Opinions surrounding the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods must be based on conclusive scientific facts, not the results of one study, the trade association representing Canada's plant science industry said today.
"Genetically modified foods and the crops from which they are derived are some of the most extensively studied food products in the world," says Denise Dewar, Executive Director of Plant Biotechnology for CropLife Canada. "GM foods have been safely consumed for over a decade."
At menopause, women lose hormone protection against heart (cardiovascular) and kidney (renal) diseases, and are likely to become obese. A research team has tested the idea that estrogen deficiency in aged females may trigger the development of high blood pressure and obesity. The results of their study, using an animal model, suggest that estrogen depletion can have these effects.
For decades, older women have taken hormone replacements to replenish estrogen and progesterone levels lost to aging. More recently, testosterone (the most important male hormone) supplements have been used by aging men to improve their muscle mass, bone strength, libido and quality of life. In 2002, the number of elderly American men taking testosterone replacement therapy was nearly 819,000, and the number is growing.
A new study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggests that wireless capsule endoscopy is a useful and safe technique to study small bowel health in children. While the technology has become widely used in adult treatment, this is the first study to examine its use in pediatrics.
Diet foods and drinks for children may inadvertently lead to overeating and obesity, says a new report from the University of Alberta.
A team of researchers contends that animals learn to connect the taste of food with the amount of caloric energy it provides, and children who consume low-calorie versions of foods that are normally high in calories may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content, leading them to overeat as they grow up.
The research will be published today in the academic journal Obesity.
Researchers have identified a new player in the control of so-called “good” cholesterol that circulates in the bloodstream and reduces heart attack risk, according to a report in the August issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. Should the metabolic pathway uncovered in mice operate similarly in humans, the new discovery could point the way to therapies that protect against heart disease by boosting concentrations of the beneficial high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).
Cryptography is just about as old as written communication itself, and mathematics has long supplied methods for the cryptographic toolbox. Starting in the 1970s, increasingly sophisticated mathematics began to make inroads into cryptography, changing the nature of the field and bringing new perspectives on what it means to keep communications secure.
Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) is a National Science Foundation program to educate U.S. scientists and engineers who will pursue careers in research and education. It aims to bring together interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional and personal skills that will build leaders and creative agents for change.
How do consumers look at advertisements? Most marketing textbooks advance the theory that looking at ads is a predominantly “dumb process,” driven by visual stimuli such as the size of the ad or the color of the text. However, new research by researchers from the Netherlands and the University of Michigan uses eye-tracking software to reveal that it may be our goals – the tasks we have in mind – that drive what we pay attention to, even during a few seconds of ad exposure.
“New technology and global observations have improved resource-management decision making from disaster detection and mitigation of fires, insect outbreaks, storms, and floods, to agricultural management and basic ecological research,” says Dennis Ojima (Colorado State University).
American women have gotten fatter as it has become more socially acceptable to carry a few extra pounds, according to a new study.
Florida State University Assistant Professor of Economics Frank Heiland and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Economist Mary Burke are the co-authors of a paper published in the academic journal Economic Inquiry that argues that the ballooning weight of the population has fed even more collective weight gain as our perception of what is considered a normal body size has changed.
New insights into why the bug that causes anthrax behaves in the unusual way that it does have come to light thanks to a development under the UK e-Science Programme. Researchers at the North East Regional e-Science Centre have found that the proteins the anthrax bacterium secretes equip it to grow only in an animal host and not in the soil.
Is your mascara clumpy? Your liquid foundation thickening? Can’t remember what year you bought your half-used lipstick? Dermatologists say your old makeup may be causing you blemishes or even worse—it could lead to a dangerous infection.
“Most women do have a drawer full of cosmetics that have been partially used,” says Angela Bowers, M.D., dermatologist on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.
Transcription — the transfer of DNA’s genetic information through the synthesis of complementary molecules of messenger RNA — forms the basis of all cellular activities. Yet little is known about the dynamics of the process — how efficient it is or how long it takes. Now, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have measured the stages of transcription in real time. Their unexpected and surprising findings have fundamentally changed the way transcription is understood.
Cancer causing mutations occur in our bodies every day – but luckily, we have specific genes that recognize these malignant events and keep cells from growing out of control. Only a few of these genes – called tumor suppressors – are currently known.