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"Hodor. Hodor, hodor; hodor hodor... hodor" said Hodor.
Some kids seem to enjoy school activities more than others, but while efforts seem to be concentrated on improving teaching, a new research suggests that genes play a major role as well - sometimes they're more important than the environment, as far as motivation and doing well in school are concerned. The findings were reported by a team led Yulia Kovas of Goldsmiths, University of London that aggregated a swath of studies which included 13,000 twins aged nine to 16 from six countries, including the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, Russia and the US.
The same genes that are responsible for height have been linked to heart disease as well, according to British researchers who found shorter people are at a greater risk. For every 2.5 inch difference in height, the chance of contracting a heart disease increases by 13.5 percent. In other words, a 5-foot-tall person has an average 32 percent higher risk of heart disease than a person who's 5-foot 6-inches tall, according to the researchers.
Hallucinogenic tea brewed from South American plants might treat depression, according to a new study - but don't start your homebrewing just yet; it's a small study, and there are still unclear aspects about it.
Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is one of the most common phobias humans have. But out of all the spiders that live today, really very few are dangerous - so why is it that we fear them so much then? Researchers from Columbia University believe they might have found the answer to that - and it's strictly related to human evolution.
You've heard all about controlling robotic arms or prosthesis with thoughts, but what about genes? In a deceptively simple experiment, bioengineers in Switzerland combined a classical brain-computer interface with a biological implant, which effectively allowed a genetic switch to be operated by brain activity. Imagine wearing a "funny" cap fitted with electrodes and a tiny implant, then controlling your mood by thinking the perfect "pure" thoughts that would cause a cascade of feel good chemicals. The same could be made for painkillers, so you can deliver just the right amount. Really, there's a lot of potential floating around this thing.
There aren't blood vessels you're seeing, but itsy bitsy strands of artificial spider silk. For some years, researchers have been investigating synthesizing spider silk for a variety of very good reasons. Spider silk is the toughest known natural material, and has been explored in its synthetic variety for use as bulletproof vests, synthetic skin, biodegradable water bottles and even computer electronics. These strands presented above, however, serve a different purpose: as a bandaid meant to help regenerate skin and heal wounds.
"Lose weight NOW", "You'll never believe how [this person] got slim", "An easy way to lose extra pounds" - big claims, with little to back them up. Diets and weight loss programs are popping everywhere nowadays, and they've done so for years and years, but does the science actually back them up? Kimberly Gudzune, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins found that many diet plans have zero or very little rigorous scientific evidence backing them up.
This hybrid image combines low spatial components of a photo of Marilyn Monroe and high spatial frequency components of an image of Albert Einstein. At lower resolution (look at your computer screen from farther away), the low spatial component is more dominant, while at closer up the higher frequency should be more persistent. So, as the image gradually enlarges people with good eyesight should see Albert Einstein, while those with poor vision will pick up a blurry image, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who made the optical illusion.
Homes cleaned at least once a week with bleach might provide an environment that puts children at a higher risk of catching viral infections. The observational study suggests the modest, yet significant higher risk of infection may be due to a suppression of the immune system. Also, it might very well be due to the irritant properties of volatile or airborne compounds generated during the cleaning process that can damage the lining of lung cells, sparking inflammation and making it easier for infections to take hold.
A new test analyzes the free DNA inside the blood of pregnant women to detect Down Syndrome in fetuses with a greater accuracy than standard tests. The test can be made by women between 10 and 14 weeks pregnant.
Most of the 100 children hospitalized with acute flaccid myelitis haven't recovered from paralysis and weak limbs. CC BY-NC 2.0
With the advancements in 3D printing, it only seems like a matter of time until it starts to actively affect our lives. Especially prosthetics may be revolutionized by 3D printing, as we've already seen time and time again. Now, a group of dentists believe they can 3D print teeth using a simple and cheap technique, only taking a few minutes for it.
I know, the title sounds like one of those scams that promise you'll lose weight - but this is all science all the way. Researchers in Sri Lanka have found a simple way of cooking the rice that not only reduces calories by half, but also provides other health benefits. The key addition is coconut oil.
Mice that had gut bacteria transferred from other mice fed with a high fat diet changed their behavior in a negative way, exhibiting anxiety or impaired memory. The findings suggest that apart from heart disease and stroke, obesity might put people's mental health at risk as well.
Stem cells were coaxed to grow into 3D dimensional mini lungs, or organoids, for the first time. These survived for more than 100 days. These pioneering efforts will serve to deepen our understanding of how lungs grow, as well as prove very useful for testing new drugs' responses to human tissue. Hopefully, once human tissue grown in the lab becomes closer and close to the real deal (cultured hearts, lungs, kidneys etc.), animal testing might become a thing of the past.
Scientists are working to gather more and more details about Icelandic DNA, in an attempt to design better drugs and understand how drugs react to genetic variation. So far, the DNA of over 1% of all Icelanders has been sequenced and more will likely follow. This operation is conducted by Amgen's DeCode Genetics. The team now claims that they can identify every woman at high-risk of breast cancer "at the touch of a button" and it would be "criminal" not to use the information.
Some 30 new bean varieties have been cross-bred by researchers in order to make these more resistant to rising temperatures. Often called the 'meat of the poor', more than 400 million people around the world depend on beans for their daily protein intake. Being particularly vulnerable to temperature means that bean farms, whether large or home subsistence gardens, could be obliterated by climate change this century. The new beans can withstand temperatures three to four degrees Celsius greater than those currently grown by farmers, enough, the researchers say, to keep yield losses to a minimum.
A longitudinal study that spanned 26 years found that kids exposed to their Finish parents cigarette smoke are at risk of developing plaque in their carotid arteries as they grow into young adults. Previously, second-hand smoke exposure at a young age was linked to later breast cancer and a predisposition to nicotine addiction. Psychologically, having parent smokers may influence children to become smokers themselves when they grow up, triggering a cascade of other health risks.
For its annual report, the The Alzheimer’s Association in the US claims that more than half of all reported early Alzheimer's diagnoses aren't disclosed to the patient by doctors. This is a situation reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s when cancer diagnoses were rarely disclosed to patients as the disease was generally seen as incurable. Like in the case of the long-gone cancer stigma, doctors may be doing more harm than good. They don't want patients to lose hope, but being kept in the dark as to their suffering can be equally bad, if not worse.
Even if it was first discovered more than 90 years ago, insulin is still out of reach for a shocking 29 million diabetes patients in the United States. Yes, this is the 21st century, but even so a staggering number of human beings are forced to live in life threatening conditions. But why is insulin so prohibitively expensive? According to Jeremy Greene, M.D., Ph.D., and Kevin Riggs, M.D., M.P.H., it's all because of a series of perverse updates to insulin treatments. While insulin made today is more effective in some instances, previous versions weren't that bad. In fact, they saved lives. Yet, these were replaced with very expensive versions, while the older, much cheaper versions are nowhere to be found on the market anymore. The two authors explore all that's wrong with today's insulin big pharma.
Biologists at Tufts Universityand University of Minnesota showed for the first time that bioelectricity signaling between cells guides embryonic brain development in tadpoles. When bioelectricity signaling was hampered, the frog embryos developed abnormal brains. By using drugs that target specific ion channels, the researchers could restore normal patterns to ensure healthy brain growth. This means that careful manipulation of electricity inside the tissue can repair abnormalities caused by genetic defects. It can also be used to grow all sorts of wacky stuff.
Each year worldwide about one million people decide to take their own lives. Overriding your conservation instincts isn't easy, let's say, and this typically happens on the onset of mental illness. In a society where people lives get ever more confused with their occupation, stress at work can sometimes trigger a tragedy. The numbers don't lie. According to researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 1,700 people died by suicide on the job between 2003 to 2010.
A year ago, Oxford University professor of human genetics Bryan Sykes and his colleagues took some unusual hair samples found in the Himalayas and concluded that they actually belong to a now extinct polar bear which once inhabited Norway. Now, another team analyzed the results and concluded that while it's clearly no yeti, the remains might actually belong to a brown bear instead.
For centuries, arsenic was the go-to poison in the high circles of Europe, either to knock out political foes or to simply eliminate people on the dastardly way to a high position; it was odourless, tasteless, and until 1830 - when chemist James Marsh developed a test - impossible to detect. Thankfully, we're dealing with much less intentional arsenic poisoning today, but unfortunately, we're dealing with much more accidental poisoning. Recently, scientists discovered a population that developed natural immunity to arsenic, high in the Andes.
Four years ago, a vocal anti vaccine activist and a biologist by training challenged not only established medical science, but common sense. The man in question, Stefan Lanka, offered $100,000 to anyone who could prove the measles virus exists. Yes, the virus that used to infect millions of children and young adults hilariously doesn't exist in Lanka's view. David Barden, a German doctor, took it upon himself to battle the windmills. He mailed Lanka the most up-to-date and comprehensive research on measles. Unsurprisingly, Lanka dismissed them, but the German court thought otherwise. To them, the existence of measles is obvious and ordered the man to pay up the $106,000 he had promised.
The most effective weapon against the dreadful Alzheimer's might not be a drug, but a breakthrough therapy based on ultrasounds that clears tangles of plaques, which have been linked to the neurodegenerative disease. So far, the Australian researchers behind the novel treatment have fired focused beams of ultrasound on the brains of diseased mice. The rodents' memory reverted to normal levels. Though careful with words, the researchers confidently state this is a real breakthrough.
Florida worker ants doubled in size after scientists performed chemical changes to their DNA. The ants were not genetically modified per se, not in the conventional sense that implies altering their code. Essentially, the ants were exposed to a chemical, environmental changes that mimicked those found in their colony and which lead to ants of various sizes and behaviors despite sharing the same genes - a perfect example of epigenetics.
As more and more researchers are starting to highlight the potential benefits of Psychedelic substances, one recent Norwegian campaign is aiming high: they’ve started a crowdfunding campaign to make psychedelics and MDMA legal for research and global medical use. In the past years, we’ve written about several studies documenting the positive effects that psychedelics may have, […]
The topic of obesity inspires quite a bit of discussion, as well it should. The claim that North America is currently experiencing an obesity “epidemic”, a claim oftentimes mentioned by the media, is not hyperbole. Indeed, weight management has become such a global issue that the World Health Organization (WHO) has also termed the problem […]
A link between heightened intelligence and autism has been suspected by scientists based on empirical evidence, and now genetic screening seems to confirm this assumption. It seems people carrying genes that put people at risk of developing autism scored higher on intelligence scores than those who lacked the genes. This held true, however, for people carrying the genes but who didn't develop autism.
Scientists in Australia have developed a groundbreaking bionic heart that works without having a pulse. The device, which was successfully tested on a sheep, is set to start clinical trials within three years.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia's top medical research body, found that homeopathy does improve or alleviate any medical condition after systematically studying 225 research papers on homeopathy. While it's true some people might feel better after a so-called homeopathic treatment, the researchers conclude that these benefits are no better than ingesting a sugar pill - a placebo.
Generally, as we age, our hearing deteriorates. Around one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 have hearing loss, increasing to 50% from the age of 75 upwards.
Three hundred years ago, three African-born slaves from the Caribbean suffered a sad fate. No one knew who they are, no one knew what they went through, and until recently, no one knew where they came from. Now, researchers extracted and sequenced tiny bits of DNA to figure out where in Africa these people came from when they were captured and enslaved.
Two new studies, independently published in the same journal, found that consciousness expanding substances like LSD or psilocybin (the psychoactive substance found in 'magic mushrooms') couldn't be linked with mental health problems in the general population. Moreover, according to data fed from a nationwide survey, psychedelics make people less prone to suicide and suicidal thinking than the general population. Previously, studies showed that psychedelics have significant results in treating addiction and post traumatic stress, under guidance and supervision. The researchers stress, however, that some individuals may experience adverse psychological effects.
A study conducted on a small number of men concluded that the "love hormone" oxytocin may reduce appetite, helping men lose weight.
In 2002, Jason Padgett was brutally attacked outside a karaoke bar, getting a brain concussion and a severe case of PTSD. But this may have actually been the best thing that happened to him - the brain injury turned him into a mathematical genius, and made him see the world differently, through a geometrical lens.
Most recently, Bill Nye is famous for his viral debate against against Ken Han on creationism. The debate inspired him to write a best selling book tackling the subject called “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation”. In one of his chapters, Nye argues against genetically modified organisms since their long lasting effects on the ecosystem can’t be […]
We live in a society which puts a lot of pressure on looks. Women especially, are always looking for new ways to make themselves look more attractive either by dyeing their hair, wearing make-up or, in some particular extreme cases, plastic surgery. Now there’s another type of aesthetic procedure – a novel laser treatment which can […]
Dental health is still a generally neglected issue throughout the world - most people just delay their dental problem or simply ignore them until they become unbearable. Although it's pretty simple to have a correct dental hygiene, most people simply don't care enough about this, and as a result, almost 2 and a half billion people suffer from untreated tooth decay.
Parasitic hookworms infect half a billion people worldwide, causing severe health problems like gastrointestinal issues, cognitive impairment and stunted growth in children. As if the challenges weren't big enough, the parasites are growing resistant to current drugs. Scientists are trying to tackle this by developing new treatments and vaccines based on the worm's genome. A team of Caltech sequenced the genome of a hookworm species known as Ancylostoma ceylanicum and found the genes that code key proteins involved in infecting hosts. They hope blocking these proteins from being made might save millions from great sorrow and suffering.
Since 2000, the number of deaths from heroin overdose have quadrupled. At the same time, the profile of the average overdosed fatality has shifted from older back men to younger white males, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It's increasingly hard to eat less sugar, as market shelves are filled with sugary products. In the past ten years alone, global sugar intake has risen by ten percent. In what's not the first and surely not the last appeal of the sort, the Wold Health Organization reports adults and children from the Americas to Western Europe and the Middle East must halve their daily sugar intake to reach acceptable levels. Otherwise the risk of obesity and tooth decay, to name a few, will skyrocket. In terms of daily energy intake, the new guidelines means that people should keep sugar at a maximum of 10% of equivalent energy.
Sick, got the flu? Well, maybe what you think is the flu really isn't the flu... a new study has found that while children catch a flu once every two years on average, the rate goes down significantly in adults - the average adult only gets it once every 5 years.
A new study suggests that two very common emulsifiers - chemicals that stabilize foods and stop products like mayo from separating - could increase the risk of obesity and irritable bowel syndrome.
If you'd happen to see these two British twins, you'd likely believe they're good friends - or cousins at most. But Lucy and Maria are actually twins - despite the obvious differences.
Many people today are consuming more salt than they actually need - while this may make foods more tasty, it also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. But a new study found that dietary salt could actually have a dietary advantage, defending the body against invading microbes.
In the developed world, obesity is one of the biggest health concerns, so weight loss is one of the hottest topics today. But while dietary supplements and gastric by-pass surgeries are becoming more and more popular, we are also starting to discover issues associated with these procedures. Recently, a study published in Cell showed that the new generation of weight loss drugs may actually favor cancer development.
You may look more like your mom or more like your dad, but technically, you inherit equal amounts of genetic information from both; however, a new study has shown that you (and all mammals for that matter) are genetically more like their dads. If that sounds a bit confusing... well, it is. Specifically, although we inherit equal amounts of genetic mutations from both our parents, the mutations that make us who we are and not some other person actually 'use' more of the DNA that we inherit from our dads.
