Body

Treatment with the diabetes drug metformin appears to be associated with a modest reduction in body mass index (BMI) in obese children when combined with lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise, according to a study by Marian S. McDonagh, Pharm. D., of the Oregon Health & Science University, and colleagues.

The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, covering the period 1975, showed death rates for lung cancer, which accounts for more than one in four cancer deaths, dropping at a faster pace than in previous years. The recent larger drop in lung cancer deaths is likely the result of decreased cigarette smoking prevalence over many years, and is now being reflected in mortality trends.

Amid news reports on the National Transportation Safety Board hearings regarding possible causes of the Asiana plane crash at San Francisco International Airport in July, questions have been raised about pilots' overreliance on or failure to understand cockpit automation and even whether pilots are sufficiently trained to fly without it.

A chemical bond discovered by Vanderbilt University scientists that is essential for animal life and which hastened the "dawn of the animal kingdom" could lead to new therapies for cancer and other diseases.

The report, published online today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS), was co-authored by 83 participants in the "Aspirnaut" K-20 STEM pipeline program for diversity. Six were middle school students when the study was conducted, 42 were high school students, 30 were college undergraduates and five were graduate students.

Five-thousand years before it was immortalized in a British nursery rhyme, the cat that caught the rat that ate the malt was doing just fine living alongside farmers in the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun, a forthcoming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has confirmed.

Neanderthals, forerunners to modern humans, buried their dead, an international team of archaeologists has concluded after a 13-year study of remains discovered in southwestern France.

Their findings, which appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirm that burials took place in western Europe prior to the arrival of modern humans.

NAIROBI, KENYA (16 DECEMBER 2013)—The resources required to raise livestock and the impacts of farm animals on environments vary dramatically depending on the animal, the type of food it provides, the kind of feed it consumes and where it lives, according to a new study that offers the most detailed portrait to date of "livestock ecosystems" in different parts of the world.

Children's risk for developing allergies and asthma is reduced when they are exposed in early infancy to a dog in the household, and now researchers have discovered a reason why.

Every year the approach of flu season sets off a medical guessing game with life or death consequences. There are many different strains of flu and they vary from year to year. So each season authorities must make an educated guess and tell manufacturers which variants of the flu they should produce vaccines against.

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages is likely to decrease consumption, resulting in lower rates of diabetes and heart disease, and these health benefits are expected to be greatest for the low-income, Hispanic and African-American Californians who are at highest risk of diabetes, according to a new analysis led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

Using deep sea corals gathered near the Hawaiian Islands, a Lawrence Livermore scientist in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz colleagues have determined that a long term shift in nitrogen content in the Pacific Ocean has occurred as a result of climate change.

Overall nitrogen in the North Pacific Ocean has increased by about 20 percent since the mid 1800s, -- a shift, similar to major paleoceanographic transitions in the sedimentary record --and this long-term change appears to be continuing today, according to a study published Dec. 15 edition of the journal, Nature.

Brooklyn, New York – Researchers at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and the NYU College of Dentistry (NYUCD) have developed a carrier in their lab that is five times more efficient in delivering DNA into cells than today's commercial delivery methods—reagent vectors. This novel complex is a peptide-polymer hybrid, assembled from two separate, less effective vectors that are used to carry DNA into cells.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The same tiny cellulose crystals that give trees and plants their high strength, light weight and resilience, have now been shown to have the stiffness of steel.

The nanocrystals might be used to create a new class of biomaterials with wide-ranging applications, such as strengthening construction materials and automotive components.

RNA, a nucleic acid involved in protein synthesis, is widely used in genetic research to study patterns of gene expression in different organisms. The types and quantities of RNA present in an organism indicate which genes are expressed, providing insight on the genes responsible for particular phenotypes.

Chevy Chase, MD—A controversial oil and natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses many chemicals that can disrupt the body's hormones, according to new research accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, are substances that can interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system. EDCs can be found in manufactured products as well as certain foods, air, water and soil. Research has linked EDC exposure to infertility, cancer and birth defects.