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What is carnitine?
Date: Sep-08-2013Carnitine is a substance found in almost every cell in the body, it is biosynthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine. The compound plays a crucial role in energy production, as it is responsible for transporting fatty acids to the mitochondria. Mitochondria exist inside every cell in our bodies. They are responsible for producing the energy that cells need to function. Mitochondria are like tiny power stations...
What is aloe vera?
Date: Sep-08-2013Aloe vera, sometimes described as a "wonder plant", is a short-stemmed shrub that only occurs in cultivation - it cannot be found in the wild. Some related Aloes occur naturally in North Africa. An Aloe is a genus containing more than 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The Aloe vera leaves are succulent, erect and form a dense rosette. Many uses are made from the gel obtained from the plant's leaves Aloe vera has been the subject of scientific study for the last few years, along with other members of the Aloe genus regarding several claimed therapeutic properties...
'Virtual hand' could help treat anxiety and body image disorders
Date: Sep-08-2013Neuroscientists in the UK have discovered that a virtual-reality hand, which is synchronized to "pulse" in time to an individual's heartbeat, creates the illusion in the brain of "body ownership" - with the brain believing the hand is part of its own body. The researchers, from the University of Sussex in England, say the findings may lead to new clinical developments in anxiety and body image disorders. The study was published in the journal Neuropsychologia. Dr. Keisuke Suzuki and Prof...
Birds choose sweet-smelling mates
Date: Sep-08-2013For most animals, scent is the instant messenger of choice for quickly exchanging personal profiles. Scientists, however, have long dismissed birds as odor-eschewing Luddites that don't take advantage of scent-based communications. In a first-of-its-kind study, however, a Michigan State University researcher has demonstrated that birds do indeed communicate via scents, and that odor reliably predicts their reproductive success. The study appears in the current issue of Animal Behaviour and focuses on volatile compounds in avian preen secretions...
Facebook use by organizations during crises helps public image, MU study finds
Date: Sep-08-2013Social networking sites have become incredibly popular in recent years, with Facebook now ranking as the third most popular website in the U.S. With so many people spending so much time on Facebook, public relations professionals are using the site more and more to communicate to the public. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that posting public relations information on Facebook during a time of crisis can improve the overall image of the organization that is experiencing the crisis...
Bismuth-carrying nanotubes show promise for CT scans
Date: Sep-08-2013Scientists at Rice University have trapped bismuth in a nanotube cage to tag stem cells for X-ray tracking. Bismuth is probably best known as the active element in a popular stomach-settling elixir and is also used in cosmetics and medical applications. Rice chemist Lon Wilson and his colleagues are inserting bismuth compounds into single-walled carbon nanotubes to make a more effective contrast agent for computed tomography (CT) scanners. Details of the work by Wilson's Rice team and collaborators at the University of Houston, St...
The next era in discovering drugs in nature's own medicine cabinet
Date: Sep-08-2013New technology for discovering antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs and other medicines inside soil microbes and other natural sources is reviving a treasure hunt that already has given humanity more than 50 percent of today's prescription drugs. This new era in "bioprospecting" is the topic of the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. Lisa M. Jarvis, C&EN senior editor, points out that natural products are the source of about half of the modern drugs approved in the U.S...
Ability to delay gratification may be linked to social trust, new CU-Boulder study finds
Date: Sep-08-2013A person's ability to delay gratification - forgoing a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future - may depend on how trustworthy the person perceives the reward-giver to be, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. A body of research that stretches back more than a half-century has shown that the ability to delay gratification is linked to a number of better life outcomes. On average, people who were able to delay gratification as children go on to have higher SAT scores, for example...
The difference between obsession and delusion - zoological method to classify symptoms of OCD and schizophrenia in humans
Date: Sep-08-2013Because animals can't talk, researchers need to study their behavior patterns to make sense of their activities. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are using these zoological methods to study people with serious mental disorders. Prof. David Eilam of TAU's Zoology Department at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences recorded patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and "schizo-OCD" - which combines symptoms of schizophrenia and OCD - as they performed basic tasks...
Children benefit from positive peer influence in afterschool programs
Date: Sep-08-2013Children in afterschool programs who have a sense of connectedness with their peers are less likely to report emotional problems, according to Penn State researchers. Children exhibited fewer behavior problems if they perceived their peers were willing to encourage them to behave well. "Encouraging your friends to do something positive or to not misbehave may start from selfishness because you want your group to earn a certain activity or privilege, but it turns into working together as a team," said Emilie Phillips Smith, professor of human development and family studies...
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