4,020 articles mezi dny 1.12.2019 a 31.12.2019

E-cigarettes are still safer than smoking, scientists find

Scare stories abound but the evidence remains consistentThe past decade in British healthcare has been disappointing: improvements in life expectancy and neonatal mortality have stalled and public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen sharply.But one positive singled out in a recent review of healthcare developments was the rise of e-cigarettes use, which the article noted had given “tobacco...

Death toll from Philippines typhoon hits 50

The number of people killed by a powerful storm that pummeled the central Philippines over Christmas has risen to 50, authorities said Tuesday, making it the nation's deadliest storm of 2019.

Looking down on a decade: Satellite images tell the stories

There has been no shortage of big news over the last decade. Spanning the globe, some stories were expected while others caught the world off guard. Some were so massive they were visible from space, captured through state-of-the-art imaging satellites belonging to technology company and imagery provider Maxar Technologies. Together, The Associated Press and Maxar assembled a selection of the most...

A new breakthrough in developing effective antimalarial drugs

Parasites in the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria, are transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes. The parasites manage to acclimatize to these two completely different hosts because the plasticity of their genome enables them to adapt as necessary. Scientists decided to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms behind this plasticity, in particular DNA methylation. They...

eDNA expands species surveys to capture a more complete picture

Tiny bits of DNA collected from waters off the West Coast allowed scientists to identify more species of marine vertebrates than traditional surveys with trawl nets. They also reflect environmental shifts such as unusual ocean temperatures that affect the organisms present, new research shows.

From crab studies, a broader approach to identifying brain cells

In a new study, a team born in part at the Neural Systems & Behavior course in Woods Hole tests the notion that a cell's identity can be described solely by the genes it expresses. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, advocates a more 'multimodal' approach to defining cell identity.

How the brain balances pleasure and pain

The region of the brain called the ventral pallidum balances signals that either excite or inhibit neurons to influence the motivation of an animal to seek pleasure or avoid pain. An imbalance skews positive vs. negative motivation and may explain behaviors associated with psychiatric disorders like depression or anxiety.

Making blood on demand: How far have we come?

The authors conclude the review with a summary of future perspectives, in which they discuss how newly developed techniques, like the deactivated-Cas9 (dCas9) gene-expression control system, can be utilized during the course of hematopoietic differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for precise temporal control of the aforementioned master regulators to achieve functional HSCs.

Possible dementia vaccine closer after mice studies

A vaccine to ward off dementia may proceed to clinical trials after successful animal testing. The US-led research is looking to develop effective immunotherapy via a dual vaccine to remove 'brain plaque' and tau protein aggregates linked to Alzheimer's disease. It is showing success in begenic mice models, supports progression to human trials in years to come.

Topological semimetals can generate sizable transverse thermoelectric figure of merit

Thermoelectric materials can convert temperature difference in a conducting solid into electrical energy, or vice versa. However, the conventional thermoelectric effect, i.e., the longitudinal Seebeck effect, meets some severe limitations in promoting its conversion efficiency. Now, scientists in Chinese Academy of Sciences have found large transverse thermoelectric effect in a topological...

Trial suggests babies in intensive care can be better protected from parental bacteria

Now, a Johns Hopkins Medicine research team reports it has developed and tested a relatively simple strategy for reducing the chance of parents exposing their babies in the NICU to one of the most commonly diagnosed and potentially deadly microbial scourges in a hospital: Staphylococcus aureus. The researchers detailed the positive findings from their preliminary clinical trial in the Dec. 30,...

Chinese scientist who led first gene-editing experiment on babies gets 3 years in jail

Chinese researcher He Jiankui, who stirred up a global controversy last year when he said his experiment produced twin baby girls with gene-edited traits, has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $430,000 fine, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported today. He tried to show that genes could be edited to reduce vulnerability to the HIV virus, but outside experts voiced...