news 2016

Scientists have identified a new genetic mutation responsible for the black colouring of the coats of pigs in Hawaii, which is different to the Asian or European mutations leading to the black colour. Their paper suggests that human societies have independently selected domesticated pigs that express the trait of black-coloured coats on at least three separate occasions because they liked the novelty colour.

Scientists suggest vitamin A may have a role to play in tackling the commonest form of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common type of malignancy of the pancreas, is extremely aggressive and very difficult to treat. Many scientists are currently investigating the genetic mutations and biochemical signalling pathways that enable cancer cells to spread to other parts of the body.

A major review of the available evidence on the safety and efficacy of statin therapy,  published in The Lancet , intends to help doctors, patients and the public make informed decisions about the use of the drugs. The authors warn that the benefits of statin therapy have been underestimated, and the harms exaggerated, because of a failure to acknowledge properly both the wealth of evidence from randomised trials and the limitations of other types of studies.

The discovery of two massive holes punched through a stream of stars could help answer questions about the nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance holding galaxies together. While we do not yet understand what dark matter is formed of, we know that it is everywhere. Denis Erkal Researchers have detected two massive holes which have been 'punched' through a stream of stars just outside the Milky Way, and found that they were likely caused by clumps of dark matter, the invisible substance which holds galaxies together and makes up a quarter of all matter and energy in the universe.

"F**k it! Let's get to drinking - poison our livers!" — some of the lyrics in YouTube music videos which researchers at the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies say may harmfully influence adolescents in Britain. The new research is an extension of previous work which found that UK teenagers were heavily exposed to images of alcohol and tobacco in YouTube music, effectively glamourising the habits and promoting underage drinking and smoking.

Lynn Prince Cooke, Professor of Social Policy at the University, has been awarded a £1.5 million European Research Council consolidator grant for NEWFAMSTRAT, an innovative 5-year comparative research project to unravel how and why gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work persist in Finland, Germany, and the UK.

Taking an oral vitamin D'supplement in addition to standard asthma medication is likely to reduce severe asthma attacks, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Asthma is a common chronic disease affecting about 300 million people worldwide, with symptoms including wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath.

New research shows that women ask for wage rises just as often as men, but men are 25 per cent more likely to get a raise when they ask. Using a randomly chosen sample of 4,600 workers across more than 800 employers, the research is the first to do a statistical test of the idea that women get paid less because they are not as pushy as men.

Scientists discover how 'super enzyme? speeds up DNA repair A 'super enzyme' known as PARP3 can help to accelerate the repair of DNA - according to scientists from the University of Sussex. In the body, mutations can arise from DNA damage which is not repaired properly, leading to genome instability and cancer or neurodegenerative disease.

Tailored, targeted treatment for patients with oesophageal cancer could be developed after scientists discovered that the disease can be classified into three different subtypes Our study suggests we could make changes to the way we treat oesophageal cancer. Rebecca Fitzgerald The findings, published on Monday, could help find drugs that target specific weaknesses in each subtype of the disease, potentially making treatment more effective and boosting survival.

Scrub typhus, a disease transmitted through 'chiggers' that kills at least 140,000 people a year in the Asia-Pacific region, may now be endemic in a part of South America, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers from Oxford University and the Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile confirmed a cluster of cases of the life-threatening tropical disease in a large island off of Chile, more than 12,000 kilometres from its usual range on the other side of the Pacific.

Tiny magnetic particles from air pollution have for the first time been discovered to be lodged in human brains- and researchers think they could be a possible cause of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Lancaster University found abundant magnetite nanoparticles in the brain tissue from 37 individuals aged three to 92-years-old who lived in Mexico City and Manchester.

A new study suggests it may be possible to predict which people infected with TB will develop the disease. Scientists have found evidence of a separate stage in tuberculosis (TB) infection, where people have no symptoms but are more likely to develop the full disease. The findings suggest it may be possible to identify which people are most at risk of developing TB.

An international exoplanet 'think tank? is meeting this week in Cambridge to deliberate on the ten most important questions that humanity could answer in the next decade about planets outside our solar system. We're really at the frontier in exoplanet research.

Italian women consistently do the most housework. However, the researchers' analysis of 66 surveys across 19 countries shows 'traditional' countries are catching up on gender equality. Researchers have looked at the time spent doing housework by men and women living in 19 countries from the early 1960s up to the first decade of the 21st century.

Smoking the equivalent of a single 'spliff' of cannabis makes people less willing to work for money while 'high', finds a new UCL study. The research, published in Psychopharmacology, is the first to reliably demonstrate the short-term effects of cannabis on motivation in humans. The researchers also tested motivation in people who were addicted to cannabis but not high during the test, and found that their motivation levels were no different to volunteers in the control group.

New research by scientists at King's College London suggests that air pollution from London's roads is improving overall but more work may be needed to tackle some sources of traffic pollution, which continue to breach limits in many parts of the city. The study looked at trends in air pollution over a ten-year period spanning 2005 to 2014, using data collected from 65 roads.

New research by The University of Nottingham has found that more than 90% of horse owners did not feel confident in spotting early signs of colic. Now, The British Horse Society (BHS) and The University of Nottingham have teamed up to help horse owners combat the life-threatening condition at today's (1 September) launch of the REACT Now to Beat Colic campaign.

Memory loss in mice has been successfully reversed following the discovery of new information about a key mechanism underlying the loss of nerve connectivity in the brain, say UCL researchers. Published today in Current Biology , The team found Wnt proteins play a key role in the maintenance of nerve connectivity in the adult brain and could become targets for new treatments that prevent and restore brain function in neurodegenerative diseases.

A team of researchers led by Cardiff University has discovered a promising new drug treatment for cocaine addiction. The experimental therapy, which involves administering a drug currently used in cancer therapy trials, treats cocaine addiction by inhibiting memories responsible for cravings.