In a discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. That these vessels could have escaped detection when the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the […]
The proteins that are vital to living creatures evolved in Earth’s water-rich environment and it was thought that water was vital for proteins to function, but some intriguing new findings from the University of Bristol (UK) challenge this dogma. Proteins consist of one or more polypeptides (chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds) […]
Sepsis, a potentially lethal disease caused by a systemic microbial infection that spreads via the bloodstream, is responsible for more than 200,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone. Existing treatments can be ineffective but researchers in the Vascular Biology Program at Children’s Hospital Boston have come up with a novel first line of defense […]
Common assumptions about the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) may be wrong, with new research showing that high levels of BPA remain in the body even after fasting for as long as 24 hours, suggesting that BPA exposure may come from non-food sources, or, that BPA is not rapidly metabolized, or both. The new research […]
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that blood may actually help us think, in addition to its well-known role as the conveyor of fuel and oxygen to brain cells. “We hypothesize that blood actively modulates how neurons process information,” explained MIT’s Christopher Moore. Writing in the Journal of Neurophysiology, he noted that many […]
Forty years ago, when birth control pills first hit the market, the recommended cycle was three weeks of active contraceptive pills followed by one week of placebos or no pills. But now, many gynecologists believe that the week without contraception – during which a woman experiences a “withdrawal bleed” that mimics the normal menstrual cycle […]
