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Tingling sensation caused by Asian spice could help patients with chronic pain

The science behind the tingling sensation caused by eating a popular Asian spice has been explained by researchers at UCL.

The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, helps shed light on the complex interactions between the senses of taste and touch, and could lead to a greater understanding of the causes of the tingling sensations experienced by many chronic pain patients.

Widely used in Asian cooking, the Szechuan pepper was found to mimic the sense of touch in the brain. It chemically activates light-touch fibres on the lips and tongue and sends the equivalent of 50 light taps to the brain per second. (more…)

First Readings: A first taste of college life

On Monday morning — Labor Day — first-year students gathered in classrooms around campus for their First Readings seminars. The program, initiated at Brown seven years ago, is designed to give new students a common reading experience and prepare them for college life.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Classes don’t officially begin until Wednesday, but first-year students got their first taste of academic life at Brown on the first Monday in September, when all 1,537 of them gathered in classrooms around campus for the annual First Readings seminars. (more…)

Rabies Research Designed for Prevention

UA undergraduate researcher Robert Clark, his public health mentor and Pima County officials collaborated on an investigation of rabies cases in Pima County.

In a volunteer opportunity turned research project, University of Arizona undergraduate researcher Robert Clark has developed a comprehensive, multi-year snapshot of animal cases of rabies in Pima County.

Clark began working with a mentor in the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and county officials to learn about the seasonality of rabies in animals and identify exactly where rabid animals were most often found. (more…)

Bing.com and FOX News team up to bring real-time online polling to nightly news; Bing Pulse featured on ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’

With Bing Pulse, viewers become a part of the conversation.

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 16, 2013 — Bing.com and FOX News Channel (FNC) are teaming up on the Bing Pulse online voting tool, enabling viewers to share their opinions and reactions to news commentary in real time online at https://Bing.com/politics. With the new feature, viewers will have the opportunity to interact with the panel segment on FNC’s “Special Report with Bret Baier” (weeknights at 6 p.m. ET) to offer their feedback instantaneously.

“This is a first for evening news,” said Josh Gottheimer, general manager of Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft Corp. “With the Bing Pulse, viewers get a seat at the table to weigh in on the discussion. It’s the perfect marriage of the Internet, Bing’s big data technology and television news programming.” (more…)

„Die große Chance, die Arktis zu schützen, bevor sie zerstört wird“

Wie wirkt sich die Versauerung der Ozeane in 20, 40 oder gar 100 Jahren aus? Heute hat das GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel die Ergebnisse eines Experiments aus dem Jahr 2010 veröffentlicht – das Greenpeace mit einer Schiffstour in die Arktis unterstützt hat. Iris Menn, Meeresbiologin, erinnert sich im Interview an die Expedition.

Der zunehmende Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen macht nicht nur dem Klima zu schaffen. Unsere Meere nehmen CO2 aus der Atmosphäre auf, das sich im Wasser zu Kohlensäure wandelt. Steigender CO2-Ausstoß lässt auch die Aufnahme in das Meer steigen – das Wasser wird sauer. (more…)

Love thy neighbor: It could lower your risk of stroke

ANN ARBOR — Here’s some neighborly advice for adults over age 50: Stay friendly with your neighbors.

A new University of Michigan study shows that adults in this age bracket who live in a good neighborhood with trustworthy people lowered their risk of stroke up to 48 percent.

Feeling connected with neighbors builds what researchers describe as “neighborhood social cohesion.” The trust and connection with neighbors was associated with a reduced risk of stroke above and beyond the effects of negative psychological factors—such as depression and anxiety, said Eric Kim, a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Psychology and the study’s lead author. (more…)

The final nail in the Jurassic Park coffin

It is hardly possible to talk about fossil insects in amber without the 1993 movie Jurassic Park entering the debate.

The idea of recreating dinosaurs by extracting DNA from insects in amber has held the fascination of the public for two decades. Claims for successful extraction of DNA from ambers up to 130 million-years-old by various scientists in the early 1990s were only seriously questioned when a study at the Natural History Museum, London, was unable to replicate the process. The original claims are now considered by many to be a text-book example of modern contaminant DNA in the samples. Nonetheless, some scientists hold fast to their original claims.

Research just published in the journal The Public Library of Science ONE (PLOS ONE) by a team of researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester can now confirm that the existence of DNA in amber fossils is highly unlikely. The team led by amber expert Dr David Penney and co-ordinated by ancient DNA expert Professor Terry Brown used highly-sensitive ‘next generation’ sequencing techniques – the most advance type of DNA sequencing – on insects in copal, the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber. (more…)

Wohnungsputz für Meise und Kleiber

Der Spätsommer ist die richtige Zeit, die Vogel-Nistkästen zu reinigen

Im September hat der auch der letzte Vogelnachwuchs die Nistkästen verlassen. Nun gilt es, alte Nester mitsamt den darin lebenden Parasiten wie Vogelflöhen, Milben und Zecken aus den Kästen und Höhlen zu entfernen, damit die Vogelbrut im kommenden Jahr nicht übermäßig befallen wird.

Zum Reinigen dürfen niemals scharfe chemische Reinigungsmittel oder gar Desinfektionsmittel verwendet werden. Es reicht, wenn der Kasten gründlich ausgefegt wird. Bei starkem Parasitenbefall kann man auch mit klarem Wasser und gegebenenfalls etwas Sodalauge ausspülen. Anschließend sollte das Kasteninnere gut austrocknen können. Schließlich muss der Nistkasten nicht unsere Hygiene-Vorstellungen der eigenen “guten Stube” erfüllen. (more…)