Science and Health News

The Flemish Gut Flora Project has presented its first major results about the gut flora of healthy volunteers. By analyzing more than 1,000 human stool samples, a research team led by Professor Jeroen Raes (VIB/VUB/KU Leuven) has identified 69 factors linked to gut flora composition. Their results, published in Science, provide important information for future disease research and clinical studies.

“Second skin” polymer could also be used to protect dry skin and deliver drugs.

Salk Institute scientists showed how an FDA-approved drug boosts the health of brain cells by limiting their energy use. Like removing unnecessary lighting from a financially strapped household to save on electricity bills, the drug-called rapamycin-prolongs the survival of diseased neurons by forcing them to reduce protein production to conserve cellular energy.

Research published today is poised to deliver never-before-seen breakthroughs for the role of protein science in agriculture and lead to new innovations for farmers and society. The advance, the application of PACE (phage-assisted continuous evolution) technology to generate novel insect control traits for crops, demonstrates the ability to optimize proteins to convey specific benefits to plants or to specifically target pests and pathogens of plants — paving the way to target pests that have developed resistance to prior agriculture solutions.

Any kid who pulls on a lizard tail knows it can drop off to avoid capture, but how they regrow a new tail remains a mystery. Now, researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Arizona State University (ASU) have identified tiny RNA switches, known as microRNAs, which may hold the keys to regenerating muscles, cartilage and spinal columns.

Earlier this year, Australia saw a whirlwind tour from the electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones alarmist Devra Davis. Davis is an international champion of the belief that populations bathed in radiation emitted by mobile phones face epidemics of disease — particularly brain cancer.

Millions of people around the world use herbal health remedies, following a tradition that began millennia ago. Many believe that herbs are safe because they have been used for many years, but researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Stony Brook University are raising awareness that long-term use of herbal remedies is no guarantee of their safety. The invited commentary appears in EMBO reports.

A new version of the Eterna video game could allow citizen scientists to design a molecule that would simplify the widespread use of a new TB test.