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Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceanimals, behavior, biological inheritance, chocolate, chocolate chips, emotional contagion, empathetic behavior, empathy driven helping behavior, empathy in rodents, evolutionary tree, homo sapiens, inbal ben ami bartal, jean decety, jeffrey mogil, laboratory rats, mcgill university, neuroscientists, peggy mason, phenomenon in humans, primates, pro social, rats, robert mitchum, rodents, special test, Technology, test arena, university of chicago, wild species

*Rats free trapped companions, even when given choice of chocolate instead*

The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.

The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought. Though empathetic behavior has been observed anecdotally in non-human primates and other wild species, the concept had not previously been observed in rodents in a laboratory setting. (more…)

Black and White American Voters Live in One Country, But Two Different Worlds

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2011Culture, Politicsafrican american problems, african americans, aftermath of hurricane katrina, Barack Obama, black political effectiveness, change, euphoria, first black president, katrina disaster, michael dawson, new orleans hurricane in 2005, political outlook of blacks in america, racial harmony, the nadir of black politics, uchicago political scientist, united states, university of chicago, warfare in iraq and afghanistan, william harms

The political outlook of blacks in America has undergone dramatic swings in the last ten years — from the depths of powerlessness during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the zenith with the election of the first black president, Barack Obama.

Now, with another presidential election looming, blacks are again confronting new issues as they judge and sometimes question the impact of Obama’s election, contends UChicago political scientist Michael Dawson, whose work finds sharp contrasts between how African Americans and whites feel about their country. (more…)

New Research Links Common RNA Modification to Obesity

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2011Health, Scienceadenosine, anti obesity therapies, biochemical dynamic equilibrium, biological regulation, chemistry professor, Chicago, China, chuan he, deoxyribonucleic acid, dna in human cells, dna or rna methylation, England, epigenetics of dna, fto gene, genetic regulatory process, histones, human energy homeostasis, human rna modification, messenger rna metabolism, methyl group, methylation, n6 methyladenosine, nucleic acids, obesity, proteins, ribonucleic acid, rna epigenetics, rna modification, stephen orahilly, type ii diabetes, university of chicago

An international research team has discovered that a pervasive human RNA modification provides the physiological underpinning of the genetic regulatory process that contributes to obesity and type II diabetes.

European researchers showed in 2007 that the FTO gene was the major gene associated with obesity and type II diabetes, but the details of its physiological and cellular functioning remained unknown. (more…)

New Drug Aids Gout Patients Not Helped By Standard Treatments

By Guest PostAugust 27, 2011Healthacute arthritic attacks, chronic gout, european royal families, gout, john s sundy, kidneys, krystexxa, michael becker, michael hershfield, middle class american disease, pegloticase, porcine enzyme, refractory gout, rheumatologist, savient pharmaceuticals, swollen joint nodules, synthesis of uric acid, tiny urate crystals, tophi, university of chicago, urate oxidase, uric acid, uricase

Pegloticase, a modified porcine enzyme, can produce significant and sustained clinical improvements in two out of five patients with chronic gout that is resistant to conventional therapies, researchers report in the Aug. 17 issue of JAMA.

In two controlled clinical trials, pegloticase rapidly lowered high levels of uric acid, the biochemical abnormality in gout, and kept it in the normal range for six months or more in 42 percent of patients receiving the drug every two weeks. Forty percent of patients had complete resolution of at least one of the painful swollen joint nodules, known as tophi, a hallmark of severe gout. (more…)

A Change in Perspective Could Be All It Takes to Succeed in School

By Guest PostAugust 13, 2011Scienceadrenal gland, choking under pressure, free press, hormone, marci decaro, math anxiety and salivary cortisol, neil albert, psychology, right way to handle stress, robin thomas, sian beilock, stress hormone, stress related changes in the body, university of chicago, working memory

*Study finds stress boosts performance for confident students, but holds back those with more anxiety*

Knowing the right way to handle stress in the classroom and on the sports field can make the difference between success and failure for the millions of students going back to school this fall, new University of Chicago research shows.

“We found that cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, can either be tied to a student’s poor performance on a math test or contribute to success, depending on the frame of mind of the student going into the test,” said Sian Beilock, associate professor in psychology and one of the nation’s leading experts on poor performance by otherwise talented people. (more…)

Astronomer Tom Gehrels, 1925-2011

By Guest PostJuly 14, 2011Scienceasteroids and comets, astronomer, astronomy, Britain, Chicago, dutch resistance, earth, England, gerard p kuiper, haarlemmermeer, harold masursky award, imaging photopolarimetry, jupiter, kitt peak, leiden university, nobel astrophysicist, saturn, saturn mysterious f ring, special operations executive, study of wavelength dependence of polarization of stars and planets, subrahmanyan chandrasekhar, the netherlands, tom gehrels, universal evolution, university of arizona, university of chicago

*In a career that spanned more than half a century, Gehrels fostered new research on asteroids and comets, including those that pose a threat to Earth.*

Tom Gehrels, an internationally noted planetary scientist and astronomer at the University of Arizona, as well as a hero of the Dutch Resistance during WWII, died Monday. He was 86.

Gehrels was among the first members of the fledgling Lunar and Planetary Laboratory when he joined the UA in 1961. During a long and distinguished career Gehrels pioneered new research on asteroids and comets, especially those that pose a collision threat to Earth. He also developed and taught introductory astronomy courses that were popular with non-science undergraduates. (more…)

Mars: Red Planet’s Rapid Formation Explains Its Small Size Relative to Earth

By Guest PostMay 27, 2011Scienceali pourmand, atmosphere, chemical behavior, chondrites, composition of chondrites, computer simulation, dauphas and pourmand, earth, embryos, enriqueta barrera, fine scale chronology, geophysicist, hafnium, lithophile elements, mantle of mars, mars, martian meteorites, national science foundation, nicolas dauphas, non volatile elements, nsf, radioactive decay, red planet, refractory, solar system, tungsten in meteorites, tungsten isotopic composition, university of chicago, xenon content

*Mars developed far more quickly than our blue planet*

Mars developed in as little as two to four million years after the birth of the solar system, far more quickly than Earth, according to results of a new study published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The red planet’s rapid formation helps explain why it is so small, say the study’s co-authors, Nicolas Dauphas at the University of Chicago and Ali Pourmand at the University of Miami. (more…)

The Winners of Mass Extinction: With Predators Gone, Prey Thrives

By Guest PostMay 11, 2011Scienceage of fishes, age of the crinoids, crinoid fossils, devonian era, devonian period, ecology, ecosystem, Environment, fish, fossil record, fossils, hangenberg event, lauren sallan, lotka volterra cycles, marine vertebrate, mass extinction, modern biodiversity, natural experiment, ocean life, ohio state university, paleontologist, population of prey species, predator prey dynamics, predator prey relationships, residual defenses, robert nicholls, thomas kammer, university of chicago, william ausich

*Extinction of fishes 360 million years ago created natural ecology experiment*

In present-day ecology, the removal or addition of a predator in an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same dynamics in the fossil record, thanks to a mass extinction that decimated ocean life 360 million years ago.

What was bad for fish was good for the fish’s food, according to a paper published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the University of Chicago, West Virginia University and The Ohio State University found that the mass extinction known as the Hangenberg event produced a “natural experiment” in the fossil record, with results that mirror modern observations about predator-prey relationships. (more…)

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