Body

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Women whose breasts are more dense have a greater risk of developing breast cancer than those with less breast density, and physical activity is known to have a protective effect against the disease. However, studies into the relationship between physical activity and breast density have reported inconsistent results to date.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Carriers of the genetic mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2 are at high risk of contracting breast cancer, but these mutations are only involved in between 10-15% of inherited breast cancers, and there are many other candidates waiting to be discovered.

RICHLAND, Wash. - Inexpensive materials called MOFs pull gases out of air or other mixed gas streams, but fail to do so with oxygen. Now, a team has overcome this limitation by creating a composite of a MOF and a helper molecule in which the two work in concert to separate oxygen from other gases simply and cheaply.

When researchers studied the eyes of Common Bluebottles, a species of swallowtail butterfly from Australasia, they were in for a surprise. These butterflies have large eyes and use their blue-green iridescent wings for visual communication - evidence that their vision must be excellent. Even so, no-one expected to find that Common Bluebottles (Graphium sarpedon) have at least 15 different classes of "photoreceptors" -- light-detecting cells comparable to the rods and cones in the human eye. Previously, no insect was known to have more than nine.

Fifty-six million years ago, just before earth's carbon dioxide levels and average temperatures soared, many species of primitive primates went extinct in North America for reasons unclear to scientists. Now, a study of fossilized molars appears to exonerate one potential culprit in the animals' demise: competition with primitive rodents for food.

A new study from Princeton has revealed how a synthetic protein revives E. coli cells that lack a life-sustaining gene, offering insight into how life can adapt to survive and potentially be reinvented.

Researchers in the Hecht lab discovered the unexpected way in which a synthetic protein called SynSerB promotes the growth of cells that lack the natural SerB gene, which encodes an enzyme responsible for the last step in the production of the essential amino acid serine. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A substantial proportion of women in countries around the world do not stay in health facilities for long enough after giving birth, which could result in them receiving inadequate postnatal care, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine compiled and analysed information from databases and health surveys [1] to look at the length of time women stay in health facilities after childbirth in 92 countries, and found wide variation.

Shoppers making ethical purchases, such as buying organic food or environmentally friendly cars, are generally seen as more virtuous - unless they're receiving government assistance. If ethical shopping is funded by welfare cheques, those shoppers are judged as immoral for taking advantage of public generosity, according to a new UBC Sauder School of Business study.

Modifying gut bacteria could be a treatment option for some of the symptoms associated with the widespread disease polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), according to a recent study by San Diego State University researchers in collaboration with investigators from the University of California, San Diego. The study found that changes in gut bacteria are strongly associated with obesity and signs of diabetes in a mouse model that mimics PCOS.

A Chapman University psychologist has just published the results of a national study examining how men feel about their bodies and their attractiveness. Long thought to be an issue primarily faced by women, body dissatisfaction was identified as a common issue among men in the largest examination of body image to date.

Basal cell carcinoma (also known as basalioma or basal cell cancer -- BCC) is the most common, and the 5th expensive cancer type to cure, making about 90% of malignant skin tumors. Among risk factors there are genetic malfunctions, appearance of freckles, x-rays and radiation, burns or use of immunosuppressive medication (for organ transplantation, for instance).

Hydra is a genus of tiny freshwater animals that catch and sting prey using a ring of tentacles. But before a hydra can eat, it has to rip its own skin apart just to open its mouth. Scientists reporting March 8 in Biophysical Journal now illustrate the biomechanics of this process for the first time and find that a hydra's cells stretch to split apart in a dramatic deformation.

A team of biologists and physicists at UC San Diego has uncovered in detail the dynamic process that allows the multi-tentacle Hydra, a tiny freshwater animal distantly related to the sea anemone, to open and close its mouth.

The researchers report their findings in the current issue of Biophysical Journal. They say their discovery not only solves a long-standing puzzle of how Hydra feeds, but also enabled them to address a complex phenomenon in a living animal using relatively simple physics.

Over thousands of years, most forests in the eastern United States evolved with frequent fire, which promoted tree species and ecosystems that were both fire and drought resistant. In little more than a century, humans upset that balance, suggest researchers, who blame the change, in part, on the well-meaning efforts of Smokey Bear.

WASHINGTON, DC (March 8, 2016) -- States that allow autonomous practice by certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) have a higher proportion of CNM-attended births as well as lower rates of cesarean sections, preterm births, and low birthweight infants, according to a study published today in Women's Health Issues. Women's Health Issues is the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health, which is based at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University.