Press monitoring
Happiness contributes to longer life: study
3.11.2011 | Press monitoring
According to study results, people who report feeling happy on a daily basis are 35 percent less likely to die compared to their unhappy counterparts. For this study, researchers led by Professor of Psychology at the University College London, looked at 3,800 participants between the ages of 52 and 79. They were asked to record their levels of...
Fighting fire with fire: 'Vampire' bacteria has potential as living antibiotic
2.11.2011 | Press monitoring
A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria – including certain human pathogens – has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates. The bacterium "makes its living" by seeking out prey – certain other bacteria – and then attaching itself to its victim's cell wall...
Fat cells in abdomen fuel spread of ovarian cancer
1.11.2011 | Press monitoring
A large pad of fat cells that extends from the stomach and covers the intestines provides nutrients that promote the spread and growth of ovarian cancer, reports a research team based at the University of Chicago in the journal Nature Medicine, published online October 30th, 2011. Ovarian cancer, the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women,...
Artificial blood could soon be on the way
31.10.2011 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Edinburgh University in Scotland have announced that they believe the type of artificial blood they are working on could be ready for testing in humans in as little as two or three years. Made from growing stem cells taken from adult human bone marrow, the blood they create would be of the rare type “O-negative” that some 98% of...
Pill and pregnancy have biggest effects on ovarian cancer risk
27.10.2011 | Press monitoring
Taking the Pill for 10 years can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by almost half (45 per cent), new research part-funded by Cancer Research UK shows today. Overall, women who took the Pill for any length of time had an approximately 15 per cent lower risk of ovarian cancer than those who never took it at all - and the risk reduced further in...
Biologists learn how plants synthesize their growth hormone auxin
26.10.2011 | Press monitoring
Biologists at the University of California (UC), San Diego have succeeded in unraveling, for the first time, the complete chain of biochemical reactions that controls the synthesis of auxin, the hormone that regulates nearly all aspects of plant growth and development. "The main reason that auxin biosynthesis mechanisms had evaded scientists is...
Biggest Ever Study Shows No Link Between Mobile Phone Use and Tumors
25.10.2011 | Press monitoring
There is no link between long-term use of mobile phones and tumours of the brain or central nervous system, finds new research published online in the British Medical Journal. In what is described as the largest study on the subject to date, Danish researchers found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised among 358,403 mobile phone...
Can Aromatherapy Produce Harmful Indoor Air Pollutants?
24.10.2011 | Press monitoring
Spas that offer massage therapy using fragrant essential oils, called aromatherapy, may have elevated levels of potentially harmful indoor air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ultrafine particles. Fragrant essential oils, derived from plants, may release various VOCs into the air. VOC degradation caused by the reaction of...
Better nutrition makes for better sperm
21.10.2011 | Press monitoring
A pair of studies presented today at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) show a link between dietary patterns and semen parameters in men: in short, better nutrition makes for better semen. Adherence to a Prudent diet was associated with higher sperm motility. Sperm morphology showed no association...
IQ can rise or fall significantly during adolescence, brain scans confirm
20.10.2011 | Press monitoring
IQ, the standard measure of intelligence, can increase or fall significantly during our teenage years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust, and these changes are associated with changes to the structure of our brains. The findings may have implications for testing and streaming of children during their school years. However, in a...
