Other Sciences News

Hippo family in Botswana. Image credit: Hans Stieglitz / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Plant-Eating Mammals Have Bigger Bellies, Claims New Study

Nov 7, 2016 by News Staff

Herbivorous, or plant-eating, mammals have bigger bellies than their usually slim carnivorous counterparts, according to a study led by University of Zurich...

In the study, whole-brain degree count maps, collected before the start of treatment, were used to identify potential brain regional markers for placebo propensity. Group differences in whole-brain maps for degree count (number of connections of any location to the rest of the brain) between placebo responders and non-responders identified four brain regions that differentiated placebo responders from non-responders. The highest significant difference was seen for the right midfrontal gyrus. Abbreviations: r-MFG - right midfrontal gyrus; ACC - anterior cingulate cortex; PCC - posterior cingulate cortex; r-S2/M1 - right secondary somatosensory and primary motor cortex. Image credit: Tétreault P. et al.

New Study Spotlights Brain Region Responsible for Placebo Response in Pain

Oct 31, 2016 by News Staff

A Northwestern University-led team of researchers has identified a region in the brain responsible for the ‘placebo effect’ in pain relief, when a...

Astrocyte cell. Image credit: Gerry Shaw / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Glial Cells Play Critical Role in Control of Appetite, Study Shows

Oct 28, 2016 by News Staff

Glial cells – non-neuronal brain cells that provide structural, nutritional and other supports to the brain — play a critical role in controlling...

Reduction in sensitivity to dishonesty over time. Image credit: Neil Garrett et al.

Study Examines How Human Brain Adapts to Self-Serving Dishonesty

Oct 25, 2016 by News Staff

A study led by University College London researchers Neil Garrett and Tali Sharot provides the first empirical evidence that self-serving lies gradually...

Examples of flaked stones produced by bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus). Scale bars - 5 cm. Image credit: Tomos Proffitt et al.

Brazilian Capuchin Monkeys Unintentionally Make Sharp-Edged Stone Flakes

Oct 21, 2016 by News Staff

A University of Oxford-led team of scientists has observed bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brazil deliberately break stones, unintentionally...

Holt et al. find no link between appetite and calorie intake. Image credit: Jimmy X. Rose.

No Link between Appetite and Calorie Consumption, New Study Finds

Oct 20, 2016 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition has revealed there is no link between how hungry we feel and the amount...

An artist’s illustration of a comet impact on Earth. Image credit: Don Davis / NASA.

Researchers: Comet Collided with Earth 55.6 Million Years Ago

Oct 14, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has found evidence that a comet hit the Earth at the same time a mysterious release of carbon...

Altered microRNAs in anxiety and metabolic disorders. Image credit: Chanan Meydan et al, doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2016.07.001.

Scientists Find Molecular Link between Anxiety and Metabolic Disorders

Oct 12, 2016 by News Staff

Scientists in Israel have identified molecular elements that bridge anxiety and metabolism — a type of microRNA that influences shared biological...

Drink water according to thirst rather than a schedule, researchers recommend. Image credit: Photoshot.

New Study Challenges Popular Idea of Mandatory Water Intake

Oct 11, 2016 by News Staff

A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges the popular idea that we should drink 8 glasses of water...

Schematic of a transistor with a molybdenum disulfide channel and 1-nm carbon nanotube gate. Image credit: Sujay Desai / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Researchers Create World’s Smallest Transistor

Oct 6, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists headed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher Prof. Ali Javey has used carbon nanotubes and a compound called molybdenum...

Example applications for on-body communication using the fingerprint sensors on smartphones. The smartphone can securely send information to doorknobs or glucose sensors over the body. Image credit: Vikram Iyer / University of Washington.

Scientists Find Way to Send Passwords via Human Body

Oct 3, 2016 by News Staff

A new technique devised by a team of researchers at the University of Washington leverages the signals already generated by fingerprint sensors on smartphones...

Study: Eating Raw Lettuce, Apple Can Stop Garlic Breath

Sep 29, 2016 by News Staff

Eating raw apple or lettuce may help deodorize garlic breath, according to a study by scientists at the Ohio State University (OSU). Garlic. Image credit:...

This image shows thirst neurons (blue) in mouse SCN. Image credit: C. Gizowski et al / McGill University.

Study Says Biological Clock Stimulates Thirst before Sleep

Sep 29, 2016 by News Staff

According to a study in rodents led by Prof. Charles Bourque of McGill University, the brain’s biological clock stimulates thirst in the hours before...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Marsquakes Could Support Life Deep within the Red Planet

Sep 28, 2016 by James Romero

The combination of seismic activity and water locked away at depth within Mars could be releasing sufficient hydrogen gas to support communities of microorganisms,...

Oxytocin supports spirituality. Image credit: Duke University.

Research: Oxytocin Enhances Spirituality

Sep 27, 2016 by News Staff

Oxytocin – a polypeptide hormone produced mainly by the hypothalamus and stored in the pituitary gland – gives greater sense of spirituality...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Researchers Identify Archaic Hominins Associated with Chatelperronian Tool Technology

Sep 23, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has demonstrated that Neanderthals were responsible...

Depiction of the Jarijari (Nyeri Nyeri) people near Merbein engaged in recreational activities, including a type of Aboriginal football, by William Blandowski & Gustav Mützel, 1857.

Unprecedented Genomic Study Shines Light on Ancestry of Indigenous Australians

Sep 22, 2016 by News Staff

The first comprehensive genomic study of Indigenous Australians has revealed that they are indeed the direct descendants of Australia’s earliest settlers...

Damian Scarf et al. demonstrate that pigeons (Columba livia) trained to discriminate words from non-words picked up on the orthographic properties that define words and used this knowledge to identify words they had never seen before. Image credit: Damian Scarf / University of Otago.

Study: Pigeons Can Learn to Visually Recognize Words

Sep 18, 2016 by News Staff

Pigeons (Columba livia) can learn to distinguish real words from non-words by visually processing their letter combinations, according to a surprising...

This image shows a pellet of plutonium-238 dioxide. The pellet is glowing red because of the heat generated by the radioactive decay (primarily alpha) of the fuel. Such pellets were used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators that powered NASA’s Galilleo and Cassini spacecraft on missions to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. Image credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Plutonium Acts Like Ions in a Salt, New Study Shows

Sep 16, 2016 by News Staff

Plutonium, a heavy, silvery metal with 15 isotopes that is produced by the neutron irradiation of natural uranium, is formidably complex element that does...