Southern California cougars often make the news with their litters of oh-so-cute kittens, but a UCLA-led study suggests that these mountain lions may soon find it much harder to reproduce due to a lack of genetic diversity. Scientists tracking two local mountain lion populations, one in the Santa Monica Mountains and another in the Santa […]

Women receiving one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during a single menstrual cycle had an increase in cycle length of nearly one day, compared to unvaccinated women, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The increase in cycle length—a longer time between bleeding—was not associated with any change in the number […]

Our gut microbiome helps us out every day by processing the fiber we can’t digest. The bacteria ferment the fiber into key chemicals known as short-chain fatty acids, or SCFAs, that are essential for human health. SCFAs fight inflammation, help kill dangerous bacteria, protect the lining of the gut, and can even help prevent cancer. […]

While balance training may not necessarily sound fun to most adolescents, video games typically do. And for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, video games that improve their balance by teaching them yoga and tai chi poses also improves their posture, reduces the severity of their autism symptoms and influences the structure of their brains. Those […]

While childhood obesity is a growing problem in the U.S., a parenting intervention proven to help first-time parents prevent childhood obesity is helping second-born children as well, even without further training for the parents. The work was recently published in the journal, Obesity. According to Jennifer Savage Williams, associate professor of nutritional studies and director of […]

Over the past several years, research from University of California San Diego biologist Gürol Süel’s laboratory has uncovered a series of remarkable features exhibited by clusters of bacteria that live together in communities known as biofilms. Biofilms are prevalent in the living world, inhabiting sewer pipes, kitchen counters and even the surface of our teeth. […]

An Oregon State University research team and collaborators have developed an automated method that can accurately identify calls from a family of fishes. The method takes advantage of data collected by underwater microphones known as hydrophones and provides an efficient and inexpensive way to understand changes in the marine environment due to climate change and […]

Regular smokers are at heightened risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but crushing the butts in favor of a “smokeless” alternative like chewing tobacco, snuff or tobacco lozenges may go a long way toward bringing the danger down to a more normal level, a new UCLA-led study shows. The findings also indicate that the primary culprit in […]

Not too long ago the idea of taking, say a skin cell, and transforming it into a muscle cell was unthinkable. About 10 years ago, however, revolutionary research showed that it is indeed possible to reprogram differentiated adult cells into other types fully capable of conducting new functions. Cell reprogramming is a main interest of […]

Deep learning is often recognized as the magic behind self-driving cars and facial recognition, but what about its ability to safeguard the quality of the materials that make up these advanced devices? Carnegie Mellon University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Elizabeth Holm and materials science and engineering doctoral student Bo Lei have adopted computer vision methods […]