28 February, 2019

Creatures in the deepest trenches of the sea are eating plastic


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Creatures in the deepest trenches of the sea are eating plastic

Scientists give mice infrared vision by injecting their eyes with nanoparticles. It could work for humans too, they say.


Health consequences of insufficient sleep during the work week didn’t go away after a weekend of recovery sleep in new study, casting doubt on the idea of "catching up" on sleep (n=36).


Neurobiology is affecting the legal system: researchers have found that solitary confinement can decrease brain volume, alter circadian rhythms, and evoke the same neurochemical processes experienced during physical pain, leading attorneys to question the bioethics of such punishment.


The introduction of fast internet in Africa has large positive effects on employment rates and incomes. Data indicates that the introduction of fast internet increased firm entry, productivity, and exporting.


When people in Hawaii received a false alarm text that said “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill” in Jan 2018, the result was not panic, finds new research. Instead, they sought information to verify their risk and help them decide what to do next.


Scientists Have Developed New Material That is as Flexible as Elastic But Tough as Steel


Scientists have made a new iron-nickel oxide catalyst for water splitting, the reaction that produces hydrogen fuel. The patent-pending catalyst shows significantly higher activity in the oxygen-evolution part of reaction than conventional nickel-iron oxide catalysts.


Thirty years of fast food: Greater variety, but more salt, larger portions, and added calories are potentially fueling the obesity epidemic, according to a new study. Despite the addition of some healthy menu items, fast food is even more unhealthy for you than it was 30 years ago.


Fatty liver drug might soon hit shelves. 25-30% of Europeans suffer from this


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Fatty liver drug might soon hit shelves. 25-30% of Europeans suffer from this

Nasa rover finds scattered bacteria underground in Atacama Desert that could tell us more about what to look for on the hunt for life in space.


Synthetic biologists at UC Berkeley have engineered brewer’s yeast to produce marijuana’s main ingredients—mind-altering THC and non-psychoactive CBD—as well as novel cannabinoids not found in the plant itself.


Children who are maltreated often develop problems complying with directions and expectations of parents and other authority figures. Lack of compliance can lead to other problems, including difficulty regulating anger and academic troubles


Culprit found for honeybee deaths in almond groves. (Insecticide/fungicide combo at bloom time now falling out of favor in Calif., where 80% of nation's honeybees travel each Feb. to pollinate 80% of the world's almond supply.)


Children who grow up with greener surroundings have up to 55% less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life, shows a new study, emphasizing the need for designing green and healthy cities for the future.


FDA Approves the First Bacteriophage Therapy Trial, the Same Treatment used for a Professor at UCSD in 2017.


People who had loving parents in childhood have better lives later on, suggests a new Harvard study (n=3,929), which links affectionate parents with a happy and flourishing adulthood. This was true even when the study controlled for socioeconomic and other factors.


27 February, 2019

Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories thrive on Amazon


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Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories thrive on Amazon

Missing out on deep sleep may contribute to Alzheimer's plaques building up in the brain. Scientists studied mice on ketamine and other anesthetics and watched how truly deep sleep improved the brain's ability to clear out potentially toxic waste that can cause dementia.


Unprecedented Australian Twins Are "Semi-Identical," Sharing 78% of Their DNA - Identical twins share 100%, and fraternal twins share 50%, but these unique babies fell somewhere in the middle.


A new study finds that a tribe of people living in the deserts of Namibia tend to be more cognitively flexible. The findings suggest the Himba people are more likely to adopt a new, more efficient strategy, while Westerners tend to stick to what they know.


New research shows how the depth of sleep can impact our brain's ability to efficiently wash away waste and toxic proteins. Research indicates that the slow and steady brain and cardiopulmonary activity associated with deep non-REM sleep are optimal for the function of the glymphatic system


Synthetic biologists at UC Berkeley have engineered brewer’s yeast to produce marijuana’s main ingredients—mind-altering THC and non-psychoactive CBD—as well as novel cannabinoids not found in the plant itself.


By hacking the biology of yeast, scientists found a way to produce cannabinoids THCA and CBDA without the need for the marijuana plant.


The Unsolved Mystery of the Earth Blobs - Researchers peering into Earth’s interior found two continent-sized structures that upend our picture of the mantle.


Research suggests that political values are not internal predispositions, but result of social influence/reinforcement. Experimental test recreates transmission of political values, observational analysis finds effect of politically homogeneous social contexts on political value endorsements.


Anti-HIV Antibodies Generated through Computationally Designed Epitopes


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Anti-HIV Antibodies Generated through Computationally Designed Epitopes

99.9999 percent chance we're the cause of global warming, study says


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99.9999 percent chance we're the cause of global warming, study says

Belgian scientists hack the code for producing cheap ecological hydrogen (dutch)


Tobacco plants transformed into ‘green bioreactors’ to produce an anti-inflammatory protein called Interleukin 37, produced in the human kidney, the first to demonstrate that functional human protein can be produced in tobacco plant cells, which is much more affordable than current pharma methods.


Children who grow up with greener surroundings have up to 55% less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life, shows a new study, emphasizing the need for designing green and healthy cities for the future.


A study has found people experience pain in different ways during non-suicidal self-injury: some experience little or no pain; however, others experience pain, which may be used to distract themselves from emotional distress.


New treatment offers potentially promising results for the possibility of slowing, stopping, or even reversing Parkinson's disease. By 18 months, when all participants had received GDNF, both groups showed moderate to large improvements in symptoms compared to before they started the study


A large-scale NHS research collaboration has discovered a gene mutation that allows the identification of inflammatory bowel disease patients at risk of a drug side effect, allowing clinicians to tailor alternative treatments


26 February, 2019

Exercise, fasting help cells shed defective proteins


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Exercise, fasting help cells shed defective proteins

Overall, the evidence is consistent that pro-renewable and efficiency policies work, lowering total energy use and the role of fossil fuels in providing that energy. But the policies still don't have a large-enough impact that they can consistently offset emissions associated with economic growth


Brain response to mom’s voice differs in kids with autism. Mom’s voice causes a strong response in the brains of typically developing children, but the response is weaker in children with autism, a Stanford study has demonstrated.


Psilocybin (truffles) sub-acutely increase creativity, empathy, and well-being up until 7 days after use


Researchers have used liquid metals to turn carbon dioxide back into solid coal, in a world-first breakthrough that could transform our approach to carbon capture and storage.


Financial records indicate Chinese CRISPR babies were likely government funded, despite official claims otherwise.


Scientists Say Evidence for Man-Made Climate Change Has Reached a 'Gold Standard' of Certainty. The implications are that there is only a one-in-a-million chance that the pattern of atmospheric heating is not the result of human activity.


A new study shows the African grey can perform some cognitive tasks at levels beyond that of 5-year-old humans. The results not only suggest that humans aren’t the only species capable of making complex inferences, but also point to flaws in a widely used test of animal intelligence.


THC found more important for therapeutic effects in cannabis than originally thought


Ritalin has no effect on primate prefrontal cortex: In contrast to studies of mice and rats, new research in monkeys has found no effect of the drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) on the prefrontal cortex. The study leaves open the question of how and why Ritalin improves attention in humans.


Evidence for man-made global warming hits 'gold standard': scientists | evidence for global warming reached the five sigma level by 2005 in two of three sets of satellite data widely used by researchers, and in 2016 in the third.


New parents face up to six years of sleep deprivation, study says


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New parents face up to six years of sleep deprivation, study says

A new study by researchers who analyzed 502 posts on Pinterest about chronic pain revealed that the social media platform is helping people with chronic pain cope by sharing self-care and pain-management tips, venting about their pain's severity, and supporting others who are similarly suffering.


Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of ADHD among offspring up to 3-fold. The higher the cotinine levels are in the mother’s blood during pregnancy the greater is the child’s risk of developing ADHD later in life.


One of the largest-ever studies of work-related risks in young adult cancer survivors finds that of 872 survivors, 14.4 percent borrowed more than $10,000 and 1.5 percent said they or their family had filed for bankruptcy as a direct result of illness or treatment.


Over the past 20 years, concentrations of pharmaceuticals have increased in freshwater sources all over the world, as research by environmental experts has revealed. Levels of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin have reached the point of potentially causing damaging ecological effects.