Real-life love potion identified

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Researchers found that experimental subjects preferred scents with synthetic compounds that enhanced their own natural odor. They disliked compounds that were associated with another person's scent.

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Natural body odor plays a more important role in human mate selection than we realize, and now a new study paves the way for manufactured love-potion scents that can help singles improve their chances of finding ideal mates.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that people like their own body odor, and gravitate to perfumes that match and enhance that unique smell for themselves and possible mates. This odor is recognized subconsciously, so it's not necessarily the more pungent sweat smells that emerge every so often due to bacteria, consumption of certain foods, and other contributing factors.

When purchasing perfume, "you must be very selective to find a mixture that mimics your (scent) signal, which is determined by a few genes," lead author Manfred Milinski of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, told Discovery News. "People take a long time to find 'their perfume.'"

For the study, Milinski and his team created perfumes with synthetic molecules associated with female student volunteers. The volunteers were asked to shower using a provided soap, apply a different type of perfume to each of their armpits, and wear an untreated cotton T-shirt at night.

When later asked to evaluate each armpit's scent, the participants preferred the one with synthetic compounds that enhanced their own natural odor. They disliked the one treated with molecules associated with another person?s scent.

This is your brain on odors
Brain imaging found that "self" odors activated the right middle front of the brain, a region associated with emotional balance, self-insight and more.

Humans appear to prefer their own smell and amplify that scent for others, particularly potential mates. It's somewhat comparable to lipstick, where women enhance the size, shape and color of their own features.

When selecting mates, we tend to prefer individuals with odors that complement our particular immune-related molecules, according to the researchers.

"The present wisdom of evolutionary biology is that we and other animals reproduce sexually because only in this way can we survive the race with infectious diseases," Milinski said. "This means choosing a partner with complementary immunogenes is the purpose of sexual selection. Probably, in all vertebrates, information about one?s immunogenes is transmitted by smell. Thus odor is extremely important."

Lucking into love potions
For ages, people have selected perfumes, colognes and other scents to enhance their own natural odor. In many cases, individuals probably successfully created "love potions" in this trial-by-error way by subconsciously making the right natural compound matches.

Many of today?s perfumes and colognes, however, are made with manufactured chemical ingredients.

The researchers believe they have overcome that fake perfume problem by synthesizing chemicals that "are identical to the original" chemical structures of natural human body odors. These make possible future love potion fragrances, tailor-designed for individuals.

Men might want to take note: Other research found that female mammals follow their noses to the right mates. Cambridge zoologist Tim Clutton-Brock and Harvard researcher Katherine McAuliffe found that olfactory cues are critical for females seeking mates.

Although humans preen, strut and sometimes sing, birds have evolved more elaborate visual and sound systems for mating, such as complex peacock tails and singing ability among all individuals of some species.

Clutton-Brock and McAuliffe therefore think that many mammals seeking mates rely more upon their ability to sniff out good genetic matches.

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Copyright 2013 Discovery Channel

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16667339-real-life-love-potion-identified?lite

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Brains vs. immunity: Genes hint at tug of war

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images file

A skull from an ancient specimen of Homo sapiens (foreground, right) is compared with a Neanderthal's skull at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Researchers suggest that a gene linked to the immune system played a roundabout role in brain evolution.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Scientists say our genes contain the hints of an evolutionary tug of war that took place in the wombs of our ancestors, balancing the drive to bigger brains with the need for a strong immune system.

The push and pull of these genetic variants apparently became more pronounced after pre-humans branched off from the ancestors of chimpanzees, according to biologists Peter Parham of Stanford University and Ashley Moffett of the University of Cambridge.

Two years ago, Parham and other researchers suggested that interbreeding with now-extinct cousins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans may have given early humans a boost of immunity. Parham says the same kind of cross-species hanky-panky may have played a role in the genetic diversity that he and Moffett discuss in a paper published online by?Nature Reviews Immunology.

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"It quite nicely dovetails with all this other stuff," Parham told NBC News. "There is an inherent instability in the way the underlying mechanism works."

How natural killers work
The two biologists focus on how particular types of white blood cells, known as natural killer cells, work in the human immune system. In addition to fighting infections and tumors, natural killer cells help regulate the growth of the placenta during pregnancy. Humans are unique among primates in having two variants of the genes that control the receptors for natural killer cells.

"B haplotypes are favored during reproduction. A haplotypes are more specialized toward defending against infections," Parham explained. "These are subtle effects. On average, if you're an individual that has two A haplotypes and no B haplotype, you're going to have a slightly more robust immune system in terms of dealing with disease."

Having two B haplotypes, in contrast, would allow for a more robust placenta. That would provide the fetus in the womb with more of the nutrients needed to grow a bigger brain. "In the course of human evolution, you had the evolution of these B haplotypes, which really did enable the brain to get bigger. ... There are correlations between the size of the brain of the baby and these genetic factors," Parham said.

A detailed analysis of human genetic diversity suggests that the genes for the B haplotype emerged in the time frame lasting from about 7 million years ago to 1.7 million years ago. That?would cover a period starting with the divergence of human and chimp ancestors, and ending with the human migration out of Africa.

The A-vs.-B breakdown is found in all present-day human populations, suggesting that both variants were important to have for different situations. Parham and Moffett speculate that the A variant was important when a population was facing a disease epidemic, while the B variant became important for brain-building once the epidemic passed.

The role of the birth canal
When our ancestors began walking upright, that introduced another push-pull effect for brain size. "It's difficult to document, but it's generally thought in the field of obstetrics that birthing is more difficult for humans than it is for other species," Parham said. The dimensions and layout of the human birth canal is one constraint: If a baby's skull were to get significantly bigger, it wouldn't fit through the canal.

Scientists in Germany have captured the first video of a childbirth using an MRI scanner. TODAY.com's Richard Lui reports.

Another constraint is pregnancy's effect on the mother's cardiovascular system. In some situations, a potentially fatal condition known as preeclampsia can occur.

"Part of the compromise is that the human population has tolerated a certain amount of death in childbirth, due to obstructed labor or preeclampsia. ... Both of these types of death in childbirth have been quite common in our species, as has been documented in so many 19th-century novels," Parham said.

The genetic record indicates that the human species passed through a series of "bottlenecks" in prehistoric times that reduced population diversity to perilously low levels. That's where interbreeding with Neanderthals could have played a part. "One way that modern humans replenished the genetic diversity lost in populations was through the selection of new variants ... another, and possibly more effective, mechanism was to acquire old variants by mating with archaic humans," Parham and Moffett write.

Today, modern medicine has leveled the evolutionary playing field. But in ancient times, all these genetic and physiological factors seem to have interacted to make our brains what they are today.

"Basically, we've got the nervous system and the brain putting pressure on the immune system and the reproductive system," Parham said.

More about human evolution:

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Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/24/16682451-big-brains-vs-strong-immunity-genes-hint-at-evolutionary-tug-of-war?lite

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Joe McGinniss has cancer, but feels 'terrific'

NEW YORK (AP) ? Author-journalist Joe McGinniss says he was diagnosed in May with advanced prostate cancer but is responding well to treatment and feels "terrific."

The 70-year-old McGinniss is best known for controversial works such as "The Selling of the President" and "Fatal Vision." On Wednesday, he posted on his Facebook page that he had "inoperable, terminal, metastatic prostate cancer." He confirmed the diagnosis in response to an email from The Associated Press and in a subsequent Facebook posting.

McGinniss told the AP that he has no symptoms and is eager to write more books and magazine articles.

Associated Press

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Adele will croon 'Skyfall' at Oscars

Reuters file

Adele at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.

By Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

Adele will perform her Oscar-nominated theme song from "Skyfall" at the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, the show's producers said Wednesday.

They said that the performance will be the first time she will have performed "Skyfall" anywhere live and her first U.S. TV performance since the Grammys last year.

After a break from the spotlight due to her pregnancy, Adele recently appeared at the Golden Globes and accepted an award for the song there.

The song,?"Skyfall," from the James Bond film, is nominated in the best original song category at the Oscars. Written by Adele and Paul Epworth, it is the first Bond theme ever to debut in Billboard's top 10 chart and the first to be nominated for an Oscar since "For Your Eyes Only" in 1981.

"It's an honor to be nominated and terrifyingly wonderful to be singing in front of people who have captured my imagination over and over again,? said Adele. ?It's something I've never experienced and probably only ever will once!"

"We have enormous respect for Adele's unique?artistry as a songwriter and a singer," said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the producers of this year's Oscar show. ?"She is currently one of the most successful recording artists in the world, and we believe that her performance of "Skyfall" will be an exciting Oscar moment for audiences watching at the Dolby Theatre and on television screens around the world."

The Oscars will be handed out on Feb. 24, at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Seth MacFarlane will host the awards show on ABC.

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/01/23/16659266-adele-set-to-perform-skyfall-at-oscar-ceremony?lite

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Cameron to propose vote on EU relationship

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday he will offer British citizens a vote on whether to leave the European Union if his party wins the next election, a move which could trigger alarm among fellow member states.

He acknowledged that public disillusionment with the EU is "at an all-time high," using a long-awaited speech in central London to say that the terms of Britain's membership in the bloc should be revised and the country's citizens should have a say.

Cameron proposed Wednesday that his Conservative Party renegotiate the U.K.'s relationship with the European Union if it wins the next general election, expected in 2015.

"Once that new settlement has been negotiated, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the EU on these new terms. Or come out altogether," Cameron said. "It will be an in-out referendum."

The stated possibility of a referendum is expected to further rattle business leaders and frustrate other EU member states currently focused on stemming the euro zone debt crisis.

Already, speculation over a vote on leaving the EU has prompted a chorus of concern from around the world, stressing the importance of the U.K.'s presence in the bloc and warning about the economic consequences of a British exit.

Even the U.S., which normally stays out of disputes among EU states, waded into the debate.

The White House said last week President Barack Obama told Cameron in a phone call that "the United States values a strong U.K. in a strong European Union."

Much of the criticism directed at Cameron has accused him of trying an "a la carte" approach to membership in the bloc. He insisted Wednesday that a "one size fits all" approach to the EU is misguided.

"Let us not be misled by the fallacy that a deep and workable single market requires everything to be harmonized, to hanker after some unattainable and infinitely level playing field," he said. "Countries are different. They make different choices. We cannot harmonize everything."

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Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-propose-vote-eu-relationship-080244556.html

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Justin Bieber Regains Twitter Crown from Lady Gaga

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Starchy Diets May Have Given Ancient Dogs a Paw Up

Dogs may have become man's best friend thanks, in part, to their ability to stomach a starchy diet.

According to new genetic research, domestic dogs' genomes better equip them to handle starches than wolves. Domestic dogs also show differences from wolves in portions of the genome linked to brain development, perhaps hinting at behavioral changes that occurred as canines became less wild.

The findings are particularly fascinating given that humans who live off farmed foods show similar genetic changes as dogs compared with humans who survive mostly by hunting and gathering, said study researcher Erik Axelsson of the department of medical biochemistry and microbiology at Uppsala University in Sweden.

"It's cool that we've shared an environment for such a long time and we've eaten the same kind of food for such a long time, that we have started to become more similar in that way," Axelsson told LiveScience. [10 Things You Didn't Know About Dogs]

The DNA of domestication

Dogs have been intertwined with humans for thousands of years, but no one is sure how far back the bond stretches. Humans were buried with dogs some time between about 11,000 and 12,000 years ago in Israel, perhaps the oldest agreed-upon archaeological evidence for domestication, though the remains of a possible domestic dog dating back 33,000 years were uncovered in 2012 in a cave in Siberia.

Understanding domestication is interesting in its own right, Axelsson said, but comparing wild and domesticated animals can also help researchers track down the functions of individual genes that change during the domestication process. The results may even affect research on human health. In the case of dog diet, for example, canines might be a good model for human diabetes. Dogs are already treated for cancer with experimental drugs that might someday help humans.

Axelsson and his colleagues analyzed the entire genetic codes of 12 wolves from ?across the globe, as well as the genomes of 60 individual domestic dogs from 14 different breeds. They pooled the domestic pups' results so that the genetic traits of individual breeds wouldn't skew the findings and then compared the pet dogs to the wolves, looking for places where the genomes diverged.

This game of "spot the differences" led the scientists to focus on 36 different regions. They found that 19 of these regions contained genes crucial for brain functioning, including eight important for the development of the nervous system.

It was no surprise to see differences in brain genetics, Axelsson said, given that dogs had to modify their behavior to fit into human society. What did surprise the researchers, however, were 10 regions held genes involved with diet, specifically the breakdown of starches. Humans are well-equipped for starchy diets: Human saliva contains an enzyme called amylase, which starts breaking down starches as soon as food hits the mouth. Dog drool doesn't have this advantage, but dogs do excrete amylase from their pancreases, allowing for the digestion of starches in the gut.

The researchers found that dogs have more copies of a gene called AMY2B, crucial for amylase production, than wolves. And in dogs, this gene is 28 times more active in the pancreas than in wolves.

Dogs also showed changes in specific genes that allow for the breakdown of maltose into glucose, another key starch digestion step, and in genes allowing for the body to make use of this glucose.

How did wolves become dogs?

The findings can't pin down exact dates for dog domestication, but they do lend weight to one hypothesis, which is that wolves were drawn to early human settlements in order to scavenge at waste dumps, Axelsson said. Theorists have speculated that wolves that were less shy would have had an advantage, as they wouldn't have run when humans were around. The proximity could have been the first step in domestication.

"We think that our results regarding starch digestion fit really neatly with that idea," Axelsson said. "Being an efficient scavenger didn't only take a special type of behavior but also a digestive system that could cope with the food that was present at the dump."

The researchers are trying to pinpoint in more detail when the starch gene changes occurred. They're also taking a closer look at the behavioral genes that differ between dogs and wolves.

"Now we're also trying to take the behavioral side of the story further to try to pinpoint the genes, the individual mutations, to understand exactly how they might have changed the dog brain and dog behavior," Axelsson said.

The researchers report their results Thursday (Jan. 24) in the journal Nature.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/starchy-diets-may-given-ancient-dogs-paw-181000580.html

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