Body

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The KISS concept ¬- keep it simple, stupid - may work for many situations. However, when it comes to evolution, complexity appears to be key for prosperity and propagating future generations.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Ancient DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of giant lemurs that lived thousands of years ago in Madagascar may help explain why the giant lemurs went extinct. It also explains what factors make some surviving species more at risk today, says a study in the Journal of Human Evolution.

A University of Alberta economics professor has discovered a link between contraband cigarette use and illicit drug use among Canadian teens.

Professor Mesbah Sharaf, a health economics lecturer at the University of Alberta in Canada, recently published a joint study with the University of Waterloo titled "Association Between Contraband Tobacco and Illicit Drug Use Among High School Students in Canada" in The Journal of Primary Prevention.

New research from The Johns Hopkins University suggests that the amount of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) found in peoples' blood directly relates to how frail they are medically. This DNA may prove to be a useful predictor of overall risk of frailty and death from any cause 10 to 15 years before symptoms appear.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Researchers have understood very little about how blood and lymphatic vessels form in the mammalian gut - until now.

A new Cornell University study reports for the first time how arteries form to supply the looping embryonic gut with blood, and how these arteries guide development of the gut's lymphatic system.

To feed the world's growing population--expected to reach nine billion by the year 2050--we will have to find ways to produce more food on less farmland, without causing additional harm to the remaining natural habitat. A feature review, to be published on December 16th in the Cell Press journal Trends in Plant Science, points the way to intensifying agriculture sustainably by fixing weaknesses that have sprung up quite by accident in the process of traditional crop breeding over the course of thousands of years.

New Haven, Conn. -- An analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak reveals that transmission of the virus occurs in social clusters, a finding that has ramifications for case reporting and the public health.

(SALT LAKE CITY)--In addition to incurring serious dental problems, memory loss and other physical and mental issues, methamphetamine users are three times more at risk for getting Parkinson's disease than non-illicit drug users, new research from the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare shows.

The genetic abnormality that drives the bone cancer Ewing sarcoma operates through two distinct processes - both activating genes that stimulate tumor growth and suppressing those that should keep cancer from developing. These findings by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, published in the November issue of Cancer Cell, may lead to new therapies targeting these aberrant mechanisms.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - 'Tis the season of plenty of food and drink. While celebrating should be joyful, for some women, it's not. All the holiday temptations can add another layer to an already complicated biological process.

It's well known that women undergo hormonal changes every month due to the menstrual cycle. These changes can cause women to eat more, which is a natural, biological occurrence.

HOUSTON -- (Dec. 16, 2014) -- In one of the most comprehensive laboratory studies of its kind, Rice University scientists traced the uptake and accumulation of quantum dot nanoparticles from water to plant roots, plant leaves and leaf-eating caterpillars.

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (12/16/2014)--A new study by an international team of researchers shows for the first time that people may inherit some of the intestinal bacteria that cause Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively know as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study, recently published in Genome Medicine, also confirmed that antibiotics could worsen the imbalance in the gut microbes.

Being "average" is often considered a bad thing, but new research suggests that averageness wins when people assess the trustworthiness of a face. The research indicates that, while typical-looking faces aren't seen as the most attractive, they are considered to be the most trustworthy. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Since 1998, hundreds and sometimes thousands of dead eider ducks have been washing up every year on Cape Cod's beaches in late summer or early fall, but the reasons behind these cyclic die-offs have remained a mystery.

WASHINGTON, DC--December 16, 2014--Using mathematical modeling, researchers at New York and Vanderbilt universities have shown that commensal bacteria that cause problems later in life most likely played a key role in stabilizing early human populations. The finding, published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, offers an explanation as to why humans co-evolved with microbes that can cause or contribute to cancer, inflammation, and degenerative diseases of aging.