Culture

Despite the great successes of targeted cancer drugs and the promise of novel immunotherapies, the vast majority of people diagnosed with cancer are still first treated with chemotherapy. Now a new study by UCSF researchers using techniques drawn from computational biology could make it much easier for physicians to use the genetic profile of a patient's tumor to pick the chemotherapy treatment with the fewest side effects and best chance of success.

Why do our oceans contain such a staggering diversity of fish of so many different sizes, shapes and colors? A UCLA-led team of biologists reports that the answer dates back 66 million years, when a six-mile-wide asteroid crashed to Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and approximately 75 percent of the world's animal and plant species.

ADELPHI, MD. -- Army scientists, with a team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have created a water-based zinc battery that is simultaneously powerful, rechargeable and intrinsically safe.

The high-impact journal Nature Materials published a peer-reviewed paper based on this ground-breaking research April 16.

One of the most constant and exhaustive searches in cancer research is for a treatment aimed specifically at the Ras family of genes, the most common oncogenes and those that initiate many of the most lethal tumours. However, the results of this hypothetical treatment may be far less positive than speculated due to a manuscript published in the Genes & Development journal by the Genomic Instability Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO).

CHAPEL HILL, NC - If the ultraviolet radiation from the sun damages human DNA to cause health problems, does UV radiation also damage plant DNA? The answer is yes, but because plants can't come in from the sun or slather on sunblock, they have a super robust DNA repair kit. Today, the UNC School of Medicine lab of 2015 Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar, MD, PhD, has published an exquisite study of this powerful DNA repair system in plants, which closely resembles a repair system found in humans and other animals.

Toronto - If you've ever noticed yourself thinking about the timing of a plan in two opposing ways - something that feels longer off than your actual time calculation -- you're on to something. New research shows our different ways of estimating time don't necessarily move in lock-step.

Relative time estimates refer to how distant or close a future event feels, such as "soon" or "far away." Absolute time estimates however use objective units -- days, weeks, months or years - to describe when an event may occur.

New research shows that stroke patients are increasingly being transferred out of smaller community and rural hospitals and sent to larger medical centers for their care and rehabilitation. While this is a positive sign for patients who need more advanced treatments, the trend has drawbacks in terms of cost and points to the need to improve the coordination of care between hospitals.

People rely on financial managers, doctors and lawyers to be as objective as possible when making decisions about investments, health and legal issues, but findings from a new study suggest that an unexpected factor could be influencing these choices.

In a series of experiments, researchers found that people at higher elevations in an office building were more willing to take financial risks. The study is available online in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Somewhere in the vastness of the universe another habitable planet likely exists. And it may not be that far -- astronomically speaking -- from our own solar system.

Distinguishing that planet's light from its star, however, can be problematic. But an international team led by UC Santa Barbara physicist Benjamin Mazin has developed a new instrument to detect planets around the nearest stars. It is the world's largest and most advanced superconducting camera. The team's work appears in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

MAYWOOD, IL - Pancreatitis in ethnic minorities is linked to very severe levels of triglycerides and the risk is further increased by alcohol abuse and gallstones, a study has found.

Loyola Medicine gastroenterologist Ayokunle Abegunde, MD, is a co-author of the study, published online ahead of print in the journal Endocrine Practice.

Less than half of women who filled a statin prescription following a heart attack received a high-intensity statin--indicating they continue to be less likely than men to be prescribed this lifesaving treatment, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The persistent gap in heart disease treatment between women and men continues despite similar effectiveness of more-intensive statins for both sexes and recent efforts to reduce sex difference in guideline-recommended treatment.

Health checks including diabetes risk assessment have been introduced in a number of countries. However, there are few population-based trials assessing the benefits, harms and costs of these screening programmes, and these have shown mixed results.

SOLOMON ISLANDS (April 16, 2018) - Globally, remaining tropical forests are being rapidly cleared, particularly in countries like the Solomon Islands where commercial logging accounts for about 18 percent of government revenue, and at least 60 percent of exports while providing the largest number of formal sector jobs. However, the loss of native forests has huge ecological and social consequences, many of which are poorly documented.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) continue to pioneer new antenna measurement methods, this time for future 5G wireless communications systems.

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed a new tool to protect women from HIV infection.

The tool, a vaginal implant, decreases the number of cells that the HIV virus can target in a woman's genital tract. Unlike conventional methods of HIV prevention, such as condoms or anti-HIV drugs, the implant takes advantage of some people's natural immunity to the virus.