication on Sept. 23 in the journal Nature Chemistry.
The compounds, called prenylated indole alkaloids, were first discovered in fungi in the 1970s. Since then, they have attracted considerable interest for their wide range of potential applications as useful drugs. One compound is already used worldwide as an antiparasitic for livestock.
Researchers have discovered that gene expression regulators work together to raise an individual's risk of developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia-like gene expression changes modeled in human neurons matched changes found in patients' brains. The researchers, led by Kristen Brennand, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, report on their findings in Nature Genetics. The work was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health.
A key theory that attributes the climate evolution of the Earth to the breakdown of Himalayan rocks may not explain the cooling over the past 15 million years, according to a Rutgers-led study.
The study in the journal Nature Geoscience could shed more light on the causes of long-term climate change. It centers on the long-term cooling that occurred before the recent global warming tied to greenhouse gas emissions from humanity.
Irvine, Calif. - September 23, 2019 - A University of California, Irvine-led team of scientists has discovered how newly identified neural circuits in the brain's hippocampal formation play a critical role in object-location learning and memory.
"These ancient fossils provide us with evidence of how at least two predator species hunted these vegetarian dinosaurs 210 million-years-ago. It is amazing to follow the clues left behind in fossilised teeth, jaws, limbs and other fossils to help us tell the ancient story of life in southern Africa," says Tolchard.
The fossils studied by Tolchard include teeth, pieces of jaws, hind limbs and body armour, all of which are can be described as parts of rauisuchians.
Of the various different functions that proteins perform in a cell, a crucial one is the recognition and transmission of certain "signals," collectively referred to as signal transduction. Receptors (proteins) on the cell surface recognize certain molecules and then initiate a chain of biochemical events inside the cell. These biochemical events are responsible for cellular activities such as multiplication, survival, etc. Needless to say, any perturbation of this "biochemical signaling" can be extremely detrimental to the cell, even leading to cancer in some cases.
A scientist has discovered a way of using one of the world's most abundant natural resources as a replacement for manmade chemicals in soaps and thousands of other household products.
An innovative research project, published this month and led by the University of Portsmouth, has demonstrated that bails of rice straw could create a 'biosurfacant', providing an alternative non-toxic ingredient in the production of a vast variety of products that normally include synthetic materials which are often petroleum based.