Culture
Water is crucial for life, but how do you make water? Cooking up some H2O takes more than mixing hydrogen and oxygen. It requires the special conditions found deep within frigid molecular clouds, where dust shields against destructive ultraviolet light and aids chemical reactions. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will peer into these cosmic reservoirs to gain new insights into the origin and evolution of water and other key building blocks for habitable planets.
CHICAGO (March 9, 2018): For many years, people who sustained severe burn injuries often died. But great strides in burn care over the last 30 years have dramatically increased their chances of survival, according to new study findings published as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website ahead of print publication.
Alport Syndrome (AS) is a hereditary kidney disease caused by a genetic mutation leading to type IV collagen (Col4) abnormalities. Unfortunately, treatment through the correction of Col4 functionality has not yet been developed. Now, researchers from Kumamoto University in Japan have established a highly sensitive technology to assess Col4 functionality thereby paving the way to develop therapeutic drugs.
A research team ECOSOS (Evolving Cooperation and Social Simulation) led by Hitoshi Yamamoto from Rissho University develops a game theoretical method to analyze what role the diversity of social norms plays in the process of evolving cooperation. The team revealed that a social norm that regards those who help the bad as bad becomes extinct if the members of the society learn their norms based on "dividualism".
A new study by scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups predicts that the effects of climate change will severely impact the Albertine Rift, one of Africa's most biodiverse regions and a place not normally associated with global warming.
A newly-discovered hereditary mutation is responsible for an increased production of erythropoietin (EPO) in the blood. This mutation causes a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is not normally involved in the formation of proteins to be reprogrammed so that it produces EPO, thus abnormally increasing the number of red blood cells. Researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel reported these findings in The New England Journal of Medicine.
LA JOLLA, CA - March 8, 2018 - About 1 in 2,500 people have a degenerative nerve disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT). The disease is typically diagnosed in children, who can lose their ability to walk and use their hands for fine motor skills. There is no cure--yet.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have now shown a path to developing treatments for disease subtype CMT2D. As they report in the journal Nature Communications, it may be possible to reverse the disease by using a small molecule to restore normal protein function in the nervous system.
New Rochelle, NY, March 7, 2018--Researchers have shown that a wide variety of synthetic antisense oligonucleotides with different chemical modifications can activate the frataxin gene, which contains a mutation that decreases its expression in the inherited neurologic disorder Friedreich's ataxia (FA).
A recent study by George Mason University researchers in the Department of Global and Community Health found that women who have given birth have shorter telomeres compared to women who have not given birth. Telomeres are the end caps of DNA on our chromosomes, which help in DNA replication and get shorter over time. The length of telomeres has been associated with morbidity and mortality previously, but this is the first study to examine links with having children.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Extremely low birth-weight babies are at risk for a chronic lung disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or BPD. This condition can lead to death or long-term disease, but clinical measurements are unable to predict which of the tiny infants -- who get care in hospital intensive-care units and often weigh just one and a half pounds -- will develop BPD.
In a new study in Nature Neuroscience, Jaideep Bains, PhD, and his team at the Cumming School of Medicine's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), at the University of Calgary have discovered that stress transmitted from others can change the brain in the same way as a real stress does. The study, in mice, also shows that the effects of stress on the brain are reversed in female mice following a social interaction. This was not true for male mice.
A new study reveals that acetaminophen use and over-dosing rise in cold/flu season in the United States, primarily due to increased use of over-the-counter combination medications treating upper respiratory symptoms. Another study reports that acetaminophen is the most commonly used analgesic in France, with more high-dose tablets being consumed in recent years.
Massachusetts boasts one of the most iconic fisheries in the U.S., but new research suggests that protecting marine coastlines has surpassed commercial fishing as an economic driver.
The study is the first to calculate the economic value of coastal preservation in Massachusetts. The research finds these efforts contributed $179 million to the state's economy in 2014, more than finfish landings ($105 million) and whale-watching ($111 million).
Farm manure could be a viable source of renewable energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing technology to produce renewable natural gas from manure so it can be added to the existing energy supply system for heating homes and powering industries. That would eliminate particularly harmful gases released by naturally decomposing manure when it is spread on farm fields as fertilizer and partially replace fossil natural gas, a significant contributor to global warming.
Watching YouTube videos, Instagram demos, and Facebook tutorials may make us feel as though we're acquiring all sorts of new skills but it probably won't make us experts, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.