Walking News and Research

RSS

Unveiling the Mysterious Role of 'Zombie Neurons' in Cerebellar Learning

Nestled at the back of your head, the cerebellum is a brain structure that plays a pivotal role in how we learn, adapting our actions based on past experiences.

3 Apr 2024

Blood-Based Markers Unveil Secrets of Biological Aging

University of Pittsburgh researchers have uncovered blood-based markers linked with healthy and rapid aging, allowing them to predict a person's biological age -; how fast a person's cells and organs age regardless of their birthdate.

11 Mar 2024

The Intricate Network of Stick Insects’ Leg Muscles

Researchers at the University of Cologne have discovered new details on the process underlying the stick insect’s leg muscles’ rhythmic activation of nerve cells, or neurons. Unlike the neurons in the other leg muscles, the researchers demonstrated that the neurons in the leg depressor muscle are activated rhythmically.

12 Feb 2024

Uncovering the Neural Basis of Goal-Directed Navigation in Fruit Fly Brains

When we walk down the street, we have an internal sense of which way we are heading, from looking at street signals and physical landmarks, and also a sense of where we'd like to go.

9 Feb 2024

New Insight Into How Cancer Cells Function in Softer Tissue Environments

A collaborative research team from the University of Turku and Turku Bioscience Centre, in conjunction with Misvik Biology Ltd in Finland, has introduced a novel technique for investigating the behavior of cancer cells in both softer and stiffer tissue environments.

19 Oct 2023

Artificial Roosts for Bats May Be Harmful, Researchers Warn

Artificial roosts for bats come in many forms—bat boxes, condos, bark mimics, clay roosts, and cinder block structures, to name a few—but a new conservation practice and policy article from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests the structures haven't been studied rigorously enough and may harm bats in some scenarios.

1 Sep 2023

Researchers Gain Insights Into Brain's Voluntary Mechanisms

Picture this scenario: You and a friend are walking around your neighborhood when you stop at a crosswalk. As you wait, the noises of the world and your internal thoughts all vie for your attention. Suddenly, you see a motorist nearly hit a bicyclist.

24 Aug 2023

Dogs’ DNA Reveals Insights into Crime Scene Evidence

Often, canines are employed in tracking down criminals. However, forensic science scientists state they are also able to aid in offering important proof in police investigations—by being a resident or witness at the crime scene.

16 Aug 2023

Scientists Discover How Brain's "Population Clock" Guides Behavior

From Aristotle's musings on the nature of time to Einstein's theory of relativity, humanity has long pondered: how do we perceive and understand time? The theory of relativity posits that time can stretch and contract, a phenomenon known as time dilation. Just as the cosmos warps time, our neural circuits can stretch and compress our subjective experience of time. As Einstein famously quipped, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute".

14 Jul 2023

Identifying the Genetic Variant That Increases Disease Severity in MS

Research of over 22,000 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has for the first time discovered a genetic variant linked with speedier progression of the disease, a buildup of disability that can deprive patients of their mobility and independence over time.

29 Jun 2023

New Breakthrough of Genetic Marker Improves Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis

A study of more than 22,000 people with multiple sclerosis has discovered the first genetic variant associated with faster disease progression, which can rob patients of their mobility and independence over time.

29 Jun 2023

Rescue Treatment Found From Plant Extracts for People With Ataxia

A University of California, Irvine-led team of researchers have discovered that extracts from plants used by the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations peoples in their traditional botanical medicine practices are able to rescue the function of ion channel proteins carrying mutations that cause human Episodic Ataxia.

22 Jun 2023

Blacklegged Ticks Show Remarkable Resilience in Surviving Extreme Temperatures

Tick season is here, along with the increased danger of Lyme disease, and it turns out the tiny arachnids are even tougher than scientists previously thought.

2 Jun 2023

Identifying Drugs to Put the Brakes On Accelerated Aging From HIV Infection, Treatment

Antiretroviral cocktails can make human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, undetectable and untransmittable, but both the virus and its treatment can also accelerate aging of bone and muscle.

24 May 2023

The Efficiency of AI in Microbial Experiments

An artificial intelligence system facilitates robots to perform independent scientific experiments—as many as 10,000/day—possibly taking a big step ahead in the speed of discovery in fields from medicine to environmental science to agriculture.

5 May 2023

Unique region of the brain's cortex used when visually navigating an area by foot

Using vision to efficiently move through an area by foot uses a unique region of the brain's cortex, according to a small study funded by the National Eye Institute.

16 Mar 2023

Rice biologists embark on a three-year project to create genetically encoded antibiotics

Synthetic biologists at Rice University are embarking on a three-year project to create "genetically encoded antibiotics," strands of RNA that bacteria will readily copy and share that will selectively kill only disease-causing, pathogenic bacteria.

14 Mar 2023

An alternative option to treat ADCY5-related dyskinesia in patients

The asthma medication theophylline can be used to treat the movement disorder ADCY5-related dyskinesia. A recent study conducted by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), University Medicine Halle, and the University of Leipzig Medical Center demonstrated this.

7 Mar 2023

Exploring the benefits of urban sheep grazing

Bicycles whirr by, students rush to class, staff and faculty are grabbing lunch or coffee on the go -; and sheep graze the grassy knolls among the traffic, bleating every now and then. The grazing is their job.

22 Feb 2023

New ways to diagnose learning and memory disorders

By showing Welles's movie "Touch of Evil" to mice, Chinmay Purandare, PhD, and Prof. Mayank Mehta of UCLA have uncovered surprising and important new insights about how neurons form memories. The discovery points to new ways to diagnose Alzheimer's and other learning and memory impairments, while also improving artificial intelligence.

15 Feb 2023