Earth
PHILADELPHIA - The antibiotic vancomycin alters the gut microbiome in a way that can help prime the immune system to more effectively attack tumor cells after radiation therapy. A new study in mice from researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania found giving a dose of the common antibiotic not only helped immune cells kill tumors that were directly treated with radiation, but also kill cancer cells that were further away in the body, paving the way for researchers to test the approach in a human clinical trial.
Water is the basis of all life on earth. Its structure is simple - two hydrogen atoms bound to one oxygen atom - yet its behavior is unique among liquids, and scientists still do not fully understand the origins of its distinctive properties.
The Antarctic is one of the parts of earth that we know the least about. Due to the massive ice shield, the collection of geophysical information on site is extremely difficult and expensive. Satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA) has now been used as the basis for new insights on the deep structure of the continent.
DALLAS - Dec. 9, 2019 - UT Southwestern researchers have developed a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to recognize cancer cells from digital pathology images - giving clinicians a powerful way of predicting patient outcomes.
The spatial distribution of different types of cells can reveal a cancer's growth pattern, its relationship with the surrounding microenvironment, and the body's immune response. But the process of manually identifying all the cells in a pathology slide is extremely labor intensive and error-prone.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The last remaining tropical glaciers between the Himalayas and the Andes will disappear in the next decade - and possibly sooner - due to climate change, a new study has found.
The glaciers in Papua, Indonesia, are "the canaries in the coal mine" for other mountaintop glaciers around the world, said Lonnie Thompson, one of the senior authors of the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists say coral reefs on a tiny island in the South Pacific have shown incredible resilience and recovery from a recent but very severe disturbance: a volcanic eruption that created a new island.
Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha'apai was (until October this year) the newest island on Earth. It was a result of a massive 2015 volcanic eruption in the middle of the South Pacific that, over a period of two weeks, created a new island more than 200 metres high.
DALLAS, Dec. 9, 2019 -- Geriatric conditions such as frailty and cognitive impairments may inadvertently worsen when older patients are treated in cardiac intensive care units - even as they receive excellent care for their heart attack, heart failure, valvular heart disease or pulmonary embolism, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published today in the Association's premier journal Circulation.
In a joint research study from Sweden, scientists from Chalmers University of Technology and Stockholm University have developed a new material for capturing carbon dioxide. The new material offers many benefits - it is sustainable, has a high capture rate, and has low operating costs. The research has been published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL...December 9, 2019 - Taking a cue from the self-cleaning properties of the lotus leaf, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have shed new light on microscopic forces and mechanisms that can be optimized to remove dust from solar panels to maintain efficiency and light absorption. The new technique removed 98% of dust particles.
Eye-opening research by neurosurgeons from Barrow Neurological Institute and Montreal Neurological Institute has produced the foremost investigation of the origin and evolution of perhaps the most famous concept devised in neurobiology--the homunculus of neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield. The paper, along with a perspective piece, was published in the August issue of World Neurosurgery. The research was conducted by Drs. Mark Preul and Gurpreet Gandhoke at Barrow and Richard Leblanc at Montreal.
For patients with high-risk myeloid cancers undergoing a donor stem cell transplant, adding the targeted drug venetoclax to a reduced-intensity drug regimen prior to transplant is safe and does not impair the ability of the donor cells to take root in recipients' bodies, a study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers suggests. The study will be presented today at the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.
PORTLAND, OR - Most people diagnosed with the most common type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can safely skip radiation treatment after a clear PET scan, according to new clinical trial results released today at the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.
Johns Hopkins engineers have created a new lens-free ultra-miniaturized endoscope, the size of a few human hairs in width, that is less bulky and can produce higher quality images.
Their findings were published today in Science Advances.
"Usually, you have sacrifice either size or image quality. We've been able to achieve both with our microendoscope," says Mark Foster, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the study's corresponding author.
SAN DIEGO, December 6, 2019 -- The release of more than 50 floating sensors, called Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers (MERMAIDs), is increasing the number of seismic stations around the planet. Scientists will use the floating array to clarify the picture of the massive mantel plume in the lower mantel lying below the South Pacific Ocean. This effort will also establish one of the most comprehensive overviews of seismic activity across the globe.
SAN DIEGO, December 6, 2019 -- Stormquakes are a recently discovered phenomenon characterized by seismic activity originating at the ocean floor due to powerful storms.
Catherine de Groot-Hedlin, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, was part of the group that first observed stormquakes. She will discuss their properties and meteorological significance during a session at the 178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will take place Dec. 2-6, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.