More than 20 million babies were born with a low birthweight (less than 2500g; 5.5 pounds) in 2015 — around one in seven of all births worldwide. Almost three-quarters of these babies were born in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where data are most limited. However, the problem also remains substantial in high-income countries in…
MIT researchers have designed a way to generate, at room temperature, more single photons for carrying quantum information. The design, they say, holds promise for the development of practical quantum computers. Quantum emitters generate photons that can be detected one at a time. Consumer quantum computers and devices could potentially leverage certain properties of those…
India in 2015 had more deaths among children under five than any other country and had large disparities in the under-five mortality rate between richer and poorer states, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the study, published May 13 in The Lancet Global Health,…
Researchers have built a more efficient, more reliable potassium-oxygen battery, a step toward a potential solution for energy storage on the nation’s power grid and longer-lasting batteries in cell phones and laptops. In a study published Friday in the journal Batteries and Supercaps, researchers from The Ohio State University detailed their findings centering around the…
Wildfires can have dramatic impacts on Western landscapes and communities, but human values determine whether the changes caused by fire are desired or dreaded. This is the simple — but often overlooked — message from a collaborative team of 23 researchers led by University of Montana faculty in a study published in the May issue…
Compared to patients who see their primary care doctor earlier in the day, cancer screening rates decline significantly as the day goes on, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School both of the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers, whose findings were published today in JAMA…
A new Michigan State University study adds to growing evidence that participating in recreational sports not only can help improve grades while attending college, but it also can help students return for another year. Among nearly 1,800 recent freshmen at MSU, students who played intramural sports averaged a 3.25 grade point average at the end…
A toxic protein linked to Huntington’s disease can move from neuron to neuron through a nanotube tunnel whose construction is initiated by a protein called Rhes, say scientists at Scripps Research. The finding, by Scripps Research neuroscientist Srinivasa Subramaniam, PhD, improves understanding of how and why this disease attacks and destroys certain brain cells. The…
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease. The defense system that usually protects patients from external aggression turns on its own cells and attacks them for reasons that are not yet known. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have shown that ancient viruses are involved in the acute inflammatory defense response that may contribute to the…
Some risk factors for osteoporosis such as being older and female or having a family history of the condition cannot be avoided. But others can, like smoking cigarettes, consuming alcohol, taking certain medications, or being exposed to environmental pollutants. But until now researchers haven’t gained a firm picture of how these exposures link up with…