People aren't born afraid of spiders and snakes: Fear is quickly learned during infancy
There's a reason why Hollywood makes movies like Arachnophobia and Snakes on a Plane: Most people are afraid of spiders and snakes.
Reducing Parking Spaces Helps Cities Cut Auto Emissions
A new study shows economic and policy changes that limit parking have significantly reduced miles driven in 10 European cities
Caffeine energizes cells, boosting virus production for gene therapy applications
Give caffeine to cells engineered to produce viruses used for gene therapy and the cells can generate 3- to 8-times more virus, according to a paper published in Human Gene Therapy
New method attacks bacterial infections on contact lenses
Researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a new method to fight bacterial infections associated with contact lenses.
Operation makes dementia patients faster and smarter
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital are the first in the world to show that an operation can help patients with dementia caused by white matter changes and hydrocephalus.
Hot flushes are linked with a significant reduction in breast cancer risk
The more frequent and severe the hot flushes, the lower the cancer risk
Biologists' favorite worm gets viruses
Finding means C. elegans may aid studies of human infections
A psychopath lacks empathy just like a person with frontal head injury
'Seeing as psychopathic behavior is similar to that of a person with brain damage, it could be that it could benefit from similar forms of treatment,' said Dr. Simone Shamay-Tsoory, who conducted the study
Heart-targeting Listeria increase cardiac disease risk
Certain strains of the food pathogen Listeria are uniquely adapted to infect heart tissues and may put people at a higher risk from serious cardiac disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
Deep brain stimulation surgery 'first' for depression
A medical team at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol is pioneering a new form of surgery to treat long term depression.
Linguists to re-think reason for short words
Linguists have thought for many years the length of words is related to the frequency of use, with short words used more often than long ones
Common weed petty spurge 'could treat' skin cancer
Sap from the common garden weed petty spurge appears to treat non-melanoma skin cancers, experts are reporting in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Alcohol use curbed by anti-nausea medication, study finds
Alcoholics who were given a medication approved for quelling nausea were able to cut back on their alcohol intake, researchers reported this week.
New painkiller with no apparent side effects or addictive qualities near to market
A powerful new painkiller, which was developed on the basis of the research conducted at Stony Brook University and with no apparent side effects or addictive qualities, may now be only a year or two from the consumer market.
See where your money is going -- literally
Kathy Williamson was over in the Pigeon Forge area in early December and stopped into a Harry & David store in Sevierville, Tenn., to buy candy. The change she received from the clerk was correct, but she noticed something odd about one of the singles given her.
As Doctors Age, Worries About Their Ability Grow
About eight years ago, at the age of 78, a vascular surgeon in California operated on a woman who then developed a pulmonary embolism. The surgeon did not respond to urgent calls from the nurses, and the woman died.
Background noise: Elderly drivers might have a brain region to blame for declining driving skills
Debate about older adults' driving skills often touches on obvious impairments, such as failing vision and heavy medication use.
Pay-for-performance does not improve patient health: study
As news outlets throughout Europe and the U.S. report on the plummeting health of Western adults and children, there is no shortage of culprits.
Bat Uses Carnivorous Plant as a Toilet
A bat and a carnivorous plant have a mutually beneficial -- and equally disgusting -- relationship.
UT Southwestern researchers uncover potential 'cure' for type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes could be converted to an asymptomatic, non-insulin-dependent disorder by eliminating the actions of a specific hormone, new findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggest.
Genetic archaeology finds parts of our genome more closely related to orangutans than chimps
In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), in coordination with the publication of the orangutan genome sequence, scientists have presented the surprising finding that although orangutans and humans are more distantly related, some regions of our genomes are more alike than those of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee.
Plastic artificial retina is a hit with nerve cells
Light-sensitive plastic might be key to repairing damaged retinas.
'Life chemicals' may have formed around far-flung star
There is now even more evidence that life on Earth may have been seeded by material from asteroids or comets.
Lost islands of the crows revealed in DNA study
Islands are generally thought of as the Hotel Californias of evolution: once immigrant species evolve to fit the less competitive local ecology, they can never leave. Every so often, a species somehow manages to escape back to the more-diverse mainland, but now evolutionary biologists have discovered that a whole major bird family once did so too.
Test shows dinosaurs survived mass extinction by 700,000 years
University of Alberta researchers determined that a fossilized dinosaur bone found in New Mexico confounds the long established paradigm that the age of dinosaurs ended between 65.5 and 66 million years ago.
Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Men are more than twice as likely to continue dating a girlfriend who has cheated on them with another woman than one who has cheated with another man, according to new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist.
Was the fox prehistoric man's best friend?
Early humans may have preferred the fox to the dog as an animal companion, new archaeological findings suggest.
Physicists call for alien messaging protocol
Framework for extraterrestrial communications proposed.
Mini-strokes leave 'hidden' brain damage: Vancouver Coastal Health and UBC Research
Each year, approximately 150,000 Canadians have a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes known as a mini-stroke. New research published today in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association shows these attacks may not be transient at all. They in fact create lasting damage to the brain.
Did modern humans go global twice as early as thought?
Homo sapiens might have spread across the world much earlier than previously thought – and it was a favourable climate, not a sophisticated culture, that allowed them to go.
VW's diesel hybrid: most efficient car on the planet?
In a world of soaring fuel prices it's certainly a smart move.
Cancer drug aids cell regeneration after spinal cord injury
Cancer drug aids the regeneration of spinal cord injuries
Gene 'relocation' key to most evolutionary change in bacteria
Gene 'relocation' key to most evolutionary change in bacteria
Researchers discover age of onset of puberty predicts adult osteoporosis risk
Later puberty results in lower bone mass and increases risk of fracture
Arctic current warmer than for 2,000 years: study
A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.
Humans Left Trees 4.2 Million Years Ago
Wrist bones of human ancestors reveal when humans switched from living in trees to on the ground.
Study: Cows done in by bad spuds
Anyone taking the recent, mysterious deaths of 200 steers in a Portage County, Wis., feedlot as a sign of the apocalypse can rest easy. The cows, according to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, were done in by bad spuds.
New transistors: An alternative to silicon and better than graphene
Smaller and more energy-efficient electronic chips could be made using molybdenite, a material developed in Switzerland
A deficiency of dietary omega-3 may explain depressive behaviors
Neuroscience of nutrition