Research News: Less Salt Could Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths

The News:
"Even Small Dietary Reductions in Salt Could Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths" Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add. ... more in Science Daily ... more at NPR


The Research:
Read the research behind this story in New England Journal of Medicine, Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease, Bibbins-Domingo K, et al., Jan. 20, 2010.

Research News: How Plants 'Feel' the Temperature Rise

The News: Plants are incredibly temperature sensitive and can perceive changes of as little as one degree Celsius. Now, a report in the January 8th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows how they not only 'feel' the temperature rise, but also coordinate an appropriate response -- activating hundreds of genes and deactivating others; it turns out it's all about the way that their DNA is packaged. Read more in Science Daily.

The Research: Read the research behind this story in Cell, January 8, 2010.

Research News: Out for an early stroll

The News:
Trackways preserved in 395-million-year-old rocks push back evidence for tetrapods by at least 18 million years, researchers say. The center diagram depicts individual footprints and the schematic at right shows a walking style that may have produced this pattern. Read more in Science News.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Nature Jan. 7, 2010.