Electronic cigarettes have gained a steady following in the U.S., but their health effects aren’t fully understood. University of Connecticut chemists developed a way to detect how much damage e-cigarettes may inflict on human cells.
By mixing DNA with an electrochemiluminescent (ECL) agent, a mixture that lights up after electrochemical reactions take place, and exposing it to extracts from cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor, the chemists were able to spot DNA damage. Compared with unf ...read more
(Credit: Creations/Shutterstock)
For the first time, doctors have attempted to edit a man’s genes inside his body.
The patient is 44-year-old Brian Madeux, who suffers from a rare genetic disease that has left him progressively more debilitated over the course of his life. His liver can’t produce an enzyme necessary for breaking down a type of carbohydrate, something researchers hope to repair with a gene-editing technique called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFN).
Gene Repa ...read more
(Credit: Proteus Digital Health)
Not following medicine as prescribed can be costly — like $100 billion to $289 billion, as reported by The Atlantic in 2012. Not only that, but it can also harm patients and set back their treatment.
But a new digital pill could change that.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday approved the first pill in the United States that comes loaded with a digital ingestion tracking system. After taking one of these new pills, the IEM sensor commun ...read more
(Credit: Shibata et al/Nature Communications)
Forget about the generic stock art that shows scissors cutting chunks of DNA, because researchers have recorded actual video of CRISPR in action.
CRISPR is a powerful gene-editing tool that allows researchers to cut and paste snippets of DNA to make targeted changes to a living organism’s genome. It’s a method that’s fast and easy, and it has ushered in a new era of customized life.
Scientists have used the technique to breed mosqu ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
A team of scientists in the United Kingdom and the U.S. recently reported the discovery of pathological signs of Alzheimer’s disease in dolphins, animals whose brains are similar in many ways to those of humans.
This is the first time that these signs – neurofibrillary tangles and two kinds of protein clusters called plaques – have been discovered together in marine mammals. As neuroscience researchers, we believe this discovery has added significance b ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
The United Nations estimates the global population will reach more than 9 billion by 2050, and, by some estimates, agricultural output will have to increase by 50 percent to feed all of those mouths. So is it possible to do it organically?
Modern farming methods focus on maximizing crop yields with the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which put off a surplus of nitrogen that turns into greenhouse gases or finds it’s way into waterways. Advances in i ...read more
Missions from above and on the surface have been searching for life on Mars for years. But there’s an important question worth asking, amidst this vital search: If life once thrived there, how long could even extreme microorganisms survive in Mars’ current harsh conditions? And where might they best survive?
A group of researchers from Lomonosov Moscow State University has just released their answer to those questions.
The paper, published in the journal Extremophile ...read more
By Louise Lief
Every day, it seems, brings more dispiriting news to the science world. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is removing research scientists from the agency’s advisory boards and has forbidden some of them from speaking at conferences. The Government Accounting Office is investigating reports that the current administration is violating scientific integrity policies at federal agencies. The Trump administration has proposed deep budget cuts at scientific agencies. ...read more
(Credit: Wachiwit/Shutterstock)
By now, most of us are probably used to the idea that large corporations track our preferences and activities every time we go online. It’s the price we pay for the custom, convenient experiences we seek on the internet. But tracking your activity online isn’t exclusive to high-flying FAANG companies. For a modest sum, anyone can use the similar tracking tools to essentially spy on another person’s activities.
To illustrate the ease of web ...read more
