news 2016

HIP68468, a twin star to the sun about 300 light-years away, may have swallowed one or more of its planets, based on lithium and refractory elements recently discovered near its surface. An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Chicago, has made the rare discovery of a planetary system with a host star similar to Earth's sun.

UK scientists have created a synthetic molecule that, when applied to crops, has been shown to increase the size and starch content of wheat grains in the lab by up to 20%. The new plant application, developed by Rothamsted Research and Oxford University, could help solve the issue of increasing food insecurity across the globe.

Research news New cancer therapies harness the immune system to fight tumors. One of the main principles behind these therapies is to find out precisely which molecules on cancer cells trigger an immune response. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry has for the first time identified suitable protein structures directly from patients` tumor cells.

A cutting edge, non-invasive brain stimulation technique could improve cognitive control for people with conditions such as schizophrenia and autism. Researchers at The University of Queensland's Centre for Clinical Research have found the technique - which applies high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation to a particular area of the brain - improves cognitive and conflict control.

Curling up with a good e-book? Why there's nothing quite like a paper book when it comes to a bedtime story Since the birth of digital reading technology, arguments have raged over whether reading from a screen has any significant effects on the experience of reading and shared storytelling among both adults and children.

A new technique of analyzing brain patterns appears to help people overcome fear and build self-confidence. The approach, developed by a UCLA-led team of neuroscientists, is described in two new papers, published in the journals Nature Communications and Nature Human Behaviour. Their method could have implications for treating people with depression, dementia and anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, said Hakwan Lau, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and the senior author of both studies.

UC Berkeley was part of an interdisciplinary, international research team that has identified the rare genetic mutation responsible for a unique case of 'boy in the bubble' disease, known as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), a deadly immune system disorder. The researchers found that the cause was a mutated version of a gene called BCL11B, which also plays an unexpected role in the normal processes of immune system development.

FINDINGS UCLA researchers have found that a Chinese herbal regimen called TSY-1 (Tianshengyuan-1) increased telomerase activity in normal blood cells but decreased it in cancer cells. Telomerase is an enzyme responsible for the production of telomeres, which play an important role in the regulation of normal cell division.

Owners of dogs showing signs of osteoarthritis are being asked by the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences to take part in the first study of its kind to find out whether an omega-3 oil derived from algae can help dogs with osteoarthritis (OA). The double blind placebo-controlled trial , funded by the Dogs Trust , is led by Dr Jo Murrell and a team of animal health and welfare specialists in the Vet School.

About 1 in 2,500 babies born in the United States each year have Noonan syndrome (NS), a genetic disorder that results in severe heart defects, among other symptoms. A gene called PTPN11 causes the condition, for which there is no treatment. To identify a potential target for therapy, a team of Yale researchers studied mouse models of the disease.

ANN ARBOR'Women in India without bathrooms in their homes are more likely to face sexual violence, say University of Michigan researchers. According to a new study, women who use open defecation sites like open fields or the side of a railway track are twice as likely to get raped when compared with women using a home toilet.

Scientists set up the gas flux tower at the Barrow Environmental Observatory, 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle, as part of the Department of Energy's Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment (NGEE-Arctic), in the summer of 2013. (Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt/Berkeley Lab) Scientists collect permafrost cores from the tundra at the Barrow Environmental Observatory.

The size of a female animals' brain may determine whether they live longer and have more healthy offspring, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge. We found that some of the cross-species predictions about brain size held for female red deer, and that none of the predictions were supported in male red deer.

New Court of Session papers, missing for more than 200 years, have been unearthed by the Faculty of Advocates and Professor Gerard Carruthers, University of Glasgow. The newly found papers shine light on Thomas Muir and how he courted controversy in his early years, which may have contributed to his treatment by the justice system in later life.

To protect against attack, the body uses natural repair processes. What is involved in the spontaneous regeneration of the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibres' This is the question addressed by researchers in Unit 1195, 'Neuroprotective, Neuroregenerative and Remyelinating Small Molecules' (Inserm/Paris-Sud University).

Little is known about the role of the brain's immune system in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich and the Munich site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) have now found an early immune response in individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's: their brain's showed abnormal immune reactions as early as about seven years before the expected onset of dementia.

AUSTIN, Texas - If you've had a minor stroke or a transient ischemic stroke (TIA), taking the clot-preventing drug clopidogrel along with aspirin may lower your risk of having a major stroke within the next 90 days, according to new research published in The New England Journal of Medicine .

ANN ARBOR?Despite being on the market for nearly a decade, direct-to-consumer genetic testing continues to be controversial among experts and raises concerns among health care providers and regulatory agencies. A new NIH-funded "Impact of Personal Genomics (PGen) Study" addresses these concerns by empirically measuring the perceptions and tracking the behaviors of individuals who have received direct-to-consumer genetic testing from two separate companies.

Researchers at The University of Queensland's Queensland Brain Institute have found a link between Vitamin D'deficiency in pregnancy and increased autism traits. The study, led by QBI researcher Professor John McGrath and involving Dr Henning Tiemeier from the Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands, found that pregnant women with low Vitamin D'levels at 20 weeks' gestation were more likely to have a child with autistic traits by the age of six.

More and more patients are coming to GPs with obesity problems, and we want to give GPs the tools to assist their patients. General practitioners (GPs) can and should do more to tackle the obesity epidemic in Australia, a new study from The Australian National University (ANU) has found. Two in three Australians are overweight or obese but half of patients in obesity programs drop out before achieving any results.