The latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, published today in The Lancet, forecast that global life expectancy will increase by 4.9 years in males and 4.2 years in females between 2022 and 2050. Increases are expected to be largest in countries where life expectancy is lower, contributing to a convergence…
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Better medical record-keeping needed to fight antibiotic overuse
A lack of detailed record-keeping in clinics and emergency departments may be getting in the way of reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotics, a pair of new studies by a pair of University of Michigan physicians and their colleagues suggests. In one of the studies, about 10% of children and 35% of adults who got…
Physicists propose path to faster, more flexible robots
In a May 15 paper released in the journal Physical Review Letters, Virginia Tech physicists revealed a microscopic phenomenon that could greatly improve the performance of soft devices, such as agile flexible robots or microscopic capsules for drug delivery. The paper, written by doctoral candidate Chinmay Katke, assistant professor C. Nadir Kaplan, and co-author Peter…
Otters, especially females, use tools to survive a changing world
Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools — most of whom are female — are able to eat larger prey and reduce tooth damage when their preferred prey becomes depleted. The study researchers and…
How did sabre-toothed tigers acquire their long upper canine teeth?
In a groundbreaking study, an international team led by scientists from the University of Liège has investigated the evolutionary patterns behind the development of sabre teeth, with some unexpected results along the way. A study that enriches our understanding of the Earth’s past, but also documents the mechanisms leading to evolutionary convergence. Sabre teeth, those…
Infertility treatment doubles the risk of postpartum heart disease
A study by Rutgers Health experts of more than 31 million hospital records shows that infertility treatment patients were twice as likely as those who conceived naturally to be hospitalized with heart disease in the year after delivery. Patients who underwent infertility were particularly likely — 2.16 times as likely as those who conceived naturally…
Final dust settles slowly in the deep sea
‘Dust clouds’ at the bottom of the deep sea, that will be created by deep-sea mining activities, descend at a short distance for the biggest part. That is shown by PhD research of NIOZ marine geologist Sabine Haalboom, on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Yet, a small portion of the stirred-up bottom material remains…
90% of Floridians believe climate change is happening
The latest edition of Florida Atlantic University’s “Florida Climate Resilience Survey,” found that 90% of Floridians believe that climate change is happening. In comparison, a recent Yale University survey showed 72% of all Americans believe climate change is happening. The FAU survey includes questions on beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather events and…
Virtual reality becomes more engaging when designers use cinematic tools
Cinematography techniques can significantly increase user engagement with virtual environments and, in particular, the aesthetic appeal of what users see in virtual reality. This was the result of a recent study conducted by computer scientists at the University of Helsinki. The results were published in May at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing…
Insights into protein evolution | ScienceDaily
Rice University’s Peter Wolynes and his research team have unveiled a breakthrough in understanding how specific genetic sequences, known as pseudogenes, evolve. Their paper was published May 13 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Led by Wolynes, the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science, professor of chemistry, biosciences and physics and astronomy…