NewScITech

Mice whose brains had atrophied like those of Alzheimer’s disease patients regained long-term memories and the ability to learn after living in an enriched environment, researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report in the April 29 advance online edition of Nature. The same results also were achieved with a new experimental class of drugs. Read the rest of this entry »

Oxford scientists have for the first time revealed a link between a gene and the activity of human stem cells, giving hope that stem cell transplant success for blood cancer patients may be significantly improved. Read the rest of this entry »

Bugs in the gut are known as gut microbes and they live symbiotically in human and animal bodies, playing an important role in metabolism. Abnormalities in some types of gut microbes have recently been linked to diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Read the rest of this entry »

When the body’s own immune system begins to assault the cells in the pancreas responsible for producing insulin, the result is type 1 diabetes. Now, researchers studying the immune system’s dendritic cells in mice have found a way to stop the destruction and help revive and maintain the population of insulin-producing β cells, a discovery that could lead to a lasting cure. Read the rest of this entry »

Pregnant women who gain excessive or even appropriate weight, according to current guidelines, are four times more likely than women who gain inadequate weight to have a baby who becomes overweight in early childhood. These findings are from a new study at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and are published in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Read the rest of this entry »

Giving up smoking can reduce the risk of dying from lung cancer by up to 70%, new research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology this week shows. Read the rest of this entry »

With spring on the way, Harvard researchers advise men to get more sun, supplements, and seafood. All are good sources of vitamin D, and a large, lengthy study suggests the vitamin reduces risk of prostate cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Read the rest of this entry »

The remains of an ancient HIV-like virus have been found in rabbits. Scientists at Oxford University discovered the unique lentivirus, part of a family of viruses closely related to HIV, ‘fossilised’ inside the genome of the European rabbit. The discovery, reported this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, promises to change how scientists think about the evolution of viruses including HIV. Read the rest of this entry »

With the help of a new type of suture based on MIT research, patients who get stitches may never need to have them removed. Read the rest of this entry »

Women who undergo breast enlargement often see a sizable boost in self-esteem and positive feelings about their sexuality, a University of Florida nurse researcher reports. Read the rest of this entry »

Quick response! What’s the best thing to do on a lifeboat with one too many people on board? Should one throw a mortally injured person overboard to ensure definite survival for everyone else, or refuse to act and ensure certain death for all individuals in the boat? Read the rest of this entry »

At age 32, Maggie Fermental suffered a stroke that left her right side paralyzed. After a year and a half of conventional therapy with minimal results, she tried a new kind of robotic therapy developed by MIT engineers. A study to appear in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation shows that the device, which helped Fermental, also had positive results for five other severe stroke patients in a pilot clinical trial. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, MIT and Harvard researchers have discovered the final piece of the synthesis pathway of vitamin B12–the only vitamin synthesized exclusively by microorganisms. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone knows children are getting fatter and that both a poor diet and a lack of exercise are to blame. But, what researchers have been unable to discover until now, is exactly how major a role activity plays in the battle to keep obesity at bay. Read the rest of this entry »