One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
Smoking cigarettes is not only the principle cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but it may change the body's immune responses to bacteria that commonly cause exacerbations of the disease, according to new research in a mouse model.
"It is well established that smoking is the main risk factor for COPD. But our research also suggests that cigarette smoke substantially changes the immune response to bacteria, which means that patients with COPD who smoke are weakening their body's ability to deal effectively with bacterial invaders. This may cause even further progression of the disease," said Martin Stämpfli, Ph.D., an associate professor at McMaster University, the principle investigator of the study.
This is a video interview with Andrew Read and Matthew Thomas, Penn State entomologists.
(Photo Credit: Amit Avasthi, Penn State)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Carrying extra weight earlier in life increases the risk of developing problems with mobility in old age, even if the weight is eventually lost, according to new research out of the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Wake Forest University Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, appears in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
A new standardized tool for the assessment of chronic pain can differentiate between pain subtypes and may help tailor treatment. The new tool is published in this week's open-access journal PLoS Medicine.
A simple and inexpensive method of assessing pain, developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, is better than currently used techniques for distinguishing neuropathic pain – pain caused by damage to the nervous system – from other types of chronic back pain. Being able to more precisely determine the underlying nature of the pain is essential to choosing the best treatment. The report appears in the April 7 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.
LA JOLLA, CA—About 1.25 million neurons in the retina -- each of which views the world only through a small jagged window called a receptive field -- collectively form the seamless picture we rely on to navigate our environment. Receptive fields fit together like pieces of a puzzle, preventing "blind spots" and excessive overlap that could blur our perception of the world, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
This is a video interview with Andrew Read and Matthew Thomas, Penn State entomologists.
(Photo Credit: Amit Avasthi, Penn State)
A cancer scientist from Johns Hopkins has convinced an international group of colleagues to delay their race to find new cancer biomarkers and instead begin a 7,000-hour slog through a compendium of 50,000 scientific articles already published to assemble, decode and analyze the molecules that might herald the furtive presence of pancreatic cancer.
Caused by a mutation of the SMN gene, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an infantile and juvenile neurodegenerative disorder where motor neuron loss causes progressive paralysis. A new study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine details the first research focused on human muscle tissue atrophied due to a genetic condition, and sheds light on two distinct mechanisms at work in different forms of SMA.
1. Two New Studies Suggest an Intensive Disease Management Approach to Smoking Cessation
(Smoking cessation is the subject of a video news release. Feed dates, times, and coordinates are listed below.)
Philadelphia, April 7, 2009 – According to two new studies being published in the April 7 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, physicians should treat smoking as a chronic disease if they want to help their patients quit successfully. Patients may require repeated or intensive interventions that include pharmacotherapy and counseling, as well as continued dialogue with their physicians.
DURHAM, N.C. – Deft molecular detective work at Duke University Medical Center suggests that scientists may soon be able to resurrect niacin as one of the best and cheapest ways to manage cholesterol.
For the first time, researchers have clearly shown regeneration of a critical type of nerve fiber that travels between the brain and the spinal cord and which is required for voluntary movement. The regeneration was accomplished in a brain injury site in rats by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and is described in a study to be published in the April 6th early on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
