Culture
WASHINGTON, April 21, 2020 -- Ensuring adequate preservation of the millions of units of blood that are donated every year presents a challenge for blood banks, as blood can typically be stored for only six weeks after donation. A potential solution to the problem attempts to dry blood by using a sugar-based preservative that organisms living in some of Earth's most extreme environments produce to weather long periods of dryness. New work in ultrasound technology looks to provide a path to inserting these sugars into human red blood cells, in an effort to help them last for years.
National Eye Institute (NEI) researchers profiling epigenomic changes in light-sensing mouse photoreceptors have a clearer picture of how age-related eye diseases may be linked to age-related changes in the regulation of gene expression. The findings, published online April 21 in Cell Reports, suggest that the epigenome could be targeted as a therapeutic strategy to prevent leading causes of vision loss, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
April 20, 2020 (Huntsville, Ala.) - Plant genomics researchers at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology announce the surprising results of a cotton sequencing study led by Jane Grimwood, PhD, and Jeremy Schmutz, who co-direct the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC).
Summer Arctic sea-ice is predicted to disappear before 2050, resulting in devastating consequences for the Arctic ecosystem. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new study involving 21 research institutes from around the world, including McGill University.
Accurately predicting how many people are at risk due to sea level rise and storm surges has always challenged scientists, but a new method is improving models that account for the impact of these natural occurrences.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- From an evolutionary perspective, human pregnancy is quite strange, says University at Buffalo biologist Vincent Lynch.
"For example, we don't know why human women go into labor," Lynch says. "Human pregnancy tends to last longer than pregnancy in other mammals if you adjust for factors like body size. The actual process of labor tends to last longer than in other animals. And human pregnancy and labor are also much more dangerous."
It's time once again for the misery familiar to millions of people around the world: seasonal allergy season. But there may be hope, courtesy of a tiny critter with a big appetite: a new study published in Nature Communications suggests that a species of beetle could help control an invasive and highly allergenic weed at the root of many people's suffering.
When electronics need their own power sources, there are two basic options: batteries and harvesters. Batteries store energy internally, but are therefore heavy and have a limited supply. Harvesters, such as solar panels, collect energy from their environments. This gets around some of the downsides of batteries but introduces new ones, in that they can only operate in certain conditions and can't turn that energy into useful power very quickly.
DALLAS – April 21, 2020 – Brain cancer patients in the coming years may not need to go under the knife to help doctors determine the best treatment for their tumors.
A new study by UT Southwestern shows artificial intelligence can identify a specific genetic mutation in a glioma tumor simply by examining 3D images of the brain – with more than 97 percent accuracy. Such technology could potentially eliminate the common practice of pretreatment surgeries in which glioma samples are taken and analyzed to choose an appropriate therapy.
It is no secret that genetic factors play a role in determining whether children have neurodevelopmental disorders. Maternal exposure to drugs and viral or bacterial illnesses can be detrimental too.
However, a recent epidemiological survey of approximately 6 million people worldwide has revealed that advanced paternal age is associated with the development of neurodevelopmental disorders. In other words, the older the parent, the increased risk a child has of developing disorders such as autism, ADHD and other learning disabilities.
When an earthquake or other natural disaster strikes, government relief agencies, insurers and other responders converge to take stock of fatalities and injuries, and to assess the extent and cost of damage to public infrastructure and personal property.
A large marine heatwave would double the rate of the climate change impacts on fisheries species in the northeast Pacific by 2050, says a recently released study by researchers from the University of British Columbia and University of Bern.
In 2013, a large marine heatwave, nicknamed the 'Blob', occurred in the northeast Pacific Ocean. From the coast of Alaska to Baja California, the Blob had a significant impact on the marine life and fisheries in this region; an impact that lasted for several years.
Chinese researchers have developed a pulsed optically pumped (POP) atomic clock with a frequency stability of 4.7 × 10-15 at 104 seconds based on a new design.
The achievement is noteworthy because atomic clocks - often considered the most stable frequency standard for timekeeping - are crucial components in global navigation systems and international communication services, and frequency stability is key to their accuracy.
POP atomic clocks are an important research focus because they are lightweight and show excellent frequency stability.
Some solid tumors have a very high growth rate, which often leads to a lack of vascularization due to the impossibility to develop, at the same time, the blood vessels that accompany and nourish it. The team of Dr. Cristina Muñoz Pinedo, from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science of the University of Barcelona (UB), with the collaboration of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), has studied how tumor cells respond to this lack of nutrients.
Scientists have identified a key step in the process that leads to leaky vessels and harmful swelling in eye diseases, according to a new study published today in eLife.
The discovery could lead to improved treatments for diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases cause leaky blood vessels to grow in the eyes, leading to harmful swelling and progressive vision loss.