Specialized brain cells predict intentions as well as define actions
The road to interpreting intentions is paved with mirror neurons. A study by UCLA neuroscientists featuring functional magnetic resonance imaging and a well-stocked tea service suggests for the first time that mirror neurons help people understand the intentions of others — a key component to social interaction.
Reporting Feb. 22 in the online edition of PLoS Biology, the UCLA team found that pre motor m
Prospects for a safe, effective AIDS vaccine are improving as researchers from the public and private sectors begin to collaborate in new and creative ways, researchers said today at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) approximately 39 million people are living with HIV, and an estimated 4.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2004 alone.
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There are some computer problems so hard that computer scientists consider them out of reach. They label them “intractable” and move on.
But researchers at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., have developed tools to solve such problems, at least in certain practical situations. Mostly their approach is to have the computer do what a human being might do: stop, go back and start over and try something different.
“Even though these problems are intractable in the worst ca
How do pollen particles provoke allergic reactions? A new study in the February 21 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine puts some of the blame on bioactive molecules that are released from pollen. These molecules bind to immune cells and cause them to launch a typical allergy-promoting immune response. Pollen from plants exposed to air pollutants produce more of these allergy-provoking compounds than do pollen from unpolluted areas, possibly explaining why allergies are more preval
A form of beta blocker, a drug commonly used to lower blood pressure and ward off repeat heart attacks, may provide the answer to preventing osteoporosis, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher.
In a report that appears online today in the journal Nature, Dr. Gerard Karsenty, BCM professor of molecular and human genetics, and his colleagues demonstrate in mice that the sympathetic nervous system mediates the resorption or destruction of bone through a special receptor on
Technique reveals new method for better bone grafts
Tissue engineers can choose from a wide range of living cells, biomaterials and proteins to repair a bone defect. But finding the optimum combination requires improved methods for tracking the healing process.
New Georgia Tech research points to better ways to heal and regenerate bones using microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) imaging — a process 1 million times more detailed than a traditional CT scan. The new micro
New mathematical model predicts live-saving benefits of different screening schedules
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have devised a mathematical tool that predicts how the frequency of mammograms affects the number of lives saved by detecting breast cancers at an earlier stage. With screening guidelines and financial coverage varying among health systems and insurers – sometimes dramatically – the model provides quantitative predictions of the mortality ben
Thanks to a handful of very special mice, scientists have discovered a new tumor suppressor gene and a unique chemical signature implicated in the development of human leukemia, findings that open up a “treasure box” of opportunity and possibility, study authors say.
Researchers in The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center bred a type of mouse that develops acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The mouse first goes through a pre-leukemic stage marked by rapidly expan
New biomolecular technologies have largely failed to deliver the hoped-for knockout punch breakthrough against the defences of disease-causing bacteria, says a leading Canadian specialist in antibiotic resistance.
Techniques such as genomic sequencing and high throughput screening were expected to make the development of new antibiotic compounds easier and more productive. But in most cases the microbes continue to hold the upper hand – and if three billion years of bacterial his
Although predicting el Nino events months before they begin has become a major success story in climate prediction, a Duke University oceanographer who did early research in the field believes more could be done with the computer and satellite technology underlying these advances.
Richard Barber, who is Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, will outline additional uses of el Nino forecasting at a
Young adults can be motivated to eat more servings of fruits and vegetables if they are exposed to tailored, practical messages about nutrition, a University of Wisconsin-Madison nutritional scientist announced today (Feb. 20) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C.
“Even though young adults are incredibly busy, they still want to know what they can do to improve their health,” says Susan Nitzke, a professor at
As a result, governments and health officials need to begin to think about how to respond to an anticipated increase in the number and scope of climate-related health crises, ranging from killer heat waves and famine, to floods and waves of infectious diseases.
That, in a nutshell, was the message delivered to scientists here today (Feb. 20) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) by Jonathan A. Patz, an authority on the human health
Researchers doing ultra-cold temperature physics may not have to wear parkas, but they are producing the coldest temperatures ever and exploring model quantum systems that might lead to more accurate clocks and gyroscopes, quantum computers and communications as well as a better understanding of quantum physics phenomena.
Nearly 80 years ago, Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted that gases of atoms cooled down very close to absolute zero would behave in unison. In 1995,
El Niño’s effects on a Pacific Northwest river valley offer forecasters a window to dry years ahead
Global warming conversations have shifted from whether climate is changing to how we will deal with the inevitable consequences. And the price you pay will depend on where you live and how well you prepare, suggests one of the most detailed studies to date on global warming and its likely effect on human activity.
“Like politics, global climate change is local,” said
The March 2005 issue of Biology of Reproduction contains a report of some intriguing findings in cloned offspring created when nuclei from one genus of fish were transplanted to enucleated eggs of another genus of fish.
The seven offspring, cloned from nuclei of common carp and egg cytoplasm of goldfish, were virtually identical to the nuclear donor species, Cyprinus carpio, in appearance and in most physical traits. The number of vertebrae in the clones, however, was in the ran
Neuroscience for high schoolers? Why not, says Cornell University neurobiologist Ron Hoy. To prove his point that the subject can be exciting for young people to study, Hoy and a Cornell development team of colleagues and undergraduates have developed a suite of novel, interdisciplinary multimedia teaching tools.
The teaching aids, with descriptive names like Koé (Japanese for “voice”) and Fruitfly, take neuroscience out of the realm of the just plain technical and difficult and in
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