Summary: Researchers are launching a multi-site pilot study to assess whether a ketogenic diet, alongside standard medications, can stabilize mood symptoms in young people with bipolar disorder. The 16-week trial…
Category: Life
Cuttlefish ink may overwhelm sharks’ sense of smell
The main component of common cuttlefish ink — melanin — strongly sticks to shark smell sensors, possibly explaining why the predators avoid ink.
This bird’s eye view of a shark hunt won a photo contest
A school of hardyhead silverside fish (Atherinomorus lacunosus) flees from four blacktip reef sharks near the shore of the Maldives in this aerial photo. Behavioral biologists Angela Albi and August…
Viewpoint: The ‘post genomic era’ reveals nothing less than a new biology. We just don’t know how to talk about it
You could be forgiven for thinking that the turn of the millennium was a golden age for the life sciences. After the halcyon days of the 1950s and ’60s when…
How CBD Modulates THC’s Impact on the Brain
Summary: Researchers have identified how CBD interacts with cannabinoid receptors to mitigate the negative effects of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. Unlike THC, which fully activates the receptor and…
How the Brain Overcomes Instinctive Fear and Adapts to New Threats
Summary: Researchers have identified brain mechanisms that help animals suppress instinctive fear responses when threats prove harmless over time. Using a visual threat model in mice, they found that specific…
A second version of bird flu is infecting cows. What does that mean?
While the risk to humans of exposure from cows or milk remains low, this new flu spillover from birds into cows raises the need for continued surveillance.
How mantis shrimp deliver punishing blows without hurting themselves
Mantis shrimp are famous for their ultrafast, powerful punches used to dispatch prey. They can land volley after shell-splintering volley, without major injury to their own nerves or flesh. That’s…
Extinct moa ate purple trufflelike fungi, fossil bird droppings reveal
For the first time, ancient DNA from droppings left by New Zealand’s flightless moa identifies actual species of fungi the doomed birds ate. The snacks, including purple lumps of a…
Will the Endangered Species Act survive Trump?
Now that Donald Trump has reassumed the presidency of the United States, scientists and legal scholars are bracing for his potential dismantling of a host of the country’s most pivotal…
