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Yale Scientists Find Molecular Glue Needed To Wire the Brain

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2010Sciencealzheimer, autism, brain cells, Germany, mental retardation, nerve pulses, neurological disorders, neuron, plasticity, puzzle, researchers, single molecule, synapses, synaptic plasticity, syncam 1, thomas biederer, valentin stein, ways to improve memory, yale university

Yale University researchers have found that a single molecule not only connects brain cells but also changes how we learn. The findings, reported in the December 9 issue of the journal Neuron, may help researchers discover ways to improve memory and could lead to new therapies to correct neurological disorders.

The junctions between brain cells over which nerve pulses pass — called synapses — are crucial for regulating learning and memory and how we think. Aberrations in the structure and function of synapses have been linked to mental retardation and autism, while synapses are lost in the aging brains of Alzheimer’s patients. (more…)

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teens Singled Out for Punishment

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Culture, Generaladd health, adult convictions, arrests, bisexual, courts, gay, hannah brueckner, juvenile convictions, kathryn himmelstein, lesbian, lgb adolescents, lgb youth, misbehaviors, new york city, police, same sex, school authorities, school expulsions, sexual orientation, types of punishment, yale university

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are about 40 percent more likely than other teens to be punished by school authorities, police and the courts, according to a study by Yale University researchers. Published in the January 2011 issue of the journal Pediatrics, the study is the first to document excessive punishment of LGB youth nationwide.

“We found that virtually all types of punishment—including school expulsions, arrests, juvenile convictions, adult convictions and especially police stops—were more frequently meted out to LGB youth,” said lead author Kathryn Himmelstein, who initiated the study while she was a Yale undergraduate. The research was supervised by Hannah Brueckner, professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course at Yale. (more…)

Video: Bob Woodward Discusses Investigative Journalism in the New Century

By Guest PostNovember 21, 2010Culture, Mediaart gallery, author, bob woodward, journalist, paul needham, pulitzer prize, steven brill, yale university

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Bob Woodward ’65 discussed “Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in the 21st Century” during a conversation with Steven Brill ’72, LAW ’75, founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative, and Paul Needham ’11, journalism scholar and former editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. (more…)

When Video Games Get Problematic so Do Smoking, Drug Use and Aggression

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2010Culture, Health, Technologyadolescents, boys, dana cavallo, epidemiology, gaming, gender differences, Health, health risks, negative health consequences, problematic gaming, public, rani desai, suchitra krishnan sarin, video games, yale university

A new study on gaming and health in adolescents, conducted by researchers at Yale School of Medicine, found some significant gender differences linked to gaming as well as important health risks associated with problematic gaming. Published yesterday in the journal Pediatrics, the study is among the first and largest to examine possible health links to gaming and problematic gaming in a community sample of adolescents.

Rani Desai, associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology and public health at Yale, and colleagues anonymously surveyed 4,028 adolescents about their gaming, problems associated with gaming and other health behaviors. They found that 51.2% of the teens played video games (76.3% of boys and 29.2% of girls). The study not only revealed that, overall, there were no negative health consequences of gaming in boys, but that gaming was linked to lower odds of smoking regularly. Among girls, however, gaming was associated with getting into serious fights and carrying a weapon to school. (more…)

Cosmic Curiosity Reveals Ghostly Glow of Dead Quasar

By Guest PostNovember 5, 2010Scienceastronomer, black hole, dead quasar, dutch, Galaxy, galaxy zoo, gas cloud, hanny van arkel, hanny's object, hanny's voorwerp, kevin schawinski, life cycle, light echo, meg urry, paolo coppi, priyamvada natarajan, schoolteacher, yale university

The green Voorwerp in the foreground remains illuminated by light emitted up to 70,000 years ago by a quasar in the center of the background galaxy, which has since died out. Image credit: WIYN/William Keel/Anna Manning

While sorting through hundreds of galaxy images as part of the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project two years ago, Dutch schoolteacher and volunteer astronomer Hanny van Arkel stumbled upon a strange-looking object that baffled professional astronomers. Two years later, a team led by Yale University researchers has discovered that the unique object represents a snapshot in time that reveals surprising clues about the life cycle of black holes.

In a new study, the team has confirmed that the unusual object, known as Hanny’s Voorwerp (Hanny’s “object” in Dutch), is a large cloud of glowing gas illuminated by the light from a quasar-an extremely energetic galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. The twist, described online in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is that the quasar lighting up the gas has since burned out almost entirely, even though the light it emitted in the past continues to travel through space, illuminating the gas cloud and producing a sort of “light echo” of the dead quasar. (more…)

Tackling Cognitive Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease: One STEP at a Time

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2010Health, Sciencealzheimer’s disease, american health assistance foundation, national academy of sciences, paul greengard, paul lombroso, rockefeller university, yale university

Lowering levels of a key protein involved in regulating learning and memory—STtriatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase (STEP)—reversed cognitive deficits in mice with Alzheimer’s disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the October 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Many Still Do Not Understand The ‘Why’ of Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2010Culture, Environmentaerosol spray, anthony leiserowitz, climate change, coral bleaching, global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone layer, renewable energy, yale university

Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but many do not understand why, according to a national study conducted by researchers at Yale University.

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Using Discards, Scientists Discover Different Dinosaurs’ Stomping Grounds

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2010Scienceceratopsians, dinosaur, duck-billed dinosaurs, fossils, hadrosaurs, herbivores, late cretaceous, montana, nicholas longrich, North America, ornithopod, period, thescelosaurus, triceratops, tyler lyson, tyrannosaurs rex, western canada, yale university, yyoming

By examining the type of rock in which dinosaur fossils were embedded, an often unappreciated part of the remains,

Certain dinosaur species liked to live in different habitats, separated by only a few miles. Image credit: Nicholas Longrich

scientists have determined that different species of North American dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago occupied different environments separated by just a few miles.

Hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs, along with the small ornithopod Thescelosaurus, preferred to live along the edge of rivers, according to the research. Ceratopsians, on the other hand, which include the well-known Triceratops, preferred to be several miles inland.

The findings, which appear in the online edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, give scientists a more complete picture of the distribution of different species and help explain how several large herbivores managed to coexist. (more…)

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