Culture
While examining a skull from an ancient burial ground in a pre-Columbian village in Panama, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, bioarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), was surprised to discover an example of surfers' ear: a small, bony bump in the ear canal common among surfers, kayakers and free divers in cold climates. After inspecting more skulls, she concluded that a select group of male divers--perhaps looking for pearls and oyster shells coveted for jewelry making, may have lived along Panama's Pacific coast long ago.
When stars collapse, they can create black holes, which are everywhere throughout the universe and therefore important to be studied. Black holes are mysterious objects with an outer edge called an event horizon, which traps everything including light. Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted that once an object falls inside an event horizon, it ends up at the center of the black hole called a singularity where it is completely crushed. At this point of singularity, gravitational attraction is infinite and all known laws of physics break down including Einstein's theory.
Seeing pictures of food with calorie information not only makes food less appetizing but it also appears to change the way your brain responds to the food, according to a Dartmouth-led study published in PLOS ONE. When food images appeared with the calorie content, the brain showed decreased activation of the reward system and increased activation in the control system.
ITHACA, N.Y. - Droplet microfluidics has revolutionized single-cell RNA sequencing, offering a low-cost, high-throughput method for single-cell genomics. However, this method has been limited in its ability to capture complete RNA transcription information.
Researchers at Cornell - led by Iwijn De Vlaminck, assistant professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering - have come up with an elegant, low-cost method that solves that problem. And not only does it push single-cell genomics forward, it may allow for new avenues for studies of infection and immune biology.
The more abusive interactions street-based female sex workers (FSWs) have with police, the higher their risk of violence at the hands of clients, a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests. The findings suggest the need for interventions that address relationships between FSW and police to help alleviate negative impacts on FSW work environments, the authors say.
The findings will be published Dec. 20 in American Journal of Public Health.
Bidi smoking cost India 805.5 billion rupees in ill health and early deaths in 2017 alone, finds research published in the journal Tobacco Control.
The poor already bear the brunt of these costs, and unhindered use of bidi tobacco threatens to push even more households into poverty, the researcher warns.
Bidi is very popular in India, accounting for most (81%) of the tobacco smoked and 72 million regular users over the age of 15.
NHS trusts are struggling to produce contingency plans for Brexit because of the continuing uncertainty about the UK's future relationship with the European Union, reveals an investigation published by The BMJ today.
Many have been unable to accurately forecast how crucial areas such as supply chains, medicines, and workforce will be affected after the 29 March exit deadline.
Responsible innovation that considers the wider impacts on society is key to smart farming, according to academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Agriculture is undergoing a technology revolution supported by policy-makers around the world. While smart technologies will play an important role in achieving improved productivity and greater eco-efficiency, critics have suggested that consideration of the social impacts is being side-lined.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Researchers have discovered age- and health-related differences in fragments of DNA found floating in the bloodstream (not inside cells) called cell-free DNA (cfDNA). These differences could someday be used to determine biological age -- whether a person's body functions as older or younger than their chronological age, the researchers say.
Genetic detective work has illuminated the important role of Jewish culture in the widespread adoption of citrus fruit by early Mediterranean societies.
The fascinating find came to light in an investigation into a bizarre acidless mutation which makes citrus juice 1000 times less acidic.
John Innes Centre researchers used genetic analysis to trace the acidless mutations in citron, the first citrus species to be cultivated in the Mediterranean.
Bottom Line: Head impacts in youth sports, even when they don't cause symptoms of concussion, are a public health concern because these so-called subconcussive head impacts may result in long-term neurological issues if they are sustained repeatedly. This study looked at changes in measurements of near point of convergence (NPC), which is the distance from your eyes to where both eyes can focus without double vision, in 12 high school football players at 14 different times during a season.
A technique that enables biologically active enzymes to survive the rigors of inkjet printing presents a promising alternative to routine blood screening exams faced by diabetic patients. The KAUST-led team used this approach to make disposable devices that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva.
The humpback whale and a handful of similar whale species have a feeding mechanism utterly unique in the animal kingdom.
They open their mouths to scoop in ocean water, then strain it out through plates called baleen. The baleen looks like hairy bristles on a comb and functions as a sieve, leaving krill, small fish and other food for the whale to swallow.
A team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a neuroinspired hardware-software co-design approach that could make neural network training more energy-efficient and faster. Their work could one day make it possible to train neural networks on low-power devices such as smartphones, laptops and embedded devices.
The advance is described in a paper published recently in Nature Communications.
JONESBORO, AR; December 19, 2018--Researchers have long wondered how gigantic, heavily armored dinosaurs, such as the club-tailed ankylosaurs that lived in sweltering climates, avoided overheating. While their large bodies were adept at retaining heat, their sheer size created a heat-shedding problem that would have put them at risk of overheating, even on cloudy days. In the absence of a protective cooling mechanism, the delicate neural tissue of their brains could be damaged by the hot blood from the core of their bodies.