Culture
In 2004, scientists with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spotted an object unlike any they'd seen in our Milky Way Galaxy: a large, faint blob of gas that seemed to have a star at its center. In the ultraviolet wavelengths used by the satellite, the blob appeared blue -- though it doesn't actually emit light visible to the human eye -- and careful observations identified two thick rings within it, so the team nicknamed it the Blue Ring Nebula.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual -- or LGB -- people are more vulnerable to one of the fastest-growing health concerns in the country: dementia, according to new research from Michigan State University.
"Our study speaks to the unaddressed questions about whether members the LGB community are more likely to develop cognitive impairment at older ages and, if so, what factors contribute to their poorer cognitive health, " said Ning Hsieh, an assistant professor of sociology at MSU and lead author of the study published in the journal, The Gerontologist.
That biofuels can contribute to a cleaner global energy mix is widely accepted, but the net benefits of bioenergy in terms of mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG) are moot. Some argue, for example, that biofuels are not sustainable because the conversion of non-agricultural land to grow energy crops could lead to a significant initial decrease in carbon storage, creating what is known as a "biofuel carbon debt".
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to federal government data -- and some smokers find it nearly impossible to quit. Many of these smokers use regular, or combustible, cigarettes.
Physicians and scientists have for many years explored the health benefits and drawbacks of nicotine-based alternatives to cigarettes, and new research offers significant evidence that "pod" e-cigarettes are less damaging to health than traditional cigarettes.
Scams and fraud exact a heavy toll on older adults, with estimates of yearly losses ranging from $3 billion to $36 billion in the U.S. alone.
Lasting damage can occur. Because many seniors live off of resources accumulated across their working lifetimes, such as retirement savings, victims may be unable to recoup what's taken from them. Considering the additional impact on family members and caretakers, financial exploitation in this growing demographic is a significant public health concern.
Professor of Biomedical Engineering Adam Feinberg and his team have created the first full-size 3D bioprinted human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. Showcased in a recent video by American Chemical Society and created from MRI data using a specially built 3D printer, the model mimics the elasticity of cardiac tissue and sutures realistically.
BOSTON - One of the first spectroscopic imaging-based studies of neurological injury in COVID-19 patients has been reported by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the American Journal of Neuroradiology.
Full-size, realistic models of human organs could help surgeons train and practice before they cut into a patient. However, it's been challenging to make inexpensive models of a size, complexity and material that simulates human organs. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering have developed a way to 3D print a full-size model of a patient's own heart. Watch a video of how they made the 3D organ here.
Using the power of single-cell analysis, researchers at the Babraham Institute have assessed the effects of age on egg cells (oocytes) in mice, particularly looking to identify genomic and epigenetic factors that relate to reduced developmental competence. The knowledge uncovered by this research provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying egg quality and is relevant to the development of techniques to assess the quality of human egg cells, an area of growing importance as the use of fertility treatments increases. The research is published today in the journal Aging Cell.
Maunakea, Hawaii - In 2004, scientists with NASA's space-based Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spotted an object unlike any they'd seen before in our Milky Way galaxy: a large, faint blob of gas with a star at its center. Though it doesn't actually emit light visible to the human eye, GALEX captured the blob in ultraviolet (UV) light and thus appeared blue in the images; subsequent observations also revealed a thick ring structure within it. So the team nicknamed it the Blue Ring Nebula. Over the next 16 years, they studied it with multiple Earth- and space-based telescopes, including W.
Researchers at the VISTA Center (Vision, Image, Speech and Text Analytics) at the USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute (ISI) along with scholars at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have discovered strong correlations between facial morphology and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a life-threatening genetic condition of the adrenal glands and one of the most common forms of adrenal insufficiency in children.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The COVID-19 pandemic had surprising effects on demand for public transit in American cities, new research suggests.
While demand for public transit dropped about 73% across the country after the pandemic hit, the reduction didn't impact all cities equally, according to the study, which analyzed activity data from a widely used public transit navigation app.
Memphis, Tenn. (November 18, 2020)--Researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center working with colleagues at the University of New Mexico have identified three drugs, already approved for other uses in humans, as possible therapeutics for COVID-19, the illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
PHILADELPHIA - After its release in 2017, the Netflix series "13 Reasons Why" spurred controversy over concerns that its portrayal of a teenage girl's suicide could increase suicide contagion among adolescents.
Though a much-publicized 2019 study found a contagion effect among boys, a subsequent reanalysis of that data by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania concluded that, to the contrary, the series had no clear effect on teen suicide.
Air pollution has been a problem in Utah since before the territory was officially recognized as a state. The mountain valleys of this high elevation region are particularly vulnerable to the buildup of air pollution from vehicles, household heating and power production. Together with high per-capita energy use, this has resulted in periods of poor air quality. However, with so many types of pollution and regional conditions, determining the overall effects of air pollution on Utah's health and economy has been a major challenge.