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Infectious disease expert explains about Wuhan coronavirus

A new coronavirus virus, likely first transmitted to people from animals at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is making international headlines as disease detectives work to uncover what it is, how it's transmitted, and how deadly the virus actually is.

24 Jan 2020

Researchers grow venom-producing snake organoids in the lab

Researchers from the group of Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute, in an international collaboration, have developed a method to grow snake venom gland cells as organoids.

23 Jan 2020

Study provides key insights on potential origins of coronavirus outbreak in China

Emerging viral infections--from bird flu to Ebola to Zika infections--pose major threats to global public health, and understanding their origins can help investigators design defensive strategies against future outbreaks.

22 Jan 2020

The Acoustics of the Brain: Random-access 3D Microscopy in Neuroscience

Máté Marosi and Zsolt Iván discuss the use of acousto-optic microscopes to study neural networks in the brain, from cell bodies to dendrites, to tiny spines.

From Femtonics Ltd. 17 Dec 2019

Study reveals multiple correlations between brain complexity and locomotion pattern in vertebrates

Researchers at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, have uncovered multi-level relationships between locomotion - the ways animals move - and brain architecture, using high-definition 3D models of lizard and snake brains.

5 Dec 2019

New technique could replace conventional methods of testing paralytic neurotoxins

Animal testing will no longer be required to assess a group of deadly neurotoxins, thanks to University of Queensland-led research.

30 Oct 2019

AAE survey: More people afraid of getting a root canal than spiders, snakes, sharks

Part of the fun of Halloween is being afraid – very afraid – but, it turns out at least one of our top fears is unfounded.

22 Oct 2019

Addiction clinics market pricey, unproven treatments to desperate patients

Jason was hallucinating. He was withdrawing from drugs at an addiction treatment center near Indianapolis, and he had hardly slept for several days.

23 Aug 2019

New insights into emergent evolutionary potential and generative phenotype

In the cover photo, nature photographer Andreas Kay has captured one of the most striking examples of Batesian Mimicry in nature--first reported by Henry Walter Bates in 1861.

9 Aug 2019

Price of snakebite drug is sky high, but new competitor unlikely to lower costs

Dr. Steven Curry has treated patients with snakebites since the 1980s — long enough to remember when the treatment represented its own form of misery.

8 Aug 2019

New theory demystifies evolution of human imagination

A genetic mutation may have triggered a cascade of events that enabled the acquisition of recursive language and imagination in homo sapiens.

5 Aug 2019

Mice brain study reveals secrets about Alzheimer’s

Researchers from University of California, Irvine have found the key responses of brain cells to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and say that this could help them understand the chronic debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disease better in future.

1 Aug 2019

Music helps to develop the neural networks of premature infants

In Switzerland, as in most industrialized countries, nearly 1% of children are born "very prematurely", i.e. before the 32nd week of pregnancy, which represents about 800 children yearly.

27 May 2019

Six plants native to Southeast Asia show cancer-fighting properties

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore has recently discovered that the Bandicoot Berry (Leea indica), South African leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and Simple leaf Chastetree (Vitex trifolia), which are favorite nectaring plants of butterflies, do more than attract butterflies.

13 May 2019

AI can detect signs of anxiety and depression in speech patterns of children

A machine learning algorithm can detect signs of anxiety and depression in the speech patterns of young children, potentially providing a fast and easy way of diagnosing conditions that are difficult to spot and often overlooked in young people, according to new research published in the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

6 May 2019

Summer bummer: A young camper’s $142,938 snakebite

It was dusk as Oakley Yoder and the other summer camp kids hiked back to their tents at Illinois' Jackson Falls last July. As the group approached a mound of boulders blocking the path, Oakley, then 9, didn't see the lurking snake — until it bit a toe on her right foot.

30 Apr 2019

FDA issues warning letters to four homeopathic firms for CGMP violations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today posted warning letters to four companies who produce homeopathic drug products for significant violations of current good manufacturing practice regulations, including a letter to King Bio Inc. of Asheville, N.C.

2 Apr 2019

Damage to anxiety-associated brain region heightens monkeys’ defensive response

Damage to parts of the orbitofrontal cortex heightens monkeys’ defensive response to non-threatening stimuli, according to new research published in JNeurosci. The study proposes a critical role for subregions of this brain area in different anxiety disorders.

From Society for Neuroscience 26 Mar 2019

Researchers observe brain's ability to reconstruct facts from clues

What's an s-shaped animal with scales and no legs? What has big ears, a trunk and tusks? What goes 'woof' and chases cats? The brain's ability to reconstruct facts - 'a snake', 'an elephant' and 'a dog' - from clues has been observed using brain scanning by researchers at Aalto university.

25 Feb 2019

New WHO strategy aims to reduce the impact of snakebite

A new World Health Organization strategy aims to halve the impact of snakebite, which affects 5.4 million people globally each year, kills up to 138 000 and leaves 400 000 suffering permanent physical and psychological disabilities.

23 Feb 2019