Dogs see a lot better than humans do at night. Dogs have many adaptations for low-light vision. A larger pupil lets in more light. The center of the retina has more of the light-sensitive cells (rods), which work better in dim light than the color-detecting cones.
Advanced technologies such as molecular imaging, sensory substitution devices, and programs that translate brain signals to a computer monitor are accelerating the pace of stroke research. And even an old-fashioned technique -- a good night's sleep -- helps patients remember new motor skills, according to new studies.
Biologists have discovered a new species of peccary, a member of the pig family, in the basin of the Rio Aripuanăin the south-eastern Amazon region. The divergence time from the already known peccary species (the time which has passed since the evolutionary division) has been set at one to 1.2 million years.
Researchers have discovered that a molecular switch in the protein-making machinery of cells is linked to one of the most common forms of lethal breast cancer worldwide. The discovery could lead to new therapies for the cancer, called locally advanced breast cancer.
An Israeli-Jordanian-US cooperative project aimed at measuring air quality in the area between the neighboring southern cities of Aqaba in Jordan and Eilat in Israel has been launched. As part of the experiment, scientists shine a powerful light projected from the Israeli side to the Jordanian side, the returning rays of which are then submitted to spectral analysis.
All vision, including reading this sentence, depends on a constant series of infinitesimal jumps by the eyeball that centers the retina on target objects--words or phrases in the case of reading. Such jumps, or saccades, are critical to vision because only the small central region of the retina, called the fovea, produces the clear image necessary for perception. Such saccades take place several times a second and are generated within a brain region known as the frontal eye field.
Using an existing technique in a novel way, physicists have made the scanning tunneling microscope -- which can image individual atoms on a surface -- at least 100 times faster. The simple adaptation, based on a method of measurement currently used in nano-electronics, could also give STMs significant new capabilities -- including the ability to sense temperatures in spots as small as a single atom.
Recent research shows that the production of new brain cells may be crucial for antidepressants to be effective and that the medication's effectiveness is strongly influenced by age. What's more, meal frequency, type of food, and physical exercise affect the brain's ability to manufacture these new cells. For the first time in nonhuman primate models, scientists have documented the cause-and-effect relationship between antidepressant drugs and neurogenesis.
Equine muscle glycogen stores require sufficient time for post-exercise repletion. Repletion cannot be hastened in any way other than rest. If the diet is normal and the horse consumes the feed provided, neither extra carbohydrate nor extra fat will enhance the repletion of muscle glycogen stores. Dietary supplements may actually inhibit repletion, according to the researcher.
Researchers have uncovered a key genetic switch that chronic cocaine or stress influences to cause the brain to descend into a pathological state. In studies with mice they showed how chronic cocaine changes gene activity to enhance the addictive reward from the drug. And they showed similarly how chronic stress induces the same kinds of changes that hypersensitizes the brain, causing depression-like symptoms.
If you met a person who had 10 children, all of whom were girls, you would probably find this surprising. Yet this kind of distorted sex ratio does occur in groups as diverse as mammals, insects, and plants, where some parents consistently produce litters in which the sex ratio is dramatically skewed. Researchers have identified both a fly gene that can create these skewed ratios and the counter-gene, found in most of the fly population, which suppresses such distortion.
Endorphins and other morphine-like substances known as opioids, which are released during exercise, don't just make you feel good -- they may also protect you from heart attacks.
The Yellowstone 'supervolcano'rose at a record rate since mid-2004, likely because a Los Angeles-sized, pancake-shaped blob of molten rock was injected 6 miles beneath the slumbering giant, scientists report in Science.
Babies who get severe respiratory viral infections are much more likely to suffer from asthma as they get older. Now researchers have pinpointed a key step in the development of asthma in mice after a severe respiratory infection. They suggest that medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could potentially prevent many cases of childhood asthma.
