feed info

40 articles from ScienceDaily

Findings open the way to more precise diagnoses and treatments of Alzheimer’s disease

An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding why Alzheimer's disease progresses so rapidly in some people that they die within three years. The researchers found a link between strains of misshapen and fast-replicating tau protein and accelerated cognitive decline -- a critical result that illuminates the variations in Alzheimer's disease and could help lead to more...

Engineered nanomaterial captures off-target cancer drug to prevent tissue damage

Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients. To prevent the previously unavoidable damage, researchers have developed a new class of nanomaterials engineered to capture chemotherapy drugs before they interact with healthy tissue.

Engineers develop new software tool to aid material modeling research

A new software tool can accelerate materials science research by cutting out tedious background research on material properties. Researchers recently debuted propSym, an open-source software on the programming platform MATLAB, to calculate the fundamental constants needed to describe the physical properties of solids, such as metals, ceramics or composites.

Modern humans developed a more effective protection against oxidative stress

Very few proteins in the body have a change that makes them unique compared to the corresponding proteins in Neanderthals and apes. Researchers have now studied one such protein, glutathione reductase, which protects against oxidative stress. They show that the risk for inflammatory bowel disease and vascular disease is increased several times in people carrying the Neanderthal variant.

Division of labor among genetic switches

Two X chromosomes are actually one too many. Female mammalian cells hence switch off one of them – but only when the cells start to specialize into tissues. A research team has now discovered how cells 'count' their chromosomes and at the same time sense which stage of development they are in.

Dairy farmers can adapt to climate change

Dairy farmers in the Northeast -- facing a warming climate that exacerbates nutrient pollution but lengthens the growing season -- can reduce the environmental impact of their operations and maximize revenues by double cropping and injecting manure into the soil, rather than broadcasting it.

How a brain networks enables human conversation

A new study has identified a brain circuit that is active while we plan our spoken replies during conversation. The work promises to guide the design of new therapies for the 7.5 million Americans who have trouble using their voices, say the study authors.

Living in outer space: Changes in blood flow volume may be at the heart of worsening eyesight

The long-term risks of living in space include bone loss, cosmic radiation and muscle weakness, so leaving gravity behind certainly has its obstacles -- and yet, that doesn't stop people from venturing out of the stratosphere. Some of these potential hurdles have already been studied extensively or are currently being investigated, but researchers have found an important but underserved area of...

How LPS prevents or promotes development of asthma and allergic disease by airborne allergens

Many experiments show that exposure to LPS during exposure to environmental allergens protects against developing asthma or allergic disease. Yet other numerous experiments show that the presence of LPS during exposure to environmental allergens does the opposite -- it promotes the development of asthma and other allergic disease. Now researchers detail a series of mechanistic steps that reveal a...

Windows that outsmart the elements

New research takes energy efficient windows a step further by proposing a new "smart window" design that would harvest the sun's energy in the winter to warm the house and reflect it in the summer to keep it cool.

Toward a more inclusive definition of green infrastructure

A new nationwide analysis of 122 plans from 20 US cities found that many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. When they do, they tend to focus on stormwater management, favoring engineered facilities over parks and larger urban green spaces. The study is the first systematic review of the use and definition of the green infrastructure concept in US city plans.

Can we go from scarface to scarless?

Researchers examined skin regeneration over two years in various body parts of the adult newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster. Their wounds were very quickly healed over several days without prolonged inflammation. Because of this rapid healing, granulation/dermal fibrosis, and therefore scarring, did not occur. The skin was able to fully regenerate. These findings provide evidence that this newt species may...

Superbug MRSA arose in hedgehogs long before clinical use of antibiotics

Scientists have found evidence that a type of the antibiotic resistant superbug MRSA arose in nature long before the use of antibiotics in humans and livestock, which has traditionally been blamed for its emergence. Hedgehogs carry a fungus and a bacteria on their skin, and the two are locked in a battle for survival. The fungus secretes antibiotics to kill the bacteria, but in response the...