News Articles

An exploratory correlation claims that ozone levels can lead to lungs similar to the damage of someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes per day for three decades.

Microbial communities living in deep aquatic sediments have adapted to survive on really old food, according to a new study.Learning how these microorganisms function on old, poor-quality food at a very slow pace could have future uses in biomedical applications such as a technology that could slow down cell metabolism in human organs so they can survive longer during a transplant process.To better understand how these microorganisms access this food, researchers tested different types of peptidases—digestive enzymes that work to degrade proteins—in sediment cores from the White Oak River estuary in North Carolina.

Ancient pigs went through a complete genomic turnover after they arrived in Europe, according to a new study. They were domesticated in the Near East and logically would genetically resemble the Near East wild boar from which they derived, but they do not. Instead, they resemble European wild boar.The work involved sequenced DNA signatures from more than 2,000 ancient pigs including genomes from 63 archaeological pigs collected across the Near East and Europe over the last 10,000 years.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is again warning consumers not to purchase, much less drink, a supplement drink sold as a medical treatment that goes by all kinds of interesting names, from Miracle or Master Mineral Solution, Miracle Mineral Supplement, MMS, Chlorine Dioxide (CD) Protocol, Water Purification Solution (WPS) and probably more.

The 'mind-muscle connection'. Ancient lore for bodybuilders, latest buzz for Instragram fitness followers, or more for aesthetes than athletes?A new analysis in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living suggests that to lift heavier, or longer, it is better to focus on moving the weight itself - not your muscles.

It's a mystery why humans would go to a place even colder during an ice age, and live on giant rats. Yet they did. Most people don't associate Africa with mountain living today, but Ethiopians moved to the Bale Mountains during the Palaeolithic period 45,000 years ago.At around 4,000 meters above sea level, the Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia are inhospitable region. There is a low level of oxygen in the air (making activist protests against astronomy by claiming sacred heritage on Mauna Kea in Hawaii even more silly, since it's higher) temperatures fluctuate sharply, and it rains a lot.

Restless Legs Syndrome is a condition that causes an overwhelming urge to move the legs. Patients complain of unpleasant symptoms such as tingling, burning and painful cramping sensations in the leg and more than 80 people of people who report restless legs syndrome say they experience their legs jerking or twitching uncontrollably, usually at night.

Palaeontologists have discovered the world's largest parrot, standing up to 1m tall with a massive beak able to crack most food sources, and given it the name Heracles inexpectatus to reflect its Herculean myth-like size and strength and the unexpected nature of the discovery.Being a giant in a country like New Zealand, well known for giant birds, is common. Moa dominated avifaunas but giant geese and adzebills shared the forest floor, while a giant eagle ruled the skies. But a giant extinct parrot? That is special. 

Mammals living in diverse types of environments, from ocean swimmers to mountain dwellers, have a diverse variety of protective skins adapted to the elements and now one of the largest comparative genomic studies to help determine the key molecular and evolutionary origins of mammalian adaptations seen in skin proteins found which genes, among the dozens of mammalian keratin genes, are required for living on land or in the sea. The products of these keratin genes assemble to form the girders of the cytoskeleton in skin cells, called keratinocytes, that maintain a tight barrier between the body and the outside world.

In a small pilot study consume who consumed a natural dietary supplement called nicotinomide riboside (NR) daily showed signs of mimicking caloric restriction, which in mice has been linked to health benefits.Caloric restriction is a starvation diet. When lower level organisms such as fruit flies, roundworms, rodents are raised on such a diet from birth, slashing of caloric intake by about a third has health benefits and, in some cases, extended lifespan. No humans have done that, it would be a human rights violation to wean a baby on a starvation diet, and claims about benefits in adults who took it up have too many confounders to be anything more than anecdotes. 

Though the pancreas is an organ with little exposure to sex hormones, one form of pancreatic cancer affects specifically women, often young. How is this possible, even though the pancreas ? This pancreatic cancer, known as "mucinous cyst", has strange similarities with another mucinous cancer, affecting the ovaries. A new paper has a plausible answer. Both tumors originate from embryonic germ cells. While still undifferentiated, these cells migrate to the reproductive organs. On their way, some can mistakenly stop in other organs, bringing a risk of tumor that may occur 30 years later. 

Most membranes that are used to distill fresh water from salty are made of polymers, which are derived from fossil fuels. There is a reason that fossil fuels have stuck around for so long. No longer do they have terrific energy density in the form of gasoline but they make up many useful products. But many of those products can be difficult to recycle.A new wood membrane takes a page out of the book of trees instead. In a limited sense, the intricate system of water circulating in a tree can filter it and a team of researchers have figured out how to use a thin slice of wood as a membrane through which water vapor can evaporate, leaving behind salt or other contaminants.