Posted on December 16 2011 by NewsBot
Your parents were right: Hard experiences may indeed make you tough. Psychological scientists have found that, while going through many experiences like assault, hurricanes, and bereavement can be psychologically damaging, small amounts of trauma may help people develop resilience.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
The following is a statement by NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins on the Institute of Medicine report addressing the scientific need for the use of chimpanzees in research.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
Uninformed individuals — as in those with no prior knowledge or strong feelings on a situation’s outcome — can actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus, according to new research. These individuals tend to side with and embolden the numerical majority and dilute the influence of powerful minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
Researchers are reporting what could become the first reliable method to predict whether an antidepressant will work on a depressed patient.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
You’re in search of a new coffee maker, and the simple quest becomes, well, an ordeal. After doing copious amounts of research and reading dozens of consumer reviews, you finally make a purchase, only to wonder: “Was this the right choice? Could I do better? What is the return policy?”
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to humans and share similar behavioral traits, the U.S. National Institutes of Health should allow their use as subjects in biomedical research only under stringent conditions, including the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
A new study finds declines in two kinds of youth Internet sexual encounters of great concern to parents: Unwanted sexual solicitations and unwanted exposure to pornography. The researchers suspect that greater public awareness may have been, in part, what has helped.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
The mold fungus Penicillium crustosum occurs relatively frequently in food and animal fodder stored in temperate conditions. This mold produces powerful neurotoxins, for example penitrem A, which causes symptoms that are difficult to distinguish from those of other neurological diseases. Penitrem A is capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier and new research has unveiled the mechanisms behind the neurological effects of the toxin.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
Short-term memory plays a crucial role in how our consciousness operates. Several years ago a hypothesis has been formulated, according to which capacity of short-term memory depends in a special way on two cycles of brain electric activity. Scientists have now demonstrated this experimentally for the first time.
Posted on December 15 2011 by NewsBot
A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer’s disease, based on the findings of a new study.