A new study from Uppsala University demonstrates that elderly humans carrying a common variant of the fat mass and obesity gene FTO also have a shifted endocrine balance. Low blood concentrations of the satiety hormone leptin and high blood concentrations of the hunger promoting hormone ghrelin makes carriers of the FTO gene put on weight. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.
A study that has ‘weighed’ hundreds of dinosaurs suggests that shrinking their bodies may have helped the group that became birds to continually exploit new ecological niches throughout their evolution, and become hugely successful today.
125 researchers, policymakers, teachers and educators are invited to join the seminar: ”ESD - Call for Action” on 3 June 2014 at Blåsenhus, Uppsala University to discuss and formulate recommendations to reinforce and strengthen education for sustainable development (ESD) in Sweden and abroad.
An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University reports a breakthrough on understanding the demographic history of Stone-Age humans. A genomic analysis of 11 Stone-Age human remains from Scandinavia revealed that expanding Stone-age farmers assimilated local hunter-gatherers and that the hunter-gatherers were historically in lower numbers than the farmers.
Professor David Collier at the University of California, Berkeley, is this year’s winner of the Johan Skytte Prize in political science. He has been awarded the prize for ‘his contributions to concept development in political science and the development of methods for qualitative analysis’. The Johan Skytte Prize is one of the greatest and most prestigious awards in political science.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for universal testing of all suspected malaria cases prior to treatment, but this goal will be nearly impossible to achieve without a major shift in how diagnostics are delivered and used in malaria-endemic countries. This is shown in a new study from Uppsala University recently published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Although a greater proportion of teenage boys than girls watch and fantasise about sex they have seen in pornography, there are no differences between the sexes when it comes to what types of sex they fantasise about. This is shown in a new study from Uppsala University that is published in Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
In a new study a team of researchers lead from Uppsala University show how lactase persistence variants tell the story about the ancestry of the Khoe people in southern Africa. The team concludes that pastoralist practices were brought to southern Africa by a small group of migrants from eastern Africa. The study is now published in Current Biology.
Researchers at the Division of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials, Uppsala University have developed a paper filter, which can remove virus particles with the efficiency matching that of the best industrial virus filters. The paper filter consists of 100 percent high purity cellulose nanofibers, directly derived from nature.
This week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of French and Swedish researchers present the earliest fossil evidence for the presence of bone marrow in the fin of a 370 million-year-old fish.
New research from Uppsala University shows that saturated fat builds more fat and less muscle than polyunsaturated fat. This is the first study on humans to show that the fat composition of food not only influences cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease but also determines where the fat will be stored in the body. The study has been published in the journal Diabetes.
This week in Nature, a team of French and Swedish researchers present new fossil evidence for the origin of one of the most important and emotionally significant parts of our anatomy: the face. They show how a series of fossils documents the step-by-step assembly of the face during the evolutionary transition from jawless to jawed vertebrates.
Yoho National Park’s 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale – home to some of the planet’s earliest animals is one of the world’s most important fossil sites. Now, more than a century after its discovery a new Burgess Shale fossil bed, Marble Canyon, has been located 42 kilometres away in Kootenay National Park.
Ancient DNA from early Iberian farmers shows that the wideheld evolutionary hypothesis of calcium absorption was not the only reason Europeans evolved milk tolerance.
Contrary to common belief, mitochondrial genes seem to matter for how well individuals survive and reproduce. These new results are reported by researchers at Uppsala University, Sweden, who studied the genes of a common beetle species.
A new study from Uppsala University, Sweden, shows that one night of sleep deprivation increases morning blood concentrations of NSE and S-100B in healthy young men. These molecules are typically found in the brain. Thus, their rise in blood after sleep loss may indicate that a lack of snoozing might be conducive to a loss of brain tissue. The findings are published in the journal SLEEP.
The fact that smoking means a considerable health risk is nowadays commonly accepted. New research findings from Uppsala University and Uppsala Clinical Research Center show that smoking alters several genes that can be associated with health problems for smokers, such as increased risk for cancer and diabetes.
Perfluorinated compounds are environmental toxins that are found in fire extinguishing foam and water-repellent textiles and, for example. In a new study, a research team led from Uppsala University has seen links between high levels of perfluorinated compounds in the blood and diabetes.
Lesbian couples who start a family through assisted reproduction with donated sperm are more satisfied with their relationship and evince less parental stress than heterosexual couples who have undergone IVF treatment. This is shown in a new dissertation from Uppsala University.
Seeds from Moringa oleifera trees can be used to purify water. Uppsala University leads a research group which has discovered that seed material can give a more efficient purification process than conventional synthetic materials in use today.