Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Smoke This: Parkinson’s is rarer among tobacco users
Life-long smoking cuts the chance of getting Parkinson's disease by about half.
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19857
This article says that “there may be some fundamental difference in susceptibility to nicotine addiction between people who develop Parkinson’s and those who don’t.” If so, how would you explain the fact that “after smokers stubbed out their last butts, the protective effect faded”? Tobacco smoking is becoming unpopular, and for good reason, but I […]
- Earth
E-Waste Hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals
People who live in an area of China where electronic devices are dismantled and recycled, as well as villagers 50 kilometers away, have high concentrations of flame retardants in their blood.
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19856
In this article, researchers found “astronomical concentrations” of deca-BDE in the residents of Guiyu, and the article cites studies showing that related PBDEs harm brain development in mice and rats. So, has any actual increase in brain-development problems been found in people in and around Guiyu? Joanne Raisner NaradLos Altos, Calif. The researchers know of […]
- Ecosystems
Sea Change: People have affected what penguins eat
Adélie penguins in Antarctica significantly changed their eating habits about 200 years ago, after whaling and other human activities transformed the ocean ecosystem.
- Health & Medicine
Tumor Suicide: Gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct
Microscopic bubbles of fat that deliver a suicide gene to tumor cells show success in treating pancreatic cancer in mice.
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Anemone reveals complex past
The starlet sea anemone, a primitive creature with ancient evolutionary roots, has a surprisingly complex genome.
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Adding to nature’s repertoire
Modified mouse cells make proteins that include synthetic amino acids in addition to the 20 natural ones.
- Tech
More bang for the biofuel buck
Microbes that ferment glycerol to ethanol could add an economically valuable new ingredient to the biofuel industry.
- Earth
As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born
Lake Agassiz, a huge and now vanished freshwater lake, formed almost 14,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance
A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases.
- Chemistry
Gooey solution to a sticky problem
A new, gooey, and potentially useful protein has been extracted from the bodies of jellyfish that overpopulate the seas around Japan.
