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This year’s Nobel Prize for chemistry has been earned by three scientists who researched into the mysterious green glow of a jellyfish. They will split the prize which has been given to them for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein GFP. Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; […]
It’s natural that when you are stressed out, you tend to search for an explanation for your current situation and to search for answers; too many people have felt this and this is a global issue even without the economy crisis that struck us. But in such times when you feel that your finances are […]
Antibiotics are agents that act against microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi or protozoa. It’s obvious that since the development of antibiotics, the world has changed significantly. Basically, in developed countries people take pills for anything, which could have a damaging long term effect, creating newer types of damaging microorganisms, which are more resistant to antibiotics. […]
One of humanity’s fiercest enemies in the modern world is without a doubt this terrible malady, which has caused an endless number of deaths and suffering; while news and developments in treatment appear every day, there is still no safe receipe for curing it. However, if things get bad, there is now a new technique […]
It may seem weird, but ear infections don’t attack only your ears, but your weight too. If you get them during your childhood, there’s a big chance you will develop a taste for fat foods, and thus this affinity will probably lead to obesity. Scientists that made this study suggest that this appears because middle […]
Bacteria have sometimes behaviour that can amaze scientists, by its complexity and efficiency. Salmonella can commit suicide and help their “brothers” to establish infections that are more damaging, thus helping their species. But scientists believe they have found the answer to this surprising kamikaze behavior. This phenomenon which is called self-destructive cooperation often helps Salmonella […]
Every once in a while, you hear about the hardest of problems that have really easy solutions. In numerous cases, cures have been found in most common of substances, or even foods. This time, a study led by researchers at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland showed that in small concentrations, something as common as […]
If you ever visited a neighboring country and found that the people there had little or no connection to your own country’s culture, language or even physical appearance, it’s only natural that you wonder how this can be; after all, if the countries share a border, they have to resemble many traits?? Not really. It […]
The Neanderthal has spakled controversies around scientists for many years, and most questions remain unanswered even today; they had many adaptations to a hard life, such as hort, robust builds, and rather large noses, which show they lived mostly in cold climates. They were almost exclusively carnivorous and top predators and their brains were probably […]
Everybody pondered at least once in their lives the possibility of being immortal, and this idea sparkled in the immagination of many people throughout history. Now, Stuart Kim, a PhD at Stanford and professor of developmental biology and genetics conducted a study that led to results that shocked pretty much everybody involved, contradicting the […]
Whether you want to admit it or now, the world (and most of all America) has a problem with obesity. The fact that people are eating less healthy and working out less is something that can’t be denied even by the most optimistic of us. However, even taking into consideration all those aspects, the numbers […]
We all know (or really should know) the benefic impact a healthy lifestyle has on your body and mind. But according to a study led by U.S. researchers, exercising and having a balanced diet can not just keep you fit, but it can also lead to some swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level.In […]
Ever wake up in the morning and just couldn’t get out of bed? Did you ever have something to do and just didn’t have what it takes to do it? Well, all you lazy people, rejoice! In may not be your fault after all. A simple test could show whether difficulty in defeating your laziness […]
A study conducted by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health showed that cat ownership probably has a very good effect on young children of ages up to 5 years. The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. […]
It’s still unclear how sleep deprivation affects us, as there are still so many things scientists have failed to understand about sleep itself. But now, neuroscientists at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have shown for the first time what happens to the visual perceptions of healthy but sleep-deprived people who struggle […]
British scientists have received the green light to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons rejected a ban yesterday. Already a wave of contradictions and the scientific world is divided into two camps. An amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was rejected […]
Just like when you lie certain things happen in your brain, the same thing happens when you think something about somebody. But what happens in our brain when we judge people or at least when we make an idea about someone? Those (and many other) questions have been tackled by MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe. Her […]
Photo by out of rhythm A recent study has shown one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) unprecedented detail. They analyzed just the sexually transmitted version. Scientists found that among billions of HIV variants only a few lead to sexual transmission. George M. Shaw, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the UAB […]
Photo by ±‡ U a € ï ¥ a H ‡± Life has ups and downs, reminding more or less of an emotional rollercoaster; but some memories stay in your memory way longer than the others. Emotional memories of traumatic life events (physical or mental), especially cases of accidents or serious illnesses are stored […]
Or at least this is what a study conducted by scientists from Mcgill suggests. They made the largest study of breastfeeding and the results they found were that it increases both IQ and academic performance. In the article in which the study was published, Dr. Michael Kramer reports the results from following the same […]
Well this sure sounds like a good plan to me… Scientists found out that Ketamine (also called Special K if you hang out with the right people), which is used as a horse tranquilizer but also as a club drug could ease depression. Who would have guessed ? Ketamine, which can also cause […]
How can this be? Medicine has progressed… we have drugs for everything, surgery, etc. So how come people live less and less in a country that claims to be the most civilized in the world ? In fact, it decreased with more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000. Now, a new, long-term […]
University of Maryland researchers have managed to shed some light in an important matter which puzzled medical scientists and not only for ages: how iron carried in human blood is absorbed and transported into the body. Among the benefits of this discovery I’ll just name a better understanding of iron deficiency, the world’s number one […]
Recently, it seems there’s a gene for everything, from generosity to ruthlesness. That still doesn’t mean that you can blame everything on your genes, but it may go to show the fact that even some of the world’s most cruelest dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, at least according to a study […]
According to a new research, published in PLoS, as the total number of different species in a certain group grows, the chance of the rate of new species apprearing decreases greatly. The research team believes these findings suggest that new species appear less and less as the number of species in a region approaches the […]
Prions (or proteinaceous infectious particle; on comes from analogy to virion) are the nasty little buggers responsible for disorders such as mad cow disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. They’re dangerous especially as they’re really hard to detect before symptoms appear. Now, according to Nature, scientists are trying to develop sensors that can detect […]
About 2.3 million diagnosed with diabetes just in the UK, and it’s estimated that some 750.000 people have it but don’t know yet. Most of them have diabetes type 2, which is caused mostly by obesity and usually develops in middle age. Type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a less common autoimmune disease that results […]
Viruses are sub-microscopic infectious agents that need other cells in order to reproduce. In fact, some scientists claim that viruses are not living beings, as they do not meet the criteria of the definition of life, because they don’t have cells; but they do have genes and evolve by natural selection. Still, they […]
The science of clothing has evolved greatly: we have light skiing suits that keep us warm at -20 (and more) Celsius degrees, we have clothes that allow transpiration from the inside to get out but don’t allow water from the outside to come in, and also a whole lot of other inventions which aid our […]
Everyday you hear about something that cures (or almost cures) cancer; some stand out and are quite effective, some are not. This drug appears to be in the first category, as it is highly potent compound with a unique structure, and scientists are thrilled to have found it. It was discovered by a collaborative team […]
As expected, genetics evolves everyday and finds more new and unexpected solutions to some of the most puzzling problems we have faced yet. Such a problem was the ethical side of using embrionic stem cells. But now, it seems it won’t be necessary to figure out whether it’s ethical or not, because we can bypass […]
Traditionally, drugs, cures, chemicals and medical devices are tested on animals to give some insight on how these would react on humans, but more and more people are trying to find an alternative to this, including scientists involved in ICCVAM. So they have made a plan to further reduce, refine and replace the use of […]
Researchers at at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have achieved something that many people call the Holy Grail of Nanoscience; this in fact reffers to the fact that they have used for the first time DNA to guide the creation of three-dimensional, ordered, crystalline structures of nanoparticles (particles with dimensions measured in […]
Understanding the mechanisms which take place is something scientists are have been trying to figure out for ages; because of it’s small size, maping it and understanding some things seems almost impossible, but this is a very important step in solving some molecullar puzzles. This would in fact speed up significantly the process of discovering […]
According to wikpiedia, Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, and causes restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is three years old. It is very heritable, although the genetics of autism are complex and it is generally unclear which genes are responsible. A study showed that previously […]
The ethical and moral aspects of using stem cells have been discussed a lot and it seems there is no good answer; genetic practically has no limit and since the discovery of DNA things have evolved very quickly. But the thing is that the moral aspects concerning it could be left unsolved and yet everybody […]
A drug company is a commercial business whose focus is to research, develop, market and/or distribute drugs, most commonly in the context of healthcare; from wikipedia. But according to a study by two York University researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, […]
We have just began to understand our genome yet there are still numerous things we fail to understand; there is a very big number of genes of which we know very little about. Just how much of what we do and think is influenced by our genes remains a mystery, but genetics research is going […]
So Charles Darwin called it the “abominable mystery” of early plant evolution. But the University of Florida and University of Texas at Austin scientists have shed light on what was and is a very intriguing thing. The scientists are reporting that the two largest groups of flowering plants are more closely related to each other […]
Scientists from the University of Delaware and the University of California at Riverside have thawed ice estimated to be at least a million years old from above Lake Vostok (update – first samples taken from lake Vostok). This lake is hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica and has been This […]
The media seems to be repeating the idea that we use just 10% of our brains and taking it as a given. Scientists have tried for years to change this misconception and they have clearly stated that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains. In fact it […]
But it has to be the good quantity. Eating fruits and vegetables and drinking red wine could just be what gives the edge against cancer or what play a beneficial role for those with diseased hearts and circulatory systems. The cure could be at the grocery.The research conducted was published in the November 2007 issue […]
Not a long time ago scientists have sequenced chimpanzee, mouse, rat, dog, and cow DNA. This made it possible for them to understand numerous things including the hundreds of chromosomal rearrangements that have occurred among the different lineages of mammals since they diverged from a diminutive ancestor that roamed the earth among the dinosaurs some […]
This is known as TCM and it represents a range of traditional medical practices originating in China that developed over several thousand years. It includes theories, diagnosis and treatments such as herbal medicine, acupuncture and massage; the base of it is in the fact that processes of the human body are interrelated and in constant […]
Nanotech is a very young science. It reffers to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range. A meter is 1 000 000 000 times bigger than a […]
This dog is famous in the world because it is very big but very gentle – also, thanks to a certain Beethoven movie. The ancestors of the St. Bernard are the herding dogs of Swiss farmers like the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, as well as hunting dogs and watchdogs. Their history has also been […]
It can be quite puzzling to understand why numerous want (or “want”) to quit smoking and fail to do so. The addiction is perhaps stronger than their power to say no, or maybe they just don’t want to quit. Physicians are trying to treat smoking related problems and in the same time talk people […]
Every once in a while, a disease grows and grows so much that it turns into an epidemic – in other words, an epidemic occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human populationsubstantially exceed what is expected. The epidemic is hard to control and treat. But it is better to prevent than […]
Scientists are working out different ways to improve air quality and clean up contaminated sites. In numerous cases the simplest, most natural solution is the most efficient. This could be the case here as they try to break certain kinds of pollutants into harmless byproducts, the key answer could be held by some plants. […]
Subway trains produce airborne dust particles that could damage the lungs, a new study concludes. In the world today it is harder and harder to drive around town or to another town – itt is not cheap, and it takes time. So the subway is a good choice to more and more people. But […]
