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Alcohol consumption among young Spaniards linked to night-time violence

Night-time violence among young Spaniards is becoming ever more common, according to a research study carried out by the European Institute of Studies on Prevention. The study shows that 5.2% of young people carry weapons when they go out at night, 11.6% have been attacked or threatened, and 23% have got into a fight at some time.

12 Nov 2010

Bioethics in pharmaceutical industry, regenerative medicine, and public health

To celebrate 40 years of pioneering bioethics publication, the Hastings Center Report, the world's first bioethics journal, looked to the future, asking young scholars to write about what the next generation of bioethicists should take up. Out of 195 compelling submissions, four of the best essays were selected for publication in the November-December issue.

12 Nov 2010

Dreaded cod liver oil in a variety of flavours

The stomachs of the generation of 50 year olds and above, will be churning at the thought of their parents and grandparents serving up spoonfuls of the much dreaded cod liver oil. As a practice, parents giving their children cod liver oil has all but died, and yet, as a population, we have seen more and more inflammatory conditions effect people's lives, which are due in no small part to the 'modern day diet', which many of us live.

12 Nov 2010

Research output from Asia and Europe surpasses that of the US

A study from Thomson Reuters released today shows that the US is no longer the "colossus of science" that it was and has not kept pace with the increased output from European and Asia-Pacific nations.

12 Nov 2010

New findings shed light on biology of neuropsychiatric diseases

The biggest surprise to me was that we could rescue the autistic phenotype [in the human cells] to something close to normal, said Alysson Muotri of the University of California San Diego.

12 Nov 2010

Equation to calculate energetic cost of walking

Any parent that takes their kid out for a walk knows that children tire more quickly than adults, but why is that? Do kids and small adults walk differently from taller people or do they tire faster for some other reason? Peter Weyand from Southern Methodist University, USA, is fascinated by the effect that body size has on physiological function.

12 Nov 2010

Scientists unveil mechanism of liver regeneration

The liver's unique ability among organs to regenerate itself has been little understood. Now Weill Cornell Medical College scientists have shed light on how the liver restores itself by demonstrating that endothelial cells the cells that form the lining of blood vessels play a key role.

12 Nov 2010

Scientists create functional neurons to study ASD development

Using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with Rett syndrome, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have created functional neurons that provide the first human cellular model for studying the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and could be used as a tool for drug screening, diagnosis and personalized treatment.

12 Nov 2010

Neural pathways in amygdala regulates fear response

Fear arises in the almond-shaped brain structure known as the amygdala. It is the amygdala which processes the strange noise, shadowy figure or scary face and not only triggers palpitations or nausea but can also cause us to flee or freeze. That much has long been known about the function of this part of the brain. What remains largely unclear, however, is precisely how fear develops, and which of the countless neurons in the amygdaloid region are involved in this process.

12 Nov 2010

Research on fruit flies reveal novel human pain gene

While it has become clear in recent years that susceptibility to pain has a strong inherited component, very little is known about actual "pain genes" and how they work. In the November 12th issue of Cell, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and their collaborators report on a novel human pain gene. People with minor variations in this gene showed clear differences in susceptibility to acute heat pain and chronic back pain.

12 Nov 2010

Study on flavors of laughter

Most scientific research on laughter is based on recordings of people pretending to laugh. But for Michael Owren of Georgia State University in Atlanta, this false laughter -- the sound of a canned sit-com laugh track -- is a pale imitation of the real thing. He studies the full vocabulary of chortles, giggles, guffaws we all use in everyday situations.

12 Nov 2010

Discovery on immune system paves way to new vaccine against pneumococcal disease

A new breakthrough in the fight against pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia has been announced today by scientists in Leicester and Dublin. The discovery will lead to a dramatic shift in our understanding of how the body's immune system responds to infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and pave the way for more effective vaccines.

12 Nov 2010

Elderly often have poor outcomes from surgery: Study

A new study has shown the ill effects of surgery in the elderly. Results of the Australian study shows that one in five older patients will suffer complications from surgery and one in 20 will die within 30 days. Lead author and Associate Professor David Story from the University of Sydney and his team looked at more than 4,100 patients aged over 70 for the study.

11 Nov 2010

MU researchers find 70% of Amazonian cultures practiced multiple paternity

In modern culture, it is not considered socially acceptable for married people to have extramarital sexual partners. However, in some Amazonian cultures, extramarital sexual affairs were common, and people believed that when a woman became pregnant, each of her sexual partners would be considered part-biological father. Now, a new University of Missouri study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that up to 70 percent of Amazonian cultures may have believed in the principle of multiple paternity.

11 Nov 2010

Think treatments for cancer, diabetes don't grow on trees? Think again

Supported by thousands of years of use, a new wave of polymolecular botanical drugs (PBDs), backed by strong biomedical research and clinical trials, are growing in acceptance as a viable new drug category for the treatment and prevention of a wide spectrum of diseases from cancer to obesity.

11 Nov 2010

Tobii launches TX300 Eye Tracker for linguistics and behavioral research

Tobii Technology, the global market leader in eye tracking, announced today its new Tobii TX300™ Eye Tracker. The TX300 is the first higher-frequency eye-tracking hardware that allows research subjects the freedom of head movement, which helps scientists create more realistic testing environments for detailed and efficient research of natural behavior and higher definition samplings at 300 hertz.

11 Nov 2010

Number of smokers quitting has fallen since recession hit the UK economy

Since the recession began the number of smokers quitting has fallen according to new research being presented at the NCRI Cancer Conference in Liverpool today.

11 Nov 2010

Performance in a coalition depends on genes

How well a person performs in a coalition is partly hereditary, according to a recent study.

11 Nov 2010

World's largest data base on protein motions

After four years of conducting intensive calculations in the supercomputer MareNostrum at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, scientists headed by Modesto Orozco at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have presented the world's largest data base on protein motions. Called MoDEL, this new database holds more than 1,700 proteins and is partially accessible through Internet to researchers worldwide. MoDEL has been developed to study the basic biology of proteins and to accelerate and facilitate the design of new pharmaceutical agents.

11 Nov 2010

Neural learning appears to be independent of conscious visual processing

A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts and College of Science and Engineering have found that an early part of the brain's visual system rewires itself when people are trained to perceive patterns, and have shown for the first time that this neural learning appears to be independent of higher order conscious visual processing.

11 Nov 2010