• Filter By:
• Specialty
• Source
• Condition
• Cancer
• Infectious Disease
• Drug
• Training
• Management
• Procedure
• Therapy
• Vaccine
• Nutrition
• Country

What goes on when lightning strikes?
One lightning flash could run a whole power station – and there are 8 million strikes around the Earth every day. We still don't know what triggers the phenomenon, although a new theory proposes a role for cosmic raysA new theory from Russian researchers suggests that lightning may be a by-product of cosmic rays. Surprisingly, despite studying lightning for centuries, we are still not sure what triggers it.Divine attributionIn ancient times, the drama of thunder and lightning so clearly went beyond human scale that the phenomenon was handed wholesale to the gods. The Greeks had Zeus, the Romans Jupiter. At the head of th...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 25, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Brian Clegg Tags: Meteorology World news Natural disasters and extreme weather Features UK news The Observer Science Source Type: news

Stem Cells for Cell-Based Therapies
The world of stem cells We know the human body comprises many cell types (e.g., blood cells, skin cells, cervical cells), but we often forget to appreciate that all of these different cell types arose from a single cell—the fertilized egg. A host of sequential, awe-inspiring events occur between the fertilization of an egg and the formation of a new individual: Embryonic stem (ES) cells are also called totipotent cells. The first steps involve making more cells by simple cell division: one cell becomes two cells; two cells become four cells, etc. Each cell of early development is undifferentiated; that is, it is...
Source: ActionBioscience - December 28, 2012 Category: Science Authors: Ali Hochberg Source Type: news

Can ‘toxic’ bilirubin treat a variety of illnesses?
Generations of medical and biology students have been instilled with a dim view of bilirubin. Spawned when the body trashes old red blood cells, the molecule is harmful refuse and a sign of illness. High blood levels cause jaundice, which turns the eyes and skin yellow and can signal liver trouble. Newborns can’t process the compound, and although high levels normally subside, a persistent surplus can cause brain damage. Yet later this year up to 40 healthy Australian volunteers may begin receiving infusions of the supposedly good-for-nothing molecule. They will be participating in a phase 1 safety trial, sponsored ...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 8, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

Stem cells: what happened to the radical breakthroughs?
Much was promised in the late 1990s, but the challenge of advances such as growing whole human organs has been difficult to deliverIt's 1998 and science is taking big strides. The first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, has just had her first lamb; the first robotically assisted heart surgery has been completed; Furbys have hit the shelves. In a bold announcement, biomedical engineer Professor Michael Sefton declared that within 10 years, scientists would have grown an entire heart, fit for transplant. "We're shooting big," he said. "Our vision is that we'll be able to pop out a damaged heart and replace it as easily as you ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 10, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Simon Roach Tags: Biology Medical research Features Stem cells The Observer Science Source Type: news

Families hope 'Frankenstein science' lobby will not stop gene cure for mitochondrial disease
Change to IVF rules could make Britain the first country to allow therapy to change DNA in embryosDeniz Safak was five years old when he first displayed symptoms of the disease that would later take his life. "He started being sick and had intense, stroke-like seizures," his mother, Ruth, recalled.Doctors were baffled by the boy's condition and it took months before a diagnosis was made. Ruth and her husband, Erdhal, were told that Deniz was suffering from mitochondrial disease, an incurable condition that is passed from mother to child and can often be fatal.Deniz's condition continued to worsen. By the time he died last ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 15, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Tags: Embryos IVF Genetics Children Biology News Health Medical research Society UK news The Observer Science Source Type: news

How the Brain Limited the Size of Dinosaurs
Long-necked Sauropods, like Brontosaurus, were the largest animals on earth, but their brain, not their leg strength, is what kept them from getting any bigger. With their heads soaring 60 feet above the ground, Sauropods were gigantic animals, about the same height and length of The White House. Imagine the tremendous bone strength and muscle force required to support their 65 ton mass, equivalent to the crushing weight of a stack of 30-40 automobiles. The necks of long-necked Sauropods were 30 to 40 feet long (10-12 m), the length of the extended arm of the Statue of Liberty bearing the torch (42 feet). A massive hear...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 6, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news

Why Diet Soda Could Actually Prevent You From Losing Weight
Reaching for a diet soda may actually hinder weight loss efforts, a new study done in mice suggests. In experiments, researchers found that the artificial sweetener aspartame, which is found in some diet drinks, may contribute to the development of a condition called “metabolic syndrome,” which involves a cluster of symptoms, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and a large waist size. People with metabolic syndrome face an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The researchers found how aspartame could be linked with metabolic syndrome: Aspartame may stop a key gut enzyme ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - December 7, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news

Reflections on the Future of Medicine
Recently, I traveled through China. I climbed mountains, hiked through forests, crossed deep valleys. I visited cities of every size. I floated across lakes and traveled beautiful shorelines churning with life. As a man of a certain age, I began to compare the permanence of the timeless landscape with the evanescence of my own existence. Yet, as a scientist, I knew these reflections were flawed. Scientists are trained to think in terms of aeons, millenia, and lifetimes. Consider the paradox. Is it the solid mountain or fragile the forest that is permanent? Is it the massive shoreline cliffs or the teeming shore life that...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - January 9, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: news

Space Can Take a Nasty Toll On An Astronaut ’s Heart, Study Finds
It’s perfectly fine that human beings want to travel in space. But we have to reckon with the fact that space doesn’t want anything to do with us. The exterior environment of space, of course, represents instantaneous death, what with the killing cold and the absence of any atmosphere. But even inside a spacecraft or a space station—cozy, pressurized, temperature-controlled, with food supplies, comfortable sleep pods, and a zero-g privy to take care of unavoidable essentials—the body doesn’t care for space. Space radiation, which makes it through the walls of even the sturdiest ship, raises an...
Source: TIME: Science - April 2, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

When does life end? New organ donation strategy fuels debate
On a chilly holiday Monday in January 2020, a medical milestone passed largely unnoticed. In a New York City operating room, surgeons gently removed the heart from a 43-year-old man who had died and shuttled it steps away to a patient in desperate need of a new one. More than 3500 people in the United States receive a new heart each year. But this case was different—the first of its kind in the country. “It took us 6 months to prepare,” says Nader Moazami, surgical head of heart transplantation at New York University (NYU) Langone Health, where the operation took place. The run-up included oversight from an ethi...
Source: ScienceNOW - May 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news

New artificial intelligence program could help treat hypertension
For the nearly half of Americans with hypertension, it ' s a potential death sentence; it increases the risk of stroke and chronic heart failure. While it ' s relatively easy to prevent or moderate if caught early — eat well, exercise more, consume less…
Source: NSF News - August 1, 2023 Category: Science Authors: NSF Source Type: news

News at a glance: A win for obesity drugs, NIH unionization roadblocks, and Mexican fireflies under threat
CONSERVATION Researchers raise alarm over threat to Mexican fireflies Scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last week delivered a letter to the Mexican government requesting it regulate tourism centered on the threatened firefly species Photinus palaciosi . Endemic to Mexico’s Tlaxcala forests, P. palaciosi is one of the few species that glow in synchrony, offering an annual spectacle that attracts thousands of visitors during summer mating season. The letter describes how littering, artificial light, and noise interfere with the insects’ courtship and eg...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 10, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news