Related Science News

Queen and worker honeybees are almost genetically identical but are fed a different diet as larvae. The researchers have found that specific protein patterns on their genome play an important role in determining which one they develop into. These proteins, known as histones, act as switches that control how the […]

Researchers from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with researchers from Canada and the Universities of Bristol and London, have used advanced magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether factors such as blood pressure, fitness, smoking and alcohol intake during young adult life are associated with changes in the blood vessels […]

The last year has seen milestones in the gene therapy field, with FDA approvals to treat cancer and an inherited blinding disorder. New findings from a team led by University of Pennsylvania vision scientists, who have taken gene therapies into clinical trials in the past, are proving successful, this time treating a form […]

An unexpected link between iron and fatty acids may be juicing the metabolism of ovarian cancer cells, report UConn Health researchers in the journal OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology. The findings could suggest new avenues of research for cancer treatments. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths […]

Humankind still dreams of breaking from the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere and venturing to the moon, Mars and beyond. But once astronauts blast past the International Space Station, they become exposed to one of the many dangers of deep space: galactic cosmic radiation. The effects of deep space radiation are […]

New research highlights the extent to which epigenetic variation is influenced by both inherited and environmental factors. Epigenetic processes affect the expression or activity of genes without changing the underlying DNA sequence and are believed to be one mechanism by which the environment can interact with the genome. Now, an […]

The study investigated the best combination of blood tests that could be used to diagnose myeloma in GP practices. The research was a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the University of Exeter and Chiddenbrook Surgery, Crediton, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and was published in […]

A high-energy molecule present in every cell, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), is the form of stored energy used to accomplish much of a cell’s activities. A new theory of aging published in the journal BioEssays addresses the link between ATP levels and aging, based on broad research showing that stored energy levels decrease […]

Researchers at Yale School of Public Health and their scientific partners have found that having a depressed spouse can increase one’s own depressive symptoms as well as cognitive decline over time in late life. The findings are published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. “Because spouses’ emotions and intellectual activities […]

According to a new prospective cohort study and meta-analysis, published 16 August 2018 in the journal The Lancet Public Health, advocates of both very high and very low carbohydrate diets are wrong about which approach is best for health. The aim of the paper was to assess “whether the substitution […]

Polyploidal cancer cells—cells that have more than two copies of each chromosome—are much larger than most other cancer cells, are resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatments and are associated with disease relapse. A new study by Brown University researchers is the first to reveal key physical properties of these “giant” cancer cells. […]

The more scientists explore so-called “junk” DNA, the less the label seems to fit. Only an estimated two percent of the human genome encodes for functional proteins that carry out normal biological processes. The remaining approximately 98 percent—the “junk DNA”—has for many years been considered a useless artifact. Some junk […]