Body

Researchers from the international Past Global Changes (PAGES) project write in the journal Nature Geoscience that they have identified an unprecedented, long-lasting cooling in the northern hemisphere 1500 years ago. The drop in temperature immediately followed three large volcanic eruptions in quick succession in the years 536, 540 and 547 AD (also known as the Common Era CE). Volcanoes can cause climate cooling by ejecting large volumes of small particles - sulfate aerosols - that enter the atmosphere blocking sunlight.

UPTON, NY-New close-up images of the proteins that copy DNA inside the nucleus of a cell have led a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Rockefeller University, and the University of Texas to propose a brand new mechanism for how this molecular machinery works. The scientists studied proteins from yeast cells, which share many features with the cells of complex organisms such as humans, and could offer new insight into ways that DNA replication can go awry.

Declines in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing differed among urologist and primary care physician visits in a study that compared testing before and after a 2011 recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force against PSA screening for all men, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

A multicomponent intervention including reminder text messages, a swim shirt for children and a read-along book was associated with increased sun-protection behaviors among young children and a smaller change in children's skin pigment, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer among adolescents and young adults and sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer whether it occurs during childhood or adolescence.

PITTSBURGH--Database searches for DNA sequences that can take biologists and medical researchers days can now be completed in a matter of minutes, thanks to a new search method developed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.

How information is transferred from biological molecules to crystalline surfaces could pave the way for the development of new drugs and other synthetic materials.

New research, published today in Nature Chemistry, explains how biological molecules can change the shape of minerals by controlling how they link together.

Investigating why crystals of achiral minerals obtain a chiral shape - that is, how they take on a left- or right-handed nature - the research team showed how metal surfaces could be re-shaped by chiral molecules.

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden help assess the risk that Zika will spread to Europe by describing the transmission season, areas at risk and intervention strategies. By using previous knowledge on Dengue, they are now strategizing on how Zika can be controlled.

"From a European perspective, the best immediate response to Zika is to help prevent the spread of the virus where the outbreak takes place," says Joacim Rocklöv, epidemiologist at the Department of Public Health and Clinical medicine at Umeå University.

It may sound pretty harmless, but methane emissions from cows are a large problem for the climate. When ruminants digest their feed, methane is formed as a natural by-product of the microbial process in the rumen, and since methane is a 25 times more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, there is a need to devise methods to reduce such emissions from cattle.

Researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have found an epigenetic mechanism implicated in the regulation of blood sugar. The study, published in the journal Molecular Human Genetics, reveals that the methylation of the TXNIP gene is associated with diabetes mellitus type 2 and, in particular, average blood glucose levels.

Last year, researchers from Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University developed a so-called quality index, a tool applied when mapping the factors that matter in Danish people's perception of food quality. This year, the tool has been adjusted and extended. The "Quality Index 2015" was ordered and financed by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark (now: the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark) as part of an agreement with Aarhus University on research-based public sector consultancy.

Feb. 8, 2016 AUGUSTA, Ga. - Researchers have new insight into the complex interchange that can raise blood levels of unhealthy lipids, or fat, in type 1 diabetes, and early evidence that a drug under study to block cancer cell growth can restore healthier levels.

Most people are aware that rye bread is healthy, but not many know that what makes bread a healthy food is not only vitamins, minerals, protein and fibre. Rye bread and other wholegrain foods contain a particular group of health-promoting substances. These bioactive go by the name of benzoxazinoids, or BX for short.

Their presence in wholegrain was discovered by scientists from Aarhus University in 2010. Now, the scientists have dug more deeply to discover the BX factor's secrets.

Low cost airlines, natural disasters, regional competition, tightening visa rules and terrorism have all changed backpacking in South East Asia.

In his paper Change, Choice, and Commercialization: Backpacker Routes in Southeast Asia for the international journal Growth and Change, Dr Mark Hampton, Reader in Tourism Management at the University of Kent's Business School, describes how the backpacker is now less of an independent traveller and is increasingly more like a conventional tourist.

Heidelberg, Feb. 8, 2016 - Researchers at King's College London and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom have for the first time demonstrated a direct link between the Wbp2 gene and progressive hearing loss. The scientists report that the loss of Wbp2 expression leads to progressive high-frequency hearing loss in mouse as well as in two clinical cases of children with deafness with no other obvious features. The results are published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Steroid hormones are biologically active substances that play important roles in the development and sexual maturation of individuals, as well as in maintaining homeostasis, regardless of species. Steroid hormones are biosynthesized from cholesterol in specific endocrine organs via multi-step enzymatic reactions. Consequently, it is important that the gene groups that provide instructions for those biosynthetic enzymes are expressed in limited forms in the organs where steroid hormone biosynthesis takes place.