Earth
Researchers led by Prof. Johan Thevelein (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology) have discovered that Saccharomyces boulardii, a yeast with probiotic properties, produces uniquely excessive amounts of acetic acid, the main component of vinegar. They were also able to find the genetic basis for this trait, which allowed them to modify the acetic acid production of the yeast. If this unique S. boulardii trait can be further validated to have a probiotic effect in animal models, these results could provide the first genetic basis for S. boulardii's unique probiotic potency.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Stone tools and other artifacts unearthed from an archeological dig at the Cooper's Ferry site in western Idaho suggest that people lived in the area 16,000 years ago, more than a thousand years earlier than scientists previously thought.
The artifacts would be considered among the earliest evidence of people in North America.
TORONTO, August 29, 2019 - Treatment practices in Canada and abroad need to change in order to help more people with alcohol use disorder, according to a CAMH-led article just published in The Lancet.
More than 1 million Canadians have alcohol use disorders in any given year, but the vast majority never receives professional help. Despite interventions for alcohol use disorders being effective and--if performed according to current guidelines--cost-saving, they are rare in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
Sepsis is a serious condition that can result in organ failure and even death. A novel human study published in The FASEB Journal demonstrates for the first time that the gut microbiota of patients with sepsis plays a major role in organ damage.
To conduct the experiment, researchers first compared the fecal microbial composition of two human groups: people who had sepsis and those who did not. They observed that the gut microbiota was altered at both functional and compositional levels in the first group, compared with that of the second group.
Archaeological discoveries from the Cooper's Ferry site in western Idaho indicate that humans migrated to and occupied the region by nearly 16,500 years ago. The findings expand the timing of human settlement in the Americas to a period predating the appearance of an ice-free corridor linking Beringia and the rest of North America and support the growing notion that the very first Americans likely landed upon the shores of the Pacific coast. How and when human populations first arrived and settled in the Americas remains debated.
Humans' dramatic transformation of Earth's landscape is no recent phenomenon, according to a new study from Science.
The research, which assessed global land use from 10,000 to 170 years ago, reveals that hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists had made significant alterations to the planet by 4,000 years ago, much earlier than indicated by Earth scientists' previous land-use reconstructions.
Titanium oxide (TiO2) nanofibers can have various applications, such as in catalyzers and filters. When TiO2 is excited by ultraviolet light, it degrades organic material. Hence, TiO2 can be applied to filter wastewater for reuse, for example.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), addressing carbon emissions from our food sector is absolutely essential to combatting climate change. While land and agriculture took center stage in the panel's most recent report, missing was how the oceans at large could help in that fight.
Seaweed, perceived by some as little more than marine debris on the beach, could be a new player in the effort to mitigate climate change. So say researchers at UC Santa Barbara, who investigated the carbon offsetting potential of seaweed aquaculture.
Mathematical modeling suggests that the diversity of interactions between species in an ecological community plays a greater role in maintaining community functioning than previously thought. Vincent Miele of the CNRS in Lyon, France, and colleagues present these findings in PLOS Computational Biology.
DALLAS (SMU) - Humans started making an impact on the global ecosystem through intensive farming much earlier than previously estimated, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
Scientists have created miniature brains from stem cells that developed functional neural networks. Despite being a million times smaller than human brains, these lab-grown brains are the first observed to produce brain waves that resemble those of preterm babies. The study, published August 29 in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could help scientists better understand human brain development.
Brain organoids -- also called mini-brains -- are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. They aren't prefect replicas, of course. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid's physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug.
CINCINNATI - One of the most common brain cancers in children, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) medulloblastoma, also is one of the more survivable for most kids. Unfortunately, for a subset of patients the cancer resists treatment and relapses with a vengeance to then turn deadly.
A new species of prehistoric murine -- the group of mammals that includes mice, rats, and their relatives -- has been identified from fossils discovered in Lebanon. The findings, presented in Scientific Reports, represent the first known physical evidence that the initial dispersal of mice from Asia to Africa took place through the Levant.
Murinae, the largest subfamily of mammals, are thought to have originated 16 million years ago in southern Asia. Yet, the possible routes and timing of the first murine dispersal have remained unclear.