Studies and Analyses

Show that little sleep for a short period improves some simple tasks

Lack of sleep can affect an individual’s memory, ability to perform simple daily tasks, and attention span. Recent studies that help decipher the basic mechanism of sleep may help in the development of drugs that reduce the need for sleep in military combat or other circumstances.

In other research, investigators have found that sleeping only a few hours a night over a long period of time impairs memor

Other genes, environmental factors also likely to contribute to prevalent skin disorder

After a decade of searching, researchers have identified three genes linked to psoriasis, a potentially debilitating and disfiguring skin condition characterized by burning or itching patches of raised red skin.

The project’s leader, Anne Bowcock, Ph.D., professor of genetics, of medicine and of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says the results cou

Workouts may result in increased blood flow to the brain, allow a person to be more mentally engaged

Exercise appears to allow for better blood vessel development in the brain and allow a person to be more mentally engaged. Those are the conclusions of a study partially conducted by Oregon Health & Science University researchers. The results will be presented Saturday Nov. 8 at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

“While we already know that exercise i

Survey of Public Awareness of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) shows limited awareness that this cancer is the most common cancer across Europe and is preventable.

Results of a new survey show that fewer than one in three Europeans recognise that colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the most common cancer among European men and women, ahead of both breast and lung cancer, demonstrating a severe lack of awareness and understanding of CRC.

The survey, Public Awareness of Colorectal Cancer i

The behavior of intermetallic superconductors, like the kind used in hospital MRI machines, is even more curious than recent Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alexei Abrikosov had theorized. In newly reported research,* scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research have determined that so-called type II superconductors have the equivalent of a multiple personality—at least three distinct physical states, each with its own superconducting beh

A new study funded largely by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) reveals that people diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) — an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own tissues — have autoantibodies in their blood years before the symptoms of lupus appear. The early detection of autoantibodies — proteins that attach to the body’s healthy tissues by mistake — may help in recognizing those who will develop the disease and all