News tagged with current


Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans

Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.


In touch with molecules

In touch with molecules

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

The performance of modern electronics increases steadily on a fast pace thanks to the ongoing miniaturization of the utilized components. However, se-vere problems arise due to quantum-mechanical phenomena ...


Study provides insights into the molecular basis of tumor cell behavior

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A new study by a team of researchers led by Crislyn D'Souza-Schorey, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, sheds light on the molecular basis by which tumor cells modulate their surroundings ...


Brain

Early scents really do get 'etched' in the brain

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study online on November 5th ...


baby

Babies' language learning starts from the womb

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press ...


New clues to the Falklands wolf mystery

New clues to the Falklands wolf mystery

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Ever since the Falklands wolf was described by Darwin himself, the origin of this now-extinct canid found only on the Falkland Islands far off the east coast of Argentina has remained a mystery. Now, researchers ...


Venomous bite: Harmless digestive enzyme evolved into venom in two species

Venomous bite: Harmless digestive enzyme evolved into venom in two species

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Biologists have shown that independent but similar molecular changes turned a harmless digestive enzyme into a toxin in two unrelated species -- a shrew and a lizard -- giving each a venomous ...


A chimpanzee

New evidence of culture in wild chimpanzees

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online on October 22nd in Current Biology shows that neighb ...


Researchers to study hidden lakes beneath West Antarctic ice sheet

Researchers to study hidden lakes beneath West Antarctic ice sheet

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- UC Santa Cruz researchers are among the leaders of a major Antarctic research project in which scientists will drill through a half-mile of ice to penetrate subglacial Lake Whillans and study ...


Evolutionary past may determine how we choose leaders

Study: Evolutionary past may determine how we choose leaders

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (11) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Why did Barack Obama win the US election and did the fact he is over six feet tall influence the voters? The authors of a paper published in Current Biology this month argue that due to 'a ...


Scientists bend nanowires into 2-D and 3-D structures

Scientists bend nanowires into 2-D and 3-D structures

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking nanomaterials to a new level of structural complexity, scientists have determined how to introduce kinks into arrow-straight nanowires, transforming them into zigzagging two- and three-dimensional ...


Social memory in Drosophila

Social memory in Drosophila

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Positive social interactions exist within Drosophila: when in a group, Drosophila flies have better memory than when they are isolated. Thomas Preat's team at the Laboratoire de Neurobiologie (CNRS, France) ...


Touch screen gamble: which technology to use

Technology / Hi Tech

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Prompted partly by the iPhone's phenomenal popularity, consumers are demanding and likely to get a wider range of touch screens on many more electronic devices.


Magnetic leaves reveal Bellingham's most polluted byways

Being a standout has its benefits, study shows

Biology / Evolution

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Standing out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status.


Dyslexia varies across language barriers

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Chinese-speaking children with dyslexia have a disorder that is distinctly different, and perhaps more complicated and severe, than that of English speakers. Those differences can be seen in the brain and in the performance ...