Culture
Emerging evidence suggests that microbes in the digestive system have a big influence on human health and may play a role in the onset of disease throughout the body. Now, in a study appearing in ACS Chemical Biology, scientists report that they have potentially found a way to use chemical compounds to target and inhibit the growth of specific microbes in the gut associated with diseases without causing harm to other beneficial organisms.
High dose vitamin D supplements improve weight gain and the development of language and motor skills in malnourished children, according to a study led by University of the Punjab, Pakistan, and Queen Mary University of London.
Vitamin D - the 'sunshine vitamin' - is well known for its beneficial effects on bone and muscle health, and a study by Queen Mary researchers last year found that it could also protect against colds and flu. Now new research from the team is revealing further benefits.
New research, led by biologists from the University of Bristol, has uncovered fresh findings about the most mobile eyes in the animal kingdom - the eyes of the mantis shrimp.
Mantis shrimp vision is extraordinary, both in terms of their colour vision and their ability to see the polarisation of light.
Not only this, but they have extremely mobile eyes that never seem to stop moving. While most animals keep eye movements to a minimum to avoid blur, mantis shrimp apparently go out of their way to move their eyes as much as possible.
BOSTON - Twenty-five million Americans suffer from asthma, a chronic lung disease that has been on the rise since the 1980s. While physicians have long known that smog and pollution can bring on an asthma attack among children and adults suffering from asthma, researchers remained uncertain about what role long-term exposure to certain pollutants might play in the development of the disease in children.
DURHAM, N.C. -- More than 2 million people worldwide live with inherited and untreatable retinal conditions, including retinitis pigmentosa, which slowly erodes vision.
Developing treatments is challenging for scientists, as these conditions are caused by more than 4,000 different gene mutations. But many of these mutations have something in common -- a propensity for creating misfolded proteins that cells in the eye can't process. These proteins build up inside cells, killing them from the inside out.
Over the last 25 years many scholars have questioned the existence of the kingdom of David and Solomon, which was supposed to have existed in the 10th century BCE. This was based to a large extent on the lack of evidence of royal construction at the heart of the region in which the kingdom supposedly existed. As a result, it was assumed that the rulers at the time were just local chiefs who ruled only over Jerusalem and its immediate surroundings.
Plants--Surviving the heat
With the 2018 World Cup just around the corner, soccer players and coaches are preparing to perform at their best. A recent article proposes that soccer coaches should be empowered to make reliable assessments of player psychological characteristics, based on their behavior during matches and training.
Researchers have found evidence that acupuncture could help people who experience dental anxiety.
Dental anxiety affects up to an estimated 30% of the adult population in countries world-wide. Patients can experience nausea, difficulty breathing and dizziness at the thought of going to the dentist, during an examination, and following treatment.
Reasons behind dental anxiety can be various, such as fear of pain, needles or anaesthetic side effects, as well as embarrassment or feeling a loss of control.
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2018 -- Normally, something blowing up in your face is bad. But in the event of a vehicle accident, and in conjunction with a seatbelt, one particular explosion could very well save your life. It's the chemical reaction that inflates your airbags. In this episode of Reactions, learn about the past and present of vehicle airbags and the lifesaving chemistry and physics that make them work: https://youtu.be/Y2sjYOGSV7E.
Among predictions of a second fracking boom in the US, the first evidence that chemicals found in ground water near fracking sites can impair the immune system will be published in Toxicological Sciences on May 1. The study, performed in mice, suggests that exposure to fracking chemicals during pregnancy may diminish female offspring's ability to fend off diseases, like multiple sclerosis.
San Francisco State University researchers have discovered a new method for testing levels of a tiny but hugely important protein -- "AMPK" -- in human muscle cells. "AMPK is the gas gauge that tells each cell in your body if your fuel is too low. We call it the energy sensor of the cell," said Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Jimmy Bagley.
Degraded coral reefs are far quieter than five years ago, and no longer sound like a suitable habitat to young fish searching for a place to live and breed, according to research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
If you're a parasite and want to spread out a little in Amazonia, then you better be cool with riding around in a variety of different birds, a new study found.
The Amazon region of South America is one of the most diverse tropical forest ecosystems on Earth, but an Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University study showed that in the blood parasites that cause malaria, bird hosts and the region's physical geography play significant roles in the spread and diversity of these parasites.
UPTON, NY--Plants are among the most effective energy convertors on Earth. They capture solar energy and convert it to carbon-based compounds that are used for energy and also to build up essential plant components, including the cell walls that surround every single plant cell. In a new biochemical genetics study at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists reveal new details of the molecular machinery that helps channel carbon into a key cell-wall component.