The black and orange patches that define the coloring of a calico cat beautifully illustrate the genetic mechanism known as "dosage compensation" through X chromosome inactivation.
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For fish frying, olive oil really is better. Science says so.
Credit: Shutterstock
If you are not trying to sell a diet book or get on an afternoon medical news program, you probably don't think giving up a food group is a magic bullet for weight loss. Actually, it is. So is a cleanse. That is what crash diets are, even if they don't work in the long term.
Now that Zika has hit the United States, people will be deciding which, if any, mosquito repellents to use. You can have something that is "natural," or something that works. But not both.
Using population-based data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute, two new studies looked at testicular germ cell tumors and glioblastoma and found that only private insurance had better outcomes for patients.
Most of us have experienced Déjà Vu — the mysterious phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event currently experiencing has happened in the past. Its translation from the French language is literally 'already seen.' Déjà Vu continues to baffle scientists, but what we do know about the phenomenon is a lot more scientific than we may think.
In December 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur antiquarian and solicitor archaeologist, presented part of a human-like skull to the world, claiming it was the “missing link” between ape and human. However, new dating technologies in the 1950s revealed that these bones were nowhere near old enough to make up such a link. But now new evidence points the finger of suspicion even more firmly at Dawson, and suggests a sole hoaxer was responsible.
The recent UNICEF report "From The First Hour of Life" looks at the present state of infant feeding, with particular focus on the benefits of breastfeeding, highlighting the barriers that exist and providing recommendations to overcome them. However, much of the data used to support these recommendations appear unrepresentative of a global population. This article will serve as part 1 of a series of articles attempting to validate the report in its entirety.
Haiti did not have a single case of cholera until October 2010 -- 10 months after a devastating earthquake leveled the country on Jan. 12 of the same year, killing up to an estimated 300,000 people.
There's some encouraging health news from the CDC about teenage behavior that should make parents breathe a bit easier. It's a report that shows that today's teens are basically making better health choices then previous teenage groups. And they are also making much better decisions than teens did a generation ago.
The latest anthropometric data from NHANES have been released — and the picture isn't pretty. Over a period of approximately 20 years, both men and women have added weight, especially around the middle.
Spoilage in milk, and risk of food poisoning, happens because of the presence of harmful bacteria. That is why pasteurization saves so many lives and the raw milk food fad has orders of magnitude greater risk of causing illness.
So do you want milk to last for two months? A new science study shows it's affordable and works.
There has been a lot of talk in the last week about high prices for medications. But before allowing the smoke and mirrors of the modern media, politicians, insurance companies, and manufacturers to completely cloud the issue; consider a tag line I see more and more at the end of direct to consumer medication advertising. “If you take certain Company A medicines, and you cannot afford them, you may be surprised to learn that Company A may be able to help.”
Before we go off to blame the playa, perhaps we should consider the game.
When biologists think of evolution, we tend to be biased toward those instances in which an organism gains some new ability, such as when a bacterium acquires a new antibiotic resistance gene. But a new paper warns that this is far too narrow a view. The authors contend that gene loss, and the loss-of-function that generally accompanies it, may play a large and overlooked role in evolution.
Some Olympians are using a recuperative procedure known as "cupping therapy," where hot glasses or cups are placed over sore areas of the body. And while there's no scientific study proving its effectiveness, don't tell that to these pumped-up, polka-dotted performers, because to them the process is absolutely beneficial to their quest for Olympic gold.
In Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia, infantile beriberi is a public health concern. If not arrested it can be fatal. If a pregnant woman consumes a diet deficient in thiamine, her breast milk will not supply enough to her baby to prevent beriberi. A possible means of ameliorating this situation is to fortify a commonly-consumed food with thiamine.
With the heartbreaking photo of a Syrian child rescued from a bombed house making its way around the internet -- as well as our nonstop election circus -- it's time for some good news for a change. The CDC reports that pregnancy in teens aged 15-19 has fallen by 46 percent from 2007 to 2015.
The MINDACT trial results suggest that women with a certain genetic profile would have a good chance of survival and cure regardless of chemotherapy, but it's not so simple.
The same product as last year, but now $600. Credit: Mylan
When I was still in school, the rule-of-thumb for the human microbiome was that bacteria outnumbered human cells 10-to-1. Not so, say the authors of a new PLoS Biology paper, who re-crunched the numbers. According to their estimate, the ratio is much closer to 1-to-1.
Gallup's recent poll on race relations asked a loaded question and lacked a control group. This is a recipe for very bad social science.
Sure, it would be great if there were one magical thing you could do to lose weight, without lifting a finger
We need a more scientific approach to funding scientific research. It won't be easy to evaluate short-term crises against long-term epidemics, but too many lives are at stake to shy away. Scientists have a key role to play in educating decision makers on risk and helping to get that balance right.
When it comes to picking produce at the grocery store, don't judge a book by its cover! Spotted fruits and veggies aren't spoiled or harmful — they've simply been through a lot, and they need a little TLC.
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