A new study out of Harvard University shows that pasteurized milk products from factory farms is linked to causing hormone-dependent cancers. It turns out that the concentrated animal feeding operations model of raising cows on factory farms churns out milk with dangerously high levels of estrone sulfate, an estrogen compound linked to testicular, prostate, and breast cancers.

Dr. Ganmaa Davaasambuu, Ph.D., and her colleagues specifically identified "milk from modern dairy farms" as the culprit, referring to large-scale confinement operations where cows are milked 300 days of the year, including while they are pregnant. Compared to raw milk from her native Mongolia, which is extracted only during the first six months after cows have already ...

Hate winter? Scientists believe they've found the protein that causes winter-specific depression, a psychological condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). According to study conducted by the University of Copenhagan in Denmark, people who develop SAD have less access to serotonin, the brain signalling compound associated with feelings of well-being and happiness, as the days get shorter in the winter months. This is because their brains ramp up the production of a transporter protein called serotonin transporter, which transports serotonin into the nerve cells where it’s not active.

Source: http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142710-26407.html ...

A new estimate suggests 100 million sharks are slaughtered worldwide every year, numbers that are completely unsustainable according to researchers.

The majority of the time, the fin is the only part of the body used. The rest is simply thrown away.

Down syndrome  is caused by a triple copy of chromosome 21, which leads to a number of cognitive and physical delays. Now researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have found a protein that restores the some of the cognitive and behavioral disorders found in the disease.

Mice who were deficient in the SNX27 protein exhibited similar characteristics to mice with Down syndrome—namely, they had fewer glutamate receptors, which are important for learning and memory, the team reported in Nature Medicine on Sunday (March 24). The researchers also showed that in mice with Down syndrome, the protein is blocked by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21, and produced in excess in Down syndrome mice as a re ...

Barely half an hour after being jolted by a major earthquake on Tuesday, people of the Pakistani coastal town of Gwadar had another shock when they saw a new island emerge in the sea, just over a kilometre from the shore.


It has a rough surface, much of which is muddy and some parts are mostly made up of fine- to coarse-grained sand. ...

Surgeons have successfully replaced a patient’s skull with a 3D-printed version. Three months after the operation the patient, a 22-year-old woman with a rare disorder that thickened her skull and gave her poor eyesight as well as headaches, has recovered her eyesight and has gone back to work.

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Users of magic mushrooms often report altered states of consciousness and a synesthesia-like melding of the senses. Now, scientists may have figured out why: Psilocybin changes the brain’s wiring, creating a hyperconnected brain that contains links between regions that don’t normally communicate with each other.


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Scientists have identified the genetic mutation responsible for the first blue chicken eggs in South American Mapuche fowl and their European descendants, Araucana, 200 to 500 years ago.

They used the unique genetic resources conserved by heritage or “fancy” poultry breeders to identify the exact location of the mutation in the genome in blue egg laying chickens and an additional genomic study to reveal the genetic cause of the blue colored eggshell is a harmless ancient retrovirus in the domestic chicken.
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