Conceiving within a year of stillbirth is common and is not associated with increased risk of stillbirth, preterm birth, or small-for-gestational-age birth in the following pregnancy, compared with an interpregnancy interval of at least two years. The results are from the first large-scale observational study to investigate the interval between stillbirth and subsequent pregnancy, including…
Almost all land plants employ an army of editors who correct errors in their genetic information. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now transferred parts of this machinery into a bacterium. Their results confirm a controversial thesis on the functioning of this widespread mechanism. They have now been published in the journal Communications Biology…
Princeton University researchers are gaining new insights into the causes and characteristics of diseases by harnessing machine learning to analyze molecular patterns across hundreds of diseases simultaneously. Demonstrating a new tool now available to researchers worldwide, the team of computer scientists and biologists has already uncovered and experimentally confirmed previously unknown contributions of four genes…
A meta-analysis of multiple studies into the genetic background of Tourette’s syndrome (TS) — a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by chronic involuntary motor and vocal tics — finds that variants in hundreds of genes, working in combination, contribute to the development of the syndrome and suggests that Tourette’s is part of a continuous spectrum of tic…
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) report a unipolar n-type transistor with a world-leading electron mobility performance of up to 7.16 cm2 V-1 s-1. This achievement heralds an exciting future for organic electronics, including the development of innovative flexible displays and wearable technologies. Researchers worldwide are on the hunt for novel materials that…
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrate that this fundamental process of transduction of energy — heat, applied to a material, generates light — can be achieved in pure solid materials of millimeter or centimeter size. In general, chemiluminescence reactions are only known to be possible in solution (a process that, for example,…
A new generation of pesticides can be used to control pest insects by compromising the bug’s ability to create essential proteins. These gene-silencing pesticides can be genetically engineered into agricultural crops such that these crops can literally grow their own defense. New research from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis…
Despite its key importance, the genetic architecture of adaptive processes remains largely unresolved. Now a team of researchers, experimenting with fruit flies, has succeeded in solving at least a part of this puzzle. They were able to show that many genes can contribute to adaptation even though only some of them are actually being used…
Pregnancy can be a time of uncertainty for expecting mothers and their clinical care teams. Nearly 10 percent of births are preterm, taking place before 37 weeks gestation. Preterm birth can result from several conditions, including preterm labor, preterm rupture of the placental membrane, or preeclampsia. Mothers who have previously had preterm deliveries are considered…
Noise-cancelling headphones have become a popular accessory for frequent flyers. By analyzing the background frequencies produced by an airplane in flight and generating an “anti-noise” sound wave that is perfectly out of phase, such headphones eliminate disturbing background sounds. Although the headphones can’t do anything about the cramped seating, they can make watching a film…