Smell can pass on mother’s fear
Researchers have found that if a mother experienced fear towards something specific before pregnancy, her baby will quickly learn to fear it too — through her odour when she feels fear. In the first direct observation of fear transmission, a team from Michigan Medical School and New York University studied mother rats who had learned to fear the smell of peppermint. It showed that mother rats “taught” it to their babies too through their alarm odour released during distress. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pointed the specific area of the brain where fear transmission takes root in the earliest days of life.
A universal test to detect cancerIJ
Researchers from the University of Bradford in the UK have claimed that their test could help doctors in ruling out cancer in patients with certain symptoms, which could save time and money, and help avoid unnecessary invasive procedures, including colonoscopies and biopsies. Additionally, it could help patients who are suspected of having a cancer that is difficult to diagnose. The lymphocyte Genome Sensitivity (lGS) test examines white blood cells and measures the damage done to their DNA when blasted with different levels of ultraviolet light (UVA). To conduct their study, the researchers analysed 208 study participants’ blood samples that were coded, anonymised and randomised, and then exposed to UVA light.
liver Grows Back In Three Weeks
Doctors at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (KDAH) have found that liver regeneration is nearly complete by three weeks, and does not take three months as most conventional medical textbooks suggest. The Andheri hospital that runs a living-donor transplant programme busted the myth by tracking the regeneration of liver in 11 recipients and six donors who had undergone transplants between March and November 2013. “Our study found that by the ninth day after the surgery, the donor’s remnant liver increased to more than 1.5 times its size and by the 12th day, almost doubled. Similarly, the liver transplanted into the patient doubled in size 19 days after the transplant,” said Dr Vinay Kumaran, consultant and head of the liver transplant programme at KDAH.