Age in Biological News

Identification of genetic variants affecting age at menopause could help improve fertility treatment

Vienna, Austria: For the first time, scientists have been able to identify genetic factors that influence the age at which natural menopause occurs in women. Ms Lisette Stolk, a researcher from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, told the annual conference of the European Society of Human ...

Study finds genetic links to age of first menstrual period and menopause

Boston, MA -- Newly identified gene variants associated with the age at which females experience their first menstrual period and the onset of menopause may help shed light on the prevention of breast and endometrial cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. In a new study, researchers ...

Are Ice Age relics the next casualty of climate change?

NEW YORK (April 24, 2008) The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently launched a four-year study to determine if climate change is affecting populations of a quintessential Arctic denizen: the rare musk ox. Along with collaborators from the National Park Service, U. S. Geological Survey, a...

Breast cancers behave differently before and after the age of 70

Berlin, Germany: Researchers in Belgium have discovered that increasing age affects the way breast cancer behaves. As women approach the age of 70, they become less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive tumours that have spread to the lymph nodes. But after 70, the cancer is increasingly likely t...

Researcher provides tool to enable determination of age of anchovies with greater precision

This release is available in Spanish . Biologist Pablo Cermeo Villanueva defended his PhD thesis at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), providing a tool to determine the age of anchovies with greater accuracy on a monthly or even weekly basis, thus enabling studies of the earlie...

Ice age imprint found on cod DNA

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated how Atlantic cod responded to past natural climate extremes. The new research could help in determining cods vulnerability to future global warming. With fishing pressures high and stock size low, there...

Brain cell growth diminishes long before old age strikes, animal study shows

Even early in adulthood, aging begins to slow the mind's growth -- but it does not have to stop it altogether, suggests a Princeton University study on the brains of adult monkeys. A team of neuroscientists has found that soon after marmoset monkeys reach adulthood, the rate at which new neura...

Research team says extraterrestrial impact to blame for Ice Age extinctions

What caused the extinction of mammoths and the decline of Stone Age people about 13,000 years ago remains hotly debated. Overhunting by Paleoindians, climate change and disease lead the list of probable causes. But an idea once considered a little out there is now hitting closer to home. A tea...

University of Leicester geologists demonstrate extent of ancient ice age

Geologists at the University of Leicester have shown that an ancient Ice Age, once regarded as a brief 'blip', in fact lasted for 30 million years. They have published their findings and are due to discuss them at a public lecture at the University on Wednesday June 17. Their research sugges...

Studies offer guide as protein interaction mapping comes of age

BOSTON--During the past 20 years, researchers have identified thousands of cell protein interactions, with the ultimate goal of inventorying all that occur within cells of various organisms a comprehensive catalogue known as the interactome. Such information will be critical to understanding the ...

Computation and genomics data drive bacterial research into new golden age

A potent combination of powerful new analysis methods and abundant data from genomics projects is carrying microbiology forward into a new era. Bacteria in particular are shedding light on fundamental molecular and signalling processes of interest not just within microbiology, but across the whole...

Exercise increases brain growth factor and receptors, prevents stem cell drop in middle age

BETHESDA, Md. (Nov. 18, 2008) − A new study confirms that exercise can reverse the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, and suggests that this happens because exercise restores a brain chemical which promotes the production and mat...

Scientist plans to test for blood pressure genes affected by age

A geneticist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston plans to scan the genomes of about 4,000 people in the hopes of finding out why blood pressure often increases as young adults age. The two-year study by principal investigator Myriam Fornage, Ph.D., is funded with a new $...

Killer carbs -- Monash scientist finds the key to overeating as we age

A Monash University scientist has discovered key appetite control cells in the human brain degenerate over time, causing increased hunger and potentially weight-gain as we grow older. The research by Dr Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with Monash University's Department of Physiology, has ...

In scientific first, Einstein researchers correct decline in organ function associated with old age

(BRONX, NY) As people age, their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a buildup of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders. Now, for the first time, scientists at the Albert ...

Eat oily fish at least once a week to protect your eyesight in old age

Eating oily fish once a week may reduce age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is the major cause of blindness and poor vision in adults in western countries and the third cause of global blindness, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . The...

Severely restricted diet linked to physical fitness into old age

BUFFALO, NY -- Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life, scientists have proved. New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of inde...

The industrial space age

The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I fifty years ago on October 4th, marking the beginning of our use of space for political, military, technological, and scientific ends. Since then we have launched hundreds of satellites, space probes, telescopes, moon missions, and planetary landers...

Ice Age extinction claimed highly carnivorous Alaskan wolves

The extinction of many large mammals at the end of the Ice Age may have packed an even bigger punch than scientists have realized. To the list of victims such as woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, a Smithsonian-led team of scientists has added one more: a highly carnivorous form of wolf that...

Down syndrome: It's not just the age factor

Whether or not a pregnant woman will give birth to a child with Down Syndrome is not simply a matter of how old she is. Although it is a fact that as women get older, they are more likely to have a child with Down Syndrome, other factors also play a role. According to Markus Neuhäuser and Sven Kr...

76 percent of workers older than 60 years of age are overweight or obese

76% of workers older than 60 years of age are overweight or obese. However, less than one third of those 40 years of age and younger suffer these health issues. This is one of the conclusions shown in the research of Alberto Cordero of the School of Medicine, and the University Hospital, published ...

Age-related changes in DNA repair illuminate the connection between age and genetic damage

Researchers have uncovered a new way in which the aging process is linked to DNA damage--which occurs normally as a result of cell metabolism and environmental influences--and the various ways in which cells repair that damage. In the new work, researchers found that cells in young fruit flies make...

Gene expression becomes heterogeneous with age in humans and rats

In a study of the effects of aging on gene expression, researchers have found that variation in gene expression among individuals tends to increase with age. The findings, which impact our understanding of the molecular forces that govern age-related changes, are reported in the May 23rd issue of C...

Human cerebellum and cortex age in very different ways

Researchers have found that the two primary areas of the human brain appear to age in radically different ways: The cortex used in higher-level thought undergoes more extensive changes with age than the cerebellum, which regulates basic processes such as heartbeat, breathing and balance. Their work...

Research shows smoking adds a decade to reproductive age of IVF patients

A major new Dutch study has found that smoking adds the equivalent of ten years to a 20-year-old subfertile woman's reproductive age and has a "devastating" impact on a couples' chances of having a live birth after IVF. Being overweight also seriously damages their chances. The harmful effects of...

Low level of extinction during ice age linked to adaptability

A Johns Hopkins University graduate student may have figured out why rates of extinction were so low for many of the major groups of marine life during one of the greatest ice ages of them all, which occurred from about 330 million to 290 million years ago, late in the Paleozoic Era. The likely a...

New Clues Add 40,000 Years to Age of Human Species

Nearly 40 years after an historic anthropology expedition to Ethiopia's Lake Turkana basin, researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting human bones found at that time are roughly 195,000 years old. The researchers believe the findings may bolster the “Out-of-Africa?hypothesis that suggests we a...

NIH stimulus funding supports Emory biomedical scientists

... despite the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that watching videos is potentially harmful to the development of children under the age of two. This study will provide critical experimental evaluation of the potential hazards, as well as the potential benefits, of educational video mat...

Brain difference in psychopaths identified

...uction in the integrity of the small particles that make up the structure of the UF of psychopaths, compared to control groups of people with the same age and IQ. Also, the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy. These results suggest that psychopaths have biological...

K-State researchers say after-school programs should promote activity, healthy nutrition

...school programs are an important contributor to children's physical activity. "Participation in after-school programs tends to drop with increasing age as parents believe their children can be at home without adult supervision," Dzewaltowski said. "Parents should strive to place their children in heal...

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

...or, Michigan 48109, USA. Pages 715-718. The ice age of the late Paleozoic (326-267 million years ago) ...f outcropping limestone, revealing a change in the age of the sediment inside and outside the ring of cen...aracterize the fossil-rich strata to determine the age and correlations of disparate rock layers, they ha...

Douglas-fir, geoducks make strange bedfellows in studying climate change

...r Douglas-firs and other trees, which are reflected in wider growth rings. The limiting factor in using growth rings to study climate change is the age of the geoduck specimens. Old-growth evergreens may reach 500 to 1,000 years in age, but geoducks rarely exceed 150 years. "Scientists at the Canad...

Reducing risk of hospitalization in the elderly

...educe disability but it would also reduce the huge economic burden associated with hospitalization of the elderly." One in five Americans over the age of 65 suffers from sarcopenia. In 2000 the direct health care cost of treating it were estimated to be more than $18.5 billion. With the number of Ame...

Research shows rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled

...obesity is a new classification for children and describes those with a body mass index (BMI) that is equal to or greater than the 99th percentile for age and gender. For example, a 10-year-old child with a BMI of 24 would be considered severely obese, Skelton said, whereas in an adult, that is considere...

Humans 'damaging the oceans'

...fts in marine ecosystems. "In the past, the boundaries between geological ages are marked by sudden losses of species. We may now be entering a new age in which climate change and other human-caused factors such as fishing are the major threats for the oceans and their life," Andrew and Mike say. "...

Scientists discover Amazon river is 11 million years old

...erial taken from two boreholes near the mouth of the river to calculate the age of the Amazon river and the Amazon deep sea fan. Prior to this study the exact age of the Amazon, one of the two largest rivers in the world, was not known. U...

After dinosaurs, mammals rise but their genomes get smaller

...umans' total DNA. LTRs come in a range of sizes and ages, and it is the age distribution of LTRs that interested Lynch and his colleagues. "This st...tions in the literature," Lynch said. "The data we saw suggested a bulge in age distribution of transposable elements in humans and mouse." Left enough...

Scientists discover gene mutation responsible for hereditary neuroendocrine tumor

...inherited, in order to identify individuals who are at risk for developing tumors. "Individuals with familial PGLs tend to be affected at a younger age with tumors at multiple sites," says Rutter. "Including hSDH5 in DNA screening will allow for more comprehensive genetic testing, as well as earlier d...

LSUHSC shows for first time infant inhalation of ultrafine air pollution linked to adult lung disease

...bably have it and don't know it. Asthma is now the most common chronic disorder of childhood, affecting an estimated 6.2 million US children under the age of 18. "Glucocorticoid (steroid) treatment is the foundation of asthma treatment; however, while the majority of patients with asthma respond to gl...

Bad mitochondria may actually be good for you

...l disaster, yet according to a study in this week's JBC these mice actually age at a slower rate and live longer than normal mice. Mitochondrial oxidati...ome higher risks of damage while young, they accumulate less damage as they age a finding that seems to indicate the mitochondrial stress theory may not be...