Bacteria Use Radioactive Uranium To Convert Water Molecules To Useable Energy:
Researchers report in this week's Science a self-sustaining community of bacteria that live in rocks 2.8 kilometers below Earth's surface. Think that's weird? The bacteria rely on radioactive uranium to convert water molecules to useable energy.
The Neurobiology Behind Why Eating Feels So Good:
The need to eat is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in the gut and triggers the brain to promote eating, but it remains to be determined precisely how ghrelin affects different parts of the brain. A new study shows that in mice and rats, ghrelin triggers the same neurons as delicious food, sexual experience, and many recreational drugs; that is, neurons that provide the sensation of pleasure and the expectation of reward.
Pleasure And Pain: Study Shows Brain's 'Pleasure Chemical' Is Involved In Response To Pain Too:
For years, the brain chemical dopamine has been thought of as the brain's "pleasure chemical," and studies have linked the addictive properties of drugs like cocaine to their effects on the dopamine system. But now, a new study adds a new twist to dopamine's fun-loving reputation: pain.
Childcare Tug-of-war Influences Shorebird Breeding Systems:
The battle over who cares for the kids has played a key evolutionary role in deciding whether different species of shorebird are monogamous or polygamous, according to new research in the journal BioScience.
Stress Fast Tracks Puberty, Researchers Say:
Stress, such as that brought on by parental separation and absentee fathers, fast tracks puberty, say researchers in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Popular Anti-aging Supplement Has No Beneficial Effects, Mayo Clinic Study Finds:
A widely used anti-aging supplement has no effect on aging markers such as muscle strength, peak endurance, muscle mass, fat mass and glucose tolerance in elderly men and women, according to Mayo Clinic researchers. The findings from their two-year study appear in the Oct. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Color Names: More Universal Than You Might Think:
From Abidji to English to Zapoteco, the perception and naming of color is remarkably consistent in the world's languages. Across cultures, people tend to classify hundreds of different chromatic colors into eight distinct categories: red, green, yellow-or-orange, blue, purple, brown, pink and grue (green-or-blue), say researchers in this week's online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Brain Changes In Patients With Migraine:
Researchers from Harvard Medical School have found increased thickness of two areas of the brain cortex in people with migraine when compared to healthy controls.
West Australian Fossil Find Rewrites Land Mammal Evolution:
A fossil fish discovered in the West Australian Kimberley has been identified as the missing clue in vertebrate evolution, rewriting a century-old theory on how the first land animals evolved.
Earliest Fungi May Have Found Multiple Solutions To Propagation On Land:
In the latest installment of a major international effort to probe the origins of species, a team of scientists has reconstructed the early evolution of fungi, the biological kingdom now believed to be animals' closest relatives.
Temperament Linked To Onset Of Cancer And Early Death In Female Rats:
Female rats that are apprehensive of new experiences as infants maintain that temperament and die earlier from mammary and pituitary tumors than do their more adventuresome sisters, according to new research by a team based at the University of Chicago. The apprehensive rats were more likely to have irregular reproductive cycles than adventuresome rats, and that disruption could account for hormonal differences linked to the development of cancer earlier, the scholars found.
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