A new cancer vaccine platform works by enhancing the ability of the immune system to recognize cancer by leveraging anti-viral memories it already has - due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst outbreak of the last 70 years.
Two new studies show that commonly prescribed forms of postmenopausal hormone therapy may slightly accelerate the loss of brain tissue in women 65 and older beyond what normally occurs with aging. The studies' findings appear as companion papers in the Jan. 13 issue of Neurology. Both papers report on analyses from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study, a substudy of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) landmark Women's Health Initiative (WHI) hormone therapy clinical trials.
Keep Britain Tidy today has named McDonald's as the most littered fast food brand in the country, meaning the people who litter are more likely to be throwing their wrappers on the streets than any other fast food brand. It's no surprise, given McDonalds is the top fast food brand.
It's super-sized shame for the residents of ten city centers and suburbs/out-of-town locations across England. But McDonalds isn't alone. They made up more than a quarter of all fast food litter (29%), mostly burger wrappers, condiment packets and plastic straws.
In second place, as a group, were local chippie or kebab shops: Keep Britain Tidy found a huge amount of unbranded chip wrappings and packaging in all locations (21%).
The term 'invasive species' itself connotes very bad things but conservationists recently got an expensive lesson in the one thing they claim to understand; ecology is a system and making too many changes can have devastating repercussions.Removing an invasive species from sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, a World Heritage Site, has caused environmental devastation that will cost more than A$24 million to remedy, ecologists have revealed. Writing in the new issue of the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, they warn that conservation agencies worldwide must learn important lessons from what happened on Macquarie Island.
"Tasmanian Tiger" is a common name of the extinct thylacine species (Thylacinus cynocephalus), which is more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to dogs or tigers. In 1902, the National Zoo brought the endangered animal. By the mid-1930s, the thylacine was extinct, leaving behind only preserved museum specimens. In a new study, researchers used DNA sequencing to analyze preserved thylacines, including one brought to the National Zoo, making novel discoveries in thylacine genomics and the burgeoning field of "museomics." Thylacines have played a central role in discussions about the possibility of bringing extinct species back to life, but despite the availability of many bones and other remains, previous attempts to read thylacine DNA had been unsuccessful.
It's hard to imagine a future where people are nostalgic for polyester but it may be just a thing of the past. 38 million tons of synthetic fibers are made each year and some new advancements in regenerated protein make it possible to use environmentally sustainable clothing fiber instead. So one day you may snuggle up in warm, cozy sweats made of chicken feathers or pants made of wheat - your blue jeans could be "green."
In Current Biology, Instituto Gubenkian de Ciencia researchers say they have provided insight into an old mystery in cell biology- and maybe it will offer up new clues to understanding cancer. Inês Cunha Ferreira and Mónica Bettencourt Dias, working with researchers at the universities of Cambridge, UK, and Siena, Italy, say they have unravelled the mystery of how cells count the number of centrosomes, the structure that regulates the cell's skeleton and controls the multiplication of cells, and is often transformed in cancer.This research addresses an ancient question: how does a cell know how many centrosomes it has? It is equally an important question, since both an excess or absence of centrosomes are associated with disease, from infertility to cancer.
If you're sick of an all chocolate diet and its miracle cure claims of 2007-2008 and you can't find blueberries or other flavonoid foods that appeal to you, take heart that vitamin D is quickly becoming the "it" nutrient with claimed health benefits for diseases, including cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and now diabetes. Like a Prius, it may not help but it can't hurt as long as you don't overdo it, like making people angry driving it in the HOV lane, so it's worth considering.
If you've made a New Year's resolution but you keep putting it off, you may not just be unclear on what the word 'resolute' means, you may have an issue putting tasks in concrete terms that make them feel like they need to be completed.Procrastination is a curse, and a costly one. Putting things off leads not only to lost productivity but also to all sorts of hand wringing and regrets and damaged self-esteem. For all these reasons, psychologists would love to figure out what's going on in the mind that makes it so hard to actually do what we set out to do. Are we programmed for postponement and delay?
In his book, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Stephen Jay Gould speculated about an experiment of ‘replaying life’s tape’, wherein one would go back in time, let the tape of life play again and see if ‘the repetition looks at all like the original.’ Evolutionary biology tells us that it wouldn’t look the same; the outcome of evolution is contingent on everything that came before. Scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Portugal, New York University and the University of California Irvine say they have provided the first quantitative genetic evidence of why this is so.
If you're a mouse and you like fatty foods, we have good news for you. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have identified a new enzyme that helps control the breakdown of fat and the mice that have had this enzyme disabled remained lean despite eating a high-fat diet and losing a hormone that suppresses appetite.The enzyme in the spotlight, adipose-specific phospholipase A2 (AdPLA), is found in abundance only in fat tissue. AdPLA sets off a chain of events that increases levels of a signaling molecule called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which suppresses the breakdown of fat. Mice that have no AdPLA have lower PGE2 levels and a higher rate of fat metabolism.
How did life begin? A pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists say they have taken a significant step toward answering that question because they have synthesized RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components - and the process proceeds indefinitely.
Is gardening one of your interests? If so and you live in central or northern Europe the 'killer slug' is probably one of your personal enemies. The slug, which attacks your herbs and vegetables relentlessly, seems immune to control measures.
The killer slug, suffocating lobster, globe trotting televisions and dangerous air particles are just some of the topics featured in EEA Signals 2009, a new annual publication from the European Environment Agency, launched today in Prague by Czech Environment Minister Bursik and Executive Director of the EEA, Professor Jacqueline McGlade.
The EEA, in partnership with its network of 32 member countries, monitors the environment across Europe.
