Culture
Computational tools applied to biology are revolutionizing the study of what happens inside cells during an infection, helping scientists to understand disease mechanisms and contributing to the identification of potential therapeutic targets.
BOSTON - A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Harvard Medical School has found that adolescent sleep timing preferences and patterns should be considered risk factors for obesity and cardiometabolic health, and that the effects are greater in girls than in boys.
Bottom Line: This study estimates 1 in 16 U.S. women had an unwanted first sexual intercourse experience that was physically forced or coerced. In an analysis of nationally representative survey data for 13,310 women, 6.5% of the respondents reported a forced first sexual intercourse encounter, which is equivalent to more than 3.3 million women between the ages of 18 and 44. The average age for women at the time of the forced encounter was 15 ½ compared with 17 ½ for those reporting a voluntary first sexual intercourse experience.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have developed a platform that uses nanoparticles known as metal-organic frameworks to deliver a promising anti-cancer agent to cells.
Research led by Dr David Fairen-Jimenez, from the Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, indicates metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) could present a viable platform for delivering a potent anti-cancer agent, known as siRNA, to cells.
Every living organism's cell has a complete copy of DNA, life's instruction book, which is condensed tightly in chromosomes. Every time the cell needs to perform a function, it activates genes that open or close different regions in the DNA. Like following an instruction manual with consecutive pages, it's easier to activate two genes that are closer together to complete a function.
Neutron stars - the compressed remains of massive stars gone supernova - are the densest "normal" objects in the known universe. (Black holes are technically denser, but far from normal.) Just a single sugar-cube worth of neutron-star material would weigh 100 million tons here on Earth, or about the same as the entire human population. Though astronomers and physicists have studied and marveled at these objects for decades, many mysteries remain about the nature of their interiors: Do crushed neutrons become "superfluid" and flow freely?
University of York scientists are part of an international team which has discovered how a parasite responsible for spreading a serious tropical disease protects itself from starvation once inside its human host.
The findings provide a new understanding of the metabolism of the Leishmania parasite and this new knowledge could potentially be used in its eradication.
The disease the parasite causes is called Leishmaniasis and it is spread by the bite of sand flies. It kills between 20-40,000 people every year.
Methanol is sometimes referred to as ethanol's deadly twin. While the latter is the intoxicating ingredient in wine, beer and schnapps, the former is a chemical that becomes highly toxic when metabolised by the human body. Even a relatively small amount of methanol can cause blindness or even prove fatal if left untreated.
Scientists describe a previously unknown disorder of the immune system: in a distinct subset of immune cells from patients with primary immunodeficiency, cellular respiration is significantly increased. This cellular metabolic overactivity leads to inflammation, as an international research team led by the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel report in the journal Nature Immunology.
In marriage, conflict is inevitable. Even the happiest couples argue. And research shows they tend to argue about the same topics as unhappy couples: children, money, in-laws, intimacy.
So, what distinguishes happy couples? According to "What are the Marital Problems of Happy Couples? A Multimethod, Two-Sample Investigation," a study published this August in Family Process, it is the way happy couples argue that may make a difference.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Round, smooth and iridescent, pearls are among the world's most exquisite jewels; now, these gems are inspiring a U.S. Army research project to improve military armor.
By mimicking the outer coating of pearls (nacre, or as it's more commonly known, mother of pearl), researchers at University at Buffalo, funded by the Army Research Office (ARO), created a lightweight plastic that is 14 times stronger and eight times lighter (less dense) than steel and ideal for absorbing the impact of bullets and other projectiles.
WASHINGTON--Valley fever is endemic to hot and dry regions like the southwestern United States and California's San Joaquin Valley, but a new study predicts climate change will cause the fungal infection's range to more than double in size this century, reaching previously unaffected areas across the western U.S.
NEW YORK (September 16, 2019) -- Higher hospital-wide use of four classes of antibiotics thought to increase the risk of the dangerous intestinal illness Clostridioides difficile were associated with increased prevalence of hospital-associated C. difficile, according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
The vast majority of Americans underestimate the magnitude of economic inequality between Whites and racial minorities, particularly Black and Latinx people, new data indicate.
In a national survey of more than 1,000 adults from racial and socioeconomic backgrounds largely representative of the demographics of the United States, Yale University psychological scientists have found that people overestimate the current state of White-Black wealth equality by 80 percentage points above U.S. government data on actual household wealth.
Teen girls--but not boys--who prefer to go to bed later are more likely to gain weight, compared to same-age girls who go to bed earlier, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and other institutions appear in JAMA Pediatrics.