Scientists have reported that an experimental vaccine targeting one of the most common genetic drivers of pancreatic cancer, called mutant KRAS, is safe and generated a durable immune responses aimed at preventing the cancer.
We know now that asteroids are relics that can tell us what the planets in our solar system may have been like before they formed cores and mantles and crusts. But that wasn't always the case. Until the past few decades asteroids were viewed in a more static way. Those that formed near the sun remained near the sun, those that formed farther out stayed on the outskirts.
Then it was discovered that some asteroids have compositions that don't match their locations in space. Those that looked like they formed in warmer environments were found further out in the solar system, and vice versa. Anomalous "rogue" asteroids.
By analyzing whole-genome sequencing data from 665 people from Europe and East Asia as part of the 1,000 Genomes Project, researchers have determined that more than 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome survives in the DNA of this contemporary group.
That means a substantial fraction of the Neanderthal genome persists in modern human populations. Neanderthals became extinct about 30,000 years ago but their time on earth and their geographic range overlapped with us.
Yield is economically important in field corn production, and there is no question that has been a success, but sweet corn has an additional metric for being considered a win. It's reported that crop yield responses due to sweet corn research are actually helpful to the industry, but are they?
Writing
in Field Crops Research, Marty Williams, a USDA-ARS ecologist and University of Illinois crop sciences researcher, analyzes results after collecting and studying sweet corn data representing 31 hybrids across 22 locations in Illinois over an 8-year period. The result: A disconnect in what researchers are measuring in the field and what processors and seed companies need to know in order to make improved production decisions.
Voice voting is still used at some civic, local and county meetings. In more of a traditional sense, it's also still employed in Congress and some state meetings.
But new paper finds that a single loud voice can skew the result if that's not accounted for - the louder the voice, the cloudier the choice, according to a paper in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
In voice voting, if you have never witnessed it, a presiding officer states a question, and the group that replies either yea or nay. The loudest is declared the winner, because volume is usually representative of numbers.
Everyone claims to care about diversity, individualism and tolerance. Very few people (R.I.P. Pete Seeger) really do. Instead, they want their beliefs affirmed and they want to demonize the opposition at every turn
The remoteness and anonymity of social media makes aggressive and cultural political posturing easy - that is why people who think the majority of their friends have differing opinions than their own engage less on Facebook. Politically active tend to stick in their own circles, ignore those on the other side and become more polarized.
Why were there old, enormously massive galaxies no longer forming new stars in the very early universe?
The first stars already emerged in the very early universe about 200 million years after the Big Bang. Gas is the raw material used to form stars and giant clouds of hydrogen and helium and dust (and whatever "dark matter" will eventually be) contracted and eventually the gas became so compact that the pressure heated the matter so that glowing gas balls were formed and new stars were born.
What separates us from other primates?
The psychologists behind a new MRI study say it is key components in the ventrolateral frontal cortex area of the human brain, and how these components were connected up with other brain areas. When compared to equivalent MRI data from 25 macaque monkeys, the authors determined that it is unlike anything in the brains of some of our closest evolutionary relatives.
Military veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange may be at higher risk for certain types of skin cancer, suggests a new report.
Agent Orange is a defoliant famously used by the British military during the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. military period of the Vietnam War.
The study adds to existing evidence that risk of non-melanotic invasive skin cancer (NMISC) is increased even four decades after Agent Orange exposure, with at least some exposed veterans having unusually aggressive non-melanoma skin cancers.
Skin Cancers Present in About Half of Vets Exposed to Agent Orange
If you can't get by without caffeine and won't give it up even if you have a condition that may be impacted by it, such as pregnancy, a heart condition, or a bleeding disorder, you may have "Caffeine Use Disorder."
Caffeine is the most commonly used drug in the world, according to the authors of a new paper, and is found in everything from coffee and soda, to OTC pain relievers and a bunch of stuff with some form of the word "energy" on the label, but they say health professionals have been slow to characterize problematic caffeine use and acknowledge that some cases may call for treatment.
So if you joke that "Caffeine isn't a drug, it's a vitamin" you may have a condition.
A new whole-body, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan could improve care for myeloma - cancer of the white blood (plasma) cells, one of the most common forms of blood cancer - and reduce reliance on bone marrow biopsies, which can be painful for patients and often fail to show doctors how far the disease has spread.
Whole-body, diffusion-weighted MRI scans showed the spread of cancer throughout the bone marrow of patients with myeloma more accurately than standard tests. The scans also showed whether the patients were responding to cancer treatments.
A new study has found that concentrations of arsenic, selenium, and mercury in bighead and silver carp from the lower Illinois River aren't a health concern.
Importantly, inorganic arsenic concentrations were undetectable and concentrations of selenium in carp fillets were well below the 1.5 mg/kg threshold for restricting the number of meals, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The distinction between naturally occurring arsenic and arsenic from the external environment has been a problem for popular media outlets like The Dr. Oz Show, which fail to note natural sources.
Under-use of fertilizers in Africa currently contributes to a growing yield gap; the difference between how much crops could produce in ideal circumstances compared to actual yields.
Better yields mean more food and sustainable food leads to wealth and culture and a better life.
But fertilizer has to be smartly applied, with both phosphorous and nitrogen, and the difference between them is substantial for subsistence farmers. While nitrogen-based fertilizers can be produced by a process that extracts the element from the air, phosphorus must be mined from rock—and reserves are limited. That makes phosphorus fertilizers expensive, especially in the longer term.
