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168,089 articles from ScienceDaily

What are the right food supplements during pregnancy? Study shows risky knowledge gaps

Mothers-to-be can cover increased demands for most nutrients, vitamins and minerals with a balanced diet, but where dietary supplements are needed during pregnancy, knowledge may be a missing ingredient. According to researchers in Germany, pregnant women often start taking appropriate dietary supplements too late or not at all. Other micronutrients, whose effects during pregnancy have not yet...

Mussel power: Universal solvent no match for new self-healing sticky gel

Scientists can now manufacture a synthetic version of the self-healing sticky substance that mussels use to anchor themselves to rocks in pounding ocean surf and surging tidal basins. Potential applications include use as an adhesive or coating for underwater machinery or in biomedical settings as a surgical adhesive or bonding agent for...

New African wolf discovered

Scientists studying genetic evidence have discovered a new species of wolf living in Africa. The researchers have proved that the mysterious animal, known as the 'Egyptian jackal' and often confused with the golden jackal, is not a sub-species of jackal but a gray wolf.

Adult skin cells converted directly to beating heart cells

Scientists have converted adult skin cells directly into beating heart cells efficiently without having to first go through the laborious process of generating embryonic-like stem cells. The powerful general technology platform could lead to new treatments for a range of diseases and injuries involving cell loss or damage, such as heart disease, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's...

Genetic clues to compulsive, self-injurious behavior in rare childhood disorder

Research provides new clues for the compulsive behavior and cognitive defects associated with a rare childhood neurological disease called Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). Two pathways found to be defective in LND are known to be associated with other neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's and Parknson's diseases, suggesting common causes of cognitive and behavioral defects in these neurological...

Analysis of bread mold genomes demos 'reverse-ecology' tool

In a demonstration of "reverse-ecology," biologists have shown that one can determine an organism's adaptive traits by looking first at its genome and checking for variations across a population. The study offers a powerful new tool in evolutionary genetics research, one that could be used to help monitor the effects of climate change and habitat...

Ants' ecosystem role is 'key'

Research on the impact of ants on their local environment has revealed they play an important role. They have a dual effect on their local ecosystem which affects both the density and diversity of other species around them, including animals much higher up the food chain.

Children's genetic potentials are subdued by poverty: Effects show by age 2

Children from poorer families do worse in school, are less likely to graduate from high school, and are less likely to go to college. A new study finds that these differences appear surprisingly early: by the age of 2. It's not a genetic difference. Instead, something about the poorer children's environment is keeping them from realizing their genetic...

Explosive- and drug-sniffing dog performance is affected by their handlers' beliefs

Drug- and explosives-sniffing dog/handler teams' performance is affected by human handlers' beliefs, possibly in response to subtle, unintentional handler cues, a new study has found. The study found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously "alerted," or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times -- particularly when the handler believed that there was scent...

Fewer bats carry rabies than thought

Bats are not as disease-ridden as the stigma suggests, according to new research. Previous studies have suggested that typically about 10 percent of bats taken by the public to be tested have rabies but new research says the number is closer to one per cent regardless of species or where the bats...

If junk DNA is useful, why is it not shared more equally?

Recently, it has become clear that "junk DNA" performs a wide range of tasks. But why do some organisms have so much of it and others so little? A particular puzzle is posed by introns, stretches of DNA that interrupt the sequence of genes. Researchers propose a mechanism to account for the range of intron numbers observed between different...

Newly discovered dinosaur likely father of Triceratops

Triceratops and Torosaurus have long been considered the kings of the horned dinosaurs. But a new discovery traces the giants' family tree further back in time, when a newly discovered species called Titanoceratops appears to have reigned long before its more well-known descendants, making it the earliest known member of its...

Pakistan floods last summer could have been predicted, experts say

Five days before intense monsoonal deluges unleashed vast floods across Pakistan last July, computer models at a European weather-forecasting center were giving clear indications that the downpours were imminent. Now, a new scientific study that retrospectively examines the raw data from these computer models, has confirmed that, if the information had been processed, forecasters could have...