Latest Rutgers Stories
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. "“ Two New Jersey research teams are reporting discoveries about the biological nature of psychiatric disorders that may bring them closer to the ultimate goal of finding cures for complex diseases, such as autism and schizophrenia. Scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) have unveiled new information regarding the genetic, cellular and...
(Newark)-Psychology researchers have long understood and accepted the importance of an individual's brain activity in motor areas when interpreting the actions of others. However, much less was known about the role the body plays in helping individuals process and understand the same information. With the help of two patients suffering from an extremely rare degenerative neurological condition, a Rutgers-Newark Psychology Professor and his team of researchers have established that the body...
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. "“ The first, high resolution continuous record of oxygen concentration in the earth's atmosphere shows that a sharp rise in oxygen about 50 million years ago gave mammals the evolutionary boost they needed to dominate the planet, according to Paul Falkowski, Rutgers professor of marine science and lead author of a paper published Sept. 30 in the journal Science. Falkowski and his colleagues have measured the abundance of carbon 13, a byproduct of...
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers' Bonnie Firestein likens nerve cells to trees -- some are short and bushy with many branches while others are tall with a few branches coming out of one or two main trunks. Different branching patterns correlate with specific disorders and Firestein's quest is to discover how these dissimilar patterns come about and why. A new paper by Firestein and her colleagues at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, examines the role of the protein snapin...
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. "“ In 2004, Rutgers researchers halted prostate cancer in laboratory animals using a compound derived from a Southeast Asian shrub whose leaves produce a poison ivy-like skin rash. Now they have achieved the same kind of success with pancreatic cancer. The cancer-fighting compound, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and generally known as TPA, is found in an oil drawn from seeds of the skin-irritating shrub, the croton plant (Croton tiglium L.). Croton...
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. "“ The journal Nature in a featured article today proclaimed the completion of the rice genome by the Plant Genome Initiative at Rutgers (PGIR) and other members of an international consortium."This is a breakthrough of inestimable significance not only for science and agriculture, but also for all those people who depend on rice as their primary dietary staple "“ more than half the world's population," said Joachim Messing, director of Rutgers'...
Anchorage Alaska - An independent consortium of university-based environmental scientists announced today the results from three 2004 expeditions to Amchitka Island in the western Aleutians to assess radionuclides in that marine environment. Three nuclear test shots were set off under Amchitka by the U.S. Government during a six-year period beginning in 1965. The study can be found at www.cresp.org Seafood Safety "The findings should provide assurance to both those who depend on the...
ROME -- A Jewish catacomb in Rome predates its Christian counterparts by at least 100 years, indicating burial in the city's sprawling underground cemeteries may not have begun as a Christian practice, according to a study published Wednesday. Scholars have long believed that early Christians were the first to bury their dead in Roman catacombs. But Dutch experts from Utrecht University who dated organic material from a Jewish catacomb in the city say it appears that early Christians...
NEWARK, N.J. "“ Home care managers and administrators should design and implement a program emphasizing organizational traits to create a culture of nurse retention and reduce high nurse turnover, according to a study conducted by Linda Flynn, a Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member. The study, "The Importance of Work Environment: Evidenced-Based Strategies for Enhancing Nurse Retention," is featured in the June issue of Home Healthcare Nurse (volume 23, issue 5). "The...
