Not a big fan of bacon or ham? Your genes might be behind it, a new study finds. Researchers found that 70 percent of participants had two functional copies of a gene linked to a particular odor receptor in the brain. This cellular receptor is attuned to a compound in male mammals called androstenone, which is also common in pork. In the study, 23 people were asked to smell pork. Those with either one or no function... (read more)
A UCSF stem cell study conducted in mice suggests a novel strategy for treating damaged cardiac tissue in patients following a heart attack. The approach potentially could improve cardiac function, minimize scar size, lead to the development of new blood vessels -- and avoid the risk of tissue rejection. n the investigation, reported online in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers iso... (read more)
Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. The surprising finding answers a longstanding question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. And they suspect that other degenerative brain diseases like Parkin... (read more)
Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up. They say the discovery, published in Plos One, could lead to new treatments for addictive behaviour. Internet addiction is a clinical disorder marked by out-of-control internet use. A research team led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan carried out brain scans of... (read more)
Using Twitter, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont has created a happiness graph, which shows happiness has fallen over the last few years. “After a gradual upward trend that ran from January to April 2009, the overall time series has shown a gradual downward trend, accelerating somewhat over the first half of 2011,” the researchers write in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal PLoS ONE. “... (read more)
Everybody knows that yawning is contagious. When a person yawns, other people can respond by yawning. What wasn't known is that "yawn transmission" is more frequent, and faster, between people sharing an empathic bond: close friends, kin, and mates. The study carried out by Ivan Norscia and Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa (Natural History Museum) and Cnr-Istc of Rome, provides the first behavioural ... (read more)
The psychiatric side effects of a popular quit-smoking drug make it too dangerous to use as a first attempt to kick the habit, according to a new study. The authors suggest the drug should eventually be taken off the market altogether. The new study on the safety of varenicline (Chantix), appearing in the journal PLoS One, found that when compared with other smoking-cessation treatments, in... (read more)
PLoS ONE is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science since 2006. It covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine. All submissions go through an internal and external pre-publication peer review but are not excluded on the basis of lack of perceived importance or adherence to a scientific field. The PLoS ONE online platform has post-publication user discussion and rating features.
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