Author: Jen Ellis

27 Mar, 2015 | by

Why are some parents reluctant to have their children vaccinated? According to one study, it may be a matter of poor public relations on the part of practitioners and drug companies. The issue of vaccination hesitancy and refusal often makes headlines in the media and worries health authorities. A new study by Dr. Anat Gesser-Edelsburg, Dr....

25 Mar, 2015 | by

At the end of 2014 the British government released a frightening report about antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The report says higher rates of drug-resistant bacterial infections could result in 10 million deaths a year by 2050 and calculated the financial toll to be $100 trillion. Antibiotic-resistant infections are rising and foiling efforts to reduce death rates in developing...

06 Mar, 2015 | by

Dog lovers would be the first to agree that these faithful companions know when their human friends are happy or sad. Those who have a dog in their lives are completely convinced that their beloved pets are in tune with their moods and ready to comfort at any time. Scientific research however has never been...

26 Feb, 2015 | by

For the first time, living bacteria have been captured by X-ray, researchers report. Researchers from Uppsala University are working at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, Calif, which is operated by Stanford University. This discovery, which offers a fresh way to view active biological samples, could lead to X-ray forays into mechanisms integral...

24 Feb, 2015 | by

Scientists have found people’s genes haven’t retained as many fragments of viral DNA as other mammals, maybe due in part to our adoption of tools in lieu of teeth during conquest. Thus, exposure to viruses lurking in the blood may have been lessened. This is not to say people don’t harbor bits of DNA from viruses...

23 Feb, 2015 | by

Scientists find just a few microbes are needed to infect lymph node, cause disease A long-held theory about how bubonic plague is caused has been flipped on its head, according to scientists. Researchers from the UNC School of Medicine found that instead of using host cells, some of the plague-causing bacteria travel to lymph nodes in small...

04 Feb, 2015 | by

Researchers have found that a protein vital for cell health that has recently been associated with cancer and diabetes, can juggle its cellular to-do list—in effect having two alike protein parts split the workload. A key protein for most life forms—the TH enzyme (transhydrogenase)—works inside mitochondria. “Despite its importance, TH has been one of the least-studied mitochondrial...

16 Jan, 2015 | by

Can a new use for an established drug make an even greater impact than the current one? Some researchers in Israel think so. Scientists at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beershaba, Israel, have found that the anti-inflammatory drug alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT), now used to treat type 1 diabetes and various inflammatory problems, may...

15 Jan, 2015 | by

When stars collide, it’s not always in a Hollywood action film or on the red carpet. In a much more star-studded event than any movie premiere or awards could ever be, NASA has captured images of a collision of galactic proportions. Through the use of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, researchers have been given...