Nature Communications

Brain may 'see' more than the eyes, study indicates

(Medical Xpress)—Vision may be less important to "seeing" than is the brain's ability to process points of light into complex images, according to a new study of the fruit fly visual system currently published ...

Neuroscience created Nov 01, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

The real culprit behind hardened arteries? Stem cells, says landmark study

One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down ...

Medical research created Jun 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Smell the potassium: Surprising find in study of sex- and aggression-triggering vomeronasal organ

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is one of evolution's most direct enforcers. From its niche within the nose in most land-based vertebrates, it detects pheromones and triggers corresponding basic-instinct behaviors, ...

Neuroscience created Jul 29, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Researchers show possible trigger for MS nerve damage

High-resolution real-time images show in mice how nerves may be damaged during the earliest stages of multiple sclerosis. The results suggest that the critical step happens when fibrinogen, a blood-clotting ...

Medical research created Nov 27, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Is this peptide a key to happiness?

(Medical Xpress)—What makes us happy? Family? Money? Love? How about a peptide? The neurochemical changes underlying human emotions and social behavior are largely unknown. Now though, for the first time in humans, scientists ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Mar 07, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds vitamin C can kill drug-resistant TB (w/ video)

In a striking, unexpected discovery, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria in laboratory culture. The finding ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created May 21, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers prevent heart failure in mice

(Medical Xpress)—Cardiac stress, for example a heart attack or high blood pressure, frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role ...

Cardiology created Sep 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers identify unexpected bottleneck in the spread of herpes simplex virus

New research suggests that just one or two individual herpes virus particles attack a skin cell in the first stage of an outbreak, resulting in a bottleneck in which the infection may be vulnerable to medical ...

Medical research created Nov 05, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New study uncovers brain's code for pronouncing vowels

(Medical Xpress) -- Scientists have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech. The discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of ...

Neuroscience created Aug 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study identifies adhesion molecules key to cancer's spread through the body

Although tumor metastasis causes about 90 percent of cancer deaths, the exact mechanism that allows cancer cells to spread from one part of the body to another is not well understood. One key question is ...

Cancer created Oct 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Japan researchers say kidney tissue grown from stem cells (Update)

Researchers in Japan said Wednesday they have succeeded in growing human kidney tissue from stem cells for the first time, in a potential first step towards helping millions who depend on dialysis.

Medical research created Jan 23, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Synthetic circuit allows dialing gene expression up or down in human cells

Scientists who built a synthetic gene circuit that allowed for the precise tuning of a gene's expression in yeast have now refined this new research tool to work in human cells, according to research published online in Nature Co ...

Genetics created Feb 12, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New drug for bipolar disorder may offer fewer side effects

(Medical Xpress)—A drug for bipolar disorder that works like lithium, the most common and effective treatment for the condition, but without lithium's toxicity and problem side-effects has been identified ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 09, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Stem cells can be harvested long after death: study

Some stem cells can lay dormant for more than two weeks in a dead person and then be revived to divide into new, functioning cells, scientists in France said Tuesday.

Medical research created Jun 12, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 3

Eat too much? Maybe it's in the blood

Bone marrow cells that produce brain-derived eurotrophic factor (BDNF), known to affect regulation of food intake, travel to part of the hypothalamus in the brain where they "fine-tune" appetite, said researchers from Baylor ...

Medical research created Feb 26, 2013 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast