Category Biology/Biotechnology

Just five more minutes … can a coffee before a nap really help you pay back your sleep debt? Credit: www.shutterstock.com

Taking a nap is a common way of overcoming your sleepiness and repaying your sleep debt. Drinking coffee can also help us get through the day. In a 1997 study, 12 sleep-deprived people drank the equivalent of one large cup of brewed coffee and 5 minutes later had the chance to nap for 15 minutes. They then did some driving tests in a simulator to check their alertness. Although drinking a coffee (without a nap) helped their driving performance, combining caffeine with a nap (a coffee nap) improved it even further...

Unusually weak neural responses (yellow spot) in the anterior cingulate cortex: autistic people find it hard to imagine themselves in somebody else’s position. Credit: Joshua Balsters / ETH Zurich

Brain researchers at ETH Zurich and other universities have shown for the first time that a region of the brain associated with empathy only activates very weakly in autistic people. This knowledge could help to develop new therapies for those affected by autism. Professor Nicole Wenderoth and her senior scientist Joshua Balsters have used fMRI from autistic adolescents to discover unusual activity in a particular region of the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

The researchers were aware that activity in this part of the brain is coupled with the “theory of mind”, which makes it possi...

Schematic illustration of an on-site water purification system for rural communities. Powered by solar panels, the low-cost, portable device produces hydrogen peroxide from oxygen gas and water. Credit: Zhihua Chen/Stanford University

Many disease-causing organisms and organic pollutants can be quickly removed from water using H2O2 without leaving any harmful residual chemicals. However, producing and distributing hydrogen peroxide is a challenge in many parts of the world. Now scientists at the Dept of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have created a small device for hydrogen peroxide production that could be powered by renewable energy sources, like conventional solar panels.

“The idea is to develop an electrochemical cell that generates hydrogen perox...

Micrograph showing a lymph node invaded by ductal breast carcinoma, with extension of the tumour beyond the lymph node. Credit: Nephron/Wikipedia

Bisphenol S, a substitute for bisphenol A (BPA) in the plastic industry, shows the potential for increasing the aggressiveness of breast cancer through its behavior as an endocrine-disrupting chemical, a new study finds. The results, which tested BPS in human breast cancer cells, will be presented Saturday at ENDO 2017, the Endocrine Society’s 99th annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

BPS is found in polycarbonate hard plastics, currency bills and thermal paper receipts as well as many products touted to be free of BPA, a known endocrine-disrupting chemical suspected of having multiple possible health risks...