2004 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award winners announced
...ge in the world today, with important economic and social implications for the future. Intelligent, perceptive journalism written in broadly accessible language plays a primary role in communicating progress in biomedicine to the public, which both supports and is the beneficiary of basic biomedical researc...Malignant breast cancer cells to revert to normal with manipulation
...the ECM was part of a "dynamic reciprocity" in the social interaction between cells and the nucleus much like hormones and growth factors, with the ECM at times telling the nucleus of the cells what to do and thus directing gene expression in conjunction with these other factors. She had chosen the breast t...Brain areas identified that 'decode' emotions of others
...e judgments, Dr. Sabbagh explains. "If problems in social interaction are related to brain circuitry, having...pes of interventions to improve these individuals' social skills."...Alcoholism risk linked to gene involved in brain chemistry
...cts nearly 14 million Americans and can cause many social and health problems costing society an estimated $185 billion annually, is what scientists call a "complex" disease, meaning that many genes as well as environmental factors play a role in whether a person develops the disease. While there is not one...Making sense of the brain's mind-boggling complexity
... forecast its future technological, scientific and social challenges and opportunities. "The explosion of data about the brain is overwhelming conventional ways of making sense of it," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health. "Like the Human Genome Project, the Human Bra...Specifying alcohol-related brain-damage among heavy social drinkers
...s of chemical abnormalities in the brains of heavy social drinkers provide evidence of brain impairment, even if the drinkers cannot see it themselves. "Our major aim was to detect early adverse effects of alcohol drinking on brain function and to provide useful information to the heavy alcohol drinker, ...Young chimpanzees show sex differences in learning
...ture has been defined as passing on information by social learning from other members of a community," she said. "Female chimpanzees usually move to a new community when they reach maturity. Chimp communities are now isolated, but when individuals had room to move, the females dispersed, so they could have ...Keck Futures Initiative announces grant recipients
...ation believe considerable scientific progress and social benefit will be achieved by providing a counterbalance to the tendency to isolate research within academic fields. The FUTURES INITIATIVE is designed to enable scientists from different disciplines to focus on new questions upon which they can base ...UF researcher: Animals think in their own way, but unlike humans
...onment, particularly when it comes to people. Once social hunters, dogs desperately need to be part of a pack and will do anything to stay with their owners, even if mistreated. On the other hand, cats, which are independent hunters, are fairly unsocial and rather indifferent to humans. "Your dog will nev...Oldest known evidence of cat taming found in Cyprus, researchers report in Science
...er, implying that he or she enjoyed some degree of social status. "The association of this burial with both the sea shells and the cat grave strengthens the idea of a special burial indicating a strong relationship between cats and human beings. Possibly tamed cats were devoted to special activities or spec...American Society of Plant Biologists offers developing nations free access to science journals
...culture and related biological, environmental, and social sciences to public institutions in developing countries. AGORA is led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). AGORA's goal is to increase the quality and effectiveness of agricultural research, education, and tr...Annual bioethics forum to explore genetic testing
... involved in understanding both the scientific and social dimensions of genetic testing. Keynote speakers include R. Alta Charo, professor of law and bioethics, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Henry T. Greely, professor of law, Stanford University, and co-director of the Stanford Program on Genetics, ...... and often suffer the added hardships of legal and social discrimination. In the rich countries, where bas... governmental leadership; new forms of taxation of social 'bads' such as pollution, and budget subsidies of social 'goods' such as research and development of...Heinz Maier-Leibnitz prizes 2004
...he review process, 15 were from the humanities and social sciences, 19 from the life sciences, eleven from the areas of physics, mathematics and earth science, four from chemistry and process technology and eight from the engineering sciences. Amongst the 57 reviewed candidates were 20 women. The prize win...Bird's song may be linked to speech disorders
...nter at UCLA. White is interested in understanding social influences on learning, and on the neural changes ...earn their courtship and territorial songs through social interactions with other songbirds," she said. "We want to understand the neural mechanisms that und...Newly identified gene linked to brain development
...ontal lobes are the part of the cortex that govern social function, cognition, language, and problem-solving. Patients with damage to the frontal lobes exhibit changes in behavior, and frontal lobotomies were once performed to alter aggressive behavior." Bilateral frontoparietal polymicrogyria (BFPP), a re...For some gorillas, local kin may mean local peace
... elusive western gorilla observed that neighboring social groups have surprisingly peaceful interactions, in...ientists uncovered evidence that these neighboring social groups are often led by genetically related males. These findings suggest connections between geneti...New data on ant adaptability within their environment
...tion. Over the past 30 years, theoretical work on social organization has generated a number of predictions about how the colonies of eusocial insects, like ants and bees, could adapt to different environments. Many ants have morphologically distinct "castes," such as workers and soldiers, that specialize ...Wasps' brains enlarge as they perform more demanding jobs
Scientists have known for some time that some social insects undergo dramatic behavioral changes as the... are made. O'Donnell and other researchers study social insects such as wasps, honeybees and ants as models to understand the role of neuroplasticity in dri......atched plastic-surgery patients, representative of social drinkers according to previous research. All part...y, the study also found that the BAEP latencies of social drinkers appear to be significantly more sensitive to the increase of cumulative life-long alcohol c...