U.S. researchers have discovered that depression shrinks the brain by stopping nerve connections from forming, thus causing memory and concentration problems.Researchers analyzed brain tissue of patients who died after having memory and concentration disorders, and found inactivity in their synapses. Synapses are genes that are necessary for the function and structure of brain nerve connections.The loss of brain connections happened due to a particular protein called GATA1, which acts like a “sw

 Radioactive materials released into the environment by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have caused mutations in butterflies, a study indicates.Scientists say they've detected an increase in mutations in leg, antennae and wing shape among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident, and that laboratory experiments have confirmed the link with the radioactive release.Two mon

A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes, the science ministry said Monday.The development of such a battery could significantly raise the popularity of electric vehicles whose lithium-ion batteries currently take hours to recharge, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.Conventional batteries use only powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, mult

A study by the University of Texas found husbands and wives are equally romantic, but they express their feelings in different ways.Researchers at the university interviewed 168 couples at four points in their marriage, Britain‘s The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.Husbands and wives were questioned separately about how close and attached they felt to their partners, as well as a number of questions about each other’s behavior over the past 24 hours.Researchers found wives “seem to show love b

(123rf)Researchers at Cornell University in New York say they have developed a less intrusive method of determining whether someone is sexually aroused. While most previous work on what turns people on has involved measuring their genital responses, Gerulf Rieger, a researcher at Cornell, said measuring dilation or widening of the pupil in the eye can achieve the same goal, HealthDay reports. In f

U.S. researchers say they‘ve developed a “soft” robot that inches along like an earthworm and can keep working even after taking a pounding from a hammer.Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, a process called peristalsis.Such a soft robot could be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces, MIT mecha

A new study indicates that putting men under stress can lead them to find overweight women more attractive.The new study, led by researchers Viren Swami of the University of Westminster and Martin Tovee of Newcastle University, alleges that men who are put under stress have a higher preference toward overweight women than men who are relaxed.Swami and Tovee randomly selected a group of men and asked them to take part in a mock interview designed to elevate their stress levels. The control group,

 Fossils show two additional species of our genus Homo lived alongside our direct ancestral species in Africa almost 2 million years ago, scientists say.The discovery near Lake Turkana in Kenya confirms that a fossil skull found 40 years ago was a different species of early Homo living alongside Homo erectus during the Pleistocene epoch.That skull, dubbed KNM-ER 1470, missing the teeth and lower jaw but distinguished by a large brain size and long flat face, started a longstanding debate about j

Diacetyl, a flavoring used to produce the buttery flavor and aroma of microwave popcorn and other food, may be linked to Alzheimer’s, U.S. researchers say.Robert Vince, director of the Center for Drug Design at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues Swati More and Ashish Vartak said diacetyl has been the focus of research recently because it is linked to respiratory and other problems in workers at microwave popcorn and food-flavoring factories.In addition to microwave popcorn, diacetyl is

Astronomers in Germany say four “monster” sized stars in a nearby galaxy, but so far found nowhere else, are the result of “mergers” of stars in twin systems.The stars, as much as 300 times as massive as the sun, were discovered in 2010 in the giant star cluster R136 in the nearby galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, astronomers said.Until that discovery, observations of the Milky Way and other galaxies had suggested the upper limit for stars formed in the present day universe was about 150 times

Certain species of parrots are able to deduce by exclusion, an ability equal to that of 3-year-olds, scientists found in a recent study.Christian Schloegl and his team of researchers from the University of Vienna conducted an experiment in which they made African grey parrots find food by inferring from given information about where it was.They first presented the parrots with two boxes -- one of which was filled with food, and the other of which was empty -- and shook them. The parrots reliably

The remains of carnival attraction and “Apewoman” Julia Pastrana will be returned to her native Mexico, Oslo University in Norway said. Her body has been kept in Norway since the 1920s for research purposes, but a letter from Oslo University to Mexico‘s Ministry of Education, published in the scientific journal Uniforum, announced plans for a return to her home country for burial, the Norwegian news agency The Local reported Monday.Pastrana was a dancer, born in 1834 in Mexico with hypertrichosi