Body

This year marks 30 years since the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Vast amounts of radioactive particles spread over large areas in Europe. These particles, mostly Cesium-137, cause a low but long-term exposure to ionizing radiation in animals and plants.

Vinegar is the perfect ingredient for making tangy sauces and dressings. Now, researchers report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that the popular liquid could also help fight ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that research suggests is related to the gut microbiome. They found that vinegar suppressed inflammation-inducing proteins while improving the gut's bacterial makeup in mice.

Damage to axons in the central nervous system (CNS) typically results in permanent functional deficits. Boosting intrinsic growth programs can dramatically augment the axon regeneration of injured neurons. If injured neurons can regenerate sufficient number of axons, the CNS may recover and overcome such functional deficits.

Competitive athletes train hard, eat right and often turn to supplements to boost their performance. But do nutrition powders, pills and drinks really help? Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society looks at the science -- or lack thereof -- behind the sports nutrition market.

The deer tick transmits Lyme disease and other diseases, which cause thousands of human and animal deaths annually. With about 10,000 new patients each year, occurrences of Lyme disease in Switzerland are amongst the highest in Europe, representing a substantial healthcare cost and threatening Swiss tourism.

Clams, mussels, scallops and oysters, sound like delicious items on a restaurant menu. But bivalves such as these are much more than that: they function as a delicate record of changing environments and climate.

They live for a long time in one place, all the while accumulating information about their environment in their shells.

Precise timing of a climate gas release

The enzyme Dicer processes RNA transcripts, cutting them into short segments that regulate the synthesis of specific proteins. An Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich team has shown that Dicer promotes the development of atherosclerosis, thus identifying a new drug target.

MIPT scientists together with their colleagues from St. Petersburg and Israel have analyzed more than 500 previously published scientific articles and proposed their own approach to the choice of methods used for the treatment of one of the most common cancers. Details are published in the review of the International Journal of Cancer.

Bystanders can influence the way adult male chimpanzees establish grooming interactions according to research by anthropologists at the University of Kent.

The results challenge existing theories and bring into question the long-held assumption that patterns of social interactions in chimpanzees and other primates reflect relationships that themselves indicate a level of trust between individuals.

Singapore, 5 February 2016 - With the escalation of extreme weather conditions, rapidly melting polar icecaps and rising sea levels, combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are matters of urgent and global concern.

The Roman Emperors used to spend their summers in the city of Baia, near Naples. With the passage of time, however, the majority of their luxury villas became immersed under water. Italian and Spanish researchers have now applied microscopic and geochemical techniques to confirm that the marble used to cover these ancient Roman buildings came from Carrara and other marble quarries in Turkey and Greece - valuable information for archaeologists and historians.

People with a condition that causes them to stop breathing in their sleep could be helped by new research.

Scientists have gained fresh insights into the signals that regulate breathing during sleep, when oxygen levels are low.

The study could lead to new treatments for the condition called central sleep apnoea - which occurs during sleep disordered breathing and is linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Living systems rely on a dizzying variety of chemical reactions essential to development and survival. Most of these involve a specialized class of protein molecules--the enzymes.

In a new study, Hao Yan, director of the Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute presents a clever means of localizing and confining enzymes and the substrate molecules they bind with, speeding up reactions essential for life processes.

Statistical analysis by University of Wyoming researchers shows wide variation in the rates at which the bones of ancient animals in the Americas have been lost.

For the first time horses have been shown to be able to distinguish between angry and happy human facial expressions.