If you are living in the eastern United States, the environment around you is being harmed by air pollution. From Adirondack forests and Shenandoah streams to Appalachian wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay, a new report has found that air pollution is degrading every major ecosystem type in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States.
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In a major step in understanding how the nervous system and the immune system interact, scientists have identified a new anatomical path through which the brain and the spleen communicate. The spleen, once thought to be an unnecessary bit of tissue, is now regarded as an organ where important information from the nervous reaches the immune system. Understanding this process could ultimately lead to treatments that target the spleen to send the right message when fighting human disease.
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Dr. Don Henne isn’t wasting his degree when he’s standing by the deep fryer waiting for potato slices to turn brown. He’s conducting research that will help the potato industry and consumers. Henne, an assistant research scientist in the Texas AgriLife Research plant pathology program in Amarillo, is one of many who are trying to find answers about zebra chip. Zebra chip is the latest disease to plague the potato industry, especially those in the chipping business.
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Patients treated solely with medications after suffering from chest pain, heart attack or coronary artery disease are more likely to die during the first year following their initial hospitalization. Researchers found that with all else being equal, the risk of death was highest for the medically managed group and lowest for patients who underwent stenting.
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Endangered black-footed ferrets aren’t exactly lining up to be stuck with a vaccine, but in an effort to help control an extensive outbreak of plague in South Dakota, some of the ferrets are getting dosed with a vaccine given by biologists. Black-footed ferrets are one of the rarest mammals in North America. The plague is transmitted from animals to humans by bites of infected fleas, but it can be cured with antibiotics if treatment is prompt.
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The replanting of mangroves on the coasts of the Philippines could help save many of the lives lost in the 20-30 typhoons that hit the islands annually. The mangrove forests along the Philippines’ 36,300 km of coastline play an important role in fisheries, forestry and wildlife as well as providing protection from typhoons and storm surges, erosion and floods. In the last century, they have declined from 450,000 ha to 120,000 ha, mostly due to their development into culture ponds.
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New research evaluates whether the significant climate change event about 12,900 years ago known as Younger Dryas impacted the climate all around the globe. The Younger Dryas event refers to an unexpected rapid cooling of the earth that is known to have lasted about 1,300 years. It coincided with widespread extinctions of species, but, although the event itself is well-documented, scientists are still unclear of whether its impact was felt equally all across the globe.
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When it comes to stenting — using metal tubes to prop open blocked arteries — physicians are continuing to choose to gain entry to the circulatory system through an opening in the leg instead of the arm, even though the latter option appears to be safer, with fewer side effects.
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Researchers have revealed how a growing crack interacts with the 3-D structure of stainless steel. By using a new technique, they could determine the internal 3-D structure of the sample without destroying it. Afterwards, they initiated a crack and studied how it grew between the grains. The results could be useful to make more performing materials for, for example, safer power plants.
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A researcher at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has pinpointed stem cells within the spinal cord that, if persuaded to differentiate into more healing cells and fewer scarring cells following an injury, may lead to a new, nonsurgical treatment for debilitating spinal-cord injuries.
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