Health

Professor Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg is conducting a series of studies to investigate how hormones affect father-baby bonding. Image credit - Prof. Bakermans-Kranenburg

20 August 2018

New fathers may undergo hormonal, neural and behavioural changes

Fathers’ hormone levels and brain activity may change when they spend time with their children, helping them adapt to parenthood in a way that has been overlooked until now, according to Professor Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, who studies children and family relations at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and was until recently at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She is conducting a series of studies with new fathers, to investigate the role that hormones can play in how they bond with their children.

A study published in January this year showed that group interventions broadened dozens of Israelis’ views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Image credit - Flickr/Apps for Europe, licensed under CC BY 2.0

health

16 August 2018

How focusing on emotions helps diffuse political tension

Workshops focusing on intergroup emotions are showing how deeply-rooted beliefs can be changed to support conflict resolution.

health

09 August 2018

The mobile apps and wearable tech tapping into users' emotions to tackle depression and anxiety

Personalised smartphone applications and wearable technologies that are attuned to the user’s state of mind are offering customised ways of helping people cope with mental illness.

Dr Nadine Gogolla is studying the insular cortex and its connections to anxiety disorders. Image credit - Dr Nadine Gogolla

interview | health

02 August 2018

'Island of the brain' explains how physical states affect anxiety

A fold of tissue hidden deep inside the human brain which collects inputs from both inside and outside the body could explain how our physical states influence our emotions and may be the key to understanding anxiety disorders, according to Dr Nadine Gogolla, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich, Germany. She is using cutting-edge scientific techniques to probe this poorly studied brain region, known as the insular cortex, to reveal the role it plays in regulating our emotions.

Cerebral organoids allow scientists to test new drugs on human brain tissue in labs. Image credit - Jürgen Knoblich

health

30 July 2018

Mini-brains offer hope in search for new drugs for brain disorders

Miniature brains grown in laboratory dishes could overcome some of the problems testing drugs on animals and help researchers identify new ways to treat very human, and incurable, conditions like Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy.

Liquids activated by plasma have similar anti-cancer properties as cold plasma, researchers have found. Image credit - Prof. Annemie Bogaerts

health

26 July 2018

Activating a liquid with plasma gives it anti-cancer properties

Lab-based results showing that cold plasma can stop the growth of cancer cells have sparked hope that it could one day be used to treat the disease in humans – but scientists first need to understand why it has the effect it does.

Uncertainty about the effects that many medications can have on the unborn child leave a large number of pregnant women with untreated conditions. Image credit - Greyerbaby, licensed under CC0

health

23 July 2018

Finding drugs that are safe to take while pregnant

Expectant mothers often face a dilemma about whether to take medication when they fall ill due to fears it might harm their unborn baby, but new research is unravelling which drugs are safe to take during pregnancy.

Endometriosis, where the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the pelvis, affects around one in 10 women. Image credit - KGH, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

health

19 July 2018

Non-invasive tests to provide quicker diagnosis of endometriosis

Non-surgical ways of detecting endometriosis, such as blood tests, could reduce the time taken for a diagnosis, and researchers hope it will have a significant impact on the quality of life of women who live with the complex and painful condition.

interview | health | frontier research

10 July 2018

Study of DNA flags could reignite centuries-old evolution debate

Evolution could be partly based on environmental adaptation and not just random mutations, re-opening a centuries-old debate between Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, according to Professor Thomas Carell from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.

health

05 July 2018

Worms may hold the secret to longer life

Research into the remarkable regenerative powers of worms and the insights they can give into battling diseases could help humans live longer and healthier lives.