An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience. The article “A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems” cites the critical role seagrasses play in coastal systems and how costal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.
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Children with a form of bedwetting that does not respond to a common medication have more sodium and urea in their nighttime urine, possibly because of an imbalance of prostaglandin, a hormone-like substance, a new study has found. The finding by Danish medical doctors helps physiologists understand why about 30 percent of children who suffer from bedwetting do not respond to the drug desmopressin and could help lead to better treatment for these children.
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A new method of introducing DNA into the genome of fruit flies promises to transform the ability of scientists to study the structure and function of virtually all the fly’s genes, and the method may be applicable to other frequently studied organisms such as mice.
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More evidence is needed to determine whether donor breast milk is beneficial for babies in intensive care, argues a senior doctor in this week’s British Medical Journal. Mother’s milk is recommended for all babies, but mothers of preterm babies and other babies in intensive care are often unable to provide enough milk for their baby’s needs. Donor breast milk and formula milk are options to make up the shortfall.
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A study led by University of California, San Diego biologists shows that invasive Argentine ants appear to use genetic differences to distinguish friend from foe, a finding that helps to explain why these ants form enormous colonies in California.
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Tea extracts work as an effective treatment for patients who suffer from damaged skin following radiation treatment for cancer. Researchers show that this might partly be due to the anti-inflammatory properties of tea. In a study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, researchers show that tea acts at the cellular level, by inhibiting inflammatory pathways, to reduce inflammation.
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This holiday season, gift-givers may unwittingly give their favorite athlete a workout accessory that can double as a tracking device. Researchers in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington say there are serious privacy breaches posed by the gadget, which is marketed to runners but may be equally attractive to stalkers and thieves.
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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep related breathing disorder that causes your body to stop breathing during sleep, can disturb your sleep numerous times on any given night. As a result, you may experience daytime sleepiness. Daytime sleepiness brought on by OSA may put you more at risk for cardiovascular problems, according to a study published in the December 1st issue of the journal SLEEP.
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An understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of the influenza virus determines scientists’ ability to survey and control the virus.
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An article by John Vandermeer of the University of Michigan shows how extensions of established theory can model coupled oscillations resulting from interactions such as predation and competition. Such coupling can have far-reaching effects that may explain the higher-than-expected diversity of plankton in aquatic ecosystems and other paradoxes of species distribution.
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