Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have recovered remarkably preserved microbiomes from two teeth dating back 4,000 years, found in an Irish limestone cave. Genetic analyses of these microbiomes reveal major changes in the oral microenvironment from the Bronze Age to today. The teeth both belonged to the same male individual and also provided a snapshot of his oral health.
A new study has revealed that the size of human brains is getting larger, which means increased brain reserve and decreased chances of developing dementia. The researchers at UC Davis Health reached the conclusion by comparing the size of the brains of people born in the 1930s with those of people born in the 1970s. They noticed that the latter had 6.6 per cent larger brains. The study was published in JAMA Neurology.
“The decade someone is born appears to impact brain size and potentially long-term brain health,” said Charles DeCarli, first author of the study.
He further adds that genetics may also play a major role in determining the size of the brain. “Genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences — such as health, social, cultural and educational factors — may also play a role,” he said.
There are trillions of microbes in the human gastrointestinal tract, each of which expresses its own genome, and carries out a variety of biochemical processes. Gut microbes can generate a variety of molecules that can have a significant impact on human health, such as vitamins, specially modified bile acids, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
SCFAs have fewer than six carbon atoms, and are found in a few major forms, including acetate, propionate, and butyrate. When we eat fibers that are tough to digest, gut microbes metabolize them instead, and generate SCFAs. Many links have been found between butyrate and human health; it is thought to have roles in the maintainence of epithelial barriers, prevention of gut inflammation in the gut and colorectal cancer, and oxidative stress relief.
What non-invasive methods can be developed to kill viruses on site? This is what a recent study published in ACS Nano hopes to address as a team of international researchers have developed a silicon surface containing nanospikes capable of preventing viruses from replicating or killing them entirely. This study holds the potential to help develop a passive way of mitigating the spread of viruses within a myriad of environments, including scientific laboratories and healthcare facilities.
“Our virus-killing surface looks like a flat black mirror to the naked eye but actually has tiny spikes designed specifically to kill viruses,” said Dr. Natalie Borg, who is a senior lecturer in the STEM | Health and Biomedical Sciences at RIMT University and a co-author on the study. “This material can be incorporated into commonly touched devices and surfaces to prevent viral spread and reduce the use of disinfectants.”
For the study, researchers at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication took inspiration from insects, some of which possess their own version of nanospikes on their wings that can damage fungi and bacteria. To produce the nanospikes, the team blasted smooth silicon wafers with ions, resulting in nanospikes measuring 290 nanometers in height and 2 nanometers thick, the latter of which is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. They then tested their new material on the hPIV-3 virus, which is responsible for causing pneumonia and bronchitis, finding their nanospikes exhibited a 96 percent success rate in either preventing the virus from replicating or shredding them to pieces completely.
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Recent advancements in artificial intelligence make it increasingly harder to detect deepfake voices, and the solution might actually come from AI itself.
Scientists at Klick Labs were inspired by their clinical studies using vocal biomarkers to help enhance health outcomes and created an audio deepfake detection method that taps into signs of life like breathing patterns and micropauses in speech.
The future is going to be so lazy, yet so cut.
As next-generation weight-loss treatments like Wegovy and Zepbound continue to fly off the shelves, scientists are busy working on a medicine that could mimic the effects of exercise.
As explained in an American Chemical Society press release, trials thus far on SLU-PP-332, the potentially groundbreaking compound in question, show that it seems “capable of mimicking the physical boost of working out.”
“We cannot replace exercise; exercise is important on all levels,” Bahaa Elgendy, an anesthesiology professor at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis who serves as the principal investigator of the new compound, said in the press release. “If I can exercise, I should go ahead and get the physical activity. But there are so many cases in which a substitute is needed.”
Because we live in a dystopian healthcare hell, AI chip manufacturer Nvidia has announced a partnership with an AI venture called Hippocratic AI to replace nurses with freaky AI “agents.”
These phony nursing robots cost hospitals and other health providers $9 an hour, a fee that barely falls above the US minimum hourly wage, and far below the average hourly wage for registered nurses (RNs.)
In a press release, Hippocratic AI described the disturbingly cheap nurses as part of an effort to mitigate staffing issues. The company also claims that the agents won’t be doing any diagnostic work, and will instead be doing “low-risk,” “patient-facing” tasks that can take place via video call.
“Cannabis vapes are newly regulated products in Canada, so we don’t yet have much scientific data about them,” said Dr. Andrew Waye. “This is an opportunity for us to look at some of the questions concerning the risks and unknowns of cannabis vapes.”
Do vapes pose health risks on par with the very tobacco and cannabis products it’s using to safeguard against? This is what a recent study presented at the ACS (American Chemical Society) Spring 2024 meeting hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the potential health risks that vaping devices could pose, specifically pertaining to the vaping liquids that possess toxic metal nanoparticles, with both regulated and unregulated vaping devices. This study holds the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, and the public better understand the long-term health risks by vaping, which until now have been deemed a “safer” alternative to smoking cigarettes or cannabis.
Biosensing technology developed by engineers has made it possible to create gene test strips that rival conventional lab-based tests in quality. When the pandemic started, people who felt unwell had to join long queues for lab-based PCR tests and then wait for two days to learn if they had the COVID-19 virus or not.
In addition to significant inconvenience, a major drawback was the substantial and expensive logistics needed for such laboratory tests, while testing delays increased the risk of disease spread.
Now a team of bio]medical engineers at UNSW Sydney have developed a new technology offering test strips which are just as accurate as the lab-based detection. And according to research published today in Nature Communications, it’s not just public health that the technology may benefit.