Body

Nagoya, Japan - Behavioral laterality, or left- or right-handedness, has been reported in many animals, including humans, chimpanzees, toads, rats, mice, and invertebrates such as crustaceans and insects. The existence of this phenomenon even in lower animals suggests it arose early in life's evolutionary history and that it confers survival advantages. However, exactly how it is acquired in the early life-stages is not known.

Homeless people in their fifties have more geriatric conditions than those living in homes who are decades older, according to researchers at UC San Francisco who are following 350 people who are homeless and aged 50 and over, in Oakland.

A breakthrough in understanding human skin cells offers a pathway for new anti-ageing treatments.

For the first time, scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have identified that the activity of a key metabolic enzyme found in the batteries of human skin cells declines with age.

A study, published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, has found that the activity of mitochondrial complex II significantly decreases in older skin.

Unintentional fatal firearm injuries and those involving a police officer currently cluster in distinct geographical areas of the USA, reveals research published in the journal Injury Prevention.

In states where injuries are disproportionately common due to differences in policy or culture, a map identifying the most distinctive injury death in each state could help policymakers and advocates to push for change, say the researchers.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 25, 2016) -- An assistant professor in the UK College of Health Sciences is the lead author on a paper that is being hailed as the most important single source of information in the field of sports nutrition to date.

A wise investor plays the financial market by maintaining a variety of stocks. In the long run, the whole portfolio will be more stable because of the diversity of the investments it contains.

Aquatic life can suffer when high concentrations of dissolved salts enter freshwater ecosystems, a process known as salinization.

An international, multi-institutional team of researchers that includes a Virginia Tech graduate student recommends ways that humans can protect freshwater from salts in an article Friday (Feb. 26) in the journal Science.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- New data released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) show continued growth in cosmetic procedures over the last year, and a shift in the types of procedures patients have chosen since the start of the new millennium. According to the annual plastic surgery procedural statistics, there were 15.9 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2015, a 2 percent increase over 2014.

UPTON, NY-One hundred and fifty feet above the ground in the Amazonian rainforest, a vast ocean of green spreads out in every direction. The rainforest canopy is made up of mostly tropical evergreen trees, which take in enormous amounts of carbon from Earth's atmosphere. Understanding the carbon cycle in these forests - how carbon is stored in plants and soil and then returned to the atmosphere - is crucial to creating accurate models that predict how global climate will change in the future. Key to that puzzle is understanding photosynthesis in tropical forests.

If you imagine a cell as a house, protein production can be a fairly relatable engineering feat. A master blueprint (DNA) holds all the information about what goes where. If you just want to build a door (protein), you only need a copy of that specific portion of the blueprint (messenger RNA, or mRNA). In cells, however, raw mRNA copies contain extra material that is not relevant for the final protein.

Researchers have harvested two antibodies from a survivor of a 1995 Ebola outbreak, one of which was so effective at subduing the virus that nonhuman primates given the treatment five days after infection experienced nearly complete protection. While several different cocktails of antibodies that target the Ebola virus are currently being tested, Davide Corti et al. sought to find a single or dual-combination agent that could result in a simpler, yet effective treatment.

A difference has emerged between some Western European countries and the U.S. regarding the use of residual disinfectants to offer safe drinking water. But who is right? In this Perspective, Fernando Rosario-Ortiz et al. compare the different approaches. To avoid microbial contamination, numerous countries including the U.S. and U.K. require the presence of residual disinfectant in drinking water. Yet the presence of a disinfectant can lead to the formation of carcinogenic byproducts, issues with corrosion, and an unappealing taste, the authors note.

Baltimore, MD--New work from Carnegie's Allan Spradling and Lei Lei demonstrates that mammalian egg cells gain crucial cellular components at an early stage from their undifferentiated sister cells, called germ cells. This mechanism had previously only been documented in lower animals, and may be a key to understanding the egg's unique properties. Their work is published via Science First Release.

Without a more efficient treatment, more than 200,000 people living with Chagas disease will die from heart disease in the next five years

New insights suggest that the source of human cells used to generate new tissues and organs may be an important consideration in personalized medicine. The Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) today released the results of a study highlighting molecular differences in cells that are gaining traction in the field of personalized medicine. The study, titled "Strong Components of Epigenetic Memory in Cultured Human Fibroblasts Related to Site of Origin and Donor Age," was led by Andrew E. Jaffe, Ph.D., and its relevant findings published in PLOS Genetics.