Culture
Most people know that regular exercise is good for your health. New research shows it may make you smarter, too.
Neuroscientists at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, working with mice, have discovered that a short burst of exercise directly boosts the function of a gene that increases connections between neurons in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory.
The research is published online in the journal eLife.
Scientists working on unravelling the mysteries of star cluster formation have found an innovative way of sharing their work with the general public. Taking inspiration from a 19th century magic trick, researchers from the University of Leeds have developed 3D holograms that allow people to watch massive stars forming before their eyes.
Dr Anne Buckner will be demonstrating the holograms at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancaster on 1- 4 July 2019.
'Back to school asthma'--a seasonal peak in cases associated with the start of the school year in September--is linked to a tripling in the rate of family doctor (GP) appointments across England, reveals research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
The phenomenon seems to particularly affect the under 5s and boys, national monitoring data show.
UK politicians (MPs) at Westminster are more likely to have mental health issues than either the general public or other people in comparable professions/managerial posts, suggest the responses to a survey of parliamentarians, published in the online journal BMJ Open.
What's more, awareness of confidential parliamentary support services or how to access them is low, as is a willingness to open up about their mental health to either appointed party officials (Whips) or fellow MPs, the responses indicate.
A consensus is building that air pollution can cause neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, but how fine, sooty particles cause problems in the brain is still an unanswered question. Now a team of Penn State researchers, using mice, have found a possible way, but more research is still needed.
The researchers looked at how cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid that flows around the brain and spinal cord, flows out through the nose, and what happens when the flow of fluid is stopped.
City College of New York-led researchers have published a breakthrough in understanding previously unknown inner workings related to the lateralization of speech processing in the brain. Their study, headed by biologist Hysell V. Oviedo of CCNY's Division of Science and published in the journal "Nature Communications," could shine a light on miswiring of brain circuits in neurodevelopmental communication disorders.
People with both physical illnesses and mental disorders visit the emergency department more frequently than people with multiple physical illnesses or mental illness alone, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Main Findings:
Partnerships between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police departments designed to enforce immigration laws reduced the number of Hispanic students in U.S. public schools in adopting counties by 10 percent after two years.
Partnerships enacted during 2000 to 2011 displaced about 320,000 Hispanic students, with the impact concentrated among elementary school students, most of whom were likely born in the United States.
Over one billion people, including 880 million children, are infected with intestinal nematode worms, such as roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms, according to the World Health Organization. The infections are especially common in the developing world due to a lack of clean water and sanitation. If left untreated, they can leave a lasting mark on health and can also be lethal.
Baking a cake from scratch is a task deemed difficult for many. Constructing an artificial cell-like system from scratch, well that's another story.
"Synthesizing cells from scratch is of fundamental importance to understand what life is," said Prof. Yohei Yokobayashi, leader of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Engineering Unit.
River dikes are small dams made of earth that are used to hold in the water of the course of a river, without affecting the course too much. However, when the water exceeds a certain level due to flooding, the dike breaks, causing disasters that can be devastating for human life or cause huge financial losses.
Matter surrounds us day and night in all its forms - trees, houses, furniture, and even the air we breathe. But, according to physicists, the visible matter familiar to us may only account for approximately 20 percent of all material in the universe. According to the current theory, as much as 80 percent may be dark matter. This claim is based on several observations, one of which is that stars and galaxies rotate much faster than they would if there were only 'normal' matter present in the universe.
Dark matter could be made of axions
Researchers at the Universities of Turku and Helsinki found that women were more likely to volunteer for all-female paramilitary organizations if they had brothers or husbands who were currently serving in the military. This result suggests that bonding with larger and frequently imagined communities, such as the nation state or religious groups, can arise from psychology mechanisms designed by evolution to increase cooperation among close relatives.
A new study in marmoset monkeys suggests that individual variation in genes alters our ability to regulate emotions, providing new insights that could help in the development of personalised therapies to tackle anxiety and depression.
Some individuals are at greater risk of developing anxiety and depression than others and this depends in part upon the interaction between our genes and our environment, such as stressful or adverse events in our lives. Moreover, some of those who develop anxiety or depression may respond better to treatment while others struggle to benefit.
The permanent human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau was facilitated by the introduction of cold-tolerant barley around 3600 years before present (BP), however, how barley agriculture spread onto the Tibetan Plateau remains unknown. Now by using both genetics and archaeological data, researchers from Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS and Lanzhou University revealed that the barley agriculture was mainly brought onto the plateau by the millet farmers from northern China.