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Solving mystery of the four-headed echidna penis

Credit: Picture: Jane Fenelon
Scientists from the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland have revealed the mystery behind the unique reproductive parts of the much-loved echidna.
In the paper, "The Unique Penile Morphology of the Short-Beaked Echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus", the team detail how the male monotreme's testes never descend, have no scrotum, and when not in use, their penis is stored internally.
They also detail how the echidna penis has four heads, which are actually rosette-like glans at the end. Just two of the four glans ever become functional during erection and which glans are functional appears to alternate between subsequent erections.

Monash , South-australia , Australia , Melbourne , Victoria , Currumbin , Queensland , Ghana , Gold-coast , Monash-university , University-of-melbourne

New study reveals how smoking during puberty can cause negative consequences in offspring

Credit: Eivind Senneset
Smoking in early puberty in boys may have negative consequences for their future generations of offspring, a study from the University of Bergen (UiB) shows.
By continued analysis of data gathered in the large international RHINESSA, RHINE and ECRHS studies, researchers have found that the health of future generations depends on actions and decisions made by young people today. This is particularly relevant for boys in early puberty and mothers/grandmothers both pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy, the study shows.
The paper "Prenatal and prepubertal exposures to tobacco smoke in men may cause lower lung function in future offspring: a three-generation study using a causal modelling approach" was recently published in the

World-health-organization , University-of-bergen-ui , European-respiratory , Developmental-reproductive-biology , Enetics , Oxicology , Edicine-health , Evelopmental-reproductive-biology , Mmunology-allergies-asthma , Ulmonary-respiratory-medicine , Rogenital-system

Telomere length, a longevity measure, may be determined early in life

One of the first studies to examine telomere length (TL) in childhood finds that the initial setting of TL during prenatal development and in the first years of life may determine one's TL throughout childhood and potentially even into adulthood or older age. The study also finds that TL decreases most rapidly from birth to age 3, followed by a period of maintenance into the pre-puberty period, although it was sometimes seen to lengthen.

Jie-yu , Whitney-cowell , Julie-herbstman , Jia-guo , Andreaa-baccarelli , Deliang-tang , Columbia-center , Columbia-mailman-school , Environmental-protection-agency , Icahn-school-of-medicine-at-mount-sinai , National-institutes-of-health , Environmental-health

Eating habits change only slightly after gestational diabetes diagnosis, NIH study suggests

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Pregnant women made only modest dietary changes after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Women with gestational diabetes are generally advised to reduce their carbohydrate intake, and the women in the study did cut their daily intake of juice and added sugars. They also increased their intake of cheese and artificially sweetened beverages. However, certain groups of women did not reduce their carbohydrate intake, including women with obesity, had more than one child, were Hispanic, had a high school degree or less, or were between the ages of 35-41 years.

Stefanien-hinkle , Human-development , Epidemiology-branch , Us-department-of-health , Human-services , National-institutes-of-health , Journal-of-the-academy-nutrition , National-institutes , Kennedy-shriver-national-institute , Child-health , Growth-studies

Living foams

In the earliest stage of life, animals undergo some of their most spectacular physical transformations. Once merely blobs of dividing cells, they begin to rearrange themselves into their more characteristic forms, be they fish, birds or humans. Understanding how cells act together to build tissues has been a fundamental problem in physics and biology.

Sangwoo-kim , Georginaa-stooke-vaughan , Marie-pochitaloff , Santa-barbara , Otger-camp , Mellichamp-chair , Systems-biology , Nature-physics , Biology , Biomechanics-biophysics , Cell-biology

Antidepressant use in pregnancy tied to affective disorders in offspring; no causal link

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IMAGE: Anna Rommel, PhD, Instructor, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
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Credit: Mount Sinai Health System
New York, NY - Major depressive disorder is highly prevalent, with one in five people experiencing an episode at some point in their life, and is almost twice as common in women than in men. Antidepressants are usually given as a first-line treatment, including during pregnancy, either to prevent the recurrence of depression, or as acute treatment in newly depressed patients. Antidepressant use during pregnancy is widespread and since antidepressants cross the placenta and the blood-brain barrier, concern exists about potential long-term effects of intrauterine antidepressant exposure in the unborn child.

New-york , United-states , Denmark , Danish , Anna-sophie-romel , Department-of-psychiatry-at-icahn-mount-sinai , Icahn-school-of-medicine-at-mount-sinai , Danish-national-registers , Icahn-school , Mount-sinai , Icahn-mount-sinai , Medicine-health

Vilcek honors immigrant scientists: Ruth Lehmann, Mohamed Abou Donia, Ibrahim Cissé, Silvi Rouskin

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IMAGE: A photo collage of all nine of the 2021 Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners - Including Science Prizewinners Ruth Lehmann, Mohamed Abou Donia, Ibrahim Cissé, and Silvi Rouskin. Other prizewinners pictured are...
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Credit: Courtesy of the Vilcek Foundation
NEW YORK, April 6, 2021-- The Vilcek Foundation has launched an online celebration to honor the recipients of the 2021 Vilcek Foundation Prizes. Formatted as a microsite, the online celebration recognizes and shares the accomplishments of the 2021 Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners in lieu of the Vilcek Foundation's annual gala.
Awarded annually, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes celebrate the value and importance of immigration by recognizing the outstanding achievements of foreign-born individuals in the United States. In 2021, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded in Biomedical Science, in Filmmaking, and for Excellence in Public Service.

Germany , California , United-states , Bulgaria , Niger , Egypt , San-francisco , Silvi-rouskin , Angelika-amon , Jan-vilcek , Marica-vilcek , Paul-heafy-whitehead

An artful study of cellular development in leaves

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IMAGE: A drawing series by artist Virginia Lopez-Anido that was inspired by research by her sister, Camila Lopez-Anido, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford who studies cellular development in plants.
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Credit: Virginia Lopez-Anido
How do we become a complex, integrated multicellular organism from a single cell?
While developmental biologists have long researched this fundamental question, Stanford University biologist and HHMI investigator Dominique Bergmann's recent work on the plant Arabidopsis thaliana has uncovered surprising answers.
In a new study, published April 5 in
Developmental Cell, led by Bergmann and postdoctoral scholar Camila Lopez-Anido, researchers used single-cell RNA sequencing technologies to track genetic activity in nearly 20,000 cells as they formed the surface and inner parts of an Arabidopsis leaf. Through this highly detailed technique, the researchers captured transient and rare cell states and found a surprising abundance of ambiguity in how cells traversed various identities, particularly early on within the stem cell population.

Germany , Virginia , United-states , German , Yan-gong , Camila-lopez-anido , Maria-ximena-anleu-gil , Annika-weimer , Dominique-bergmann , Leonardw-ely-jr , Nidhi-sharma , Stanford-bio

Connecting the dots between engagement and learning

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We've all heard the adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," but new research from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh finds that it isn't all about repetition. Rather, internal states like engagement can also have an impact on learning.
The collaborative research, published in
Nature Neuroscience, examined how changes in internal states, such as arousal, attention, motivation, and engagement can affect the learning process using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. Findings suggest that changes in internal states can systematically influence how behavior improves with learning, thus paving the way for more effective methods to teach people skills quickly, and to a higher level of proficiency.

Aaron-batista , Byron-yu , Steve-chase , Carnegie-mellon , Carnegie-mellon-university , Neuroscience-institute , University-of-pittsburgh , Nature-neuroscience , Neural-basis , Biology , Developmental-reproductive-biology , Neurobiology

Could environmental pollution from industry contribute to cryptorchidism increase?

Credit: Human Reproduction
Environmental pollution from industries such as coal mining and metal works may play a role in the increasing numbers of boys born with undescended testicles, according to a study published today (Wednesday) in
Human Reproduction [1].
The researchers stress that their findings are hypothesis-generating, cannot show that these industries cause cryptorchidism and that further, targeted research is required. However, the study of nearly 90,000 boys is the first to describe at a national level a recent increase in incidence of the condition over time and to identify clusters of cases in parts of France that are former mining or metal-working areas, such as the Pas de Calais in northern France. The boys all had operations to correct undescended testicles between 2002 and 2014 when they were younger than seven years.

United-kingdom , France , Edinburgh , City-of , Richard-sharpe , Science-department , Centre-for-reproductive-health , France-public-health , Research-council , University-of-edinburgh , Human-reproduction , Pas-de-calais