Earth
A new renal biomarker was presented at the ERA-EDTA Congress last year: that shows that urinary DKK3 might help to identify patients who are at risk of progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Climate and ecosystems are changing, but predation on shorebird nests has changed little across the globe over the past 60 years, finds an international team of 60 researchers. The study published in Science on 14 June 2019 challenges a recent claim that shorebird eggs are more often eaten by predators due to climate change, and more so in the Arctic compared to the tropics. The research shows that these claims are a methodological artefact.
The further from the equator, the fewer predators?
Even single-celled organisms desire partners every now and then.
Leishmania - single-celled parasites that cause infections of the skin and internal organs - have long been known to multiply asexually, like bacteria. But occasionally, researchers have found hybrid parasites that carry genetic material from more than one strain - or even more than one species - of Leishmania, suggesting that some kind of genetic mixing is going on.
Most people think of water as existing in only one of three phases: Solid ice, liquid water, or gas vapor. But matter can exist in many different phases--ice, for example, has more than ten known phases, or ways that its atoms can be spatially arranged. The widespread use of piezoelectric materials, such as microphones and ultrasound, is possible thanks to a fundamental understanding of how an external force, like pressure, temperature, or electricity, can lead to phase transitions that imbue materials with new properties.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Higher temperatures and mixing glyphosate with dicamba lead to increased atmospheric concentrations of dicamba, according to scientists with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
Phthalates, one of the most common endocrine disruptors, are commonly used by industry in many plastic products - toys, clothing, baby bottles or even medical equipment - as well as in cosmetics. If guidelines are beginning to be imposed to limit their use, their toxic effect on the endocrine system is worrying. Indeed, the exposure of male foetuses to phthalates can have devastating consequences for the fertility of future individuals by modifying the regulatory elements of the expression of genes responsible for spermatogenesis.
Usually, scientists study the molecular biology of cancer to find new treatments, but sometimes, it is the other way round: when trying to find new treatments, scientists find key information on cancer biology. The researchers from the Telomeres and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have identified new drug combinations that prevent the development of therapy resistance in mice with glioblastoma, the most malignant brain tumour.
Philadelphia, June 13, 2019 - A shift from brain systems controlling reward-driven use to habit-driven use differentiates heavy cannabis users who are addicted to the drug from users who aren't, according to a study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier.
Warming waters in the western tropical Pacific Ocean have significantly increased thunderstorms and rainfall, which may affect the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and global sea-level rise, according to a Rutgers University-New Brunswick study.
Doctors are calling for reform to rules governing when terminally ill prisoners are suitable for early release on compassionate grounds (ERCG) amid concerns that the current approach is discriminatory.
Data obtained from the UK Ministry of Justice and shared with The BMJ suggests that UK prisoners at the end of life are more likely to be granted ERCG if they have cancer than other conditions.
In 2005, condensed matter physicists Charles Kane and Eugene Mele considered the fate of graphene at low temperatures. Their work led to the discovery of a new state of matter dubbed a "topological insulator," which would usher in a new era of materials science.
Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have developed small drug-targeting molecules that may be hundreds to thousands of times more effective at delivering potent drugs to desired sites of disease, including cancer.
According to the study published in ACS Central Science, a compound was developed from a new material, described as an easily injected hydrogel, which acts as a "homing" cue to attract drug molecules to sites bearing a tumor. By this method, the same sites can also be re-targeted for repeat dosing of chemotherapy or other treatments as needed.
Persistent poverty affects one in five children in the UK, and is associated with poor physical and mental health in early adolescence, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Child poverty is rising in the UK. In 2016-17, 30% (4.1 million) children were reported to be living in poverty, up from 27% in 2010-11, and the proportion is projected to rise further over the next five years. By 2023-24, the proportion of children living in relative poverty is on course to hit 37%, affecting an extra 1.1 million children.
The cell contains transcripts of the genetic material, which migrate from the cell nucleus to another part of the cell. This movement protects the genetic transcripts from the recruitment of "spliceosomes". If this protection does not happen, the entire cell is in danger: meaning that cancer and neurodegenerative diseases can develop. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and the University Medicine Centre Göttingen have demonstrated the underlying mechanism in the cell. The results were published in the journal Cell Reports.
Six different colour morphs of the elusive Asiatic golden cat have been discovered in Northeast India - with the findings being hailed as "an evolutionary puzzle" - as the world's greatest number of different coloured wild cat species in one area are reported.
The Indian scientists from international conservation charity ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and UCL discovered the colour morphs, during a wide-scale camera trapping study covering both community forests and protected areas across Dibang Valley, Northeast India.