Body

Stem cells are the body's mechanics, repairing damaged tissues and organs. Because these cells are able to grow into any type of cell in the body, scientists believe they hold the key to groundbreaking new therapies. To help further this research, scientists from the University of Victoria have found a new way to culture cells in 3D— a significant step forward for regenerative medicine.

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions, in addition to causing global warming, alter the chemistry of seas and oceans, causing them to turn progressively acidic. This change has severe effects on marine organisms and ecosystems. An international research published in the latest edition of the journal Science concludes that in the past 300 million years the chemistry of the Earth's oceans has undergone profound changes, although none seem to have been so rapid, so global, or to such an extent as the changes occurring presently.

Heavy diesel exhaust (DE) exposure in humans may increase the risk of dying from lung cancer, according to two papers released March 2nd by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Starting in the 1980s, studies have investigated a possible causal relationship between exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer. In 1989, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified diesel exhaust as a probable carcinogen.

Couples who are married or living together will probably have more trouble parenting as a team if they have been violent toward one another during pregnancy, according to a team of psychologists.

"This finding is helpful because working as a parenting team, in what we call the co-parenting relationship, is a key influence on everything from mothers' postpartum depression to sensitive parenting to the children's emotional and social adjustment," said Mark E. Feinberg, research professor, Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State.

Spider flies are a rarely collected group of insects. Adults are considered important pollinators of flowers, while larvae live as internal parasitoids of juvenile spiders. Eight genera are recorded in Australasia, including four genera in the subfamily Panopinae, a group of large, hairy, often metallic coloured adults whose larvae specialize as parasitizing mygalomorph spiders such as tarantulas, trap door and funnel web spiders.

A new study has found that women who stay seated for long periods of time every day are more prone to developing type 2 diabetes, but that a similar link wasn't found in men.

Researchers from the University of Leicester Departments of Health Sciences and Cardiovascular Sciences revealed that women who are sedentary for most of the day were at a greater risk from exhibiting the early metabolic defects that act as a precursor to developing type 2 diabetes than people who tend to sit less.

Scientists have successfully completed an initial trial of a new, potentially more reliable, technique for screening breast cancer using ultrasound. The team at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK's National Measurement Institute, working with the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, are now looking to develop the technique into a clinical device.

Philadelphia, PA -- An initiative in St. Louis targeted the homes of pregnant women to receive inspection and remediation of lead hazards before the birth of a child. According to a study just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology this measure prevented childhood lead poisoning and reduced the overall burden of lead toxicity in children. Historically, the city had used an approach that waited until a child tested positive for lead poisoning, and then addressed home lead hazards to prevent future harm.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —The winter sun feels welcome, but not so a summer sunburn. Research over the past 20 years has shown that proteins on the surface of nerve cells enable the body to sense several different temperatures. Now scientists have discovered how just a few of these proteins, called ion channels, distinguish perhaps dozens of discrete temperatures, from mildly warm to very hot.

London, Ontario - There is good news for the 27,000 plus people around the world who donate a kidney each year. A study which followed living kidney donors for 10 years found that they were at no greater risk for heart disease than the healthy general population.

A research paper which demonstrates that babies born even just a few weeks early have worse health outcomes than full term babies has been published today on bmj.com.

The authors, from the Universities of Leicester, Liverpool, Oxford, Warwick and the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit studied over 18,000 British babies born between September 2000 and August 2001. Health outcomes were studied when the infants reached nine months, three years and five years.

Living kidney donors are at no greater risk of heart disease than the healthy general population, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

The results provide important safety reassurances to donors, their recipients and transplant professionals.

In the general population, there is a strong link between reduced kidney function and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Given that people who donate a kidney lose half their kidney mass, doctors need to know whether this risk extends to them.

Women can boost their chances of surviving cervical cancer substantially through regular cervical screening, claims a research paper published today on bmj.com.

The authors from the Centre for Research and Development in Gävle and the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, studied all 1230 women diagnosed with cervical cancer nationwide between 1999 and 2001.

Highlights

Highlights