A study led by a Massachusetts General Hospital pediatrician finds that children ages 3 to 7 who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to have problems with attention, emotional control and peer relationships in mid-childhood.  Reported online in the journal Academic Pediatrics, the study found significant differences in the responses of parents and teachers to surveys regarding executive function – which includes attention, working memory, reasoning and problem solving – and behavioral problem...

New study examines role of acoustic-gravity waves as ocean transport, early warning of tsunamis. Acoustic–gravity waves In fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves generated in a fluid medium or at the interface between two media when the force of gravity or buoyancy tries to restore equilibrium. An example of such an interface is that between the atmosphere and the ocean, which gives rise to wind waves. A theory of guided propagation of sound in layered, movinMITg fluids is extended to ...

Two different studies from the Environmental Working Group examined newborn’s blood, and found over 200+ toxins in newborn’s blood! Some of these toxins were pesticides, Bisphenol A, mercury, some are known to cause cancer, and some are known to be neurotoxic. The babies were exposed in utero to these chemicals directly from the mother’s exposure. Some of these toxins can have an immediate affect, such as low birth weight. But some cause problems later in the child's life. There is a phenomenon ...

A team of engineers led by 94-year-old John Goodenough, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, has developed the first all-solid-state battery cells that could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for handheld mobile devices, electric cars and stationary energy storage. Goodenough’s latest breakthrough, completed with Cockrell School senior research fellow Maria H...

Personalized medicine is a medical procedure that separates patients into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease. The terms personalized medicine, precision medicine, stratified medicine and P4 medicine are used interchangeably to describe this concept though some authors and organisations use these expressions separately to indicate particular nuances. Pers...

SkinCare is a human physiology experiment, which aims at characterizing different parameters of human skin (i.e. hydration grade, transepidermal water loss, skin surface video imaging) in weightlessness and inside the International Space Station. Long-duration missions in microgravity affect skin by causing excessive dryness, increased cell loss and increased aging. Investigators will test the applicability of the space environment as a model of aging skin. Noninvasive medical equipment will be ...

Already feeling drained so early in the year? Genes might contribute in a small but significant way to whether people report being tired and low in energy. This is according to UK researchers led by Vincent Deary of Northumbria University, Newcastle, and Saskia Hagenaars of the University of Edinburgh, in a paper in Springer Nature’s journal Molecular Psychiatry. They found that genetics accounts for about eight percent of people’s differences in self-reported tiredness/low energy; this impli...

Why children succeed or fail in school is one of the most enduring questions for educational researchers. A salient finding from traditional research on both adult education and early childhood intervention programs is that the mother' s level of education is one of the most important factors influencing children's reading levels and other school achievements. Generally, traditional research has revealed that more highly educated mothers have greater success in providing their children with t...

Recently, smart contact lenses with electronic circuits have been proposed for various sensor and display applications where the use of flexible and biologically stable electrode materials is essential. Graphene is an atomically thin carbon material with a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice that shows outstanding electrical and mechanical properties as well as excellent biocompatibility. In addition, graphene is capable of protecting eyes from electromagnectic (EM) waves that may cause eye dis...

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have discovered a way to detect signs of cancer on a cell-by-cell basis using two lasers and a camera. Several medical devices currently in use and in clinical trials around the world look for increases in cellular stiffness as an indicator of cancerous tissue. These devices, however, rely on readings from many cells clustered together within the body and cannot operate on a cellular level. In a study published online Feb. 28 in the Biophysical Journ...

The Harvard trio of Arthur Jaffe, the Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science, postdoctoral fellow Zhengwei Liu, and researcher Alex Wozniakowski has developed a 3-D picture-language for mathematics with potential as a tool across a range of topics, from pure math to physics. We present a 3D, topological picture-language for quantum information. Our approach combines charged excitations carried by strings, with topological properties that arise from embedding the strin...

People who suffer long-term stress may also be more prone to obesity, according to research by scientists at UCL which involved examining hair samples for levels of cortisol, a hormone which regulates the body’s response to stress. The paper, published in the journal Obesity, showed that exposure to higher levels of cortisol over several months is associated with people being more heavily, and more persistently, overweight. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has markedly increased duri...