Geckos: It's not always about sex
Usually when you give up something, there's a price to pay. Not so in the case of the Australian Bynoe's gecko. This line of all-female geckos doesn't need sex or a male to reproduce and, contrary to expectations, these "Wonder Woman" geckos can run farther and faster than their sexually reproducing relatives. The research findings are published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoolog...Study finds evolution doesn't always favor bigger animals
Biologists have long believed that bigger is better when it comes to body size, since many lineages of animals, from horses to dinosaurs, have evolved into larger species over time. But a study published this week by two biologists at the University of California, San Diego in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maxim, known as "Cop...Survival of the selfless - scientists find cheats don't always prosper
Selfishness is not necessarily the best survival trait for microorganisms, according to researchers studying the comparative effectiveness of 'cheating' and 'cooperating' strains of yeast. Writing in the journal Nature today, the team reports that studies of lab-grown yeast populations suggest the benefits of cheating are eventually counterbalanced by the costs. This contradicts classic ev...When your brain talks, your muscles don't always listen
Have your neurons been shouting at your muscles again? It happens, you know. "As a result of age-re...Vitamins: Science doesn't always match policy
Some one hundred years after the first vitamin was named, what is known about them has not translated into beneficial, standardized recommendations for public health, says Irwin Rosenberg, MD, University Professor, and director of the Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. Based on his presentation at the...Women and Capital: Two words that dont always marry
Whats the market for women entrepreneurs? The market is good for their ideas. Census data show that the number of women-owned businesses and the revenue from them has increased faster than the number of all businesses combined. Women-owned businesses are less likely to fail, too, experts say. Finding money to back a woman-owned business, howevernow, that's a different...Mummy Is Always Right: Nurses Research Prove It Over Again
It has now been found that consumption of hot or cold beverages before recording the body temperature can lead to can lead to drastic fluctuations in temperature measurement. // Consuming a cold beverage or hot beverage was found to hamper the restoration of body temperature to baseline levels by 15 and 23 minutes respectively. Nurses at the University of Virginia Health System have...Gas Masks Don't Always Fit an Emergency
Before the national anxiety over bioterrorism drives you to buy a gas mask at the nearest army surplus store, take a deep breath and brace yourself for what experts say about them -- most of it is not good. One could never know where the exposure is; you'd have to wear the mask at all times. //Even if you could stand to do that, the risks to your health would probably be higher than the l...Memory loss always goes hand with Depression
Depression, irritability and dullness are common among people who have mild memory loss, and they can gain from prompt treatment.// The Cardiovascular Health Study is the largest ever investigation into heart disease and stroke in those over 60. It involves nearly 3,000 people in the US, some of who had a MRI scan which could indicate mild cognitive problems, such as memory loss. Rese...Brain scans show why we always have room for dessert
"Instead of using a bell and meat powder, which is what Pavlov originally used, researchers used visual pictures of little intrinsic significance and coupled those to food smells," said Dr. Jay Gottfried of Imaging Neuroscience at University //College London. Gottfried was trying to explain what he calls the "restaurant phenomenon." You sit down to your eight-course meal for yo...