Research

Honeybees and bumblebees prefer flying shortest distance between two flowers

Honeybees and bumblebees prefer flying shortest distance between two flowersWashington, March 21: Insects like honeybees and bumblebees prefer the shortest distance when they have to fly from one flower to another, according to an American study.

S. Alan Walters of Southern Illinois University and Jonathan R. Schultheis of North Carolina State University came to this conclusion after studying their pollinator movements down and across rows in watermelon, by tracking pollen flow.

Lab-on-a-Chip may help study how cancer cells detach from neighbouring tissue to spread disease

Lab-on-a-Chip may help study how cancer cells detach from neighbouring tissue to spread diseaseLondon, March 19: Johns Hopkins engineers say that they have developed a new lab-on-a-chip that can lead to better cancer therapies.

The researchers say that their invention may help figure out how cancer cells break free from neighbouring tissue, an "escape" that can spread the disease to other parts of the body.

How brain remembers single events

 How brain remembers single eventsWashington, Mar 19: One-time events—like a marriage proposal, a wedding toast, a baby’s birth—always hold that special place in our memory, and scientists have now found how brain remembers such events without them being repeated over time.

In a study on rats, UC Irvine scientists have found that a single brief experience was as effective at activating neurons and genes associated with memory as more repetitive activities.

Computer learning-electrical stimulation combo may give paralysed people better muscle control

Computer learning-electrical stimulation combo may give paralysed people better muscle controlWashington, March 19: A University of Florida researcher that paralysed people can be enabled to control their limbs in more precise and life-like manner by combining computer learning technology with electrical stimulation, a simple technique that has been in use for decades to prompt muscles to contract.

Faith in God ''reduces anxiety''

Faith in God ''reduces anxiety''London, Mar 18: Religious people are less anxious than non-believers when they make mistakes, researchers at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, have found.

In the study, they found that religious people exhibit lower activity than non-believers in a brain region linked to anxiety when erring on a simple test.

Guitarists’ brains become synchronised during gigs just like their guitars

Guitarists’ brains become synchronised during gigs just like their guitarsWashington, March 17: When a group of musicians perform during a concert, their brains become synchronised in the same fashion as their instruments do, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and the University of Salzburg came to this conclusion after recording the brain electrical activity in eight pairs of guitarists with the aid of electroencephalography (EEG).

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