Six hundred million years ago, fever appeared in animals as a response to infections: the higher body temperatures optimized their immune systems. At the time, virtually all animal species were cold-blooded. They had to sit in warm patches of habitat for extended periods of time to achieve fever-range body temperatures. For Michael Logan, a Tupper…
An ample buffet of freshwater food, brought on by climate change, is altering the life history of one of the world’s most important salmon species. Sockeye salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region are skipping an entire year in freshwater because climate change has produced more favorable conditions in lakes and streams, which allow the young…
In a common narrative of the path to opioid misuse, people become addicted to painkillers after a doctor prescribed them pills to treat an injury and then, later, switch to harder drugs, such as heroin. However, nonmedical opioid users were more likely to say they began abusing opioids after friends and family members offered them…
The term colloidal gel might not be one that is immediately familiar to everybody. However, most people come into contact with these materials every day. Many cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food products and even building materials are made up of colloidal gels, and as a result these materials are widely studied. However, to date, research methods have…
Astrocytes are overtaxed neurons’ pit crew. The brain cells collect damaged lipids secreted by hyperactive neurons, then recycle those toxic molecules into energy, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus report May 23, 2019, in the journal Cell. It’s a mechanism to protect neurons from the damaging side effects of overactivity. And…
The world’s top 10 crops — barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and wheat — supply a combined 83 percent of all calories produced on cropland. Yields have long been projected to decrease in future climate conditions. Now, new research shows climate change has already affected production of these key energy…
A study by UCLA psychologists provides strong evidence that a certain region of the brain plays a critical role in memory recall. The research, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, also shows for the first time that using an electrical current to stimulate that region, the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, improves people’s ability to…
Heart failure after a heart attack is a global epidemic leading to chronic heart failure pathology. About 6 million people in the United States and 23 million worldwide suffer from this end-stage disease that involves dysfunction of the heart, a change that clinicians call cardiac remodeling. Despite medical advances, 2 to 17 percent of patients…
Sometimes, the best defense against hostile invaders is a good, long nap. Or at least, that strategy seems to work for bacteria. In a new study, described in Nature, Rockefeller scientists showed that microbes under viral attack turn their defenses not only on their enemies, but also on themselves. This drastic measure, the researchers found,…
Based on a study by McLean Hospital researchers, individuals with anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions may soon be able to use a smartphone app to deliver on-demand cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), a way to change mental habits without visiting a therapist. The study, “Translating CBM-I Into Real-World Settings: Augmenting a CBT-Based…