Body

Eating a diet rich in both soy protein and isoflavones can protect menopausal women from bone weakening and osteoporosis, according to the results of a preliminary study presented today at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Edinburgh.

Osteoporosis is a common condition where bones become brittle and fragile from tissue loss, causing 9 million fractures worldwide every year. In women, bone loss occurs most quickly in the years immediately after menopause because they produce less of the sex hormone oestrogen, which protects against bone loss.

Oxford University researchers have found the Achilles heel of certain cancer cells - mutations in a gene called SETD2. Their findings will be presented to the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool this Monday (2 Nov 15).

It is well known that mutations drive cancer cell growth and resistance to treatment. However, these mutations can also become a weak point for a tumour. The Oxford team found that that was the case for cancer cells with mutations in a key cancer gene called SETD2.

Angiosarcoma is a malignant cancer of the endothelial cells of blood or lymphatic vessels. Cutaneous angiosarcoma, a form of skin cancer, commonly occurs on the scalp of elderly people and can rapidly metastasize to the liver, lungs or lymph nodes. Its five-year survival rate is famously poor at 20-30%, meaning that new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches are highly sought after.

Angiosarcoma is a malignant cancer of the endothelial cells of blood or lymphatic vessels. Cutaneous angiosarcoma, a form of skin cancer, commonly occurs on the scalp of elderly people and can rapidly metastasize to the liver, lungs or lymph nodes. Its five-year survival rate is famously poor at 20-30%, meaning that new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches are highly sought after.

WASHINGTON -- The results of common medical tests are sometimes delivered to patients by email, letters or voice mail, but are these the most preferred methods? According to one of the first studies to look at this question, the answer is no.

The Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) survey, published today in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, finds that the largest portion of participants was comfortable receiving test results through password-protected websites or portals. (The survey did not include in-person communications.)

Want to mount a smartphone on your car's dashboard? On the arm of a chair? On your guitar? The choice is yours with a new method invented at Disney Research that automatically designs a custom connector that can then be produced with a 3D printer.

Called AutoConnect, the method is able to attach together a wide variety of objects, including objects with standard shapes, such as pipes, flat surfaces or boxes, as well as free-form objects, such as game controllers, toy animals, or coffee mugs.

New research led by ecologists at the University of York shows that certain species of moths and butterflies are becoming more common, and others rarer, as species differ in how they respond to climate change.

Collaborating with the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the charity Butterfly Conservation, the University of Reading and Rothamsted Research, scientists analysed how the abundance and distribution of 155 species of British butterflies and moths have changed since the 1970s.