Culture
MADISON, Wis. -- Blue-blooded and armored with 10 spindly legs, horseshoe crabs have perhaps always seemed a bit out of place.
First thought to be closely related to crabs, lobsters and other crustaceans, in 1881 evolutionary biologist E. Ray Lankester placed them solidly in a group more similar to spiders and scorpions. Horseshoe crabs have since been thought to be ancestors of the arachnids, but molecular sequence data have always been sparse enough to cast doubt.
MADISON, Wis. -- "Microbial communities run the world," says Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"People always laugh when I say that," she adds. "But it's true."
Our rich new understanding of microbial communities and their influence on human health or crop productivity has led to the dream of changing these communities to produce benefits. In pursuit of that dream, millions of Americans now take probiotics, beneficial microbes they hope will improve their gut.
Scientists from I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University together with their Russian colleagues studied reaction of wheat plants to damage caused by pathogenic fungi. They examined activation of enzymes involved in cell death induced in response to infection. The research results and enzyme classification were published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
DALLAS, March 8, 2019 -- Smoking tobacco in waterpipes, more commonly known as hookahs, results in inhaling toxic chemicals, often at levels exceeding cigarette smoke, that may harm the heart and blood vessels, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
A comprehensive analysis of sewage collected in 74 cities in 60 countries has yielded the first, comparable global data, which show the levels and types of antimicrobial resistant bacteria that are present in mainly healthy people in these countries. The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, headed the study, which was conducted by an international team of researchers.
WASHINGTON--The Endocrine Society is commemorating International Women's day with its March 2019 Women in Endocrinology Collection, a special online thematic issue of peer-reviewed journal articles.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research shows just how powerful the United States' and other countries' influence can be on persuading other nations to ratify international treaties.
The first-of-its-kind study shows the influence of countries in treaty ratification can extend beyond their close allies and could even help persuade rivals to join agreements.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Brown University researchers have developed a new antibacterial coating for intravascular catheters that could one day help to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections, the most common type of hospital-acquired infection.
It's widely accepted within agriculture that maintaining genetic diversity is important. In areas where crop plants are more diverse, pathogens might kill some plants but are less likely to wipe out an entire crop.
Few studies, however, have focused on such highly specialized pathogens in natural plant communities. In diverse plant communities, pathogens are thought to maintain diversity by killing common species, making room for rare ones. But what happens to diversity if, like in agriculture, pathogens harm some plants within a species, but not all?
During his first week in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order known as the Expanded Global Gag Rule that cuts funding to foreign aid organizations that provide or refer women to abortions. A new journal article by researchers in the Global Health Justice and Governance program (GHJG) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health argues that the policy is having a chilling effect, dampening debate, advocacy, and collaboration around abortion and other sexual and reproductive rights.
Restrictive entry and integration policies are having an adverse effect on the health of migrants in high-income countries, according to the most comprehensive assessment of the impact of general migration policies on migrant health, published in The Lancet Global Health journal.
Testosterone replacement is increasingly used by older men, particularly in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has warned of the risk of heart attack and stroke on testosterone, and requested a large randomized controlled trial to assess the cardiovascular effects of testosterone.
States with more permissive gun laws and greater gun ownership have higher rates of mass shootings, and a growing divide is emerging between states with restrictive versus permissive gun laws. According to a new study, researchers at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health found that in most years permissive states had higher mass shooting rates compared to restrictive states.
Scientists are urging for improved regulation on pesticides after finding that they affect genes in bumblebees, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with Imperial College London.
For the first time, researchers applied a biomedically inspired approach to examine changes in the 12,000 genes that make up bumblebee workers and queens after pesticide exposure.
The study, published in Molecular Ecology, shows that genes which may be involved in a broad range of biological processes are affected.
Too much time in front of the bedroom TV deprives the child of more enriching developmental activities and may explain, in part, less optimal body mass, poor eating habits and socio-emotional difficulties as a teenager, says the study, published Dec. 26 in Pediatric Research.
"The early years are a critical period in a child's development," said study author Linda Pagani, a professor at UdeM's School of Psycho-Education, who will be discussing her study today at the International Convention of Psychological Science, in Paris.