Exposure to phthalates, a common chemical found in everything from plastics to soaps, already has been connected to reproductive problems and now, for the first time, is linked to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in adult males, according to a study by the University of Rochester Medical Center.
In order to differentiate and specialize, stem cells require very specific environmental cues in a very specific order, and scientists have so far been unable to prod them to go through each of the necessary steps. But now, for the first time, a study in mice by Rockefeller University scientists shows that embryonic stem cells implanted in the brain appear to develop into fully differentiated granule neurons, the most plentiful neuron in the cerebellum.
What if there was an outbreak of avian flu in Pennsylvania and public health officials had to institute quarantines to stop the spread of the deadly disease? How would the state?s courts respond if someone resisted or challenged a quarantine in court, particularly since no Pennsylvania case law, statute or court ruling has ever established specifically who can petition a court to institute a quarantine or what procedures to follow to do so?
Using advanced brain imaging techniques, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have watched how humans use both lower and higher brain processes to learn novel tasks, an advance they say may help speed up the teaching of new skills as well as offer strategies to retrain people with perceptual deficits due to autism.
A team from Centre de recherche Universit? Laval Robert-Giffard (CRULRG) has made significant progress toward finding a way to determine whether a child is likely to one day suffer from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Health Canada is warning consumers not to use Lots GC6038 and GC6052 of the product ReNu MultiPlus contact lens solution because they contain higher than expected amounts of iron that could reduce the product?s effectiveness and cause serious eye injury from infection.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say they are puzzled by findings from their new study indicating that an antidepressant, which previously showed promise in treating a behavioral disorder known as compulsive buying, did not result in a sustained benefit for the patients who took it.
Scientists at University College London and Imperial College London have shown how the brain makes sense of speech in a noisy environment, such as a pub or in a crowd. The research suggests that various regions of the brain work together to make sense of what it hears, but that when the speech is completely incomprehensible, the brain appears to give up trying.
Obese patients have a significantly higher risk of complications following surgery, including heart attack, wound infection, nerve injury and urinary tract infection, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System.
A case-control study in two populations in Mali, West Africa has shown that glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is associated with significant protection against severe, life-threatening malaria. Researchers from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the University of Bamako, Mali, led by Thomas E. Wellems, report the findings this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.