Culture
The bigger the brain in relation to body size, the more intelligent a living organism is. This means that mammalian species with large brains are smarter than small-brained mammals. However, developing a large brain comes at a price: An infant expends around two-thirds of its energy alone on supplying nourishment to its brain. That huge amount of energy must be continually available in the form of milk and, later on, through the intake of food.
The fight against superbugs could be helped by the discovery of a potential therapy based on the body's natural immune defences.
Scientists have found that a molecule produced by the body - called LL-37 - changes the way cells behave when they are invaded by bacteria.
The molecule acts like a fire alarm, experts say, warning the body's immune system of the infection and the need for urgent action.
At this year's Euroanaesthesia Congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June), doctors present the unique case of a man who suffered a flash fire in his chest cavity during emergency heart surgery caused by supplemental oxygen leaking from a ruptured lung.
More than 15 years after scientists first mapped the human genome, most diseases still cannot be predicted based on one's genes, leading researchers to explore epigenetic causes of disease. But the study of epigenetics cannot be approached the same way as genetics, so progress has been slow. Now, researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have determined a unique fraction of the genome that scientists should focus on.
Some doctors fear litigation and professional ruin if they are seen to have overprescribed opioids to terminally ill patients, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
Palliative care expert Professor Geoffrey Mitchell said opioid overuse and some states' new assisted dying legislation had put end-of-life care clinicians created a "perfect storm" of fear for clinicians involved in end-of-life care.
Giving patients virtual reality sessions before and during locoregional anaesthesia for orthopaedic procedures substantially reduces pain and the need for intravenous sedation, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully determined the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of proteins inside living eukaryotic cells. They combined "in-cell" nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a bioreactor system and cutting-edge computational algorithms to determine protein structures in crowded intracellular environments for the first time.
Astrocytes are overtaxed neurons' pit crew.
The brain cells collect damaged lipids secreted by hyperactive neurons, then recycle those toxic molecules into energy, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus report May 23, 2019, in the journal Cell. It's a mechanism to protect neurons from the damaging side effects of overactivity. And it's another important role for astrocytes, which support neurons in various ways.
Performing a procedure on the wrong side of a patient's body, although rare, may be more common than generally thought. More than 80 wrong side error (WSE) incidents were reported across 100 hospitals in Spain over the past decade, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia Congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
Nicotine and caffeine withdrawal can cause unnecessary suffering to patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and could be leading to unneeded laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging such as X-rays and MRIs, according to a systematic review of clinical and observational studies involving 483 adults.
The findings are being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
For the first time, researchers have observed a break in a single quantum system. The observation--and how they made the observation--has potential implications for physics beyond the standard understanding of how quantum particles interact to produce matter and allow the world to function as we know it.
The researchers published their results on May 31st, in the journal Science.
With flattened bodies, grabbing forelegs and deciduous wings, deer keds do not look like your typical fly. These parasites of deer -- which occasionally bite humans -- are more widely distributed across the U.S. than previously thought, according to Penn State entomologists, who caution that deer keds may transmit disease-causing bacteria.
In an effort to better protect the world's last ecologically intact ecosystems, researchers developed a new metric called "The Last of the Wild in Each Ecoregion" (LWE), which aimed to quantify the most intact parts of each ecoregion.
Use of dating apps may be associated with an increased risk of unhealthy weight control behaviors, including vomiting, laxative use, or diet pill use, a study in the open access Journal of Eating Disorders suggests.
A team of researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA examined data on 1,726 US adults enrolled in the Harvard Chan Physical Activity study who completed an online survey assessing their dating app use within the past 30 days and their engagement in six unhealthy weight control behaviors (UWBCs) within the past 12 months.
Children exposed to paternal tobacco smoking before birth are more likely to develop asthma - and associated changes to immune genes predict the level of risk.
These are the findings of a new study of Taiwanese families, whose lifestyle and genetic make-up were analyzed to determine how fathers' tobacco smoking during pregnancy relates to asthma risk in their children.