Other Sciences News

Neuroscientists Identify New Neural Pathway that Controls Hand Movements

Lobes of the human cerebrum
Apr 5, 2017 by News Staff

A new neural pathway has been identified by a group of neuroscientists that could underlie our ability to make the coordinated hand movements needed to reach out and manipulate objects within immediate extrapersonal space. The discovery, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was made in non-human primates, but the team believes that a similar pathway is likely to be present in humans as well. Lobes of the brain. Parietal...

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Calculating an individual’s GPS requires information from a genome-wide association study that finds specific genetic variants linked to particular traits. Image credit: Alexas Fotos.

Genetic Researchers Predict Children’s Reading Ability from DNA

Mar 30, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Sweden has used a genetic scoring technique to predict reading performance...

The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Image credit: Max Pixel.

‘Social Brain Hypothesis’ Challenged: Brain Size in Primates is Predicted by Diet

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

Primate brain size is predicted by diet, indicates new research from New York University. The findings, just reported in the journal Nature Ecology and...

Photograph of X-ray diffraction quality single-crystals of [K(2.2.2-cryptand)]{PuII[C5H3(SiMe3)2]3}, [K(crypt)][PuIICp’’3]. Image credit: Cory J. Windorff et al, doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b00706.

Chemists Discover New Oxidation State of Plutonium

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

A team of chemists from the University of California, Irvine, and Los Alamos National Laboratory has created a new oxidation state, Pu+2, of the transuranic...

Map of the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico), showing the mean annual temperature and the magnitude of the β coefficients from the obesity-adjusted meta-regression analysis, per state or territory over the period 1996–2009. The β coefficient from meta-regression analysis, representing the difference in diabetes incidence rate per 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature; red circles indicate a positive β coefficient, while blue circles indicate a negative β coefficient. Adjusted for the effect of time passage. Diabetes incidence rate is the age-adjusted diabetes incidence rate per 1,000. Image credit: Lisanne L. Blauw et al, doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2016-000317.

Rising Global Temperatures Could Be Contributing to Worldwide Diabetes Epidemic

Mar 21, 2017 by News Staff

Growing global temperatures may be playing a part in the rising numbers of people developing type 2 diabetes, suggests new research from the Leiden University...

Tsimane village from the water. Image credit: Hillard Kaplan et al.

Bolivian Tsimane People Have World’s Healthiest Arteries, Study Says

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in The Lancet, the Tsimane (pronounced chee-MAH-nay) — an indigenous people of lowland Bolivia — have the...

Temperature and humidity of ancestral environment are linked to differences in nostril width across human populations. Image credit: Paul Topinard.

Study: Climate Shaped Human Nose

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

Humans inherit their nose shape from their parents, but ultimately, the shape of someone’s nose and that of their parents was formed by a long process...

An artistic conception of the early Earth. Image credit: Simone Marchi / NASA.

Geologists Find Remnants of Early Earth’s Crust in Canada

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of rock samples collected from the Superior Province, the region in Canada just north of the Great Lakes, suggests the samples contain components...

Archean Earth. Image credit: Francis Reddy, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Scientists Propose New Contributing Cause for ‘Great Oxidation Event’

Mar 14, 2017 by News Staff

In the Archean Eon, more than 2.3 billion years ago, Earth’s atmosphere spent about a million years filled with a methane-rich haze; and this haze drove...

Modig et al found that people who had at least one child tended to live longer.

Being Parent Could Add Extra Years to Your Life

Mar 14, 2017 by News Staff

Parenthood is associated with a longer life than childlessness, particularly in older age, according to a study led by Karolinska Institute researcher...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Neanderthals Used Plant-Based Painkillers, Ate Rhinoceros Meat, Mushrooms, Nuts, and Moss

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of ancient DNA entrapped in Neanderthal dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) has revealed the complexity of Neanderthal behavior, including...

Virtual reconstructions of the Xuchang 1 and 2 skulls, superimposed on the archeological site where they were discovered. Image credit: Xiujie Wu.

Archaic Human Skulls from China Reveal Complex Mix of Trends in Time and Space

Mar 6, 2017 by News Staff

Two partial archaic human skulls unearthed in central China provide a new window into the biology and populations patterns of the immediate predecessors...

Sound-shaping metamaterial bricks and the grid to contain them. Image credit: Gianluca Memoli et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms14608.

Researchers Invent Sound-Shaping Metamaterial

Feb 28, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Universities of Sussex and Bristol, UK, has invented the first metamaterial that easily bends, shapes and focuses sound...

Watching birds near your home is good for mental health. Image credit: Tim Felce / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Watching Birds, Trees near Your Home is Good for Mental Health, Study Shows

Feb 27, 2017 by News Staff

According to a study led by University of Exeter researcher Daniel Cox, people living in neighborhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees are less likely...

The last glacial period occurred from 110,000 to 11,700 years ago. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Simple Rule Accurately Predicts when Ice Age Ends

Feb 23, 2017 by News Staff

According to an international research team led by University College London Professor Chronis Tzedakis, a simple rule can accurately predict when Earth’s...

Dopaminergic system and reward processing: dopaminergic neurons are located in the midbrain structures substantia nigra (SNc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA); their axons project to the striatum (caudate nucleus, putamen and ventral striatum including nucleus accumbens), the dorsal and ventral prefrontal cortex; the mesolimbic dopamine pathway mediates the psychopharmacology of reward, whether that is a natural high or a drug-induced high, and is sometimes referred to as the pleasure center of the brain, with dopamine as the pleasure neurotransmitter. Image credit: Oscar Arias-Carrion et al, doi: 10.1186/1755-7682-7-29.

Study: Neurotransmitter Dopamine Plays Role in Human Bonding

Feb 20, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers have found for the first time that dopamine, a vital neurotransmitter in the brain, is involved in human bonding. The results appear in the...

Nanoparticles.

Five Ways Nanoscience is Making Science Fiction into Fact

Feb 16, 2017 by Josh Davies, Cardiff University

Russian author Boris Zhitkov wrote the 1931 short story Microhands, in which the narrator creates miniature hands to carry out intricate surgeries. And...

Morrissey et al found that there are specific groups of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of a rat’s brain - the region most associated with long-term memory; these neurons develop codes to help store relevant, general information from multiple experiences while, over time, losing the more irrelevant, minor details unique to each experience. This image shows a rat hippocampal neuron. Image credit: ZEISS Microscopy / CC BY 2.0.

Neuroscientists Uncover How Brain Maintains Useful Memories

Feb 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Toronto in Canada has discovered a reason why we often struggle to remember small details of past experiences....

Based on various lines of geological and geophysical evidence, particularly those accumulated in the last two decades, Nick Mortimer et al argue that Zealandia is not a collection of partly submerged continental fragments but is a coherent 4.9 million km2 continent. NC - New Caledonia; WTP - West Torres Plateau; CT - Cato Trough; Cf - Chesterfield Islands; L - Lord Howe Island; N - Norfolk Island; K - Kermadec Islands; Ch - Chatham Islands; B - Bounty Islands; An - Antipodes Islands; Au - Auckland Islands; Ca - Campbell Island. Image credit: Nick Mortimer et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG321A.1.

Meet Zealandia, Earth’s New Continent

Feb 14, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Zealandia — a 4.9 million km2 region of the southwest Pacific Ocean — was once part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana and today it is...

According to Brian Chin et al, married people have lower cortisol levels and steeper slopes than the unmarried ones. Image credit: Olessya.

Study: Married People Have Lower Levels of Stress Hormone Cortisol

Feb 14, 2017 by News Staff

A study led by Carnegie Mellon University researchers provides the first biological evidence to explain how marriage impacts health. According to Brian...

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