news 2017

For adults 60 and older, moderate daily walks improve attention and mental skills, UCLA study finds Leigh Hopper Walking more than 4,000 steps a day can improve attention and mental skills in adults 60 and older, according to UCLA research published December 12 in a preprint edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

An answer to a quantum-physical question provided by the algorithm Melvin has uncovered a hidden link between quantum experiments and the mathematical field of Graph Theory. Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna found the deep connection between experimental quantum physics and this mathematical theory in the study of Melvin's unusual solutions, which lies beyond human intuition.

The rate of deaths during childbirth more than halved between 1993 and 2015 - representing a reduction of around 220 intrapartum (during labour) deaths per year - according to a report by a team of academics including Professor Sara Kenyon at the University of Birmingham. The report represents the findings of a team of academics, clinicians and charity representatives, called MBRRACE-UK, following their third perinatal confidential enquiry into deaths in childbirth.

Study into catastrophic population decline for flying insects is UK's most discussed scientific paper of 2017 A research project involving the University of Sussex detailing the catastrophic loss of insect populations on nature reserves has been named the most discussed journal article in the UK in 2017.

Researchers at the UCLouvain have made a major new discovery in the research on bacteria. Jean-François Collet, professor at UCL's de Duve Institute, and his team have shown that when you change the structure of a bacterium, you decrease its ability to detect environmental stress and to activate stress responses against antibiotics.

Introduction: Effects of warming over 50 years were even reduced compared to changes in the first decade. How stable are ecosystems under climate change? This question gets ever increasing scientific attention. And while they are not as visible as plant and animal communities, soil microbial communities are quintessential to look at in this context.

A remarkable discovery was made at TU Wien recently, when particles known as 'Weyl fermions' were discovered in materials with strong interaction between electrons. Just like light particles, they have no mass but nonetheless they move extremely slowly. There was great excitement back in 2015, when it was first possible to measure these 'Weyl fermions' - outlandish, massless particles that had been predicted almost 90 years earlier by German mathematician, physician and philosopher, Hermann Weyl.

New research has drawn a link between changes in the brain's anatomy and biomarkers that are known to appear at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), findings that could one day provide a sensitive but non-invasive test for AD before cognitive symptoms appear. Scientists have known for some time that one of the first signs of AD is buildup of amyloid-Beta and tau proteins in the brain.

Day after day in early 2011, massive crowds gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, calling for the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Away from the square, the protests had another effect, as a study co-authored by an MIT professor shows. The demonstrations lowered the stock market valuations of politically connected firms - and showed how much people thought a full democratic revolution was possible.

Researchers have new insights into how protective antibodies attack dengue viruses, which could lead to more effective dengue fever vaccines and drug therapies. The University of Queensland and China's ZhuJiang Hospital collaboratively led the study which identified an antibody that binds to, and kills, all four types of dengue virus.

Surgical robots, Wi-Fi security flaws, and everything you always wanted to know about Tinder but were afraid to ask: here are the 10 most-read science stories of 2017! Surgical robots, Wi-Fi security flaws, and everything you always wanted to know about Tinder but were afraid to ask: here are the 10 most-read science stories of 2017! 1.

Surgical robots, Wi-Fi security flaws, and everything you always wanted to know about Tinder but were afraid to ask: here are the 10 most-read science stories of 2017! 1. World first: surgical robot performs precision-injection in patient with retinal vein occlusion Eye surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have been the first to use a surgical robotto operate on a patient with retinal vein occlusion.

Caltech researchers discover that neurons within the posterior parietal cortex gather information about our memories to help us make memory-based decisions. It's a bit frustrating and a bit embarrassing: when a person looks so familiar, but their name hovers just out of mental reach, on the tip of your tongue.

EPFL researchers have created nanoparticles that attract viruses and, using the pressure resulting from the binding process, destroy them. This revolutionary approach could lead to the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. HIV, dengue, papillomavirus, herpes and Ebola - these are just some of the many viruses that kill millions of people every year, mostly children in developing countries.

A new study of TV-watching great tits reveals how they learn through observation. Social interactions within a predator species can have "evolutionary consequences" for potential prey - such as the conspicuous warning colours of insects like ladybirds. We suspect our findings apply over a wide range of predators and prey.

When a cancer patient receives a bone marrow transplant, time is of the essence. Healthy stem cells, which can restart the production of blood cells and immune system components after a patient's own are compromised, need to make their way from the circulatory system into the bones as quickly as possible.

Geoscience Professor John Valley, left, and research scientist Kouki Kitajima collaborate in the Wisconsin Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer Lab (WiscSIMS) in Weeks Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller Researchers at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have confirmed that microscopic fossils discovered in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old piece of rock in Western Australia are the oldest fossils ever found and indeed the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth.

A new analysis of the oldest known fossil microorganisms provides strong evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in the universe is common. The microorganisms, from Western Australia, are 3.465 billion years old.

Dementia with Lewy bodies has a unique genetic profile, distinct from those of Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, according to the first large-scale genetic study of this common type of dementia which was led by UCL. The genome-wide association study, conducted by a UCL-led collaboration of 65 academics in 11 countries and funded by Alzheimer's Society and the Lewy Body Society, is published today in The Lancet Neurology .

When scientists recorded a rippling in space-time, followed within two seconds by an associated burst of light observed by dozens of telescopes around the globe, they had witnessed, for the first time, the explosive collision and merger of two neutron stars. The intense cosmological event observed on Aug.