Archive for November 2018

How the devil ray got its horns

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
How the devil ray got its horns
If you ever find yourself staring down a manta ray, you'll probably notice two things right away: its massive fins and the two fleshy growths curling out of its head that give it the nickname 'devil ray.' A new study shows that these two very different features have the same origin -- a discovery that reflects an important lesson for understanding the diversity of life.

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Triple combination cancer immunotherapy improves outcomes in preclinical melanoma model

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Triple combination cancer immunotherapy improves outcomes in preclinical melanoma model
In adoptive cell transfer immunotherapy, T cells able to recognize a tumor are harvested, expanded in the laboratory, and then reintroduced to attack the tumor. However, they often do not persist long enough to finish the job. A triple combination regimen of adoptive T cell transfer, a PIM kinase inhibitor, and a PD1 inhibitor improved T cell persistence and tumor control in a mouse model of melanoma, report investigators.

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An opioid epidemic may be looming in Mexico -- and the US may be partly responsible

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
An opioid epidemic may be looming in Mexico -- and the US may be partly responsible
Though opioid use in Mexico has been low, national and international factors are converging and a threat of increased drug and addiction rates exists. Many of these factors may have originated in the US, making this a potential joint US-Mexico epidemic. The authors of this analytic essay came to this conclusion based on a study of published academic literature, Mexican federal documents and guidelines, and news reports pertaining to opioid use in Mexico.

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Certain state lawmakers aim to loosen childhood vaccine requirements, but legal barriers persist

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Certain state lawmakers aim to loosen childhood vaccine requirements, but legal barriers persist
An analysis of proposed vaccine legislation between 2011 and 2017 shows that although the majority of proposed bills would have allowed more parents to exempt their children from school immunization requirements, those that favored vaccines were more likely to become law.

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Quirky glacial behavior explained

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Quirky glacial behavior explained
In August 2012, the Jakobshavn Glacier was flowing and breaking off into the sea at record speeds, three times faster than in previous years. As the glacier flowed faster, it became thinner and more unstable and in a twist, a pileup of thick ice replenished the glacier's terminus, slowing it down again. New work explaining the fast-then-slow movement of Jakobshavn may help scientists better predict how tidewater glaciers contribute to sea level rise.

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Mammal-like milk provisioning and parental care discovered in jumping spider

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Mammal-like milk provisioning and parental care discovered in jumping spider
Researchers report milk provisioning in Toxeus magnus (Araneae: Salticidae), a jumping spider that mimics ants. Milk provisioning in T. magnus involves a specialized organ over an extended period, similar to mammalian lactation. The study demonstrated that mammal-like milk provisioning and parental care for sexually mature offspring have also evolved in invertebrates.

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Toolbox for studying the existence of animal cultures

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Toolbox for studying the existence of animal cultures
Fruit flies possess all of the cognitive capacities needed to culturally transmit their sexual preferences across generations, according to researchers. Their study provides the first experimental toolbox for studying the existence of animal cultures, thereby opening up an entire field of research.

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How prions invade the brain

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
How prions invade the brain
The spread of prions to the brain does not occur by direct transmission across the blood-brain barrier, according to a new study. As noted by the authors, insights into how prions enter the brain could lead to the development of effective strategies to prevent neurodegeneration, even after infection outside the nervous system has already taken place.

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Whales lost their teeth before evolving hair-like baleen in their mouths

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Whales lost their teeth before evolving hair-like baleen in their mouths
Rivaling the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs, one of the most extraordinary transformations in the history of life was the evolution of baleen -- rows of flexible hair-like plates that blue whales, humpbacks and other marine mammals use to filter relatively tiny prey from gulps of ocean water. Now, scientists have discovered an important intermediary link in the evolution of this innovative feeding strategy: an ancient whale that had neither teeth nor baleen.

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Effective new target for mood-boosting brain stimulation found

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
Effective new target for mood-boosting brain stimulation found
Researchers have found an effective target in the brain for electrical stimulation to improve mood in people suffering from depression. Stimulation of a brain region called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) reliably produced acute improvement in mood in patients who suffered from depression at the start of the study.

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The whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
The whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind
A new study breaks with the paradigm that the cradle of humankind lies in East Africa, based on the archaeological remains found at sites in the region of Ain Hanech (Algeria), the oldest currently known in the north of Africa. New research shows that ancestral hominins actually made stone tools in North Africa that are near contemporary with the earliest known stone tools in East Africa dated to 2.6 million years.

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What happens when materials take tiny hits

November 30, 2018 Add Comment
What happens when materials take tiny hits
A team of researchers has just accomplished the first detailed high-speed imaging and analysis of the microparticle impact process, and used that data to predict when the particles will bounce away, stick, or knock material off the surface and weaken it.

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Healthy? Stay fit to avoid a heart attack

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Healthy? Stay fit to avoid a heart attack
Even if you are a fit and healthy person with no signs of any heart or blood vessel disease, low cardiorespiratory fitness could be a warning sign of future problems, according to a new study.

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Researchers rise to challenge of predicting hail, tornadoes three weeks in advance

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Researchers rise to challenge of predicting hail, tornadoes three weeks in advance
A prediction lead time of about 2 to 5 weeks is sorely lacking in current forecasting capabilities for severe weather. Atmospheric scientists now demonstrate the ability to make skillful predictions of severe weather across the Plains and southeastern United States, including hail and tornadoes, in that coveted ''subseasonal'' time scale. To do it, they use a reliable tropical weather pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which can influence weather in distant parts of the Earth.

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Whale songs' changing pitch may be response to population, climate changes

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Whale songs' changing pitch may be response to population, climate changes
Blue whales have been dropping pitch incrementally over several decades, but the cause has remained a mystery. A new study finds a seasonal variation in the whales' pitch correlated with breaking sea ice in the southern Indian Ocean. The new research also extends the mysterious long-term falling pitch to related baleen whales and rules out noise pollution as the cause of the global long-term trend, according to the study's authors.

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Children who start school a year early more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Children who start school a year early more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD
Children who enter elementary school younger than their peers are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. Children born in August in states with a Sept. 1 cutoff birth date for school enrollment have a 30 percent higher risk for ADHD diagnosis than peers born in September, which may reflect over-diagnosis.

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Flounder now tumor-free in Boston Harbor

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Flounder now tumor-free in Boston Harbor
In the late 1980s, more than three-quarters of the winter flounder caught in Boston Harbor -- one of the most polluted harbors in America -- showed signs of liver disease, many of them with cancerous tumors. But now, scientists have documented a dramatic rebound in flounder health spurred by decades of remediation efforts.

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US groundwater in peril: Potable supply less than thought

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
US groundwater in peril: Potable supply less than thought
Many rural areas in parts of the US rely exclusively on groundwater for both agricultural and domestic use. Drilling deeper wells may not be a good long-term solution to compensate for increasing demands on groundwater, because there is potential for contamination of deep fresh and brackish water in areas where the oil and gas industry injects wastewaters into or in close proximity to aquifers.

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Checkmating tumors

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Checkmating tumors
Chess and cancer research have one thing in common: one must act strategically to defeat the opponent. And that's exactly what scientists are doing. They are seeking to selectively make only those cancer cells aggressive that would otherwise evade chemotherapy -- and then lure them into a trap.

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Fossil algae reveal 500 million years of climate change

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Fossil algae reveal 500 million years of climate change
Scientists have succeeded in developing a new indicator (proxy) of ancient CO2 levels, using the organic molecule phytane, a debris product of chlorophyll. This new organic proxy not only provides the most continuous record of CO2 concentrations ever, it also breaks a record in its time span, covering half a billion years.

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Atomic jet: First lens for extreme-ultraviolet light developed

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Atomic jet: First lens for extreme-ultraviolet light developed
Scientists have developed the first refractive lens that focuses extreme ultraviolet beams. Instead of using a glass lens, which is non-transparent in the extreme-ultraviolet region, the researchers have demonstrated a lens that is formed by a jet of atoms. The results provide novel opportunities for the imaging of biological samples on the shortest timescales.

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When a city feels good, people take more risks

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
When a city feels good, people take more risks
What makes people take risks? Not stunt women or Formula 1 drivers. Just ordinary people like you and me. Research suggests that unexpected improvements in everyday life (sunshine after many days of rain or a win by a local sports team) are correlated with a change in a city's mood and an increased likelihood that it's citizens will do risky things like gamble.

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High-throughput platform enables activity mapping of emerging cancer drug targets

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
High-throughput platform enables activity mapping of emerging cancer drug targets
A powerful new biochemical platform is fueling the study of a family of enzymes that are promising targets for cancer treatment. The new method provides a high-resolution view of how these enzymes, called lysine methyltransferases, selectively mark proteins with chemical tags that alter their function. Because of their central role in health and disease, proteins and the molecules that edit and interact with them often are targets for therapeutic development.

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Easy to use 3D bioprinting technique creates lifelike tissues from natural materials

November 29, 2018 Add Comment
Easy to use 3D bioprinting technique creates lifelike tissues from natural materials
Bioengineers have developed a 3D bioprinting technique that works with natural materials and is easy to use, allowing researchers of varying levels of technical expertise to create lifelike tissues, such as blood vessels and a vascularized gut. The goal is to make human organ models that can be studied outside the body or used to test new drugs ex vivo.

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