Body

Type 2 diabetes is popularly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. However, just as there are obese people without type 2 diabetes, there are lean people with the disease.

In one of the most famous faux pas of exploration, Columbus set sail for India and instead 'discovered' America. Similarly, when scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, set out to find enzymes – the proteins that carry out chemical reactions inside cells – that bind to RNA, they too found more than they expected: 300 proteins previously unknown to bind to RNA – more than half as many as were already known to do so.

As illustrated by the 2011 E. coli outbreak in Germany in 2011, any delay in identifying the source of food poisoning outbreaks can cost lives and cause considerable political and economical damage. An international multidisciplinary team of scientists have shown that difficulties in finding the sources of contamination behind food poisoning cases are inevitable due to the increasing complexity of a global food traffic network where food products are constantly crossing country borders, generating a worldwide network.

Smoking during pregnancy has widely documented health repercussions both for mother and baby. A study at the University of Zaragoza on 1216 newly born babies confirms that those born to mothers who smoke weigh and measure less.

A new study lead by the University of Zaragoza evaluates the differences in body composition and proportional distribution of body mass between babies born to mothers who have or have not smoked during pregnancy.

All businesses want "engaged" employees — those who are committed to the success of the company and are willing to go the extra mile to see it flourish. But there's a dark side to engagement that many organizations don't consider: Engaged employees can quickly become disengaged if they feel taken advantage of — and a formerly engaged employee can do more harm to the company than one who was never engaged to begin with.

Stanford, CA—The scientific community needs to make a 10-year, $100 billion investment in food and energy security, says Carnegie's Wolf Frommer and Tom Brutnell of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in an opinion piece published in the June issue of The Scientist. They say the importance of addressing these concerns in light of a rapidly growing global population is on par with President John Kennedy's promise to put man on the moon—a project that took a decade and cost $24 billion.

Boston, MA – In a first-of-its kind summary of fish consumption choices, a team of researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital has determined that consumers are not getting all the information they need to make informed decisions about fish consumption. Their research is published in the June 1 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Maternal smoking can lead to lung disease in babies, including asthma. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research shows that maternal smoking-related defects within the alveoli inside the lungs of offspring are associated with a disruption in retinoic acid signaling.

New research has found that a brand of baby wipes is just as safe and hydrating as using water alone on newborn skin, suggesting official guidance may need updating.

The University of Manchester study, published in BioMed Central's open-access journal BMC Paediatrics, compared Johnson's Baby Extra Sensitive Wipes against cotton wool and water on 280 newborn babies split into two groups over a three-year period.

Daily consumption of dark chocolate can reduce cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in people with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors that increases the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes), finds a study published on bmj.com today.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Dark chocolate (containing at least 60% cocoa solids) is rich in flavonoids - known to have heart protecting effects - but this has only been examined in short term studies.

Pioglitazone - a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes - is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

The results show that more than two years daily exposure to pioglitazone doubles the risk of bladder cancer. However, the authors stress that, in absolute terms, the risks are low – up to 137 extra cases per 100,000 person years.

No increased risk was seen for a similar drug (rosiglitazone).

Highlights

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Monitoring weather factors like temperature, rain, and snowfall is one way to predict the timing and intensity of rotavirus, a disease that causes extreme diarrhea, dehydration and thousands of death annually, particularly among children.

In a paper published May 31 in the journal PLoS One, a research team led by Elena Naumova, Ph.D., professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tufts School of Engineering, correlated temperature and precipitation with rotavirus outbreaks in one of the hardest- hit regions of the world, South Asia.

On the periodic table of the elements, iron and magnesium are far apart. But new evidence suggests that 3 billion years ago, iron did the chemical work now done by magnesium in helping RNA fold and function properly.

There is considerable evidence that the evolution of life passed through an early stage when RNA played a more central role before DNA and coded proteins appeared. During that time, more than 3 billion years ago, the environment lacked oxygen but had an abundance of soluble iron.

During an event with leaders from three U.S. federal agencies and the White House, the executive director of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), Dr. Floyd Malveaux, expressed strong support for the government's new coordinated action plan to reduce racial and ethnic asthma disparities. The release of the new report came on the last day of National Asthma Awareness Month.