The University of Chicago’s Nicolas Dauphas has developed a new way to calculate the age of the Milky Way that is free of the unvalidated assumptions that have plagued previous methods. Dauphas’ method, which he reports in the June 29 issue of the journal Nature, can now be used to tackle other mysteries of the cosmos that have remained unsolved for decades.
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A blood test for thyroid cancer can detect persistent or recurrent disease even before doctors can find any trace of a tumor, according to a new study. The findings suggest that people treated for the disease should be examined regularly for early signs of recurrence. The study examined how well a test for thyroid cancer can predict whether the disease will recur.
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An antibody that targets the blood vessels nourishing tumors significantly reduced breast cancer formation and growth in mice when combined with a current cancer drug, according to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
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Premature aging syndromes often result from mutations in nuclear proteins involved in genomic integrity. Lack of an enzyme responsible for the maturation of prelamin A, also results in progeroid phenotypes in mice and humans. In Nature Medicine Online researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Hong Kong describe this enzyme’s importance for the stability of DNA.
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Scientists are conducting a six-month atmospheric research campaign at the Point Reyes National Seashore in California. The experiment’s goal is to help understand how aerosols — small particles such as soot, dust and smoke — influence the structure of marine stratus clouds, and how aerosols are associated with drizzle — the misty rain regularly produced by these types of clouds. The scientists think aerosols may be reducing coastal drizzle while increasing cloud cover.
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Expectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests.
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NASA researchers recently discovered the largest solid core ever found in an extrasolar planet, and their discovery confirms a planet formation theory. “For theorists, the discovery of a planet with such a large core is as important as the discovery of the first extrasolar planet around the star 51 Pegasi in 1995,” said Shigeru Ida, theorist from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan.
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Drug abusers are increasingly turning to a slow-release form of a powerful painkiller for a quick and dangerous high, University of Florida researchers warn. The trend is raising alarm as the number of people dying from an overdose of the drug fentanyl, an opioid 100 times more potent than morphine, rises.
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A protein that regulates cholesterol levels in the body also is responsible for maintaining a healthy balance between fat storage and fat burning, according to a UT Southwestern Medical Center study that may lead to new drug targets in the fight against obesity.
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The need for reading glasses or bifocals as we age may begin fading from sight with the latest generation of intraocular lenses. Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center are among the first to receive the ReSTOR lens, a new surgically implanted lens that can allow patients who have trouble seeing at arms length to see near, intermediate and far distances without glasses or contacts.
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