Earth
Boston, MA -- Psoriasis is a skin disorder that affects at least 100 million individuals worldwide. Its economic impact is more than $10 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Involved skin becomes thickened, red, and covered with silvery scales, while changes to the nails and deforming inflammation of the joints may also occur in up to one-third of affected individuals. The underlying cause of psoriasis remains a mystery, and effective targeted therapies remain to be developed.
LA JOLLA, CALIF. - December 11, 2019 - Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that worms live longer lives if they produce excess levels of a protein, p62 or SQSTM1, which recognizes toxic cell proteins that are tagged for destruction.
Analysis of leaf shape and size is a cornerstone of botany, and is crucial in answering a variety of ecological, evolutionary, genetic, and agricultural questions. However, the software packages used to conduct these morphometric analyses can be cumbersome, and sometimes require stringing multiple programs together. This slows the rate of progress in the field, creates higher barriers of entry for newcomers, and introduces unnecessary errors to these calculations.
As technology advances in the things we use every day, it's generally accepted they also become safer. But according to one UBC engineer, that may not be true for a large portion of the population.
New research from UBC's Okanagan campus has developed a innovative model to map the impact of trauma on a pregnant woman and her uterus if she were involved in an accident--with the hopes of making everything from airbags to seatbelts safer for all.
SPOKANE, Wash. - A new study conducted by researchers at Washington State University shows that individuals with chronic sleep-onset insomnia who pulled an all-nighter performed up to twice as bad on a reaction time task as healthy normal sleepers. Their findings were published today in the online journal Nature and Science of Sleep.
New therapy shows 'dramatic' effect against worst leukaemias
A collaborative research effort by Australian and US scientists has led to the discovery of a promising new approach to treating some of the worst types of leukaemia, including an aggressive leukaemia that mostly affects babies.
By analysing almost daily water samples taken from the same river from 1940 until today, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have confirmed their hypothesis that the browning of lakes is primarily due to the increase in coniferous forests, as well as rainfall and sulphur deposits.
Over the last three decades, meaning in life has emerged as an important question in medical research, especially in the context of an aging population. A recent study by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that the presence of and search for meaning in life are important for health and well-being, though the relationships differ in adults younger and older than age 60.
Close friendships improve the survival chances of rhesus macaques, new research shows.
University of Exeter scientists studied the social lives of female macaques on "Monkey Island" (Cayo Santiago, off Puerto Rico).
Data spanning seven years revealed that females with the strongest social connection to a another macaque - measured by factors including time spent together and time grooming each other's fur - were 11% less likely to die in a given year.
Using instruments onboard the International Space Station, researchers have observed millisecond pulses of gamma-rays produced by thunderstorms, clarifying the process by which these flashes are made, and discovering that they can produce an ultraviolet emission known as an "Elve." The results help reveal the process by which terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are generated from thunderstorms, which has been debated.
The rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has the potential to change how we view money. At the same time, governments and societies are worried that the anonymity of these cashless transactions could allow criminal activities to flourish. Another less remarked issue is the energy demands needed to mint new coins for these cryptocurrencies.
The gun violence seen in popular PG-13 movies aimed at children and teenagers has more than doubled since the rating was introduced in 1984. The increasing on-screen gun violence has raised concerns that it will encourage imitation, especially when it is portrayed as "justified."
What was not clear until now is whether justified and unjustified violence produce different brain responses.
Millions of people in China depend on the rainfall brought by the monsoon during summer for their livelihoods and water supplies. Although there have been recent studies demonstrating that monsoon rainfall over the summer as a whole can be predicted, skilful predictions on shorter time scales have not yet been demonstrated. A recent study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, suggests that such predictions may now be possible.
The Arctic region is heating up faster than any other place on Earth, and as more and more sea ice is lost every year, we are already feeling the impacts. IIASA researchers explored strategies for cooling down the oceans in a world without this important cooling mechanism.
The increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has warmed the Earth since the beginning of the industrial era. Climate models try to project how much this warming trend will continue, but they differ in their global-mean temperature response to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.