Science News

Exoplanet eclipse. Credit: Bill Lile. Two hefeweizen-fueled scientists have completed what might be the most important scientific effort since the discovery of the Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect. Yesterday, Stephe...

(McMaster University) Elafin, by interacting with the transglutaminase 2 enzyme, decreased the enzymatic reaction that increases the toxicity of peptides derived from gluten. In studies with mice, the researchers found t...

The use of emergency departments for dental care -- especially by young adults in low-income communities -- is presenting policymakers with a challenge, according to a report that offers several remedies including expand...

Elderly flies do not sleep well -- they frequently wake up during the night and wander around restlessly. The same is true of humans. The sleeplessness experienced by the fruit fly Drosophila is therefore a model case fo...

Relapse is the most painful and expensive feature of drug addiction --- even after addicted individuals have been drug-free for months or years, the likelihood of sliding back into the habit remains high. Though some rel...

Professor Stephan Irle of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) at Nagoya University and co-workers at Kyoto University, Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), and Chinese research institutions have revealed t...

There are important parallels between the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the current epidemic of opioid addiction -- ones that could trigger a significant shift in opioid addiction prevention, diagnosis and tre...

The fewer the red blood cell transfusions, the less likely patients were to develop infections like pneumonia, a new study has illustrated. Elderly patients undergoing hip or knee surgeries were most susceptible, with a ...

A comprehensive review of 50 year's worth of international studies assessing the benefits and harms of mammography screening suggests that the benefits of the screening are often overestimated, while harms are underestim...

A study of 36,210 adult tonsillectomy patients finds that 20 percent will have a complication, offering valuable new insights to a decades long discussion. The study examines the prevalence of complications in adult tons...

A study using the mutant fruitfly sleepless confirmed that the enzyme GABA transaminase, a target of some epilepsy drugs, contributes to sleep loss. The findings shed light on mechanisms that may be shared between sleep ...

In the mid-1990s, scientists for the first time were able to isolate and clone the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, mutations in which were thought to increase susceptibility to early onset breast and ovarian cancers. A article ta...

Low levels of sodium, known as hyponatremia, prior to transplantation does not increase the risk of death following liver transplant. Medical evidence shows that low sodium concentration is common in patients with end st...

A new mechanism for using light to activate drug-delivering nanoparticles and other targeted therapeutic substances inside the body has been developed by a collaboration of materials scientists, engineers and neurobiolog...

Both pregnant women with diabetes and with type 2 diabetics have high levels of a fat metabolite that impairs pancreatic cells from secreting insulin. These findings suggest that blocking the effects of this fat metaboli...

A new imaging tool inspired by the humble sewing machine has been invented, providing fresh insight into the origins of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These diseases are caused by tiny toxic proteins too small to b...

Researchers studying tiny, antennae-like structures called cilia have found a potential way to ease some of the physical damage of numerous genetic disorders that result when these essential cellular components are defec...

Obesity, rather than diet, causes changes in the colon that may lead to colorectal cancer, according to results from a study in mice. The finding bolsters the recommendation that calorie control and frequent exercise are...

Only 10 percent of orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons follow professional guidelines recommending routine psychological screenings of patients prior to major surgery for severe back and leg pain, a study shows. The o...

Scientists have shown that breast-feeding has a protective effect on the risk of obesity at 20 years of age. Researchers also emphasize that nutritional intake at the age of 2 years are critical in providing this benefic...

It's not a hair-brained idea: A new research report explains why people with a rare balding condition called 'atrichia with papular lesions' lose their hair, and it identifies a strategy for reversing this hair loss. "Id...

The latest results from a 25-year study of diet and aging in monkeys shows a significant reduction in mortality and in age-associated diseases among those with calorie-restricted diets. The study, begun in 1989, is one o...