Science 2.0

In vitro, in utero, these are science terms that have become commonly known. In vitro means studies in cells, like using test tubes, or a test for a fetus in the womb in the case of in utero.

Studies done in feces - yes, excrement - haven't really had a name, they though are common in gut bacteria analyses. Now they might, thanks to UNC School of Medicine scientist Aadra Bhatt, PhD, and colleagues; in fimo. Their proposal is published in the journal Gastroenterology.

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By Charles Choi, Inside Science – New research suggests that megaliths -- monuments such as Stonehenge created from large rocks during the Stone and Copper Ages in Europe -- owe their origins to a mysterious culture from northwest France with advanced seafaring technology.

Roughly 35,000 megaliths are known throughout Europe, including standing stones, stone circles and megalithic tombs. Most megaliths date from 4500 to 2500 B.C., are concentrated in coastal areas along the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and share similar or even identical architectural features, said archaeologist Bettina Schulz Paulsson at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

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An immune checkpoint molecule, SA-4-1BB developed for cancer immunotherapy also protects against future development of multiple types of cancer when administered by itself, shows a new study.

The recombinant protein molecule SA-4-1BBL has been used to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines with success in pre-clinical animal models. It accomplishes this by boosting the effectiveness of CD8+ T cells, adaptive immune cells trained to target the tumor for destruction. When the researchers treated normal healthy mice with SA-4-1BBL alone, the mice were protected when the researchers later exposed them to different types of tumor cells.

Patrolling the body instead of generating an immune response after the tumor is present

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Cellular barcoding has been used to tag, track and pinpoint cells responsible for the spread of breast cancer from the main tumor into the blood and other organs, and also revealed how chemotherapy temporarily shrinks the number of harmful cells, rather than eliminating them, explaining how the cancer could eventually relapse.

Pinpointing the 'seeders' of disease

Most deaths from breast cancer are caused by the metastasis, or spread, of cancerous cells from the main tumor site into other organs. 

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A new analysis,which appeared in the journal Mutation Research, claims To show evidence linking exposure to the common weedkiller glyphosate to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), a rare form of cancer, but it provides no new data and is not what it presents itself to be.

Could exposure to glyphosate -- an herbicide often paired with genetically engineered corn, soybeans, cotton, and other crops – be causing cancer? That question has become the central contention advanced by critics of agricultural biotechnology.

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During President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 State of the Union address, scores of Democratic congresswomen wore white to pay tribute to suffragists and their fight for women’s rights.

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Former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis, who trained by running with tractor tires strapped to his waist and all that, has an easy marketing hook for his new cannabis 'athletic recovery' drink; if I am wrong, then why do I have two Super Bowl rings and a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame?(1) 

It sounds ridiculous when it's so on-the-nose, but that kind of strategy is common because it works. It is why athletes lend their name to products, and why friends of athletes want them involved in companies. As is happening with this Defy beverage, which touts that it contains cannabidiol (CBD) extracted from the marijuana and is being pushed by David, a friend of the CEO.

The bad news: there is no way this is an anti-inflammatory

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Exposure to glyphosate — at 45 years of age the world’s most widely used, broad-spectrum herbicide and the primary ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup — increases the risk of some cancers by more than 40 percent, according to a meta-analysis published in the online journal Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research, an imprint of publishing giant Elsevier.

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Friends of the Earth, the kooky offshoot of Sierra Club that hates science even more, is dumping its advertising budget into a claim it commissioned from a Maharishi Institute scholar who runs what is apparently an uncredentialed lab claiming they were able to detect a weedkiller in common food.

Any scientist could have told them that and saved their money.

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A recent paper in JAMA Internal Medicine had all of the ingredients mainstream media love in food stories; a cosmic sounding number of participants (44,551), which sounds like it adds statistical power, and a provocative conclusion about the perils of the modern world - in this case that eating "ultra-processed food" is lowering life expectancy.

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Raw milk sold by Miller’s Biodiversity Farm in Quarryville, Pennsylvania and laced with Brucella strain RB51 has been linked to exposures in 19 states by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Raw milk, a recent trend by organic food lovers, lacks pasteurization, a process created by Louis Pasteur that has saved millions of lives by removing harmful bacteria like RB51. A cow that tested positive for RB51 has been removed from the milking herd and after one case of infection was confirmed in New York in November 2018, there are concerns that an unknown number of people may have been infected due to the milk from this farm. 

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Perfect pitch may be more strongly under genetic control than previously thought, according to a new study.

Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven were able to precisely identify musical notes and there is certainly a genetic component to music like there is math or sprinting - while anyone can be functional with practice being truly great may take biology. Perfect (absolute) pitch is rare, even among expert musicians, and the relative contribution of genetics and experience to this ability remains debated.

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Is love a mystery or can it be reduced to chemical processes in the brain? And, what are those chemical processes? And, perhaps most importantly, can you prepare the brain for love?

Falling in Love

When you are falling in love a kind of chemical bomb goes off in the brain. There’s a chemical storm of dopamine and noradrenaline that makes you feel excited and warm all over.

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Love is a complex topic. You love your dog differently than you love chocolate. There are times when you might put your dog, or a loved one, ahead of yourself, but you would never jump in front of a moving car to save chocolate.

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Please don’t be scared by this, it is just the journalists hyping things up again. It does not mean what it seems to mean from the headlines. Insects can’t vanish and we will continue to be able to grow our crops and do agriculture. The study itself involves a lot of extrapolation on inadequate data, not their fault, it is just that there hasn’t been that much research done on insect populations for them to draw on. 73 studies is not a lot for the whole world and the studies are limited.

This is another example of hugely hyped up research with click bait headlines. Journalists do love a good “catastrophe” - this is generating terrifying headlines for the easily scared.

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A short few months after China became the third country with a moon mission (following the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Israel will be the fourth.

On February 22nd, 2019, give or take weather events, the Beresheet Moon lander, once one of the candidates for the Google Lunar X-Prize, will make Israel the fourth country with a moon mission. And its $100 million for planning and execution has been made possible through cooperation of private individuals, corporate and government groups, and academia. 

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The L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO have announced the laureates of the 21

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United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has been in the private sector and in government, he has been care provider and patient, he has used supplements and watched as a $40 billion supplements industry duped the gullible and often engaged in outright deception, all using an exemption granted by the U.S. government.
But a recent statement by him, coupled with a raft of warning letters to supplement companies, signals that might change.

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Mention to doctors who run their own practice or a hospital administrator that malpractice and American tort culture are probably the biggest reason for high health care costs, they will likely correct you and say that it is instead defensive medicine - running tests and engaging in efforts a doctor knows are unnecessary or useless to check off boxes that will prevent a lawsuit if something ever does go wrong.

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A new analysis finds that mammography and improvements in breast cancer treatment have led to a terrific number of women's lives saved since 1989.

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