104 articles from FRIDAY 20.1.2023

U.S. should expand rules for risky virus research to more pathogens, panel says

U.S. health officials should expand oversight of federally funded research that tweaks deadly viruses to include some less risky types of pathogens, an expert panel has concluded. Its draft report , released today, also recommends funding agencies share more information about decisions to approve such work. The recommendations are welcome news for scientists,...

Teaching evaluations reflect—and may perpetuate—academia’s gender biases

Universities routinely use student teaching evaluations to help make decisions about which faculty members get tenure and promotions. But factors unrelated to teaching performance, such as gender, race, and even attractiveness, can skew these evaluations, potentially exacerbating existing inequities in academia. Now, a new study suggests an additional source of bias:...

Vulnerability of red sea urchins to climate change depends on location

A new study of red sea urchins, a commercially valuable species, investigated how different populations respond to changes in their environments. The results show that red sea urchin populations in Northern and Southern California are adapted to their local conditions but differ in their vulnerability to the environmental changes expected to occur in the future due to global climate change and...

Regulating immunological memory may help immune system fight disease

Scientists have long sought to better understand the human body's immune responses that occur during various diseases, including cancer and inflammatory diseases. Scientists have now analyzed how immunological memory -- the memory the body's immune system retains after an infection or vaccination that helps protect against reinfection -- gets generated and maintained, as well as the role...

What Time You Eat Doesn’t Matter For Weight Loss, Study Finds

Recent diet trends have promised that clocks are as important for weight loss as scales. One such diet is known as intermittent fasting, which entails a schedule of alternating fasting and eating. A popular intermittent fasting schedule is time-restricted eating. By restricting eating to a limited number of hours a day, some proponents of this diet argue people can harness their bodies’...