Other Sciences News

Researchers Develop Wireless ‘Pacemaker for the Brain’

In a proposed neuromodulation device, two of the new chips would be embedded in a chassis located outside the head. Each chip could monitor electrical activity from 64 electrodes located into the brain while simultaneously delivering electrical stimulation to prevent unwanted seizures or tremors. Image credit: Rikky Muller / University of California, Berkeley.
Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a novel neurostimulator that can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain at the same time, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson’s. Dubbed WAND (wireless artifact-free neuromodulation device), the device is both wireless and autonomous, meaning that once it learns to recognize the signs of tremor...

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Thanarajah et al combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to assess the brain’s response to food intake and discovered immediate and delayed dopamine release in distinct areas of the human brain; the study authors also identified areas where dopamine release reflected subjective wanting to eat, shedding light on how the brain transforms energetic signals into the desire to eat. Image credit: Thanaraja et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.12.006.

Study: Our Brain Rewards Us Twice Per Meal

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

Our brain rewards us for every meal by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a starring role in motivating behavior. According to a new study,...

Wedell-Neergaard et al show that in abdominally obese people, exercise-mediated loss of visceral adipose tissue mass requires interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor signaling. Given that abdominal fat is metabolically harmful to health, the study raises a potentially important side effect of IL-6 receptor antibodies, such as tocilizumab. Image credit: Wedell-Neergaar et al.

New Study Shows How Exercise Reduces Abdominal Fat Mass

Dec 31, 2018 by News Staff

Abdominal (belly) fat is harmful to metabolic health. Exercise training reduces abdominal fat mass, but the underlying mechanisms have not been clear....

Genetically modified pothos ivy (Epipremnum aureum). Image credit: Mark Stone / University of Washington.

Genetically Modified Houseplant Can Clean Indoor Air

Dec 27, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Washington has genetically modified a common houseplant, the pothos ivy (Epipremnum aureum), to efficiently remove...

Physarum polycephalum on an oak log. Image credit: Mushroom Observer / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Slime Mold Can Solve Exponentially Complicated Problems in Linear Time

Dec 26, 2018 by Sam Sander Effron

Researchers from Lanzhou University in China have shown that the slime mold Physarum polycephalum is able to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem, a combinatorial...

Study: Children’s Personalities Influence How They Perform in Math and Reading

Dec 26, 2018 by News Staff

Proficiency in reading and math is associated with a complex system of skills, some of which derive from personality traits. In new research, Dr. Margherita...

The 51st known Mersenne prime has 24,862,048 digits. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Largest Known Prime Number Has Almost 25 Million Digits

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Professional and amateur mathematicians from a worldwide research project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) have discovered the largest...

In Seattle, WA, delaying the start time of two high schools by 55 minutes lengthened students’ daily sleep by 34 minutes, and was associated with reduced sleepiness and increased academic performance. Image credit: E.B. Pilgrim.

Later School Start Times Increase Sleep, Attendance and Grades: Study

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

In 2017, the Seattle School District decided to delay the start time for secondary schools from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. This change allowed a team of researchers...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Little Foot Fossil Sheds New Light on Hominin Brain Evolution

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first detailed comparative description of the external neuroanatomy of the 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus prometheus fossil known as the Little...

The new study by Burke Quinla et al suggests that the experience of chronic peer victimization during adolescence might induce psychopathology-relevant deviations from normative brain development. Early peer victimization interventions could prevent such pathological changes. Image credit: Alexas Fotos.

Study: Bullying Affects Structure of Adolescent Brain

Dec 17, 2018 by News Staff

Chronic peer victimization during adolescence impacts mental health via structural brain changes, according to new research published in the journal Molecular...

Chen et al’s rewritable paper demonstrates excellent rewriting performances (legible time > 6 months and reversibility > 100 times); its color rapidly changes from blue to colorlessness when the temperature is higher than 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius), and the colorless state can be maintained at room temperature; the color returns to blue when the temperature is lower than 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius). Image credit: Chen et al, doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b14625.

Scientists Develop Long-Lasting, Easy-to-Use Rewritable Paper

Dec 10, 2018 by News Staff

A team of materials scientists in China has created a ‘rewritable’ paper that can be drawn or printed on over and over again; the messages can last...

Exercising on a regular basis over a lifetime may help keep the body decades younger. Image credit: Michael de Groot.

Lifelong Aerobic Exercise May Help Keep Body Young, Says New Study

Dec 10, 2018 by News Staff

In an analysis of septuagenarians who have been exercising for decades, researchers from Ball State University found that they have heart and lung capacities...

He et al found that a single workout can activate POMC neurons (shown in green in yellow) for up to 2 days; these neurons are important regulators of blood glucose levels and energy balance. Image credit: He et al, doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2018.08.011.

Exercise Can Boost Metabolism, Animal Study Shows

Dec 7, 2018 by News Staff

A new study shows neurons in mice that influence metabolism are active for up to two days after a single workout. The study, published in the journal Molecular...

Jackson et al propose that magma storage occurs by reactive melt flow in long-lived mush reservoirs, rather than by the commonly invoked process of fractional crystallization in magma chambers. Image credit: Julius Silver.

Volcanoes are Fed by ‘Mush’ Reservoirs, Says New Study

Dec 5, 2018 by News Staff

Volcanoes are not fed by liquid magma formed in large, underground caves called ‘magma’ chambers; instead, they are fed by so-called ‘mush’ reservoirs...

Left: average of known decay properties assigned to 288Mc and its daughters. Right: details of decay chains detected at the FIONA focal plane. Unobserved decays within each decay chain are indicated as ‘unobserved’ and are assumed to have been emitted out of the open end of the detector array. The x position of decays observed in the focal-plane detector is also given. Image credit: Gates et al, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.222501.

Physicists Measure Mass Numbers of Nihonium and Moscovium

Dec 3, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists using the FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) device at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch...

In fruit flies, dopamine neurons regulate both learning and forgetting. Berry et al identify a locus for the storage and retrieval of a short-term memory trace and show that a single dopamine neuron regulates both formation and disruption of this trace. Image credit: Berry et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.09.051.

Neuroscientists Decode Physiological Mechanism of Remembering and Forgetting

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

In a study of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), a team of researchers from the Scripps Research Institute Florida has shown the physiological mechanism...

A stone tool from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Image credit: Sahnouni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008.

2.4-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools, Cutmarked Bones Found in Algeria

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has uncovered 2.4-million-year-old stone artifacts and cutmarked bones at the archaeological...

Westbury & Hollis determined that there are two main kinds of predictors of funniness in words: those related to the form of the word and those related to its meaning. Image credit: Jesper Sehested, PlusLexia.com / CC BY 2.0.

What Makes Some Words Funny? Psychology Experts Cracking Science of Humor

Nov 29, 2018 by News Staff

A new study by University of Alberta scientists demonstrates that words are judged funnier if they are less common and have an improbable orthographic...

Agricultural fires in modern-day Pakistan and India. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ Lynn Jenner / Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Wildfires Played Crucial Role in Miocene Expansion of Grasslands

Nov 28, 2018 by News Staff

New research from Penn State and Smithsonian Institute links a large rise in wildfires nearly 10 million years ago (Miocene epoch) with a major shift in...

Tobacco package stimuli: neutral (left) and negative (right) social cues. Image credit: Jennifer Jeffrey & Matthew Thomson, doi: 10.1111/joca.12232.

Negative Social Cues on Tobacco Packaging May Encourage Smokers Quit

Nov 27, 2018 by News Staff

A new study by Western University, Canada, supports the notion that tobacco packaging which conveys to smokers that ‘others’ view smoking negatively...

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