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The ice sheet in West Antarctica is melting faster than expected. New observations published by oceanographers from the University of Gothenburg and the US may improve our ability to predict future changes in ice sheet mass. The study was recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

A reduction of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will affect the water levels of the world's oceans.

Bisphenol A, a substance found in many synthetic products, is considered to be harmful, particularly, for fetuses and babies. Researchers from the University of Bonn have now shown in experiments on cells from human and mouse tissue that this environmental chemical blocks calcium channels in cell membranes. Similar effects are elicited by drugs used to treat high blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmia. The results are now presented in the journal "Molecular Pharmacology."

New research in human volunteers has shown that molecular changes to our genes, known as epigenetic marks, are driven mainly by ageing but are also affected by what we eat.

The study showed that whilst age had the biggest effects on these molecular changes, selenium and vitamin D status reduced the accumulation of epigenetic changes, and high blood folate and obesity increased them. These findings support the idea that healthy ageing is affected by what we eat.

Jerusalem Dec. 6, 2012 – A new understanding of what takes place on the cellular level during the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS and Huntington's diseases, offers promise towards possible new strategies for combating such diseases, say Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers.

Neurodegenerative conditions result from an impairment of motor function or cognitive function or both. This impairment results from degeneration in the particular area of the brain responsible for those functions.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Each year, about 610,000 Americans suffer their first heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart attacks and other symptoms of cardiovascular disease can be caused when blockage occurs in the arteries. In a new study from the University of Missouri, a scientist has discovered a natural defense against arterial blockage: bilirubin.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have made an important connection between a molecule critical to nerve cells and high blood pressure. Production of the molecule Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) appears to increase dramatically in blood pressure-sensing nerve cells during hypertension. The study, published online in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, may someday have implications for the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure, which affects about one in three adults in the United States.

Research by Indiana University paleobotanist David L. Dilcher and colleagues in Europe sheds new light on what Charles Darwin famously called "an abominable mystery": the apparently sudden appearance and rapid spread of flowering plants in the fossil record.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers present a scenario in which flowering plants, or angiosperms, evolved and colonized various types of aquatic environments over about 45 million years in the early to middle Cretaceous Period.

The drug erythropoietin, often called EPO, is banned from sports because it is believed to enhance an athlete's performance and give people who use it an unfair advantage over unenhanced competitors. However a new systemic review of existing research, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, reveals that there is no scientific evidence that it does enhance performance, but there is evidence that using it in sport could place a user's health and life at risk.

[Childlessness, parental mortality and psychiatric illness: a natural experiment based on in vitro fertility treatment and adoption Online First doi 10.1136/jech-2012-201387]

Despite the popular belief among parents that having children shortens their lives, the reverse seems to be true, particularly for women, indicates a large study of childless couples, treated for infertility, and published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The prevalence of mental ill health was also halved in couples who became adoptive parents, the study shows.

[The impact of benzodiazepines on occurrence of pneumonia and mortality from pneumonia: a nested case-control and survival analysis in a population cohort Online First doi 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-202374]

Commonly prescribed sleeping pills/sedatives may increase the risk of contracting pneumonia by as much as 50% and increase the risk of dying from it, suggests research published online in the journal Thorax.

Parasites are unpleasant lodgers at the best of times, but there is one group of parasites that is particularly pernicious. These are the parasites that hijack their victims' nervous systems, reducing them to helpless zombies. 'The fact that parasites can so efficiently alter host behaviour is fascinating', says The Journal of Experimental Biology Editor Michael Dickinson, from the University of Washington, USA, adding, 'There is something horrifying and wondrous about a tiny "implant" being able to control such a large animal machine'.

New York, NY—A large, multi-center clinical trial led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) shows that a new genetic test resulted in significantly more clinically relevant information than the current standard method of prenatal testing. The test uses microarray analysis to conduct a more comprehensive examination of a fetus's DNA than is possible with the current standard method, karyotyping—a visual analysis of the fetus's chromosomes. Results were published in the Dec. 6, 2012, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

WASHINGTON—As lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle look for ways to reduce federal spending in the coming weeks Medicaid may emerge as a prime target, according to a new analysis by Professor Sara Rosenbaum, JD, the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). The analysis, which appears online December 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicates that severe cuts to the Medicaid program will cripple the ongoing effort to reform the U.S. health care system.

Prehistoric artists were better at portraying the walk of four-legged animals in their art than modern man, according to new research published December 5 in the open access journal PLoS ONE by Gabor Horvath and colleagues from Eotvos University (Budapest), Hungary.

Bed bugs exchange specific chemical signals corresponding to particular behaviors, and researchers have now combined two unusual technologies to sniff out these signals in a matter of seconds. The results are published December 5 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Ole Kilpinen and colleagues from Aarhus University, Denmark, and reveal previously unknown aspects of bed bug lifestyles and mating behaviors.