Being Human

Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) can have a significantly beneficial effect in patients with severe emphysema, according to the first ever study to randomize emphysema patients to receive either LVRS or non-surgical medical care.

• Heavy drinking often leads to trauma, and can also complicate subsequent assessment and patient care.

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel way to monitor in real time the behavior of the TB bacterium in mouse lungs noninvasively pinpointing the exact location of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The new monitoring system is expected to speed up what is currently a slow and cumbersome process to test the safety and efficacy of various TB drug regimens and vaccines in animals.

A study led by Johns Hopkins and Utah State University researchers suggests that a particularly close relationship with caregivers may give people with Alzheimer's disease a marked edge over those without one in retaining mind and brain function over time.

Leukemia. I've dropped a hint or two that I may be talking a little about leukemia on this blog, and I've found the perfect way to start. Today, my attention was directed to a video about a girl called Melisa Paskova, a nine year-old girl from Macedonia, who's been diagnosed with a resurgence of the leukemia she thought she'd defeated a few years ago. If you speak German, I recommend you watch: it's a heart-wrenching story. On a more self-serving note: it is the personal recommendation of the author that you read this post in its native environment, by clicking here (although you are, of course, allowed to read it here on ScienceBlog too).

DURHAM, N.C. -- Findings from the largest study to date comparing the efficacy of competing treatments for chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) show that the regimens are similar when it comes to safety and their ability to provoke long-term viral eradication, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Results of a long-awaited study of 3,070 American adults at Johns Hopkins and 118 other U.S. medical centers show that treatment with either of the two standard antiviral drug therapies is safe and offers the best way for people infected with hepatitis C to prevent liver scarring, organ failure and death.

SEOUL, Korea -- A new study has found that a currently available yet underused vaccine against typhoid fever is highly effective in young children and protects unvaccinated neighbors of vaccinees.

The two areas of thunderstorms in the Caribbean from yesterday, July 21, are on the move. One area is now moving into out of the Caribbean and into the eastern Atlantic Ocean while the other is now moving over the southeastern Bahamas and Hispaniola on a northwest track.

GALVESTON, Texas -- When the Apollo 11 crew got back from the moon, 40 years ago this week, they showed no ill effects from seven days spent in weightlessness. But as American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts began conducting longer-duration space flights, scientists noticed a disturbing trend: the longer humans stay in zero gravity, the more muscle they lose.

I would like to invite discussion on my paper, On Fodor on Darwin On Evolution, which is a critique of Jerry Fodor's Hugues Leblanc Lectures at UQAM on "What Darwin Got Wrong" (Fodor, forthcoming; Fodor&Piatelli-Palmarini).

July 22, 2009 -- (BRONX, NY) -- A cellular protein that may prevent nerve cells from dying also helps to improve insulin action and lower blood glucose levels, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (http://www.aecom.yu.edu) in collaboration with scientists at Unive

Berkeley - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are proving that a camera phone can capture far more than photos of people or pets at play. They have now developed a cell phone microscope, or CellScope, that not only takes color images of malaria parasites, but of tuberculosis bacteria labeled with fluorescent markers.

The new research study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests that by improving overall ocean health, corals are better able to recover from bleaching events, which occur when rising sea temperatures force corals to expel their symbiotic algae, known as zooxanthellae.

Men who exercised regularly, drank moderately, did not smoke, who were not overweight and had a diet that included cereal and fruits and vegetables had a lower lifetime risk of heart failure, according to a study in the July 22/29 issue of JAMA.

21 July 2009: As the ESC Congress 2009 draws ever closer, the evidence in favour of a healthy lifestyle for the prevention of cardiovascular disease grows ever stronger. Prevention is the highlight theme of this year's event, which will take place in Barcelona from 29 August to 2 September. Lifestyle factors are heavily on the agenda.

Children on the high-fat ketogenic diet to control epileptic seizures can prevent the excruciatingly painful kidney stones that the diet can sometimes cause if they take a daily supplement of potassium citrate the day they start the diet, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

A report on the work is published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Something slammed into Jupiter in the last few days, creating a dark bruise about the size of the Pacific Ocean.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An international team of researchers led by scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found what they believe is the first mutated gene linked to restless legs syndrome, a common neurologic disorder.

By substituting a single atom in a molecule widely used to purify water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a far more effective decontaminant with a shelf life superior to products currently on the market.