ScienceDaily: All – November 10, 2023

Today’s top research news

NOV 11

READ IN APP

Any activity is better for your heart than sitting — even sleeping

Replacing sitting with as little as a few minutes of moderate exercise a day tangibly improves heart health, according to new research.

sdecoret/shutterstock.com

Allergic responses to common foods could significantly increase risk of heart disease, cardiovascular death

Allergic responses to common foods such as dairy and peanuts can increase the risk for heart disease and cardiovascular death as much or more than smoking, new research suggests. And these dangerous allergic responses can strike both people with food allergies and those with no obvious allergy symptoms.

Left-handers aren’t better spatially, gaming research shows

By asking participants to download and play a video game that captured user information and tracked navigational challenges, researchers were able to measure demographic data — including hand preference — and activity from more than 420,000 international participants, across 41 different countries. They found that left-handers were neither better nor worse than right-handers at the tasks, clarifying a long-running debate about the links between handedness and spatial skills.

Human brain takes stock of blame

Researchers have found that the human brain can distinguish between an outcome caused by human error and one in which the person’s decision-making is blameless. The brain takes just one second to separate the outcomes, and in cases involving human error, extra time to catalog the mistake.

Scientists find 14 new transient objects in space by peering through the ‘Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster’

 

Poison dart frogs: Personality determines reproductive strategies

Unlike their relatives, individuals of the poison frog Allobates femoralis are not poisonous but are captivating due to their different behavioral profiles: They successfully reproduce with different strategies depending on whether they are bold, aggressive or explorative. In addition, certain character traits are already present in this species at the tadpole stage.

First live birth of a chimeric monkey using embryonic stem cell lines

A team of researchers has reported for the first time the live birth of a monkey that contains a high proportion of cells derived from a monkey stem cell line. This ‘chimeric’ monkey is composed of cells that originate from two genetically distinct embryos of the same species of monkey. This has previously been demonstrated in rats and mice but, until now, has not been possible in other species, including non-human primates.

Lightning identified as the leading cause of wildfires in boreal forests, threatening carbon storage

Most wildfires in boreal forests, such as those in Canada, are caused by lightning strikes, according to a study aimed at attributing fire ignition sources globally.

Greenland’s glacier retreat rate has doubled over past two decades

A new study documents how Greenland’s peripheral glaciers have changed from 1890 to 2022. Using satellite images and a unique archive of historical aerial photos, researchers documented changes in the lengths of more than 1,000 of the country’s glaciers over the past 130 years. Although glaciers in Greenland have experienced retreat throughout the last century, the rate of their retreat has rapidly accelerated over the last two decades.

Zooplankton in ocean and freshwater are rapidly escalating the global environmental threat of plastics

A collaborative research team has recently revealed that rotifers, a kind of microscopic zooplankton common in both fresh and ocean water around the world, are able to chew apart microplastics, breaking them down into even smaller, and potentially more dangerous, nanoplastics — or particles smaller than one micron. Each rotifer can create between 348,000 — 366,000 per day, leading to uncountable swarms of nanoparticles in our environment.

Social-behavioral findings can be highly replicable, six-year study by four labs suggests

Roughly two decades ago, a community-wide reckoning emerged concerning the credibility of published literature in the social-behavioral sciences, especially psychology. Several large scale studies attempted to reproduce previously published findings to no avail or to a much lesser magnitude, sending the credibility of the findings — and future studies in social-behavioral sciences — into question.

187 new genetic variants linked to prostate cancer found in largest, most diverse study of its kind

A globe-spanning scientific team has compiled the most comprehensive list of genetic variants associated with prostate cancer risk — 451 in all — through a whole-genome analysis that ranks as the largest and most diverse investigation into prostate cancer genetics yet. The research explored the genomes of nearly 950,000 men, including major increases in representation among men from racial and ethnic groups that have often been left out of such research.

Artificial bladders shine light on bugs that cause urinary tract infections

A new study reveals that numerous bacterial strains are capable of hiding in the human bladder wall, suggesting why urinary tract infections often persist after treatment.

Increasing workplace flexibility associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease

Increasing workplace flexibility may lower employees’ risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. In workplaces that implemented interventions designed to reduce conflict between employees’ work and their personal/family lives, researchers observed that employees at higher baseline cardiometabolic risk, particularly older employees, experienced a reduction in their risk for cardiovascular disease equivalent to between five and 10 years of age-related cardiometabolic changes.

Scientists tame biological trigger of deadly Huntington’s disease

Huntington’s disease causes involuntary movements and dementia, has no cure, and is fatal. Scientists have now shown they can slow its progression in flies and worms, opening the door to human treatments.

© 2023 ScienceDaily
1 Research Court, Suite 450, Rockville, MD 20850
Unsubscribe