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The effects of urban pollution in China are started to get out of hand, and by now, it’s pretty safe to say that they are dealing with a major pollution crisis – the smog in Beijing particularly is so severe you can easily see it from outer space. Now, a new study has concluded that […]
A study from Yale University found that some eight million premature deaths have been adverted as a result of anti-smoking measures which first began 50 years ago with the groundbreaking report from the Surgeon General outlining the deadly consequences of tobacco use. In 1964, the then Surgeon General Luther Terry dropped a bombshell that made […]
We need more green spaces in town and cities – the myriad of advantages they provide is simply undeniable. Now, a team of researchers has shown that they also lead to significant and sustained improvements in mental health. Analyzing a consistent amount of data over a five year period, they found that moving in a […]
M.P., a kindergarten teacher and expert reader, was hit by a stroke and, in the aftermath, her brain underwent some irreversible transformations. It’s hard to imagine the confusion and fright the 40-year-old woman must have felt when shortly after her stroke, while in the classroom trying to read to children – her biggest source of […]
Sure to raise a slew of controversy and debate, researchers in Japan are currently investigating the possibility of growing human organs, like kidneys, livers or even hearts, inside pigs. A real life chimeric tale, as if spawned from the Island of Dr. Moreau. The challenges are numerous though, both technical (we’re talking about growing human […]
An international team of researchers believes they have found a way to reopen critical learning periods in the brain, allowing adults to learn as if they were children, even abilities thought to be restricted to early ages, such as new language learning and absolute pitch development. The drug is known as valproate or valporic acid […]
The world is changing awfully fast, and with change expect many paradigms to shift or crumble entirely to dust. Over the course of a mere couple of decades, world’s politics has changed dramatically. Superpowers have fallen, the Cold War is well behind us and countries which not long ago were considered hallmarks of poverty have […]
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Iowa have found out that we don’t just smell with our noses, we also smell with our lungs… sort of. But while your nose might tell you that something is or isn’t good for you, your lungs might make you cough it out. Smelling […]
Some people just have the knack of remembering the face of everyone they’ve met in their lives, while others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, have a difficult time recognizing who they met yesterday. Now, researchers at Emory have identified the oxytocin receptor, a gene known to influence mother-infant bonding and pair bonding in monogamous […]
Researchers from the Aalto University in Finland have revealed how the most common emotions are experienced in the body. Emotions are a very good way of preparing us for environmental challenges. It has been known for quite some time that our emotions trigger physical reactions in our body, and the bodily maps of these sensations […]
Tylenol is one of the most common drugs, and for good reason: it’s good, and it gets the job done – it’s one of several drugs which use acetaminophen as the active substance. There are two main reasons for which it should be administrated: it’s a mild analgesic and it reduces fever. While it’s also […]
Co-authors of the study Prof Keith Martin and Dr Barbara Lorber, from the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair at the University of Cambridge say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss. Their research has been carried out so far only with animal […]
If all people over 50 in the UK would eat an apple a day, over 8,500 vascular deaths such as heart attacks and strokes every year in the UK would be prevented. This is even better than giving everyone (who is not already taking them) statins – a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol […]
Using an enzyme to ‘cut out’ the virus, German researchers have managed to find remove HIV from cells, leaving the cells virtually unharmed. This has a boatload of work before it sees the light of day, but it’s the most promising HIV study I’ve read in quite a while. Killing HIV cells, mice, and a […]
Meditation has been shown to have an impact on brain activity, decreasing beta waves and impacting each part differently. Activity in the frontal and parietal lobe slows down, while the flow of information to the thalamus is reduced. This can lead to positive side effects such as improved focus, better memory, and a reduction in […]
Just like taste, it’s really common for people not to agree on how pleasant or fowl a scent may be. You might find the meal you just cooked to have a pleasant odor or you might have bought a perfume you thought smelled divine, only for some other person to disagree and express a distaste. […]
We’ve written a number of times about the advantages that cannabinoids can bring – how they can become effective pain killers even without the high, how they don’t harm the lungs when smoked, and many more. But marijuana is definitely not a substance you want to abuse, just like tobacco and alcohol. In many cases, […]
Medicine and 3-d printing fit together like a glove. Imagine how many transplants and surgical procedures are so difficult to make or downright impossible because you can’t find a matching tissue or body part for the patient at hand. With 3-D printers, you can even make new bones – identical to those modeled from a […]
The world is getting smaller by the day, as fixed geographical distances become easier and more accessible for the common folk to travel. What this means is that a lot of things change as well, including the day diseases are carrier and spread throughout the world. Only a century ago, the number one mean of […]
Researchers at MIT found that individual cells in a bacterial colony will grow in a manner that is beneficial to the whole culture, even if this comes at a personal expense for the cell. With this in mind, it appears seemingly complex colony structures can be explained by an essentially simple behaviour. The findings could […]
From the common cold to pneumonia and potentially life threatening lung diseases: a single protein was found to play a key role. Now, an international team of researchers has finally zeroed in it. The key protein is called MUC5B – it is one of the two proteins found in the mucus that normally and helpfully […]
Playing an instrument comes with a wide range of benefits, especially for children. It teaches them discipline and how to focus on an important task at hand. It also fuels creativity. There’s a well constructed myth, however, that playing an instrument makes you smarter, as in it improves your cognitive abilities somehow. This idea is […]
A study which monitored the health habits of 2,235 men over a 35-year period has found that exercise significantly reduces the risk of dementia. It may seem like common sense, but it can never be emphasized too much: a healthy lifestyle ensures a longer… healthier life – it’s basically as simple as that. Published by […]
Humans want a pill to solve all their medical problems, but with the increase of antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria, those pills are beginning to become less effective. Early in September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that said in the last few years, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have gained prevalence in […]
A new study found that parent stress is linked to heightened weight gain in children. The causes of this aren’t very clear yet, however scientists advise interventions should focus on how to support families in challenging conditions. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto studied data collected during the Children’s Health Study, one of the largest and […]
Fractals are non-regular geometric shapes that have the same degree of non-regularity on all scales. Fractals are the kind of shapes we see in nature, basically, and even though the term was first coined only a coupled of decades ago or if this is the first time you’ve heard about fractals, chances have it that you […]
Writing your memoirs or simply recollecting traumatizing memories in writing has been used as tool in therapy for many years now. A new study by researchers at University of Iowa found that switching to writing in third person eases recovery and improves health of participants. Whether it’s a car accident, the death of someone close, surgery, […]
Generally, you can view services like any other commodity and apply strict goods economics. So if the same type of service is available elsewhere, even in another country, at a cheaper price it makes sense, economically, to outsource. Is health care a different matter, however? Apparently, if you took an X-ray in the past decade, […]
A new report made by a team of Harvard researchers proposes a set of measures aimed at leveling the health ground in the world by 2035. The authors envision a grand convergence, namely closing the most egregious equity gaps we still have between poor and rich populations around the world. Isn’t offering the same health benefits […]
Drug resistant bacteria (immune to almost all antibiotics) are dreaded by patients and physicians alike. Finding them in hospitals is bad enough as it is, but failing to detect them is even worse – it can result in a dramatic outbreak. This is why patients with bacterial infections are typically screened using automated lab tests […]
It’s surprising to me that this has to be said, but … oh well. If you are obese, you’re unhealthy. Even if you have normal blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar, you’re still unhealthy. A study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, concluded that so-called “healthy obesity” was a myth. “Healthy obesity” or “benign obesity” […]
Male birth control pills have been researched for some time, however previous attempts have been found to be ineffective. A new method that concentrates at blocking male sperm ejaculation, has been found to be effective in mice. A drug could be administered orally, just like the female version. Before a male birth control pill can […]
A new study which involved the analysis of over 1.000 brain scans confirmed what many intuitively believed for a long time: men and women’s brains are hard wired differently. Maps of neural circuitry showed that on average women’s brains were highly connected across the left and right hemispheres, while men had better connections between the […]
To improve health and ease drowsy coughs during winter time, you’ll find that some sources, including physicians, advise that you add supplements to your diet in order to boost your immune system. A team of researchers report, however, after performing a randomized study that taking vitamin D, calcium or both altogether doesn’t offer any significant […]
Biotechnology is growing fast and the findings researchers are making the field are nothing short of breathtaking. Previously, ZME Science reported in the past few years alone a series of milestone premiers: the first bioengineered kidney and 3-D human kidney cells, the first functioning blood vessels, the first teeth-like structures, a bioengineered heart that beats on its […]
Drug delivery encapsulated in tiny nanoparticles are thoroughly studied with great interest because they offer the chance to deliver treatments more efficiently. That’s not all though – with nanoparticle pills you can selectively target key areas and deliver drugs which otherwise wouldn’t be possible without using invasive methods. Take diabetes for instance – patients need […]
Generosity and fairness As shoppers all around got more or less advantageous deals on Black Friday, researchers at the University of Berkeley are analyzing what happens to commerce and buyers when there’s no fixed price tag – when shoppers pay as much as they want for products. As it turns out, they spend more money when […]
Your gut is home to some 100 trillion bacteria – more than the entire number of cells in the whole human body. Clearly, bacteria are fond of human intestines, as we humans, unknowingly or not, are fond of them. After all, without bacteria our organisms would be deprived of extremely vital vitamin sources and digestion […]
Google Glass is a hands-free technology, with potential applications in a myriad of fields Surgeons have recently started performing surgeries with Google Glass They report great results, as this technology can save a lot of time and effort Google Glass seems like the technology of Star Trek – except it’s here, now. For those who […]
Aside from being really cool and enabling wicked video game graphics, 3D imaging is also extremely useful in research, entering the labs as one of the most powerful tools in the 21st century. Using an imaging technique known as high-speed holographic microscopy, Laurence Wilson, a fellow at Harvard’s Rowland Institute, created detailed 3D images of […]
Trying to better understand how memories are stored inside a human brain, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Freiburg University used a video game in which people navigate through a virtual town delivering objects to specific locations; they found that brain cells add a geo-tag with spatial information to some memories, and this spacial […]
Mice in the control group refused to drink alcohol When a certain gene was deactivated, they started preferring alcohol over water Researchers stress that human alcoholism depends much more on environmental and personal factors Researchers have discovered a gene that regulates alcohol consumption; when this genes becomes faulty, it makes humans more prone to […]
Previously, it’s been shown that obesity can cause changes in the brain, leading some people to over eat food high in saturated fat and refined sugar, as well as cause poorer memory. A new study published by researchers at University at Buffalo found a new physiological trait that can become altered as a result of obesity. […]
Despite all the related problems which contribute to obesity such as stress , the main cause is… eating too much. Recent studies have shown that people tend to overeat when they are stressed out – often creating a negative cycle of eating more, gaining weight and then getting stressed out about gaining weight – especially […]
Researchers have found that a very small portion of your brain plays a key role in decision making. A University of British Columbia study published in Nature Neuroscience says that we need to rethink what we know about the lateral habenula, a region of the brain previously linked to depression and avoidance behaviours; they claim […]
As much as we here at ZME Science love promoting science, we really hate it when the media misinterprets research and spreads false information. This time, everybody seems to be picking up the idea that 16% of the Finnish population is genetically HIV resistant. Here, we’re gonna discuss that study and why this isn’t really […]
Among the many laudable initiatives for which Bill Gates is donating a lot of money (including HIV and malaria vaccine research and artificial clouds to fight greenhouse gases), there’s also a prize for developing better condoms. Because current latex varieties can dull sensation, Gates encouraged entrepreneurs to create a condom that “significantly preserves or enhances […]
Men have noses 10 cm longer than women (on average), even with the same body size This happens because men have more muscle tissue, which needs an extra oxygen intake This change starts happening during puberty Human noses come in all shapes and sizes, but despite that, generally speaking, men noses are significantly larger than […]
Most fossils are very fragile, difficult to handle and transport Researchers conducted CT scans on fossils still trapped in sedimentary material, creating 3D models The models were then 3D printed – an accurate, non invasive method to replicate fossils for schools, museums and other researchers Doctors and dinosaurs Being a paleontologist and working […]
An estimate 20% of Americans use some of form of psychotropic medication, amounting to a $34 billion industry. Desperate to ease their problems away with one magic pill, people are flocking in pharmacies to take their regular hits of Prozac, Valium or Vicodin. In the future, however, a new class of drugs may enter the […]
