Body

For lovers of wild foods, autumn harks a season of bounty. Fungi of dizzying variety erupt from wood and soil, luring intrepid collectors to woodlands in search of elusive but delectable wild mushrooms. Part of their appeal lies in the allure of the treasure hunt, and their mysterious not-quite-meat, not-quite-vegetable qualities that belie an almost otherworldly existence. But are the mushrooms which you are eating known to science?

Sugars in the diet should make up no more than 3% of total energy intake to reduce the significant financial and social burdens of tooth decay, finds new research from UCL (University College London) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The study, published in the open-access journal BMC Public Health, analysed the effect of sugars on dental caries, also known as tooth decay. They show that sugars are the only cause of tooth decay in children and adults.

New research presented at this year's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Vienna, Austria, shows that people with the highest consumption of high-fat dairy products (8 or more portions per day) have a 23% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those with the lowest consumption (1 or less per day). The research is by Dr Ulrika Ericson, Lund University Diabetes Center, Malmö, Sweden, and colleagues.

A study in mice implanted with breast and melanoma cancers adds to a growing body of evidence that highly focused radiation – long thought to suppress immunity – can actually help boost the immune system's fight against cancer when combined with a new kind of immune-enhancing drug.

The study, led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers, shows how in principle, radiation may specifically activate immune system cells responsible for attacking cancer cells, leading immune cells to "remember" how to fight cancer long after the cancer is gone.

Human skin and gut microbes influence processes from digestion to disease resistance. Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, more is known about belly-button bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria. The combined sample from 57 tree species contained more than 7,000 different kinds.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 15, 2014) – The so-called central dogma of molecular biology—that DNA makes RNA which makes protein—has long provided a simplified explanation for how genetic information is deciphered and translated in living organisms.

Bottom Line: Hospital costs are higher and the odds of complication and death are greater for multiple-birth infants than singleton births and some of this clinical and economic burden can be alleviated through single-embryo transfer in assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Author: Georgina M. Chambers, Ph.D., M.B.A., B.App.Sci.(MLS), Grad.Dip(Comp), of the University of New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues.

When this week's print issue of the journal Science comes out, a collective cheer will go up from New Mexico, Montana and even the Netherlands, thanks to the type of collaborative effort that is more and more the norm in these connected times. Yes, the research was brilliant, and if we're lucky, it will produce innovations in biology, medicine, biotechnology and agriculture. It could save lives, and it happened because this scientist talked with that one, that one knew another one, and brilliant minds overcame geographic distance to advance human understanding.

A new, large cohort analysis from the prospective Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, indicates that men who had moderate baldness affecting both the front and the crown of their head at age 45 were at a 40% increased risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer (usually indicates a faster growing tumor resulting in poorer prognosis relative to non-aggressive prostate cancer) later in life, compared to men with no baldness. There was no significant link between other patterns of baldness and prostate cancer risk.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – According to recent studies, approximately one out of every 40 individuals in the United States is a carrier of the gene responsible for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neurodegenerative disease that causes muscles to weaken over time. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have made a recent breakthrough with the development of a new compound found to be highly effective in animal models of the disease. In April, a patent was filed for the compound for use in SMA.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 15, 2014) — A man's cardiorespiratory fitness can drastically delay the natural, age-associated increase of his blood pressure over his adult life span. According to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, men with higher fitness levels experience a delay in the development of hypertension when compared to those with lower fitness levels.

This news release is available in French.

MONTREAL, September 15, 2014 – Star receiver Charles-Antoine Sinotte suffered a concussion during his last home game for the McGill Redmen in 2010. "It was like nothing I had experienced before," recalls Sinotte. "I felt like I was out of my body." Although he received medical attention and missed the rest of the game, he admits he downplayed his symptoms in order to play in the next game – his last before leaving McGill.

New research has determined that a single group of microorganisms may be responsible for much of the world's vitamin B12 production in the oceans, with implications for the global carbon cycle and climate change.

Although vitamin B12 is an essential molecule required by most life on this planet, it is only produced by a relatively small group of microorganisms because it is so large and complex. For humans, vitamin B12 plays a key role in maintaining the brain and nervous systems, as well as DNA synthesis in cells throughout the body.

Sugar is a vital source of energy for both plants and animals alike.

Understanding just how sugar makes its way into the cell could lead to the design of better drugs for diabetes patients and an increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables farmers are able to grow. Stanford University researchers have recently uncovered one of these "pathways" into the cell by piecing together proteins slightly wider than the diameter of a strand of spider silk.

PITTSBURGH—Molecules containing carbon-halogen bonds are produced naturally across all kingdoms of life and constitute a large family of natural products with a broad range of biological activities. The presence of halogen substituents in many bioactive compounds has a profound influence on their molecular properties.