Month: December 2017

More Americans say it’s good to steer girls toward boy-oriented toys and activities than say boys should be encouraged to play with girl-oriented toys.

Political divides in the American news landscape do not end with Americans’ preferences for different news sources; rather, they extend to how members of the U.S. Congress communicate with constituents in the digital age.

Being able to identify microbes in real time aboard the International Space Station, without having to send them back to Earth for identification first, would be revolutionary for the world of microbiology and space exploration. The Genes in Space-3 team turned that possibility into a reality this year, when it completed the first-ever sample-to-sequence process entirely aboard the space station.

Scientists have shown that streams can be key health indicators of a region’s landscape, but the way they’re being monitored can be improved.

Recent findings may aid in the development of therapies to treat parasitic infections, including malaria, and may help plant scientists one day produce hardier crops.

Pilot study finds smokers who are willing to use e-cigarettes tend to smoke less and have increased quit attempts, according to new research.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 12,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. One of the most common treatments for cervical cancer is radiation. While radiation therapy destroys cancer cells, it also destroys nearby healthy cells. Researchers studied in vitro human cancer cells to show that combining blueberry extract with radiation can increase the treatment’s effectiveness.

The incurable Ebola virus has long been feared due to its high mortality rate and danger of infection. Now researchers have succeeded in inhibiting the virus in cell cultures. The researchers hope to be able to continue doing animal testing and developing an actual drug.

Pollen tube guidance towards the ovule is an important step for fertilization in flowering plants. In order for this to happen, a pollen tube attractant peptide LURE guides the pollen tube precisely to the ovule. Plant biologists have succeeded in analyzing for the first time, the crystal structure of LURE bound to its receptor protein PRK6.

Exactly 200 years after the discovery of the trace element selenium, researchers have shown for the first time why this chemical element is indispensable for mammalian life. As integral part of the enzyme GPX4, selenium protects a subset of neurons from cell death during postnatal development.