Exercise enthusiasts have more reasons to put on their running shoes in the morning, but an Oregon Health & Science University scientist says they shouldn’t step up their work-outs just yet.
A study published today in the journal Neuroscience, journal of the International Brain Research Organization, confirmed that exercise increases the chemical BDNF – brain-derived neurotrophic factor – in the hippocampus, a curved, elongated ridge in the brain that controls learning and memory. BDNF
A naturally occurring variation in an essential gene can suppress genetic mutations caused by retroviruses in mice, according to a new discovery by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
Published in the September 28 online edition of Nature Genetics, and in the journal’s October issue, the study identified a novel change in mice in a gene called mRNA nuclear export factor 1 (Nxf1). This gene normally acts as part of the cell’s machinery for ensurin
Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that contrary to the classical model of aging, increased blood pressure does not accelerate the age-related decline in performing certain mental tasks.
Furthermore, the researchers reported, middle-aged subjects with high blood pressure showed more of a slowing in cognitive performance tests than did older adults with high blood pressure.
According to the researchers, past studies have been epidemiological in nature and have hi
SMART-1, Europe’s first science spacecraft designed to orbit the Moon, has completed the first part of its journey by achieving its initial Earth orbit after a flawless launch during the night of 27/28 September.
The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 was one of three payloads on Ariane Flight 162. The generic Ariane-5 lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 2014 hrs local time (2314 hrs GMT) on 27 September (01:14 Central European Summer time o
Young children need to be highly physically active if they are to stave off degenerative joint disease, specifically osteoarthritis of the knee, suggest researchers in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Assessing all the evidence, the researchers from the Monash University and the University of Tasmania in Australia, show that physical activity in young children is associated with the healthy development of cartilage, the firm rubbery tissue that cushions joint bones.
Loss of c
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have tested and validated novel proteins, created by California-based Xencor, that block activity of a major molecule involved in the onset of inflammation, an innovation that may translate into new therapeutic options for people with rheumatoid arthritis.
Researchers at both institutions report in today’s issue of Science that blocking the activation of a regulator of inflammation called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) decreased swel
The latest ESA Earth Observation data show that reports of the demise of the ozone hole appearing annually above Antarctica have been greatly exaggerated.
The ozone hole is normally at its largest in September, but 2002 saw it at its smallest extent for more than a decade: 40% down on previous years. And a year ago yesterday ongoing satellite measurements of ozone – gathered by the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) instrument on ES
Emerging geochemical and biological evidence from Alaskan lake sediment suggests that slight variations in the sun’s intensity have affected sub-polar climate and ecosystems in a predictable fashion during the last 12,000 years.
Researchers at six institutions report the findings in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Science. The data, they say, help to explain past changes on land and in freshwater ecosystems in northern latitudes and may provide information to help project the future.
A protein in Salmonella bacteria called SipA invades healthy human cells by using two arms in a “stapling” action, according to scientists at the University of Virginia Health System. The U.Va. researchers, working with colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York, report their findings in the September 26 edition of the magazine Science.
Edward Egelman, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at U.Va., said the significance of this research is that it could be possible to design mol
Graduate student camped out in the lab, sleepless in Seattle, to collect the data
Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have made a landmark discovery in yeast that may hold the key to revealing why growing older is the greatest cancer-risk factor in humans. Their findings appear in the Sept. 26 issue of Science.
Senior author Daniel Gottschling, Ph.D., a member of Fred Hutchinson’s Basic Sciences Division, and first author Michael McMurray, a graduate stu
New technique, partial shotgun-genome sequencing at 1.5X coverage of genome, provides a useful, cost-effective way to increase number of large genomes analyzed
Analysis reveals that 650 million base pairs of DNA are shared between dog and humans including fragments of putative orthologs for 18,473 of 24,567 annotated human genes; Data provide necessary tools for identifying many human and dog disease genes
Researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and The Cent
Salk researcher provides new view on how the brain functions
Scientists are developing a new paradigm for how the brain functions. They propose that the brain is not a huge fixed network, as had been previously thought, but a dynamic, changing network that adapts continuously to meet the demands of communication and computational needs.
In the Sept. 26 issue of Science, Salk Institute professor Terrence Sejnowski and University of Cambridge professor Simon Laughlin argue tha
Duke University researchers have used self-assembling DNA molecules as molecular building blocks called “tiles” to construct protein-bearing scaffolds and metal wires at the billionths of a meter, or “nanoscale.”
The achievements in nanoscale synthesis, which the five authors said could lead to programmable molecular scale sensors or electronic circuitry, were described in a paper in the Sept. 26, 2003, issue of the journal Science written by HaoYan, Thom LaBean, Gleb Finkelstein, Sung Ha P
Chance encounter between two labs resurrects dying immune system theory
A lucky encounter between laboratories at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California-Berkeley has resurrected a moribund theory about how the immune system mobilizes one of the body’s most important defensive systems: the immune system cells known as T lymphocytes.
The new findings, published online by the journal Science this week, are a key step toward u
As a paleontologist, Gerta Keller has studied many aspects of the history of life on Earth. But the question capturing her attention lately is one so basic it has passed the lips of generations of 6-year-olds: What killed the dinosaurs?
The answers she has been uncovering for the last decade have stirred an adult-sized debate that puts Keller at odds with many scientists who study the question. Keller, a professor in Princeton’s Department of Geosciences, is among a minority of scientists
Physicians at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have reported encouraging short-term outcomes in fetal surgery for the birth defect spina bifida. Among the benefits were a reduced need for a shunt to divert excess fluid from the brain, the reversal of a potentially devastating neurologic condition called hindbrain herniation, and better-than-expected neurologic function in the infants’ legs.
Mark Johnson, M.D., and colleagues from Children’s Hospital’s Center for F
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