Dreams can help in coming to terms with major events and in taking difficult decisions in life. This is what Dutch-sponsored researcher Elizabeth Mohkamsing-den Boer concluded after her research into the function of dreams in indigenous Surinamese and Australian tribes.

’Dreams prepare your emotions’, is a comment that Mohkamsing-den Boer frequently heard during her research. This statement reaches to the heart of her study, namely the function of dreams during important

Looking into our eyes may help doctors predict who is at risk for stroke. A new study found that people with changes in the small blood vessels in their eyes are more likely to later suffer a stroke than people without these signs.

The results held true even after researchers took into account traditional risk factors for stroke such as smoking and high blood pressure, according to the study published in the October 11, 2005 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the

A new study concludes that widespread screening for cardiovascular risk by measuring blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein produced by the liver, should not be advocated. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore analyzed data from more than 15,000 adult men and women and found that CRP appears to be tightly linked to traditional risk factors for heart disease rather than being an independent risk factor. The study is published in the October 10, 2005

No good evidence exists that fossilized structures found in China and which some paleontologists claim are the earliest known rudimentary feathers were really feathers at all, a renowned ornithologist says. Instead, the fossilized patterns appear to be bits of decomposed skin and supporting tissues that just happen to resemble feathers to a modest degree.

Led by Dr. Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a team of scientists says that as a result of their

U.S. commercial building owners could save substantially on annual heating and cooling energy costs by improving airtightness of their buildings’ envelope, according to a recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study. The research used simulation software to evaluate the energy impact of improved air barriers in three typical non-residential buildings in five cities, each in a different climate zone. The results predicted potential annual heating and cooling energy c

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and Georgia Institute of Technology have found a new way to kill cancer cells. Building on their previous work that used gold nanoparticles to detect cancer, they now are heating the particles and using them as agents to destroy malignant cells.

The researchers are a father and son, working together on opposite coasts. Their study findings are reported in the on-line edition of the journal Cancer Letters, found at Sci

Researchers have found provocative evidence that the brain dysfunction that underlies epilepsy may also determine whether people are at risk for suicide. The study, published online October 10, 2005 in the Annals of Neurology, also suggests that depression and suicide may have different brain mechanisms.

“For reasons that are not understood, depression both increases the risk for developing epilepsy and is also common among people with epilepsy who experience many seizures,” said

An intervention program designed to promote screening for colorectal cancer – and thereby decrease the number of cancers diagnosed – failed to increase screening rates in the managed care setting, a UCLA study has found.

During the two-year period monitored in the study, less than 30 percent of eligible patients received any screening for colorectal cancer in participating managed care practices, said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at UC

When evaluating facial attractiveness, participants may fail to notice a radical change to the outcome of their choice, according to a study by researchers at Lund University, Sweden, and New York University. Equally surprising, the study shows that participants may produce confabulatory reports when asked to describe the reasons behind their choices. The findings appear in the October 7 issue of Science.

The authors on this paper are Petter Johansson, a graduate student; Lars

Electronic tags broadcasting from the dorsal fins of salmon sharks reveal that these top predators migrate from the glacial waters of Alaska to the warm seas off Hawaii, according to a new study in the journal Science. The salmon shark’s ability to survive such a broad range of thermal conditions is attributed to high levels of specialized proteins that keep its heart muscle cells beating at very low temperatures, say the study’s authors.

“Sharks are declining global

An international survey published today (Thursday 6 October) in Europe’s leading cardiology journal, European Heart Journal[1], reveals that fewer than half of the heart patients in the study who smoked quit after suffering their first coronary event, with one out of five continuing to smoke despite advice to stop.

Epidemiologist and lead author of the study, Dr Wilma Scholte op Reimer, said it was “unbelievable” that so many carried on smoking after a life-threatening event

Actuarial model puts risks of making nanotubes on par with making wine

Using a method for assessing the premiums that companies pay for insurance, a team of scientists and insurance experts have concluded that the manufacturing processes for five, near-market nanomaterials — including quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs — present fewer risks to the environment than some common industrial processes like oil refining. For two of the nanomaterials – nanotubes and alumoxa

Subtle differences in other genes — besides the defective gene known to cause the illness cystic fibrosis — can significantly modify the inherited disease’s severity, a large new multi-center national study has concluded.

The study, led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Case Western Reserve University researchers, for the first time shows that particular versions of the transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFb1) gene are largely responsible for how badly th

Study finds no significant side effects in children treated up to two years

new study has found that an all-day, extended-release stimulant for treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remains effective for up to two years without significant side effects. In the October issue of the Journal of the American Association of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, a multi-institutional research team reports finding that treatment with Concerta, a once-daily form of the dru

Marriage of theory, experiment is first for multi-domain protein folding

In unprecedented new research, scientists at Rice University have combined theory and experiment for the first time to both predict theoretically and verify experimentally the protein-folding dynamics of a large, complex protein. The interdisciplinary research appears this week in two back-to-back papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Researchers have successfully combined co

Researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center have discovered a mechanism in the body that could lead to autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or diabetes. The research team, led by John Cambier, Ph.D., found that potentially harmful B cells circulating in the body are not permanently silenced as previously thought; they can awaken and regain the ability to launch an attack against the body’s own tissue. The findings were published online October 2 by Nature Immunolog