How many planets might be orbiting the star HD 10180?

Scientists led by USC Professor Kelvin JA Davies demonstrated that a protein known as Nrf2 governs a cell’s ability to cope with oxidative stress by increasing the expression of key genes for removing damaged proteins.

Obese individuals could be exposed to higher levels of radiation during routine X-ray and CT scans as most medical imaging equipments are not designed with overweight and obese patients in mind, researchers say. A new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to calculate exactly how much additional radiation obese patients receive from a CT scan. Research results show the internal organs of obese men receive 62% more radiation during a CT scan than those of normal weight men. For obese women, it was an increase of 59%.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter last month snapped a dust devil — 12 miles high — thundering across the surface of the red planet. “It really is the size of it that is the unique thing,” LA Times quoted Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Ashwin Vasavada as saying.

Ritika Samaddar, chief dietician, Max Healthcare, Delhi, explains that the weather is such that it automatically changes people's eating habits. "Drastic weight loss is easily possible in summers as compared to winters because one can exercise more in the season, does not overeat because of the slow body system and at the same time can consume more fluids that fill up the body. All these lead to a major weight loss," Samaddar told IANS.

Scientists led by USC Professor Kelvin JA Davies demonstrated that a protein known as Nrf2 governs a cell’s ability to cope with oxidative stress by increasing the expression of key genes for removing damaged proteins. The finding could one day help doctors to break down cancer cells’ defences, making them more susceptible to treatment.

Blood glucose levels following starch ingestion are influenced by genetically-determined differences in salivary amylase, an enzyme that breaks down dietary starches, a new study has revealed. Specifically, higher salivary amylase activity is related to lower blood glucose.

A person’s memory declines at a faster rate in the last two-and-a-half years of life than at any other time after memory problems first begin, researchers of two new studies revealed. Keeping mentally fit through board games or reading may be the best way to preserve memory during late life, suggests the second study.

The new species, known as Yutyrannus, has been identified from three fossils found in north-eastern China. The feathered meat-eating dinosaur lived about 125 million years ago, long before Tyrannosaurus rex, and is estimated to have weighed a whopping 1,400kg as an adult, the BBC reported.

In a rare and a first-of-its-kind phenomenon, a Silver Pheasant, a bird belonging to the peacock family, has changed its sex from female to a male. Confirming this and terming it a kind of "sex dimorphism", zoo director Renu Singh said that the phenomenon had surprised most of the staff in the zoo. The change was noticed by her some time back when she found the female in the bird enclosure shed not only her diminutive shape and size but also change her dull brown colour to a more vibrant colour of a male, which is often used by the polygamous male to win over female species.

Investigators from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, have outlined obstacles that stand in the way of making a huge dent in the cancer burden in the US and around the world. According to epidemiologist Graham A Colditz, at the Washington School of Medicine and his co-authors, lifestyle choices people make, from tobacco use to diet and exercise, play a significant role in causing cancer, said a Washington university statement.