ages in Biological News

Saltwater sleuths: Seeking clues to help determine the ages of fish and shellfish populations

Fishery biologist Sandy Sutherland looks through the lens of the microscope at tiny sections of fish earbones, known as otoliths, each showing annual bands of growth. She carefully counts the bands to determine the age of the fish, then moves on to the next sample. Known as an age reader, Sutherl...

Antarctic life hung by a thread during ice ages

Frozen in time frozen in place frozen solid All of these phrases have been used to describe Antarctica, and yet they all belie the truth about this southerly point on the globe. Although the area is covered in ice and bears witness to some of the most extreme cold on the planet, this ecosystem i...

Mary had a lot of lambs: Researchers identify way to accelerate sheep breeding

...r, Cornell Sheep Program researchers have discovered an unusual form of a gene that prompts ewes to breed out of season as well as conceive at younger ages and more frequently. They conducted a simple genetic test to identify the presence of the unusual form of the gene, the so-called M allele that oth...

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

...port such drastic greenhouse gas fluctuations, leaving the driving factors of dynamic late Paleozoic climate change up for debate. U-Pb zircon ages from the southwestern Karoo basin, South Africa -- Implications for the Permian-Triassic boundary Andrea Fildani et al., Chevron Energy Technology C...

Reducing risk of hospitalization in the elderly

...uscle strength or performance were much better ways of measuring function." The researchers followed 3,011 healthy, non-disabled adults between the ages of 70 and 80, for an average of almost five years. They measured their physical function in a number of ways including walking speed, their ability to...

Research shows rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled

...y looked at the prevalence of obesity and severe obesity in a study population of 12,384 children, representing approximately 71 million U.S. children ages 2 to 19 years. Severe childhood obesity is a new classification for children and describes those with a body mass index (BMI) that is equal to or g...

Humans 'damaging the oceans'

...sh and other sea species can inhabit, invasions, extinctions and major shifts 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 th...

UTMB study identifies women at risk of gaining excessive weight with injectable birth control

... increase in appetite after six months of DMPA use. The study, which appears in the August issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology , followed 240 women ages 16-33 who used DMPA for up to three years. Researchers looked at several potential predictors of weight gain, including age, race, baseline obesity pr...

UC San Diego's $3 million NSF grant to fund science festivals

...ound Science Festival Educational Enrichment activities for students of all ages across the San Diego region, culminating in an annual week-long celebration...ound Science Festival Educational Enrichment activities for students of all ages across San Diego. Each annual cycle of enhanced science education programs ...

Genetic marker linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities

...roblem behaviors in adults with developmental and / or intellectual disabilities," Kennedy said. The researchers studied 105 white men between the ages of 18 and 50. The individuals were divided into three groups: those with developmental/intellectual disabilities and a history of more than 10 years o...

Study explains potential failure of oral contraceptives with obese women

...ombosis. These are blood clots in the legs or elsewhere that can increase the risk of stroke and heart attacks. The study was done with 20 women of ages 18 to 35, all of them healthy and seeking contraception, 10 of whom were of normal weight and 10 with a "body mass index" of more than 30 a common me...

ICSI or IVF: Babies born from frozen embryos do just as well

...e was 42.1% and 39.4% respectively; delivery rates were 86.7% (with 28.7% multiple births) and 87.5% (19.2% multiple births) respectively. Gestational ages and birth weights were similar between the two groups, but the malformation rate was 2.2% from the medicated cycles and 0.4% from the natural cycles. ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly Presspac -- June 17, 2009

...ite www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using i...

IUPUI study finds living near fast food outlet not a weighty problem for kids

... or the installation of a playground or opening of a recreational trail. The researchers looked at data for more than 60,000 children between the ages of 3 and 18. The children were 53 percent African-American, 30 percent Caucasian and 12 percent Hispanic. Most were poor, and publically insured. T...

Hypertension among lower-status employees lingers well into retirement

...le one European study correlated pre-retirement jobs with heart disease among seniors, most similar research has focused on working people between the ages of 25 and 65. Consequently, Leigh said, "it's been an open question whether occupations could influence hypertension after retirement, and we wanted t...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

...te www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using ...

Study shows CGM devices also benefit people with type 1 diabetes

...a severe hypoglycemic event (28% versus 5%). Encouragingly, similar beneficial results were seen in children, adolescents, and adults spanning the ages of 8 to 69 years. Dr. Aaron Kowalski, Program Director for Metabolic Control at JDRF, explained that in planning this study, the change in HbA1c w...

Scientists find formula to uncover our planet's past and help predict its future

...and will help predict the future. A novel method of reconstructing missing data will shed new light on how and why our climate moved us on from ice ages to warmer periods as researchers will be able to calculate lost information and put together a more complete picture. Similarly they will be able ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 20, 2009

...ite www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using ...

New book suggests Earth perhaps not such a benevolent mother after all

...nctions show that our planet behaves in somewhat the same way. For example: The evolution of oxygen-producing organisms twice plunged Earth into ice ages as carbon dioxide, crucial for photosynthesis, was stripped from the atmosphere. The evolution of the first true animals caused extinction of most st...

Old stain in a new combination

...lerated, and effective in combination with various malaria medications. In the current study in Burkina Faso with 160 malaria patients between the ages of six and ten the Heidelberg scientists tested the effect of combination therapies with artemisinins and methylene blue on gametocytes in the blood. ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 13, 2009

...ite www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using ...

OHSU researchers study the idling brain

...t. These regions operate in tandem with one another, and group into regional networks. "After observing a large group of study subjects between the ages of 7 and 31, we witnessed an interesting phenomenon," added Fair. "Communications between brain regions seem to be localized in children, but over ti...

Study finds link between hot flashes and lower bone density in women

... FINDINGS: UCLA researchers and colleagues analyzed data for 2,213 women between the ages of 42 and 52 who participated in the bone sub-study of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation to determine whether women with vasomotor symptom...

Late motherhood boosts family lifespan

...ts of the Utah and Quebec pioneers studied, "you may be able to look at the ages when your female ancestors gave birth rather than just their longevity in...yzed. Compared with younger mothers, women who had their last child between ages 42 and 44 were 6 percent less likely to die during any given year past age ...

Purdue study finds dairy better for bones than calcium carbonate

...e effect." Data from Purdue's Camp Calcium, a research effort that studies how calcium and other nutrients affect bone growth, show that between the ages of 9 and 18 people require 1,300 milligrams of calcium a day for optimal bone growth. This is the equivalent of about 4 cups of milk or yogurt or the ...

Heart attacks: The tipping point

...s. The remaining 30% is mostly rigid structural cells called fibroblasts that work to hold the muscle in place," Dr. Zlochiver explains. "As the heart ages and contends with factors such as high blood pressure or genetic disease, this balance begins to change." Through the course of his research, whic...

UTSA, Health Science Center collaborate with Merck & Co. to develop chlamydia vaccine

...of Biology. Chlamydia trachomatis is responsible for nearly 2.3 million cases of infection in the U.S. population, primarily in those between the ages 14 to 39, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A highly...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- April 22, 2009

...ite www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using...

Drinking 100 percent fruit juice is associated with lower risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome

... juice was generally associated with other healthful behaviors. Among more than 14,000 participants in the survey a multiethnic sample of U.S. adults ages 19 and older juice consumers had higher physical activity levels and more favorable dietary intake patterns (including: lower fat intakes, higher fib...

Eating fatty fish once a week reduces men's risk of heart failure

...kness, difficulty walking, rapid or irregular heartbeat, and persistent cough or wheezing. The researchers followed 39,367 Swedish men between the ages of 45 and 79 from 1998 to 2004. The researchers recorded details of the men's diet and tracked the men's outcome through Swedish inpatient hospital re...

Oral contraceptives impair muscle gains in young women

...09 scientific conference. The meeting will be held April 18-22, 2009 in New Orleans. The Study Seventy-three generally healthy women between the ages of 18-31 were assigned to two groups and completed a 10-week whole-body resistance exercise training (RET). Group 1 consisted of 34 women who used ora...

Oral contraceptives impair muscle gains in young women

...09 scientific conference. The meeting will be held April 18-22, 2009 in New Orleans. The Study Seventy-three generally healthy women between the ages of 18-31 were assigned to two groups and completed a 10-week whole-body resistance exercise training (RET). Group 1 consisted of 34 women who used ora...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 8, 2009

...ite www.acs.org/GlobalChallenges . Bytesize Science, a new podcast for young listeners Bytesize Science is a science podcast for kids of all ages that aims to entertain as much as it educates, with new video podcasts and some episodes available in Spanish. Subscribe to Bytesize Science using i...

Annual Michael & Susan Dell lectureship in child health

... the prevalence of obesity increased. For children ages 2𔃃, prevalence increased from 5 percent to 12.4 percent. For those ages 6󈝷, prevalence increased from 6.5 percent to 17 percent and for those ages 12󈝿 years, prevalence increased from 5 per...

Changes in gene may stunt lung development in children

...ession levels of the gene and its variants in both mouse lungs and children ages 9 to 11. Study authors, led by George Leikauf, Ph.D., professor of occ... in mice. The researchers went on to assess SOD3 mutations in children ages 9 to 11 by testing for SNPs linked to lung function. After analyzing DNA fr...

Fetal alcohol syndrome testing expands

...ng pregnancy, the diagnosis of FASD remains a significant clinical challenge. "The ability to objectively assess brain function at earlier and earlier ages will be hugely beneficial in the long term, because it will help identify the at-risk children for whom targeted interventions will have the greatest ...

Liking sweets makes sense for kids

...ngton researcher Susan Coldwell, PhD, looked at sweet preference and biological measures of growth and physical maturation in 143 children between the ages of 11 and 15. The findings, reported in the journal Physiology & Behavior , suggest that children's heightened liking for sweet taste is related...

Children who are dissatisfied with their appearance often have problems with their peer group

...in a new thesis in psychology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In her thesis Carolina Lunde has followed almost 1,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14. The aim has been to investigate the link between body image and peer group relationships. An important conclusion is that both boys an...

Simple test helps predict heart attack risk

...onal Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of the U.S. population for 6,292 men and women ages 40 and older without known history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes or atherosclerotic vascular diseasealong with available data on standard cardiov...