Understanding how the human brain produces complex thought is daunting given its intricacy and scale. The brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons that coordinate activity through 100 trillion connections, and those connections are organized into networks that are often similar from one person to the next. A Dartmouth study has found a new way to […]

Use of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT, also known as hormone replacement therapy, HRT) is not associated with an increased risk of developing dementia, regardless of hormone type, dose, or duration, concludes a large UK study published by The BMJ today. Within the subgroup of women with a specific diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease, a slight increasing risk association […]

New study finds significant benefits for both dyslexic and non-dyslexic children A new study has found that a child’s reading speed can be improved by simply increasing the space between letters within a piece of text. The research, led by Dr Steven Stagg of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), examined the benefits of letter spacing and […]

Specific genes increase the risk of developing depression, according to a new study led by UCL researchers, which also shows that the genes associated with depression vary depending on ancestry group. The research, published in JAMA Psychiatry, is the largest study into the genetic risks of depression conducted in non-European populations. Using data from East Asian […]

When people stop taking antidepressants after a long period of use, just over half (56%) experience a relapse within a year, compared to 39% of those who stay on medication, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers say their findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, can help doctors and patients […]

Describing a previously unknown genetic condition that affects children, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine say they also found a potential method to prevent the gene mutation by administering a drug during pregnancy. The findings publish in the September 30, 2021 issue of The New […]

The UK government plans to ease restrictions on gene-editing with a view to accelerating research and enabling gene-edited crops and animals to be brought to market. Current regulations, inherited from the EU, class all gene-edited products as genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). This means that minor edits like gene deletions or single base-pair substitutions made to an […]

Geologists have been baffled by perforations in an Australian quartzite (rock), identical in shape to burrows made in sands by crustaceans; the original sandy sediment is a billion years older than the oldest known animals. An international team of scientists has now resolved the mystery. When animals move, they leave traces, such as dinosaur footprints […]

As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, new variants are expected to arise that may have an increased ability to infect their hosts and evade the hosts’ immune systems. The first key step in infection is when the virus’ spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor on human cells. Researchers at Penn State have created a novel […]

Earlier this month, President Biden urged other countries to join the U.S. and European Union in a commitment to slashing methane emissions. Two new Stanford-led studies could help pave the way by laying out a blueprint for coordinating research on methane removal technologies, and modeling how the approach could have an outsized effect on reducing […]