Research News

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Examining Links Between Academic Performance And Food Stamps

10:55am September 21, 2017

by Shankar Vedantam

South Carolina researchers have drawn a connection between low-income students' poor performance on math tests and the time of month when their families run low on food stamps.

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A duck-billed dinosaur skeleton, which the researchers think ate crustaceans, on display in 2009 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Shellfish Surprise: Common 'Herbivore' Dinosaur Found To Snack On Crustaceans

9:10am September 21, 2017

by Merrit Kennedy

"I immediately said, 'Oh, no, no, it can't be crustaceans.' That was my knee jerk reaction," a paleontologist said. The prehistoric snacking was likely intentional and linked to mating behaviors.

Kathy Niakan, a developmental biologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, used the CRISPR gene editing technique to find out how a gene affects the growth of human embryos.

Editing Embryo DNA Yields Clues About Early Human Development

5:00pm September 20, 2017

by Rob Stein

Researchers disabled a gene that they think helps determine which human embryos will develop normally. The technique they used is controversial because it could be used to change babies' DNA.

While benzodiazepines and SSRI antidepressants are not risk-free, says Yale psychiatrist Kimberly Yonkers, "it should be reassuring that we're not seeing a huge magnitude of an effect here" on pregnancy.

Xanax Or Zoloft For Moms-To-Be: A New Study Assesses Safety

8:34am September 18, 2017

by Allison Aubrey

Is it OK to take antidepressants or anxiety medicine during pregnancy? Recent research suggests women who need treatment can take these drugs. Doctors recommend the lowest effective dose.

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University Studied How Men With Shaved Heads Are Perceived

6:55am September 18, 2017

A study from the University of Pennsylvania examines how people view men with shaved heads. Turns out, people see men with shaved heads as more dominant than guys with thinning hair or thick hair.

Tackle Negative Thinking Head-On To Boost Diversity In Biomedicine

5:09am September 16, 2017

by Esther Landhuis

One California university is trying a new strategy to help minority students perform better in STEM classes and develop the mental resilience to face future challenges.

Matthew Rockloff and Nancy Greer give their acceptance speech after winning the Ig Nobel Economics Prize during ceremonies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Thursday. The pair won for their experiments to see how contact with a live crocodile

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Ig Nobels Awarded For Research Into Big Ears, Feline Fluidity

4:21pm September 15, 2017

by Scott Neuman

The annual awards for research "that makes you laugh, then think" also singled out scientists who determined that having contact with a crocodile influences a person's willingness to gamble.

Two snow leopard cubs play in their enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo on Tuesday during their public debut.

Good News For Snow Leopards, Bad News For Ash Trees

6:59pm September 14, 2017

by Merrit Kennedy

Snow leopards are no longer on the verge of extinction, a new assessment found. However, the situation is looking dire for five species of ash trees, now listed as "critically endangered."

Experiments that showed how to make the H5N1 bird flu virus more contagious raised concern about malicious misuse of laboratory research.

Efforts To Prevent Misuse Of Biomedical Research Fall Short

3:56pm September 14, 2017

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

The National Academies of Sciences says not enough has been done to keep legitimate research on pathogens and toxins from being misappropriated and turned into biological weapons.

The perception that everyone's more connected than you is pretty common.

If You Think Everyone Else Has More Friends, You're Not Alone

12:11pm September 14, 2017

by April Fulton

Many first-year college students think their peers have more friends than they do, a study finds. But that can actually help motivate students to make new connections.