Adaptive changes in a human gene involved in speech and language were shared by our closest extinct relatives, the Neandertals according to a new article. The human form of the gene arose much earlier than scientists had estimated previously. This raises the possibility that Neandertals possessed some of the prerequisites for language.
Scientists have found that increased exposure to sunlight -- which increases levels of vitamin D in the body -- may decrease the risk of advanced breast cancer. These new findings about breast cancer risk and sun exposure based on skin color measurements are consistent with previous research that had shown that women who reported frequent sun exposure had a lower risk of developing breast cancer than women with infrequent sun exposure.
The latest research into the scale, causes and consequences of global loss of coastal habitats has recently been presented. The disappearance of these ecosystems, which include coral reefs, mangrove forests, wetlands and seagrass meadows, has serious consequences like loss of biodiversity, depletion of exploitable living resources, impaired capacity of the oceans to sequester carbon dioxide and loss of the leisure value of the coastal zone. Not only that, the coastline becomes more vulnerable to the increased erosion associated with rising sea levels.
Research demonstrates that early intervention saves lives in women who have a heart attack or unstable chest pain. Responding to media reports of recent studies that emphasized the dangers of angioplasty in women compared to men, Dr. Alexandra J. Lansky, MD said that the comparison to men overshadows the true benefit to women of early intervention.
Researchers have developed a theory which can be important for future oil and gas exploration. The Golden Zone is the name of a an underground zone where temperatures range between 60 and 120 C. The name refers to a new discovery that 90 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves are to be found just there.
Your teen is moody. He's not doing well in school. He wants to be left alone. Does he have a learning disability? Depression? Or maybe he's just a normal teen? Pinpointing a diagnosis of psychiatric and behavioral problems in teens can be tricky, even for experts in mental health. The human brain is still developing during adolescence, and as any parent of a teen can attest, mood and behavior can fluctuate wildly at this age.
By studying 120,000-year-old layers in the ice of Greenland, researchers have determined that the ice cover seems to be able to survive a warmer climate better than was previously believed. But at the same time they have found signs that the changes that are nevertheless happening will occur at an unexpectedly rapid rate. The level of the global seas may therefore rise faster than was previously thought.
A new study of immune cells battling a chronic viral infection shows that the cells, called T cells, become exhausted by the fight in specific ways, undergoing profound changes that make them progressively less effective over time. The findings also point to interventions that would reverse the changes, suggesting that novel therapies could be developed to reinvigorate T cells that become depleted in their struggle against a virus.
The reason some people don't get post-traumatic stress disorder or depression from chronic stress, while others do, may lie in specific molecular differences in the brain. This study mapped them out in mice responding to stressful situations, in mechanisms also found in human brain. It turns out that the ability to withstand stress isn't just the absence of brain mechanisms that underlie the tendency to buckle under; a different, adaptive molecular engine gets fired up to drive resilience.
Cancerous tumors are wildly unfavorable environments. Struggling for oxygen and nutrients while being bombarded by the body's defense systems, tumor cells in fact require sophisticated adaptations to survive and grow. For decades, scientists have sought ways to circumvent these adaptations to destroy cancer. Researchers have now defined a method to target and kill cancer's 'chaperone'-- a protein that promotes tumor cell stability and survival -- without damaging healthy cells nearby.
Sugars made by plants are rapidly used by microbes living in their roots creating a short cut in the carbon cycle that is vital to life on earth. The green leaves of plants use the energy of sunlight to make sugar by combining water with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This sugar fuels the plant?s growth, but scientists discovered that some of it goes straight to the roots to feed a surprising variety of microbes.
A new study found that, on average, European-Americans claim to be happy in general -- more happy than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese -- but are more easily made less happy by negative events, and recover at a slower rate from negative events, than their counterparts in Asia or with an Asian ancestry. On the other hand, Koreans, Japanese and to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans, are less happy in general, but recover their emotional equilibrium more readily after a setback than European-Americans.
With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralize the HIV virus. The so-called 'combination therapy'prevents the HIV virus from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population. To date, it represents the most significant treatment for patients suffering from HIV, according to recent research.
Stents are tiny tubes inserted into diseased arteries to keep them open. The stent being tested is intended to act as a temporary scaffold to support the blood vessel during the healing process and maintain blood flow. It subsequently dissolves, leaving the patient free of any permanent implant.
