Washington, Apr 6: Scientists have successfully used the African frog Xenopus as a tool to identify important clues about the effects of maternal consumption of alcohol in early pregnancy.

As the Xenopus embryos are large, easy to work with and very responsive to environmental cues, they make for ideal instruments to understand early vertebrate development.

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and Foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) cause malformations in babies, including facial defects, short stature, and mental and behavioural abnormalities.

According to a study released on Thursday, Spanish researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid, together with scientists of other universities, found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the main chemical in the infamous narcotic agent, marijuana - likely helps the annihilation of brain cancer cells.

The research, which proposes to bring to improve the prospects of anti-cancer therapies, said that THC causes cancer cells to go through a process called autophagy - the breakdown that takes place when the cells fundamentally self-digest.

A decade-long research conducted by the Tata Memorial Hospital, and backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has reached a noteworthy conclusion with regard to detection of cervical cancer.

According to the study, genetic testing for human papilloma virus or HPV - by collecting DNA cells from the cervix - was a better method for detecting cervical cancer in comparison to the widely popular method called 'pap smear,' in which cells are collected from the surface of the cervix.

Washington, Apr 3: Think birds are just some “high-flying, cute looking” species? Well, it’s time you jiggle your thinking and respect their mental abilities, for a new study has found that jackdaws can interpret looks and gestures in the same way as humans.

According to a study reported online on April 2nd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, jackdaws—birds related to crows and ravens with eyes that appear similar to human eyes—can change their behaviour when someone is looking their way.

London, Apr 2: Baby birds can count and perform basic arithmetic, say researchers.

The study, conducted by scientists from the universities of Padova and Trento, has shown chicks'' ability to add and subtract objects as they were moved behind two screens.

Lucia Regolin, the study''s author, said the animals "performed basic arithmetic" to work out which screen concealed the larger group of objects.

In the study, scientists found that the baby animals could distinguish between two and three and in tests consistently picked the higher figure.

London, April 2: In what may lead to a change in the way air pollution is evaluated, scientists at Lund University in Sweden have shown that the tiny particles from traffic fumes are far "stickier" than other smoke and dust particles.

Research leader Jakob Londahl came to this conclusion after measuring how many airborne particles stay behind in the lungs.

For that purpose, the researchers used a new device called RESPI, which brings air being inhaled in through one chamber, and exhaled air out through a second chamber.

The device helped the researchers analyse particle number and size in both chambers.