SciMed
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Champaign, IL, USA. A new analysis of data from dozens of studies illuminates how we choose what we do and do not hear. People tend to avoid information that contradicts what they already think or believe, but certain factors can cause them to seek out, or at least consider, other points of view.
For some, life can settle into a routine of unexamined assumptions, often a continuation of childhood conditioning, and settled practices. Others do the opposite, living in constant flux. For most pe... |
07-04-09
Word count: 1472
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Fairfax, VA, USA. Current research shows that both human and salamander tissues retain the a kind of "memory" when they regenerate. With few exceptions, the new regenerated tissue is the same type as the original.
Salamander regeneration is legendary: the creatures are able to replace lost limbs, damaged lungs, sliced spinal cord — even bits of brain. It had been assumed that "pluripotent" cells, like human embryonic stem cells, were the soure of an have the uncanny abil... |
07-03-09
Word count: 1142
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Scientists have shown a high rate of chromosomal abnormalities following conception that may explain comparatively low fertility rates in humans.
Researchers showed for the first time that such abnormalities are present in more than 90% of embryos, even those produced by young, fertile couples, often lost through miscarriage.
Genetic variations are expected among humans: animals subject to evolutionary pressures and quality control issues that affect manufacture.... |
07-02-09
Word count: 1714
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Los Angeles, CA, USA. Research shows that chronic grief activates pleasure areas of the brain, findings that could change how health professionals treat the disorder.
Grief is universal, and most of us will probably experience the pain grief brings at some point in our lives, usually with the death of a loved one or an irreversible change in our personal circumstances.In time, we accept the loss and move on.
But there is a substantial minority of people among us that finds it impossible to ... |
06-30-09
Word count: 1095
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Researchers have found the first evidence that a process of inactivating the X chromosome during embryo development and implantation, which was known to occur in mice but unknown in humans, does, in fact, take place in human female embryos prior to implantation in the womb. The findings have implications for research into human development, embryonic stem cells, and in vitro fertilization.
Typically, females and males have two sex chromosomes: X and Y. While femal... |
06-30-09
Word count: 1814
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Los Angeles, CA, USA. A new review article examines measures to enable safe design of nanomaterials. Their expanded development with enhanced performance characteristics for use in commercial and medical applications has increased the likelihood of people coming into direct contact, with uncertain effects on human health.
The materials can be reduced to fibers smaller than a one tenth of a micrometre in at least one dimension and can probe the human body and diagnose medical conditions that w... |
06-29-09
Word count: 1681
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Evanston, IL, USA. Whether they be high-flying politicians or ordininary citizens of good reputation, there can be a fall from grace. Sometimes moral actions lead to bad, making no sense at all.
A study observes that extremes of good and bad behavior can occur in the same person. Someone with ample moral self-worth in one aspect of their lives can slip into immorality or opposite behavior in other areas. Their abundant self-esteem can somehow push them to balance out all that goodness. Conver... |
06-28-09
Word count: 1376
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Nashville, TN, USA. New research indicates the way our brain handles how we move through space — including being able to imagine literally walking in someone else's shoes — may be related to how and why we experience empathy toward others. Researchers inferred a common neural basis which, with further investigation, could clarify the difference between genuine identification and obsessive disorders.
Some people can make a show of empathy, reducing it to an instrument for interpersonal ma... |
06-24-09
Word count: 1245
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Montreal, Quebec, CAN. Scientists have captured an image of a protein translation, the mechanism which underlies long-term memory formation. The finding provides the first visual evidence that when a new memory is formed new proteins are made locally at the synapse — the connection between nerve cells — increasing the strength of the synaptic connection and reinforcing the memory.
Memory formation is essential to daily existence and identity, enabling navigation through the world. Our per... |
06-23-09
Word count: 1131
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Fairfax, VA, USA. A certain smile, the way he moves you. Some outward display, however subtle, can be an initial signal of suitability in a male. But can you trust your senses? Throughout the animal kingdom, brilliant colors or elaborate behavioral displays by males serve as "advertisements" for attracting female mates.
But, what do the ads promise, and is there any truth in the advertizing? Researchers at Yale theorize that when males must provide care for the survival of th... |
06-23-09
Word count: 957
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New Rochelle, NY, USA. A group of experts in various fields of medicine, public health, and industry propose that telemedicine (or information technology enhanced healthcare) must be a core component of a viable healthcare reform strategy.
The group argues that the U.S. healthcare system is in critical need of basic change to enable more equitable, effective, an efficient care. They see well-designed telemedicine systems as one part of the solution since, according to them, such systems have ... |
06-22-09
Word count: 1205
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Salt Lake City, UT, USA. Are sperm and eggs coequals in conception? If anything, popular explanations tend to ignore the complexity of both by focusing on oversimplified notions of a sperm's role in genetic sex determination.
We have known about the importance of the egg for a long time. The egg is a relatively large and impressive biological factory compared with the tiny sperm. Even so, a new study from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah demonstrates that a sperm deli... |
06-22-09
Word count: 1060
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Austin, TX, USA. Detailed, accurate evolutionary trees that reveal the relatedness of living things can now be determined much faster and for thousands of species with a computing method developed by computer scientists and a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
Since Charles Darwin, biologists have constructed evolutionary trees to explain the relatedness of plants, animals and other organisms. The science of figuring out these trees, known as systematics, has progressed significa... |
06-20-09
Word count: 1018
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Rochester, NY, USA. Scientists have identified a protein in the brain that plays a critical role in regulating the transport (or movement) of mitochondria in neuron cells. This is the part of the cell that supplies energy, supports cellular activity, and potentially wards off threats from disease of other disruptions of normal cell activity.
Mitochondria are power plants in the cells that generate most of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) used as a chemical energy source. While mitochondria ar... |
06-19-09
Word count: 1528
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Riverside, CA, USA. Evolution, ever-present in nature, can be relatively rapid. How fast it can take place has been a matter of intense study. New research led researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has demonstrated that evolution can take place in just a few years.
Understanding the circumstances that drive evolutionary change can help bilogists address important questions. For instance, when they observe a organism that departs from a largely standard body plan, set of trai... |
06-16-09
Word count: 1356
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La Jolla, CA, USA. A team of scientists has created a new analog to DNA that assembles and disassembles itself without the need for enzymes. Essentially, the DNA can circumvent the standard biological process for replicating DNA into new forms.
Since the new system comprises components that might reasonably be expected in a primordial world, the new chemical system could answer questions about how life could emerge and provides a vehicle for exploring alternative ways of arriving at familiar ... |
06-15-09
Word count: 1506
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La Jolla, CA, USA. Scientists have clarified the role of retinoic acid (RA) in limb development. Vertebrate limbs are of particular interest as a model for studying the molecular and cellular interactions during embryonic development. Analysis of the underlying molecular mechanisms involved can offer additional insight into vertebrate limb development, evolution, and congenital malformations.
In higher animals, RA (oxidized Vitamin A) plays an essential role during embryonic development by r... |
06-12-09
Word count: 1026
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Fairbanks, AK, USA. Both boys and girls have issues, but Judith Kleinfeld says boys are the ones who get the raw deal.
Her review of issues characterizing American boyhood, how they compare to those affecting girls, and the lack of initiatives in place to address them has just been published in the journal Gender Issues.
Kleinfeld, a psychology professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks, says issues affecting boys are more serious than those affecting girls, but are neglected by policy mak... |
06-11-09
Word count: 670
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Medford, MA, USA. In insurance, a death spiral happens when the cost of insurance goes so high that “regular” people stop buying insurance and only those most likely to claim continue to pay the premiums.
That worsens the underwriting experience, so the price of insurance is raised again, and more people drop out and the cycle repeats. This actually happened with some health insurance that gave people the right to use any doctor and get any procedure without outside review. It turns out t... |
06-09-09
Word count: 1384
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San Diego, CA, USA. New research with a focus on recent adaptation in human populations, indicates that natural selection slowly — but with sureness — shapes the human genome. Both geography and population history have played strong roles in the spread of selectively favored alleles (one member of a pair (or series) of different forms of a gene.
Evolutionary biologists strive toward understanding of the genetic and ecological mechanisms that drive adaptation. With the advent of large-scal... |
06-09-09
Word count: 1431
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The TS-Si News Service is a collaboration of TS-Si staff, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Contents do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates