Culture
Gene editing technology is getting better and growing faster than ever before. New and improved base editors--an especially efficient and precise kind of genetic corrector--inch the tech closer to treating genetic diseases in humans. But, the base editor boom comes with a new challenge: Like a massive key ring with no guide, scientists can sink huge amounts of time into searching for the best tool to solve genetic malfunctions like those that cause sickle cell anemia or progeria (a rapid aging disease). For patients, time is too important to waste.
Children in social care have poorer mental health and perform worse in school than other children. But they have trust in the school staff and perform better after individual assessment at school. These are findings in a doctoral thesis from Linköping University.
The prevalence of drug use has increased for decades all around the world despite the strict measures taken. As the traditional prohibitionist drug policy has created social injustice, public health problems, and high social costs, decriminalization of drug use has emerged as a response.
Researchers at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) have evaluated the impact of decriminalization policy in different settings. The new study reviews reports, peer-review articles, and critical response papers on the topic.
Insects that feed only on plants have a number of challenges to overcome. But they also have some active helpers to assist them with the supply of important nutrients. So-called symbiotic microorganisms make essential amino acids, vitamins, and enzymes available and in this way supplement and enrich the limited diet of their host insects. Reed beetles with their semi-aquatic lifestyle also have such helpers that extend their range of available nutrients.
Research assumes that many sleep disorders are caused by our modern lifestyle, which is characterized by pressure to constantly perform and be active. Rhythms of work and leisure activities thus set a cycle that is often at a mismatch with the body's internal biological clock. If the differences in sleep timing and duration between work days and days off become too large, this can lead to "social jetlag". With this in mind, restrictions that involve working from home could offer some benefits: flexible working hours, no commuting and potentially more time to sleep.
In the U.S., someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds, and yet researchers have not had a model that fully mimics what occurs in the human heart after a heart attack.
A team of investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Clemson University recently reported in an article in Nature Biomedical Engineering that they have developed human cardiac organoids less than 1 millimeter in diameter that closely resemble the physiological conditions that occur during a heart attack.
What nitrogen is getting up to in permafrost soils may be much more interesting than researchers have long believed--with potentially significant consequences for our management of climate change.
Nitrogen is a constituent part of nitrous oxide (N2O)--an often overlooked greenhouse gas, and there is a vast amount of nitrogen stored in permafrost soils.
But little is known about N2O emissions from permafrost soils and until recently, it was assumed that releases had to be fairly minimal because of the cold climate.
CHICAGO (June 12, 2020): A cost-effective strategy for health care systems to offset N95 mask shortages due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is to switch to reusable elastomeric respirator masks, according to new study results.
Emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 may actually trigger the onset of diabetes in healthy people and also cause severe complications of pre-existing diabetes.
A letter published today in the New England Journal of Medicine and signed by an international group of 17 leading diabetes experts involved in the CoviDiab Registry project, a collaborative international research initiative, announces the establishment of a Global Registry of new cases of diabetes in patients with COVID-19.
Like most galaxies, the Milky Way hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. Called Sagittarius A*, the object has captured astronomers' curiosity for decades. And now there is an effort to image it directly.
Hollings Cancer Center researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and colleagues assessed the connection between dietary advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and breast cancer risk in a study first published online March 2020 in Cancer Prevention Research.
Five years before the novel coronavirus ran rampant around the world, saiga antelopes from the steppes of Eurasia experienced their own epidemic.
Millions of these grazing animals--easily recognizable by their oversized snouts--once migrated across what is today Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Georgia and more.
But then, over the span of three weeks in 2015, nearly 200,000, or two-thirds of their existing population, sickened and died from a bacterial infection. Today, the a little more than 100,000 saiga are hanging onto survival in a few pockets of Eurasia.
Here's some good news for U.S. states trying to spur an economic recovery in the years ahead: The R&D tax credit has a significant effect on entrepreneurship, according to a new study led by an MIT professor.
Moreover, the study finds a striking contrast between two types of tax credits. While the R&D tax credit fuels high-quality new-firm growth, the state-level investment tax credit, which supports general business needs, actually has a slightly negative economic effect on that kind of innovative activity.
Since the discovery of the double helix form of DNA and the hypothesis of DNA mutation induced by proton transfer more than 50 years ago, it has been recognized that proton transfer is crucial to many chemical and biological processes.
As these processes are known to be relevant to biophysics and radiation therapy, a question arises whether a massive ion could be transferred in biochemical processes and lead to fragmentation. Specifically, in a complex bio-environment, does heavy ion transfer play a role?
Physicians must be competent collaborators with team members in order to practice medicine effectively. Health professional students have limited opportunities to work and learn together during the course of their medical education. Not only is it important for students to acquire prodigious knowledge, they must also learn how to collaborate well, and the results of their efforts must be evaluated fairly to measure the effectiveness of this collaborative, active learning.