CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In two new works, an anthropologist tackles a perplexing question relating to the enormously successful “Body Worlds” exhibits: How does society tolerate — and even celebrate — the public display of human corpses?
“Bod…
This week, the highly-respected US Academy of Sciences journal (PNAS) published an article describing how the first line of defence of the human immune system distinguishes between microbes and the body’s own structures. The basis of this recognitio…
LA JOLLA, CA — Scripps Research Institute scientists have converted adult skin cells directly into beating heart cells efficiently without having to first go through the laborious process of generating embryonic-like stem cells. The powerful gener…
Under standard laboratory conditions, the human beta-defensin 1 (hBD-1), a human antibiotic naturally produced in the body, had always shown only little activity against microbes. Nevertheless the human body produces it in remarkable quantitie…
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Florida and Washington University School of Medicine adds a new twist to the body of evidence suggesting human obesity is due in part to genetic factors. While studying hormon…
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa.
Principal investi…
Show enthusiasm, ask questions and bring copies of a resume. These are just a handful of the most common interview tips for job seekers, but a person’s posture may also be a deciding factor for whether they land a coveted position — even when the …
Boston, MA (January 5, 2010) — For parents wanting to reduce the negative influence of TV on their children, the first step is normally to switch off the television set.
But a new study suggests that might not be enough. It turns out indirect m…
PROVIDENCE, RI — When methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is carried in the nose (nares), it is a risk factor for an invasive infection, including a surgical site infection. Some studies have found that the heavier the carriage of MRSA in the…
BUFFALO, NY (December 22, 2010) — Experiments by a team of researchers in New York and New Jersey have generated evidence that questions the common belief that the pterygotid eurypterids (“sea scorpions”) were high-level predators in the Paleozoic …
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Although the incidence of malaria has declined in all but a few countries worldwide, according to a World Health Organization report earlier this month, malaria remains a global threat. Nearly 800,000 p…
New research by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences reveals that the immune system has an effective backup plan to protect the body from infection when th…
Washington, D.C. — Scientists from all over the world are taking a second, more expansive, look at the car-sized asteroid that exploded over Sudan’s Nubian Desert in 2008. Initial research was focused on classifying the meteorite fragments that wer…
Genetically modified cells can be made to communicate with each other as if they were electronic circuits. Using yeast cells, a group of researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has taken a groundbreaking step towards being able to b…
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have pinpointed a protein that compromises the kidney’s filtering ability, causing nephrotic syndrome, and demonstrated that a naturally occurring precursor of an acid in the body …
For centuries, people wondered how the leopard got its spots. The consensus is pretty solid that evolution played a major role.
But it’s only been five years since the arrival of high-resolution Cassini Mission images of Saturn’s bizarre moon I…
Ground-breaking research from Professor Douglas Kell, published in the journal Archives of Toxicology, has found that the majority of debilitating illnesses are in part caused by poorly-bound iron which causes the production of dangerous toxins that…
CHICAGO — According to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the best way to detect cocaine in the body of a human drug courier, known as a mule, is through computed tomography (CT).
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