Culture
While domestication of plants has yielded bigger crops, the process has often had a negative effect on plant microbiomes, making domesticated plants more dependent on fertilizer and other soil amendments than their wild relatives.
In an effort to make crops more productive and sustainable, researchers recommend reintroduction of genes from the wild relatives of commercial crops that restore domesticated plants' ability to interact with beneficial soil microbes.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - A new study published in the journal Radiology has found that the advantages of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) over digital mammography (DM), including increased cancer detection and fewer false positive findings, are maintained over multiple years and rounds of screening. In addition, research showed that DBT screening helped detect a higher proportion of poor prognosis cancers than DM.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - The low-dose chest CT scans used in lung cancer screening do not appear to damage human DNA, according to a study appearing in the journal Radiology. The results could help allay fears that such screenings will lead to an increase in radiation-induced cancer.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- According to Brendan Morris, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, treehoppers are the wackiest, most astonishing bugs most people have never heard of. They are morphological wonders, sporting bizarre protuberances that look like horns, gnarled branches, antlers, fruiting fungi, brightly colored flags or dead plant leaves. Treehoppers suck on plant juices. They sing to each other by vibrating plant stems. And they are an important food source for other forest creatures.
There has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of bowel cancer in adults under the age of 50, according to new research from the University of Bristol, UWE Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UH Bristol).
Using NHS patient data from the last 40 years, the research led by Adam Chambers at the University of Bristol and UH Bristol, looked at more than 55,000 cases of colorectal (bowel) cancer over 40 years in England.
A new study, conducted to better understand the origin of the universe, has provided insight into some of the most enduring questions in fundamental physics: How can the Standard Model of particle physics be extended to explain the cosmological excess of matter over antimatter? What is dark matter? And what is the theoretical origin of an unexpected but observed symmetry in the force that binds protons and neutrons together?
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While lifestyle choices and genetics go a long way toward predicting longevity, a new study shows that certain community characteristics also play important roles. American communities with more fast food restaurants, a larger share of extraction industry-based jobs, or higher population density have shorter life expectancies, according to researchers from Penn State, West Virginia, and Michigan State Universities. Their findings can help communities identify and implement changes that may promote longer lifespans among their residents.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The virus that causes barley yellow dwarf, the most widespread disease of cereal crops, manipulates its host plant and insect vector to promote its own survival, according to an international team of researchers. The group found that the virus raises the temperature of its host plants along with the heat-tolerance of its aphid vectors to create regions on the plants where aphids can feed free from competing insects. The findings could have implications for crop health as the global climate warms.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The belief that "real men" must be strong, tough and independent may be a detriment to their social needs later in life. A study co-authored by a Michigan State University sociologist found that men who endorse hegemonic ideals of masculinity -- or "toxic masculinity" -- can become socially isolated as they age, impacting their health, well-being and overall happiness.
ANN ARBOR--A hypothetical particle called the axion could solve one of physics' great mysteries: the excess of matter over antimatter, or why we're here at all.
According to the Standard Model of particle physics, when our universe was born, the meeting of matter and antimatter should have annihilated each other. That means that nothing--no Earth, no sun, no galaxies, no humans--would exist. But we do.
Washington, DC -Vaccines have reduced the global burden of disease by preventing an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths worldwide each year. In India, the reduction in annual under-five deaths, from 3.4 to 1.2 million between 1990 and 2015, was largely due to expansions in coverage of routine childhood vaccination. Vaccines have been linked to increased economic productivity as well as improved cognition, growth, and schooling among children.
The finding was by chance, when the scientists were working on the results from the first light of one of the four telescopes of the project, in Chile. Shortly after the building of the first SECULOOS telescopes, and during the test observations, the team pointed at a well kown brown dwarf 2MASSW J1510478-281817, since renamed 2M1510, in the constellation of Libra. The observations of SPECULOOS picked up an unusual signal which made the researchers suggest that 2M1510 could be two brown dwarfs instead of one, and in orbit around each other.
Caregivers in low-income settings will be able to respond to the challenges of bringing up children with disabilities, thanks to a new model created by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
Caregivers experience multiple deprivations, including inadequate resources, lack of support, negative responses from others in the community, and poverty. Not surprisingly, many caregivers experience fatigue, distress and isolation.
University of Melbourne researchers have identified and implemented the key interventions and tools that countries can - and should - use to improve the quality and availability of critical birth and death data and ultimately, improve health outcomes.
Published in BMC Medicine, it is the first Civil Registration and Vital Statistics collection to report on experience in implementing technical interventions over the first four years of the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative.
Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) Munich and Denali Therapeutics (South San Francisco, CA, USA) have developed an approach to stimulate immune cells of the brain in such a way that they might possibly provide better protection against Alzheimer's disease. Their report has been published in the journal "EMBO Molecular Medicine". These findings could ultimately enable development of novel therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease.