Bunk bed-related injuries are not an issue of concern solely for parents of young children according to a study conducted by investigators at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children`s Hospital. The study, published in the June issue of Pediatrics, found although three-quarters of the children who sustain bunk bed-related injuries are younger than...

Forest management that favors single tree species and climate change are just two of the critical factors making forests throughout western North America more susceptible to infestation by bark beetles, according to an article published in the June 2008 BioScience.

What are the genes implicated in upright walking of humans? The discovery of four families in which some members only walk on all fours (quadrupedality) may help us understand how humans, unlike other primates, are able to walk for long periods on only two legs, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today.

Challenging the long-standing belief that breast-feeding equally protects all babies against disease, research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center investigators suggests that when it comes to respiratory infections, the protective effects of breast milk are higher in girls than in boys.

The transmembrane MAEBL is critical for completing the life cycle of malaria parasites in mosquitoes, allowing the insects to transmit the potentially deadly infection to humans, researchers have shown.

The world's fastest-growing mud volcano is collapsing and could subside to depths of more than 140 meters with consequences for the surrounding environment, according to new research. As the second anniversary of the eruption on the Indonesian island of Java approaches, scientists have also found that the center of the volcano -- named Lusi -- is collapsing by up to three meters...

Scientists have taken an important step toward understanding how the human brain codes the meanings of words by creating the first computational model that can predict the unique brain activation patterns associated with names for things that you can see, hear, feel, taste or smell. The model predicts brain activation patterns for thousands of concrete...

Researchers have discovered that the effect of a protein deficiency, which is the basis of the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy, is not restricted to motor nerve cells, suggesting that SMA is a more general disorder. This new insight will allow for better understanding of how this complex disease...

In a development that could lead to new technologies for cleaning up oil spills and polluted groundwater, scientists at have shown how tiny, stick-shaped particles of metal and carbon can trap oil droplets in water by spontaneously assembling into bag-like sacs.

A naturally occurring molecule made by symbiotic gut bacteria may offer a new type of treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, according to scientists at the California Institute of Technology. The 100 trillion bacteria occupying the human gut have evolved along with the human digestive and immune systems for millions of years. Some harmful microbes are responsible for infection and acute...

Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing diabetes: prospective cohort study. The Mediterreanean diet is rich in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, but low in meat, dairy products and alcohol.

Dozens of studies show collagen repair is possible and demonstrate why three types of available skin treatments are effective: topical retinoic acid, carbon dioxide laser resurfacing and injections of cross-linked hyaluronic acid.

A new method for assessing environmental contamination after oil spills is in danger of being applied in situations where it doesn't work and might produce false conclusions.

US Army service members are increasingly deployed in regions of the world where tuberculosis is rampant, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military now faces a growing medical problem. But it is not TB itself that is on the rise -- instead, the problem lies with the growing number of "pseudoepidemics," or clusters of...

Throughout the overlooked depths of Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes, a small but important animal is rapidly disappearing. Until recently, the animal -- a shrimplike, energy-dense creature called Diporeia -- was a major food source for commercially important species like lake whitefish and many prey fish upon which salmon, trout and walleye...

Researchers have engineered a new metamaterial that uses its unique geometric surface features to "perfectly" absorb all of the electric and magnetic properties of a microwave. Resonators couple individually to electric and magnetic fields to absorb all incident radiation.

Disabling a protein frequently found in melanoma tumors may make the cancer more vulnerable to chemotherapy, according to a pilot study led by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Melanoma often affects people on their extremities, with a common scenario being a mole that appears on the foot and then spreads up the...

Admissions for the surgical treatment of dental abscess have doubled in the last ten years in the UK despite the fact that these serious, potentially life-threatening, infections are preventable with regular dental care.

The gene that allows fireflies to flash is helping researchers track the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs over time. The technique requires a substrate called luciferin to be added to the bloodstream, which carries it to cells throughout the body. When luciferin reaches cells that have been altered to carry the firefly gene, those cells emit...

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown how Argos, a fruit fly protein, acts as a "decoy" receptor, binding growth factors that promote the progression of cancer. Knowing how Argos neutralizes tumor growth may lead to new drug designs for inhibiting...

A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be an important new tool in the cleanup of oil and other organic pollutants, researchers report in Nature Nanotechnology. The Nanowire mesh can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil.

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed an animal model that can test the function of two prominent tumor suppressor genes, p16 and p19, in the aging process. Scientists knew that both these genes were expressed at increased levels as humans and mice age, but their role in the aging process was not clear. Findings show that p16 provides gas to accelerate cellular aging, while p19 stops that...

Images of sexy women tend to whet men's sexual appetite. But stimulating new research says there's more than meets the eye. A recent study shows that men who watched sexy videos or handled lingerie sought immediate gratification -- even when they were making decisions about money, soda, and...

New research suggests that the form of tomato product one eats could be the key to unlocking its prostate cancer-fighting potential, according to a new article. The protective effect of tomato products against prostate cancer has been suggested in many studies, but researchers remain uncertain about the exact...