news 2016

Scientists reveal how a common virus triggers blood cancer Scientists at the University of Sussex, trying to uncover how the common Epstein-Barr virus causes blood cancer in adults and children, have discovered how the virus takes control of two genes involved in cancer development so it can switch them on or off.

Scientists have developed a type of HIV test on a USB stick. The device, created by scientists at Imperial College London and DNA Electronics , uses a drop of blood to detect HIV, and then creates an electrical signal that can be read by a computer, laptop or handheld device. The disposable test could be used for HIV patients to monitor their own treatment.

Data from the mid-1990s AIDS epidemic in Russia and Ukraine shows that the first month after infection is the key period to control the spread of the virus in drug-using populations, according to a new study by researchers at Oxford University. Crucially, needle exchange programmes and other 'harm reduction' approaches are the only measures that can target transmissions that happen within the first month.

New research on how the Sussex coast has eroded over the last seven millennia could help provide insight into how climate change might affect UK cliffs in the future. In a new paper published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Colorado, Imperial College London, the British Geological Survey and the Environment Agency describe how they have used a process known as cosmogenic dating to learn how rapidly the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head and Seaford Head have eroded.

New research has revealed that by using big data to analyse massive data sets of modern and historical news, social media and Wikipedia page views, periodic patterns in the collective behaviour of the population can be observed that could otherwise go unnoticed. Academics from the University of Bristol's ThinkBIG project , led by Nello Cristianini , Professor of Artificial Intelligence, have published two papers that have analysed periodic patterns in daily media content and consumption: the first investigated historical newspapers, the second Twitter posts and Wikipedia visits.

A new study led by scientists at the University of Oxford has found that small DNA molecules known as plasmids are one of the key culprits in spreading the major global health threat of antibiotic resistance. Using a novel experimental model, the international team of researchers show that plasmids, which live inside bacteria and are known to be a vehicle for transferring antibiotic resistance genes, can accelerate the evolution of new forms of resistance - making them more important to the process than previously thought.

More than 90% of ivory in large seized shipments came from elephants that died less than three years before, according to a new study led by the University of Utah and involving the University of Oxford. Combining radiocarbon ivory dating with genetic analysis provides a picture of when and where poachers are killing elephants - useful tools in the ongoing battle against illegal animal product trade.

Is it possible to stop the ticking of time and what might it mean if we could? It's a question many will have pondered and now there is an answer - thanks to the humble fruit fly. Drosophila fruit flies are so named after the Latin for "dew loving" because they are more active at dawn and dusk. This strong sense of circadian rhythm (the 24 hour time cycle) is generated by a clock that ticks in the brain of all animals including humans.

A new study of the health of highly impacted coral reefs off Singapore over a 27-year period has shown they are more resilient to the effects of human activity and sea warming than previously thought. University of Nottingham coral reef scientist Dr David Feary was part of an international team that found that shallow coral reefs rebounded rapidly from a major bleaching episode in 1998, despite experiencing such high levels of sedimentation that underwater visibility was typically less than two metres.

Blood vessels play a vital role in stem cell reproduction, enabling the brain to grow and develop in the womb, reveals new UCL research in mice. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by Wellcome, shows that blood vessels can increase the number of neural stem cells inside a living organism.

Older adolescents and adults can learn certain thinking skills including non-verbal reasoning more effectively than younger people, finds new UCL research. The study, published in Psychological Science, also highlights the fact that non-verbal reasoning skills can be readily trained and do not represent an innate, fixed ability.

A new study using MRI to investigate the effects of carbohydrates in the diet on symptoms of patients with irritable bowel syndrome has found they are more sensitive to gas in their bowel. The trial has been carried out by the NIHR Nottingham Digestive Diseases Biomedical Research Centre and experts at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre at The University of Nottingham.

Children and adolescents are being targeted by online gambling websites due to flaws in advertising legislation, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London and City University London. The researchers point to recent statistics from an international research review which suggest that 77 to 83 per cent of adolescents are involved in some kind of gambling, and 10 to 15 per cent of adolescents are at risk of developing serious gambling problems.

Scientists have measured the catastrophic genetic damage caused by smoking in different organs of the body and identified several different mechanisms by which tobacco smoking causes mutations in DNA. Researchers led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with collaborators at King's, found smokers accumulated an average of 150 extra mutations in every lung cell for each year of smoking one packet of cigarettes a day.

A new Oxford University study suggests that playing internet games is not as addictive as gambling. It is the first research that has tried to measure the scale of gaming addiction in the general population using symptoms of 'internet gaming disorder' as defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Researchers from the University's Oxford Internet Institute asked nationally representative samples of men and women in four countries how they felt after gaming using the APA checklist of health symptoms.

Scientists have developed the largest ever family tree of a major group of flowering plants called monocots, which could help protect their diversity. Monocots account for a quarter of all flowering plants. They are among the most diverse and economically important plants on the planet, but their evolutionary lines have never been properly mapped.

New research has raised the possibility of minimising the side effects of treatment for patients with autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. A research team has been using genetics to explore ways of producing new treatments for autoimmune diseases, but with significantly fewer side effects.

Sleep deprivation may result in people consuming more calories during the following day, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis led by researchers at King's College London. The meta‑analysis combined the results of many previous small intervention studies to produce a more robust answer and found that sleep-deprived people consumed an average of 385 kcal per day extra, which is equivalent to the calories of about four and a half slices of bread.

Women may be at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder following a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, suggests a new study. The team behind the research, from Imperial College London , say the findings suggest women should be routinely screened for the condition, and receive specific psychological support following pregnancy loss.

New research shows investing in elephant conservation is smart economic policy for many African countries. We know that within parks, tourism suffers when elephant poaching ramps up. This work provides a first estimate of the scale of that loss Andrew Balmford The current elephant poaching crisis costs African countries around USD $25 million annually in lost tourism revenue, according to a new study published .