Science Blog

How to Boost the Power of Pain Relief, Without Drugs

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:07:57 +0000

Placebos reduce pain by creating an expectation of relief. Distraction—say, doing a puzzle—relieves it by keeping the brain busy. But do they use the same brain processes? Neuromaging suggests they...

Super-Earth found in habitable zone of nearby cool star

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:52:00 +0000

An international team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a...

Millisecond pulsars: the discovery of deceleration

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:49:52 +0000

Pulsars are among the most exotic celestial bodies known. They have diameters of about 20 kilometres, but at the same time roughly the mass of our sun. A sugar-cube sized piece of its ultra-compact...

DNA test for Down syndrome IDs two other conditions

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:46:52 +0000

A newly available DNA-based prenatal blood test that can identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome can also identify two additional chromosome abnormalities: trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and trisomy...

What a tangled web Alzheimer’s weaves

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:45:45 +0000

One of the most distinctive signs of the development of Alzheimer’s disease is a change in the behavior of a protein that neuroscientists call tau. In normal brains, tau is present in...

Wildlife treasure trove found in Peru

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:44:41 +0000

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Peru program announced today the discovery of 365 species previously undocumented in Bahuaja Sonene National Park (BSNP) in southeastern Peru. Fifteen...

Saving Dogs with Spinal Cord Injuries

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:36:11 +0000

Dogs with spinal cord injuries may soon benefit from an experimental drug being tested by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Texas A&M College of Veterinary...

Male and Female Behavior Deconstructed

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:32:14 +0000

Hormones shape our bodies, make us fertile, excite our most basic urges, and as scientists have known for years, they govern the behaviors that separate men from women. But how? Now a team of...

Planets Circling Around Twin Suns

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:29:44 +0000

In the last two decades, the study of extrasolar planets — those that lie outside our own solar system — has become one of the most important fields of astrophysics. Now a National Aeronautics and...

A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago

sb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:24:52 +0000

They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that “bat flies” have been doing their...

Silver bullet to beat cancer?

sb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:42:58 +0000

The internet is awash with stories of how silver can be used to treat cancer. Now, lab tests have shown that it is as effective as the leading chemotherapy drug – and may have fewer...

Are Jellyfish Really Taking Over the World?

sb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:30:51 +0000

In recent years, media reports of jellyfish blooms and some scientific publications have fueled the idea that jellyfish and other gelatinous floating creatures are becoming more common and may...

Powering pacemakers with heartbeats

sb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:26:05 +0000

Though pacemakers require only small amounts of energy (about 1 millionth of a Watt), their batteries have to be replaced periodically, which means multiple surgeries for patients. Researchers have...

Massage is promising for muscle recovery

sb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:21:52 +0000

Researchers at McMaster University have discovered a brief 10-minute massage helps reduce inflammation in muscle. As a non-drug therapy, massage holds the potential to help not just bone-weary...

Facebook is Not Such a Good Thing for Those with Low Self-Esteem

sb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:17:47 +0000

In theory, the social networking website Facebook could be great for people with low self-esteem. Sharing is important for improving friendships. But in practice, people with low self-esteem seem to...

Here is what real commitment to your marriage means

sb — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:49:02 +0000

What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage....

Computer can tell what you hear by reading your brain

sb — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:42:06 +0000

Neuroscientists may one day be able to hear the imagined speech of a patient unable to speak due to stroke or paralysis, according to University of California, Berkeley, researchers. These scientists...

Eating fish in pregnancy makes offspring smarter, more social

sb — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:33:25 +0000

Can pregnant women improve their progeny’s intelligence by eating fish? A study recently submitted to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and coordinated by the University of Granada professor...

Fighting fires in outer space

sb — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:28:06 +0000

Improving fire-fighting techniques in space and getting a better understanding of fuel combustion here on Earth are the focus of a series of experiments on the International Space Station, led by a...

Men have more accurate memory of unpleasant experiences

sb — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:24:42 +0000

A woman’s memory of an experience is less likely to be accurate than a man’s if it was unpleasant and emotionally provocative, according to research undertaken by University of Montreal...