ANN ARBOR, Mich.---By accounting for the floppy, fickle nature of RNA, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine have developed a new way to search for drugs that target this important molecule. Their work appears in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.
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Some 800,000 years ago – about the time early human tribes were learning to make fire – a tiny species of plankton called Neodenticula seminae went extinct in the North Atlantic.
Today, that microscopic plant has become an Atlantic resident again, having drifted from the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean thanks to dramatically reduced polar ice, scientists report.
A major international study collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes since 1980 has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The research, published today in The Lancet, reveals that the prevalence of diabetes has risen or at best remained unchanged in virtually every part of the world over the last three decades.
PITTSBURGH, June 24 – The life expectancy of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes dramatically increased during the course of a 30-year, long-term prospective study, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study being presented at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.
CORPUS CHRISTI – As billion-dollar agricultural losses continue to mount in the withering Texas heat, Texas AgriLife Research scientists in Corpus Christi are taking a closer look at why some cotton varieties do better than others in drought conditions.
How much can a woman lower her risk of breast cancer by losing weight, drinking less, or exercising more? A study published online June 24 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute describes a new model to estimate the impact of these lifestyle changes on absolute breast cancer risk, suggesting risk reductions that could translate into a substantial number of prevented cancers across an entire population.
They can be found everywhere—organized communities of bacteria sticking to surfaces both inside and outside the body. These biofilms are responsible for some of the most virulent, antibiotic-resistant infections in humans; however, scientific understanding of how these communities develop is lacking.
Every winter, weather forecasters talk about the snow cover in the northern U.S. and into Canada as a factor in how deep the deep-freeze will be in the states. A new study by researchers at the University of Georgia indicates they may be looking, at least partially, in the wrong place.
It turns out that snow piling up over a band of frozen tundra from Siberia to far-northern Europe may have as much effect on the climate of the U.S. as the much-better-known El Niño and La Niña.
New Rochelle, NY, June 24, 2011—Basal insulin analogs have revolutionized diabetes care, and especially the treatment of type 2 diabetes, enabling patients to achieve better control of blood glucose levels while reducing hypoglycemic episodes. These revolutionary, long-acting basal insulin analogs, intended to replace the natural insulin missing in diabetes, and infusion pumps that provide subcutaneous, continuous delivery of insulin to mimic the function of a normal pancreas, are described in a special supplement to Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics./p>
The coconut (the fruit of the palm Cocos nucifera) is the Swiss Army knife of the plant kingdom; in one neat package it provides a high-calorie food, potable water, fiber that can be spun into rope, and a hard shell that can be turned into charcoal. What's more, until it is needed for some other purpose it serves as a handy flotation device.
New Rochelle, NY, June 24, 2011—David Satcher, MD, PhD, former U.S. Surgeon General, describes childhood obesity as "one of the greatest threats to child and adult health that we are facing today," calling for an intensive effort to promote child health, in an editorial in the June issue of Childhood Obesity, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The editorial is available online.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – About 100 million years ago, a tiny mayfly had a problem.
Like most adult mayflies, she only had that one day to live anyway, so there was no time to waste. She took her mating flight, got fertilized, and was about to lay her eggs when something went horribly wrong. She got stuck in some oozing tree sap and died, preserved for all time in the magic of amber. There would be ho hatchlings.
(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center have found four new genetic variants in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) that confer a higher risk of systemic lupus erythemathosus ("lupus") in African American women. The study, which currently appears on-line in Human Genetics, is believed to be the first to comprehensively assess the association between genetic variants in the MHC region and risk of lupus in African American women.
Mate choice, competition, and the variety of resources available are the key factors influencing how a species evolves into separate species, according to a new mathematical model that integrates all three factors to reveal the dynamics at play in a process called sympatric speciation.
Titled "Factors influencing progress toward sympatric speciation," the paper appears in today's edition of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
The eye of the peacock mantis shrimp has led an international team of researchers to develop a two-part waveplate that could improve CD, DVD, blu-ray and holographic technology, creating even higher definition and larger storage density.
Peacock mantis shrimp are one of only a few animal species that can see circularly polarized light -- like the light used to create 3-D movies. Some researchers believe the mantis shrimp's eyes are better over the entire visual spectrum than any man-made waveplates.