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What tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active hallucinogen in marijuana can do in several diseases has been researched for decades, but now, a new study has shown that the non-hallucinogenic components of cannabis act as effective anti-cancer agents. The team from St George’s University of London was led by Dr Wai Liu; they used a number of […]
While there’s a lot of talk and debate around medicinal marijuana, dispensed for its curative properties against cancer and other ailments, not much is discussed on how marijuana addiction can be treated. Marijuana abuse has always been used by governments as a wild card for keeping it illegal, although the actual extent of it has […]
A new, non-invasive test for Down Syndrome would allow women with high-risk pregnancies to avoid amniocentesis and in the future may provide detection early enough for treatment to improve some babies’ cognitive function, a Tufts University neonatal genetics expert told a symposium at Harvard Medical School on Tuesday. Nowadays, physicians recommend all pregnant women to […]
Urine isn’t exactly the first place you want to start looking for eye diseases – but according to a new Duke University study a patient’s urine can be linked to gene mutations that cause Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), an inherited, degenerative disease that results in severe vision impairment and often blindness. “My collaborators, Dr. Rong Wen […]
It’s actually happening Good news – encouraging results from the longest and largest trial of a malaria vaccine could see the world’s first anti-malaria jab approved by 2015; malaria is one of the most dangerous diseases in the world, affecting over 220 million people every year (some say 300 million). The vaccine could be used […]
Improve your memory, improve your reasoning and observational skills, and many more – brain training games are becoming more and more popular, and it’s not hard to see why – many people want to go to the “brain gym”, giving their mental abilities a boost. But now, a Georgia Tech research suggests that brain training […]
Drinking until the early hours of dawn may be exhilarating for some, however the next day everything seems to tumble over as the mind is assaulted by a barrage of hangover attacks. There are a number of popular home-brewed remedies against hangover: eating eggs, sipping a bit of castor oil, Vitamin B effervescent pills, tomato […]
A lump of peanut butter and a ruler are sufficient to confirm an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, even in its early stages, researchers claim. Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student in the McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste and the University of Florida came up with the idea of using peanut butter as a testing method, […]
Through the halls of TedxDetroit last week, participants were introduced to an unfamiliar and unlikely guest – a remote controlled cyborg cockroach. RoboRoach #12 as it was called can be directed to either move left or right by transmitting electrical signals through electrodes attached to the insect’s antennae via the Bluetooth signals emitted by a smartphone. […]
Faeces based treatment halts the advance of Clostridium difficile bacteria, but a commercial treatment is still far away. Using a faeces in the treatment of the gut infections and diarrhea is not a new idea, though it’s still in its initial stages. In 2010, we told you about a woman who had a life threatening […]
Has it already been a year? It’s Nobel Prize season once again, and the first award has been given in “Physiology or Medicine“. James E Rothman, Randy W Schekman and Thomas C Südhof took the prize for their work on the mechanism that controls the transport of membrane-bound parcels or ‘vesicles’ through cells. The American […]
In theory, the philosophy regarding the value of a human life is rather straightforward: all human life should be treated equally and offered equal rights. Now, in practice this doesn’t necessarily happen. We all have prejudice, we all are afflicted by bias and in case of a dire situation, most people would first try to […]
Mere hours after his death in 1955, Albert Einstein‘s brain was removed, weighed and analyzed in a lab at Princeton Hospital by pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey. Bits of his brains were then sent to other pathologists around the country for analysis in hope that a connection between its physical attributes and the remarkable genius of […]
After they identified precise groups of cells in mice brain that induce eating and others that curb it, a team of researchers caused full mice to continue eating and hungry mice to stop eating simply by stimulating one of these areas. Their findings could aid in the development of novel drugs that target eating disorders […]
The beginning of autumn brings cold weather, and with it, another type of flu. We here at ZME have already all gone down with a bad case of the flu, and of course, we’re not nearly the only ones. Each year seems to bring the threat of a new flu virus; first it was the […]
Nauclea latifolia (also know as the pin cushion tree) is a small shrub, relatively common, used in traditional medicine throughout the sub-Saharan regions. Of course, African traditional medicine is not often your first choice when it comes to a treatment, but what if I told you that this plant produces large quantities of molecules – […]
A first step has been taken towards an effective treatment for Gonorrhea – with drug resistant strains on the rise, this moment comes just at the right time, merely days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) placed the STD on a list of “urgent threats” in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria. Gonorrhea (colloquially […]
Closed chest defribillators (the type of defribillators you see on TV) have been around for decades, and for a good reason – because they get the job done. They’re very effective at restoring normal heart rhythm, but they have a big disadvantage: even with fine tuning of modern devices, they hurt like hell. Researchers now […]
The X-Shape in which we usually see chromosomes depicted in is only a snapshot of their real complexity – a new method for visualizing them showed. A joint project involving the Babraham Institute, the University of Cambridge and the Weizmann Institute has produced the most beautiful and accurate models of chromosomes available up to date. […]
A man from China has had a new nose grown on his head by plastic surgeons, as part of a surprisingly common reconstruction technique. The 22 year-old suffered nasal trauma after a car accident, and the following infection eroded the cartilage in his nose, making it impossible for doctors to fix it. Instead, the team […]
Coma patients, be it inflicted from trauma or initiated by doctors to preserve bodily functions, have their brain activity regularly monitored using electroencephalography (EEG). When in a deep coma the brain activity is described by a flat-pattern signal- basically minimal to no response, one of the limits that nearly prompts establishing brain death. A group […]
“My initial interest was an artistic one at heart, but, surprisingly, we could instantly differentiate seizure activity from non-seizure states with just our ears,” Chafe said. “It was like turning a radio dial from a static-filled station to a clear one.” When Chris Chafe and Josef Parvizi from Stanford University began transforming recordings of brain […]
It may not seem like it, but the influenza (flu) virus is one of the most dangerous in the world due to the speed with which it evolves – each year, several new strains appear, making existing vaccines (and sometimes treatments) obsolete. The bird and swine influenza are just two examples of recent outbursts caused […]
Humans and other mammals show particularly intensive sleeping patterns during puberty – this is also the period during which the brain matures the most; but when pubescent lab rats were administered coffee, their brains matured much slower and not so efficient, a new study shows; considering that children’s and young adults’ coffee consumption has increased […]
Among the criticism that wind energy gets, one main idea some people complain about is that wind turbines are noisy; some people have even went as far as to claim that even though most of the created noise is way below the range of human hearing (infrasounds), it can cause health problems, including heart issues […]
A Harvard longitudinal study that looked at 734,889 people who were diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2008 found that married patients were more likely to recover that those that weren’t. The findings don’t particularly suggest that the emotional support itself helps with the healing, but rather the attention offered by the spouse typically prompts patients […]
For some 50 years, scientists have tried — but failed — to find a way to use microbes against termites. What makes these magnificent creatures (which are often destructive for humans, and even regarded as pests) so resistant in the face of very dangerous microbes – designed specifically to kill them? University of Florida researchers […]
Some people are born with the innate ability, or better said disability, of not feeling pain – whatsoever. It’s not that they can’t feel anything, quite on the contrary – they still have a sense of texture, they feel pressure, they can feel a hug or handshake just like anyone, they experience warmth or coldness […]
Counter the popular dictum “out of sight, out of mind”, Kerri Boutelle, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at University of California, San Diego’s School of Medicine, wants to tackle junk food addition in a novel way. In her experiments, she instructs overweight kids to stare at foods like french fires or cheetos in order to overcome their […]
For the first time in history, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been able to eliminate dangerous drug-associated memories in mice and rats without apparently affecting other memories. Erasing memories If you’ve ever seen The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (truly a remarkable movie, which I highly recommend) […]
It may come as a shock to you to find out that the chemical make-up of human urine hasn’t been identified until now – but it shouldn’t. The study which led to this breakthrough took over seven years and involved 20 researchers; in the end, it revealed over 3.000 metabolites (small molecules resulted through […]
A cross-disciplinary team of scientists at Harvard that developed a novel type of vaccine for treating melanoma – the most lethal form of skin cance – recently announced the vaccine will enter its Phase 1 clinical trial. The announcement comes just a few years after the vaccine was tested on mice, 50% of whom showed […]
In a preclinical study recently published by the journal Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, researchers combined structural features from anti-nausea drug thalidomide with common kitchen spice turmeric to create hybrid molecules which are very effective at destroying multiple myeloma cells. Thalidomide was released into the market in 1957 in West Germany and was typically prescribed as […]
Henry Ford’s Model T automobile changed not only the way the average American traveled (the first trully affordable vehicle for the middle class), but the way industry in all its forms viewed production. By switching from hand craft to the assembly line, Ford drastically cut cost and speed of production of his automobiles, a model […]
It’s amazing how two different animals from two completely different environments evolve some identical physical features. Take bats and dolphins for instance. Both of them use a complex system that produces, receives and process ultrasonic sound waves in order to identify visually hidden objects, track down prey or navigate through obstacles better – typically this […]
The fat-tailed dwarf lemur, native to the marvelous isolated ecosystem of Madagascar, is the closest human relative known to hibernate. After studying the sleeping behavior of both captive and wild lemur specimens, scientists at Duke University have discovered a great deal about how hibernation works in lemurs. The key discovery is that they can go […]
In one of Stanley Kubrick’s weirdest movies (even by Kubrick standards), “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)“, one of the characters played by Peter Sellers is tormented by the irresistible and convulsive urge of lifting his right arm in a Nazi salute. He can’t control it, it’s […]
Today, cancer is typically treated through highly invasive, painful and low efficiency treatments. Doctors resect the tumors, do radiation therapy, and then chemotherapy. This process is actually more stressful and painful to the patient than the cancer itself, but it does save lives sometimes. Scientists all over the world are hard at work developing alternative […]
A team of evolutionary biologists at Indiana University has shown for the first time that asexual lineages of a species are doomed not necessarily from a long, slow accumulation of new mutations, but rather from fast gene conversions which unmask preexisting genetic mutations. The groundbreaking research started with the sequencing of the entire genomes of […]
Every time we’re engaged in a certain action, the sounds we produce while walking, eating, even playing music are tuned down a notch in volume by the brain. For instance, during a conversation your voice will be perceived as quieter than it actually is in reality, since our brain want to receive clearer the information […]
One of the smallest amphibians in the world, the Gardiner’s Seychelles frog, is also one of the most eccentric. The frog doesn’t stand out through an over-glamorous coloring or some unique, wild mating call, but rather as a result of one of its weird biological features. This frog doesn’t have ears – yet it can hear. […]
For infertile women everywhere, regardless of age, health and status, one thing was sure – they were never going to have children; and I say ‘were’ because now we have a precedent, a way through which that can be changed: an infertile Australian woman is now pregnant after growing new eggs in ovarian tissue transplanted […]
Snoring is a universal problem that affects a huge chunk of the population around the world. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, how smart you are, if you snore – you snore. There are various causes for snoring. As is the case with the other common conditions that affect a large number of people […]
A new study that surveyed through records of hundreds of thousands of men from 15 European countries found that the average height has risen by 11 centimeters since then 1870s. This remarkable surge in men’s height over the span of just four generations has been attributed to the advances in health care since, most notably […]
For some reason which continues to elude me, people are eating less and less fruit – but perhaps the increasing consumption of juice has something to do with this. Now, a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers has shown that eating more fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples, was associated with […]
Pollution is real, and it’s a global phenomenon; it doesn’t happen only in the Captain Planet cartoons, and it’s not restricted to Africa or China. Sobering data from MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment has shown that air pollution is having a dramatic impact on American health: over 200.000 lives are claimed early because […]
Fatal overdoses due to painkillers have reached epidemic levels, greatly exceeding those from heroin and cocaine combined, becoming the worst drug epidemic in US history. Prescriptions for painkillers in the United States have nearly tripled in the past two decades, and the results are dreadful. In 2012, enough painkillers were prescribed to keep every single […]
Most medical research looking to identify the mechanisms of a disease or test treatments rely on animal models. While very useful, mice for instance (a favorite lab pet for researchers) do not have nearly the same brain structure or genes as humans. Even if some genes and proteins scientists target are the same both in […]
Scientists have discovered an atypical gene that is thought to be crucial for the generation of new neurons in the brain, a process called neurogenesis. The discovery and further study of the gene might help scientists better understand how neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s affect the brain and, in term, how to address them. New […]
In a mind-boggling and, frankly, a bit frightening breakthrough, researchers at University of Washington have devised a brain-to-brain interface that for the first time has allowed the remote exchange of information between two human brains. The test that demonstrated the technology, although simple in nature, shows of a powerful display of force. One researcher (human brain […]
