Human sperm cells travel up to 6 meters in their transit from testes to penis, and most of that journey occurs in the epididymis, a tightly coiled tube that primes the cells for their ultimate task: fertilization. Researchers report that they have discovered a gene — and related mechanism — essential to the embryonic development of the epididymis.
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A new study published in the British Medical Journal online questions the value of blood glucose monitoring among patients with well-controlled, non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes. The research, being presented today at the American Diabetes Association Conference, suggests that current guidelines for self-monitoring among these patients should be reviewed.
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Among the key communication systems within a cell is the Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates embryonic development and whose deregulation can also contribute to cancer development. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now been able to close one of the last remaining gaps in our knowledge of this well studied sequence of biochemical signals. In doing so, they discovered that signal transduction actually happens in a way that differs from previous concepts.
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A radical suggestion for creating a global infrastructure that is both sustainable and green might rely on nations working together to find a solution to a range of potentially devastating problems, according to Cardiff University’s Peter Wells. Writing in the International Journal of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Wells warns that of a Green Junta that could bring about a right-wing agenda by stealth, in the name of environmentalism.
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The most common procedure for clearing blocked kidney arteries can also release thousands of tiny particles into the bloodstream that can impair kidney function, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues.
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The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine.
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A dinosaur bone bed in southwest Edmonton that served as a feeding area for the direct ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex has revealed that two dinosaurs, thought to have lived in different eras, actually lived at the same time. Scientists digging for bones at the site this year discovered fossils of Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus this year.
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Researchers now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors. In this week’s issue of the journal Cell they report that hormone-secreting brain centres are much older than expected and likely evolved from multifunctional cells of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, flies and worms.
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Using echo-sounding equipment to create images and maps of areas below the ocean floor, researchers have begun to unravel a new story about the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Images of areas below the Eastern Ross Sea, next to West Antarctica, provide evidence that the subcontinent was involved in the general growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as it formed many millions of years ago, according to scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The National Science Foundation provided funding for the project.
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A new study compares the level of a tobacco-specific carcinogen in nonsmokers who work in restaurants that allow smoking with that of employees in restaurants that ban it. Restaurant workers exposed to tobacco smoke on the job were more likely to have a detectable level of NNK, a carcinogen implicated in the development of lung cancer, than those who worked in tobacco-free environments.
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