Earth
WASHINGTON -- A comprehensive analysis examining the relationship between vaping and smoking among youth and young adults finds that cigarette smoking dramatically decreased between 2013 and 2017 just as e-cigarette use became more popular.
The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, looked at five different U.S. population-level surveys that covered the four year time frame -- the time during which vaping became increasingly popular.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has today published a new briefing note highlighting the ethical issues that can arise when patients and doctors wish to use experimental treatments.
Several controversies over the use of experimental treatments have been reported in the media recently, including couples feeling duped over expensive fertility treatment 'add-ons'1, deaths following stem cell-engineered larynx transplants2, and parents wishing to access experimental treatments for their children abroad.3
Using machine-learning and an integrated photonic chip, researchers from INRS (Canada) and the University of Sussex (UK) can now customize the properties of broadband light sources. Also called "supercontinuum", these sources are at the core of new imaging technologies and the approach proposed by the researchers will bring further insight into fundamental aspects of light-matter interactions and ultrafast nonlinear optics. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications on November 20, 2018.
One day, MRI brain scans may help predict whether older people will develop dementia, new research suggests.
In a small study, MRI brain scans predicted with 89 percent accuracy who would go on to develop dementia within three years, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California San Francisco.
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 20, 2018 -- Ever watch aquatic animals jump out of the water and wonder how they manage to do it in such a streamlined and graceful way? A group of researchers who specialize in water entry and exit in nature had the same question and are exploring the specific physical conditions required for animals to successfully leap out of water.
EXPLORER, the world's first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3-D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans.
Washington, DC - From online forums to community groups, research and experience shows people are more willing to insult and use menacing language online than in person, especially when there's the protection of anonymity behind a computer. New research appearing in Social Psychological and Personality Science indicates that people react less strongly to malicious speech on digital platforms and see the victims as less "harmed" than if the words were said directly to a person.
It's known that cancer involves unchecked cell growth and that a biological pathway that regulates organ size, known at the Hippo pathway, is also involved in cancer. It's further known that a major player in this pathway, YAP, drives many types of tumors. Now, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have solved an ongoing problem: how to turn this knowledge into a practical drug target.
Bridgett vonHoldt is best known for her work with dogs and wolves, so she was surprised when a bird biologist pulled her aside and said, "I really think you can help me solve this problem." So she turned to a mystery he'd been wrestling with for more than 20 years.
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 18, 2018 -- Wombats, the chubby and beloved, short-legged marsupials native to Australia, are central to a biological mystery in the animal kingdom: How do they produce cube-shaped poop? Patricia Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, set out to investigate.
Yang studies the hydrodynamics of fluids, including blood, processed food and urine, in the bodies of animals. She was curious how the differences in wombats' digestive processes and soft tissue structures might explain their oddly shaped scat.
UCLA biologists have discovered how head injuries adversely affect individual cells and genes that can lead to serious brain disorders. The life scientists provide the first cell "atlas" of the hippocampus -- the part of the brain that helps regulate learning and memory -- when it is affected by traumatic brain injury. The team also proposes gene candidates for treating brain diseases associated with traumatic brain injury, such as Alzheimer's disease and post-traumatic stress disorder.
SEATTLE (November 16, 2018) - If the thought of sucking your baby's pacifier to clean it and then popping it in your baby's mouth grosses you out, think again. New research being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting suggests a link between parental sucking on a pacifier and a lower allergic response among young children.
The number of critically endangered animals has been increasing in recent years. According to data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 1375 avian species are categorized as being endangered animals, and around 12% of the endangered species are avian. The conservation of endangered species is an important task for our next generation in order to maintain genetic diversity. The Okinawa rail, which is a species endemic to northern Okinawa Island, is an example of an endangered (EN) avian species.
Dublin, Ireland: A combination of two drugs, which prompt the body's immune system to identify and kill cancer cells, is a safe treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and has shown some signs of efficacy.
Male salmon are maturing earlier and becoming smaller, and it shows in their genes. This was the discovery of a study that examined scale samples from salmon in the River Teno in Northern Finland over a 40-year period, and looked at the population genetic profile of a gene that determines salmon's age of maturity and size. The results show that the 'big salmon gene version' has become rarer in the population over time, and has been replaced by the 'small salmon gene version'.