Culture

We've all feared hearing a doctor say, "We need to talk."

It's even scarier if the physician is robotic, speaks in jargon or isn't clear about next steps.

Despite known protocols and recommendations on how to break bad news to patients, many physicians report insufficient training about how to conduct these challenging conversations. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has found a better way, according to a newly published study.

Before hitting the track to compete in an officially sanctioned race, some elite Paralympic sprinters must do something most runners would find incredibly unsettling: remove their legs and swap them out with ones that make them shorter.

The unusual mandate results from a recent International Paralympic Committee rule change that lowered the Maximum Allowable Standing Height (MASH) for double, below-the-knee amputees racing in prosthetic legs. The rule, intended to prevent unfair advantages, stems from the long-held assumption that greater height equals greater speed.

HOUSTON - (Feb. 19, 2020) - A team of Rice University engineers has introduced the first neural implant that can be both programmed and charged remotely with a magnetic field.

Their breakthrough may make possible imbedded devices like a spinal cord-stimulating unit with a battery-powered magnetic transmitter on a wearable belt.

The integrated microsystem, called MagNI (for magnetoelectric neural implant), incorporates magnetoelectric transducers. These allow the chip to harvest power from an alternating magnetic field outside the body.

A new study from UCLA professor of anthropology Brooke Scelza invites geneticists and sociologists to think more broadly about human fidelity and paternity.

While InSight's seismometer has been patiently waiting for the next big marsquake to illuminate its interior and define its crust-mantle-core structure, two scientists, Takashi Yoshizaki (Tohoku University) and Bill McDonough (Tohoku University and University of Maryland, College Park) have built a new compositional model for Mars.

The discovery of a new species of prehistoric reptile from Germany is reported this week in Scientific Reports. The anatomical features of the species, named Vellbergia bartholomaei, add to our understanding of the early evolution of lepidosauromorphs.

Lepidosauromorphs are one of the largest and most diverse tetrapod lineages with over 10,500 species. Ancestors to modern-day lizards, snakes and reptiles known as tuataras, lepidosauromorph specimens have only been found across a few Triassic sites and their early evolution remains largely unknown.

The monkeyflower, or Mimulus, though possessing a relatively simple genome is able to produce a stunning array of pigmentation patterns. A team of researchers is one step closer to understanding exactly how this genus of wildflowers is able to achieve such remarkable diversity, their work will be published Thursday in Current Biology.

Bottom Line: The actor who plays Dustin Henderson on the popular Netflix series "Stranger Things" was born with cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD), a rare disorder of which the most prominent features are missing or abnormal growth of the teeth and collarbones. The fictional character shares the condition with actor Gaten Matarazzo III and the show has featured scenes of Matarazzo's Dustin educating others about it.

A massive analysis of the entire genomes of 2,658 people with 38 different types of cancer has identified mutations in 179 genes and gene regulators as "drivers" -- variations in DNA sequences that lead to the development of cancer.

The work is part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) project, one of the most comprehensive cancer genomics studies to date, involving scientists from 17 countries and more than 30 papers, including several by Yale faculty published in multiple journals earlier this month.

A new to science species of land snail was discovered by a group of citizen scientists working together with scientists from Taxon Expeditions, a company that organises scientific field trips for teams consisting of both scientists and laypeople. Having conducted a vote on how to name the species, the expedition participants and the local staff of the National Park together decided to name the mollusc Craspedotropis gretathunbergae.

New surprising knowledge on endothelial cells in a dozen different murine tissues is now available in an open access, user-friendly, database for professionals. This is the result of a new ground-breaking research study, published in the journal Cell. A study that may help to explain why there are, for instance, more severe graft rejections of lung transplants compared to other organs.

A protein that helps colorectal cancer cells spread to other parts of the body could be an effective treatment target.

Colorectal cancer patients with an immune system-regulating protein called interleukin 6 (IL-6) are more likely to have recurring tumors that can also spread to the liver, according to research published in the journal Cancer Immunology Research. The Hokkaido University investigations into the protein's role in liver metastasis could help improve colorectal cancer treatment options.

Researchers led by Prof. WANG Feng at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reported that photocatalytic decarboxylation is an efficient alternate pathway for converting biomass-derived fatty acids into alkanes under mild conditions of ambient temperature and pressure. This finding was published in Nature Catalysis on Feb. 19.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA February 20, 2020--Viruses are parasites. The only way they can grow is by hijacking their hosts. When they infect a human host, viruses use human proteins to multiply and modify the human cells to sustain the infection. At the same time, the human host activates defense mechanisms to fight the infection.

The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to spread in China and cases have been reported in more than 25 countries. The African continent was spared for a long time until a first case was recently reported in Egypt.