Body

Whiskey aficionados may claim that Manhattans must be made with fiery, grassy rye, while an Old Fashioned requires the sweetness of bourbon.

But a new study from a Drexel University food scientist shows the average consumer cannot discriminate between the two flavors.

Jacob Lahne, PhD, an assistant professor in the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management, found, in a blind sorting task of American ryes and bourbons, participants were more likely to group together products by brand rather than type of whiskey.

Lack of sleep has previously been found to impact the activation of the immune system, inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism and the hormones that regulate appetite. Now University of Helsinki researchers have found that sleep loss also influences cholesterol metabolism.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- If shooting arrows from a crossbow into cubes of ballistics gelatin doesn't sound like biological science to you, you've got a lot to learn from University of Illinois animal biology professor Philip Anderson, who did just that to answer a fundamental question about how animals use their fangs, claws and tentacles to puncture other animals.

TORONTO, April 22, 2016--People who had cancer before receiving an organ transplant were more likely to die of any cause, die of cancer or develop a new cancer than organ recipients who did not previously have cancer, a new paper has found. However, the increased risk is less than that reported in some previous studies.

Previous research has shown that cancer survivors were at increased risk of cancer recurrence after a transplant. But the findings regarding the risk of death and developing a new cancer were inconsistent.

Babies with a high body mass index (BMI) at age two months are at risk for obesity at age two years, say pediatric researchers. The authors, in an online study published today in Pediatrics, say that BMI better predicts early childhood obesity than weight-for-length, the current standard measurement.

Managers who inspire their staff to perform above and beyond the call of duty may actually harm their employees' health over time, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The findings suggest that constant pressure from these 'transformational leaders' may increase sickness absence levels among employees. They also indicate that some vulnerable employees in groups with transformational leaders may in the long term have increased sickness absence rates if they ignore their ill-health and frequently show up for work while ill, known as presenteeism.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Cocaine use has increased substantially among African Americans in some of the most underserved areas of the United States. Interventions designed to increase connection to and support from non-drug using family and friends, with access to employment, the faith community, and education, are the best ways to reduce substance use among African Americans and other minorities in low-income, resource-poor communities, concludes a study led by a medical anthropologist at the University of California, Riverside.

New York, NY--April 21, 2016--Researchers from Columbia University, with colleagues at Genia Technologies (Roche), Harvard University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report achieving real-time single molecule electronic DNA sequencing at single-base resolution using a protein nanopore array.

BOSTON (April 21, 2016) - Do survivors of childhood cancer return to normal health as they grow up? According to new research from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, overall health-related quality of life in young adult survivors of childhood cancer resembles that of middle-aged adults.

Pediatric researchers have devised an innovative, safe and minimally invasive procedure that helps relieve rare but potentially life-threatening airway blockages occurring in children who had surgery for congenital heart defects.

The physician-researchers developed new imaging tools and used minimally invasive catheterization techniques to treat plastic bronchitis, a condition in which abnormal circulation causes lymphatic fluid to dry into solid casts that clog a child's airways.

Brooklyn, NY - In a newly published, pilot study in the journal Ethnicity & Disease, researchers report a relatively low prevalence of vascular risk among participants of the Southwest Heart Mind Study, especially among those treated for hypertension and hyperlipidemia despite overweight and obesity.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April XX, 2016--The oceans hold more than four billion tons of uranium--enough to meet global energy needs for the next 10,000 years if only we could capture the element from seawater to fuel nuclear power plants. Major advances in this area have been published by the American Chemical Society's (ACS) journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

While scientists have known for many years that there are cells living in the cavities surrounding various organs such as the heart, lung and liver, their function has remained unknown. A recent Cumming School of Medicine study examined these cells, and discovered they play an integral role in fast tissue repair. The study was published in the journal Cell this month.

Dr. William "Barney" Balch's team at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has been sampling the waters of the Gulf of Maine regularly over the same transect for the last 18 years as part of a NASA-funded study. Working with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Thomas Huntington and Dr. George Aiken, Balch reported in a recent paper an overall reduction in productivity in the Gulf of Maine.

The leading infectious cause of severe respiratory disease in infants, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is also a major cause of respiratory illness in the elderly. Approved vaccines do not yet exist, and despite the development of partial immunity following infection during childhood, individuals remain susceptible to RSV reinfection life-long. A comprehensive characterization of the antibody-response to RSV published on April 21st in PLOS Pathogens advances our understanding of the human immune response against RSV and has implications for vaccine design.