Medicine

Dream sleep takes sting out of painful memories
They say time heals all wounds, and new research from the University of California, Berkeley, indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help us overcome painful ordeals.

Physical activity impacts overall quality of sleep
People sleep significantly better and feel more alert during the day if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week, a new study concludes.

Female athletes with low iron levels face a competitive disadvantage
Female athletes with low levels of iron in their bodies, yet who are not anemic, may be at a disadvantage even before their competitive season starts, according to a new Cornell study. These athletes could benefit from early screening and monitoring for anemia and low iron reserves at the beginning of the training season, the authors found.

Nerve cells key to making sense of our senses
The human brain is bombarded with a cacophony of information from the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Now a team of scientists at the University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and Baylor College of Medicine has unraveled how the brain manages to process those complex, rapidly changing, and often conflicting sensory signals to make sense of our world.

Creative excuses: Original thinkers more likely to cheat
Creative people are more likely to cheat than less creative people, possibly because this talent increases their ability to rationalize their actions, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Mid-morning snacking may sabotage weight-loss efforts
Women dieters who grab a snack between breakfast and lunch lose less weight compared to those who abstain from a mid-morning snack, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Is the end of polio truly in sight?
Declaring the eradication of polio will be far more difficult than it was for smallpox, according to a review published in the Journal of General Virology. Further research into the complex virus - host interactions and how the vaccine is used in the final stages of the eradication programme is crucial to its success.

Scientists discover how brain corrects bumps to body
Researchers have identified the area of the brain that controls our ability to correct our movement after we've been hit or bumped- a finding that may have implications for understanding why subjects with stroke often have severe difficulties moving.

How to stop the flu
Between 1918 and 1920, an influenza epidemic swept across the globe, infecting more than a quarter of the world's population and killing 50 to 100 million people.

Even unconsciously, sound helps us see
"Imagine you are playing ping-pong with a friend. Your friend makes a serve. Information about where and when the ball hit the table is provided by both vision and hearing. Scientists have believed that each of the senses produces an estimate relevant for the task (in this example, about the location or time of the ball's impact) and then these votes get combined subconsciously according to rules that take into account which sense is more reliable. And this is how the senses interact in how we perceive the world.

Why aren't we smarter already? Evolutionary limits on cognition
We put a lot of energy into improving our memory, intelligence, and attention. There are even drugs that make us sharper, such as Ritalin and caffeine. But maybe smarter isn't really all that better. A new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, warns that there are limits on how smart humans can get, and any increases in thinking ability are likely to come with problems.

Tireless research reveals secrets of the 'sleep hormone'
A team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University has made a major breakthrough by unraveling the inner workings of melatonin, also known as the "sleep hormone."

In third-degree burn treatment, hydrogel helps grow new, scar-free skin
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue.

Research examines extending organ life for transplants
While waiting for an organ donation, time is critical. Most organs must be transplanted within a very small timeframe - 24 hours or less - and are kept on ice to ensure they survive. A Rutgers-Camden undergraduate student is researching ways to buy even more time.

Humans unequipped for high-salt diet, food scientist contends
Humans are physiologically unprepared for the amount of sodium found in manufactured foods in the modern food supply, contributing to the diet-related diseases observed today.

Satellite images of nighttime lights help track disease outbreaks
Satellite images of nighttime lights, which normally are used to detect population centers, also can help keep tabs on diseases in developing nations, according to new research. An international research team that includes Matthew Ferrari, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, found that the new technique accurately indicates fluctuations in population density -- and thus the corresponding risk of epidemic -- that can elude current methods of monitoring outbreaks.

Artificially enhanced sthletes
Superstar swimmers and certain comic book superheroes have something unusual in common--when they wear special suits, they gain phenomenal abilities. A first-of-its-kind study from Northwestern Medicine highlights how now-banned technical swimsuits artificially enhanced athlete performance in 2009.

Proteins linked to longevity may be involved in mood control
Over the past decade, MIT biologist Leonard Guarente and others have shown that very-low-calorie diets provoke a comprehensive physiological response that promotes survival, all orchestrated by a set of proteins called sirtuins.

Vision scientists demonstrate innovative learning method
New research published in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It's the kind of thing seen in Hollywood's "Matrix" franchise.

Was Darwin wrong about emotions?
Contrary to what many psychological scientists think, people do not all have the same set of biologically "basic" emotions, and those emotions are not automatically expressed on the faces of those around us, according to the author of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. This means a recent move to train security workers to recognize "basic" emotions from expressions might be misguided.