Massages feel good, but do they actually speed muscle recovery? Turns out, they do. Scientists at the Wyss Institute and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences applied precise, repeated forces to injured mouse leg muscles and found that they recovered stronger and faster than untreated muscles, likely because the compression squeezed […]

The medication naloxone is so effective at saving the lives of opioid overdose victims that some people worry that it might make drug users think heroin and related drugs are no longer risky. But a new study suggests that is not the case. Increased access to naloxone didn’t lead Americans, even drug users, to think heroin was […]

A study of more than 1,000 mothers estranged from their adult children found that nearly 80% believed that an ex-husband or their son- or daughter-in-law had turned their children against them. A majority of moms also believed their child’s mental health or addiction issues played a role. While this study only looked at mothers’ views, […]

Findings suggest need for long-term studies of children born to mothers who experienced depression in pregnancy. What Episodes of maternal stress or depression during pregnancy are associated with chemical modifications to placental genes, according to a study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The modifications involve DNA methylation — binding of compounds known […]

After heading the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over 12 years under three US presidents, physician-geneticist Francis Collins has announced that he will leave by the end of the year. Collins is the longest serving presidentially appointed director of the NIH. ‘I am proud of all we’ve accomplished. I fundamentally believe, however, that no […]

Researchers in the UK have devised a process that uses electricity to remove radioactive contaminants from irradiated nuclear graphite. The process could reduce the volume of waste from nuclear power plants that requires expensive and long-term storage. Graphite is used to maintain the fission chain reaction in certain types of nuclear reactors. Over 300,000 tonnes […]

Chemicals increasingly used as flame retardants and plasticizers pose a larger risk to children’s brain development than previously thought, according to a commentary published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. The research team reviewed dozens of human, animal, and cell-based studies and concluded that exposure to even low levels of the chemicals—called organophosphate esters—may harm IQ, attention, and memory […]

Reservoir computing (RC) tackles complex problems by mimicking the way information is processed in animal brains. It relies on a randomly connected network that serves as a reservoir for information and ultimately leads to more efficient outputs. For realizing RC directly in matter (instead of simulating it in a digital computer), numerous reservoir materials have […]

Does your dog understand you? All dogs are smart but some are uniquely talented in learning words. According to a new study, just published in Royal Society Opens Science these gifted dogs can learn up to 12 new toy names in one week. Not only that, but they also can remember the new toy names for […]

A technology developed by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) shows great promise for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms arise, potentially changing the course of research and treatment for this condition, which affects millions of people worldwide and is estimated to be the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. “This is a […]