Culture
CHICAGO-A study in experimental models suggests that allopregnanolone, one of many hormones produced by the placenta during pregnancy, is so essential to normal fetal brain development that when provision of that hormone decreases or stops abruptly - as occurs with premature birth - offspring are more likely to develop autism-like behaviors. A Children's National Hospital research team reports the findings Oct. 20, 2019, at the Neuroscience 2019 annual meeting.
CHICAGO -- Human-machine interfaces raise important ethical and social issues. These technological innovations have the potential to restore, alter, or enhance cognitive or physical function in humans, but also may exacerbate existing social tensions around equality, identity, security, privacy, and access.
HOUSTON, Texas - Scientists are finding new ways to improve the use of the CRISPR enzyme Cas9 and reduce the chances of off-target mutations in laboratory mice, according to new results from a research collaboration including Lauryl Nutter, PhD, Senior Director, Science and Technology Development at The Centre for Phenogenomics at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto.
Scientists at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology (CNRS/Collège de France/INSERM)[1] have shown that delta waves emitted while we sleep are not generalized periods of silence during which the cortex rests, as has been described for decades in the scientific literature. Instead, they isolate assemblies of neurons that play an essential role in long-term memory formation. These results were published on 18 October 2019 in Science.
With support from the National Institutes of Health's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative, scientists are developing powerful new devices and technologies to monitor and regulate brain activity. To ensure NIH keeps pace with rapid technological development and help clinicians and researchers ethically fit these new tools into practice, a paper recently published in JAMA Neurology highlights potential issues around and offers recommendations about clinical research with both invasive and noninvasive neural devices.
ANN ARBOR--When minorities perceive negative news about their racial ethnic groups as inaccurate, some believe they have the power to enact change.
By taking action in a collective effort, they feel they can correct the group's disadvantageous status in society, according to a new University of Michigan study published in the current issue of Communication Research.
Nitrogen from agricultural production is a major cause of pollution in the Mississippi River Basin and contributes to large dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
Illinois and other Midwestern states have set goals to reduce nitrogen load through strategies that include different land management practices. A new study from University of Illinois researchers, published in Journal of Environmental Management, uses computer modeling to estimate how those practices may be affected by potential changes in the climate, such as increased rainfall.
Alleviating food insecurity is often seen as one of the fundamental roles a country should fulfill. In some cases, this is encapsulated into a constitutionally formalized "right to food". In other cases, including the U.S., the right to food isn't formalized, but the U.S. government spends billions of dollars per year to help Americans obtain the food they need.
What The Study Did: This observational study investigated an association between exposure to disinfectants and cleaning products at work and risk of new cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among a large group of female nurses.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
Researchers at the University of Dundee have discovered an enzyme they believe could be key to preventing Group A Streptococcus infections that cause more than 500,000 deaths worldwide each year.
Group A Streptococcus can lead to illnesses such as strep throat, scarlet fever, sepsis and toxic shock syndrome as well as several long-term autoimmune diseases with high mortality rates.
Ugandans and Kenyans in poor urban households are willing to pay a premium for more nutritious flour, new research shows. The study, led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), addresses huge knowledge gaps on consumers in urban slums and their interest in buying motivated nutritionally enriched foods.
A ground-breaking study published in the September issue of the scholarly Creativity Research Journal found increased creativity in employees who worked in a building designed according to Maharishi Vastu® architecture.
Engineering biology is already transforming technology and science, and a consortium of researchers across many disciplines in the international Genome Project-write is calling for more discussion among scientists, policy makers and the general public to shepherd future development.
Snapchat has emerged as one of the surprise threats to Queensland drivers, with a new Queensland University of Technology (QUT) study showing one in six young drivers surveyed had used Snapchat while behind the wheel.
PhD researcher Verity Truelove, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q), surveyed 503 Queensland drivers aged 17 to 25 about using the popular social media app on the road.
A team led by a University of Hawaii at Manoa chemistry professor and researcher has been able to provide answers to key questions about the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.