Most motorists, as they glide their cars carefully around the bloody remains, find highway carcasses repulsive. But a team of microbiologists and chemists from the University of Oklahoma hope that roadkill will prove to be a biomedical gold mine.
Biomedicine & Biotech
Reputations are funny – they take years to build but seconds to destroy. Cargill, a company that provides all manner of agricultural products and services, ruined its reputation with farmers and science writers by announcing a partnership with the thoroughly wretched Non-GMO Project, an anti-biotech organization.
Dr. Norm Borlaug, a member of our Founder's Circle, was a big believer in advancing an evidence-based, pro-science approach to food production. The Nobel Laureate also saw the need for debunking the fear-inducing myths that a generation of environmental groups began creating in the 1960s.
People often think that pheromones play a role in who we find attractive or how we choose a mate. Although researchers keep addressing the question, the scientific evidence for the presence of pheromones in humans is lacking. Here, yet another study has failed to uncover any proof of their existence.
It may seem strange that many important, scientific questions are being answered using the roundworm, which is roughly the size of the next comma in this sentence. But it is, indeed, an incredibly powerful experimental system.
So are baldness and height related? After studying the genetic material of more than 22,500 adult, bald men, German researchers determined that "short men have an increased risk of becoming bald prematurely."
Terms like "autosomal recessive" and "dominant" are frequently tossed around, and you've probably heard them. But what does any of that really mean regarding the traits that children inherit from their parents?
Body fat is more than just a storage depot for our excess calories. Along with the production of hormones such as leptin, adipose tissue is also the source of microRNAs that help regulate metabolism. Lack of these miRNAs can lead to at least some of the metabolic problems often associated with obesity.
An amazing new technology that uses silk to deliver vaccines just got a nice boost – to the tune of $6M – from Bill and Melinda Gates. Maybe with novel approaches like this, we'll finally see polio eradicated once and for all.
The World Health Organization released its first-ever report on the antibiotic resistant bacteria that are of the greatest concern: the global priority pathogens. With roughly two million cases of antibiotic resistant infections each year in the United States – and 23,000 deaths – we need to pay attention to this.
UV light is dangerous to humans. That's part of the reason why there's widespread interest in discovering light sources that can kill unwanted organisms – while leaving humans unscathed.
The 'Open Science Prize' is a collaboration between three of the biggest sources of science funding around. The intent is to inspire novel ways of making science accessible to aid in public health. The winner - an online tool that will change the course of how viral outbreaks are tracked - was announced this week.