We often hear about people being “in the zone” when they have excelled, be it at sport, playing music, video gaming, or going for a run. For decades, researchers have tried to find out what the zone is and how to enter it. And the assumption has been that there is one zone that we […]
Closing the gap for vision: Good progress made but still a way to go
University of Melbourne public health leader and ophthalmologist, Professor Hugh Taylor said 2020 has presented additional challenges with COVID-19 leading to reduced access to eye screening, examination and surgery, all resulting in greater backlogs and patient waitlists. On the plus side, COVID-19 has led to a shift in the provision of soap, washing facilities and […]
Scent-sensing cells have a better way to fight influenza
Influenza researchers have long focused most of their efforts on the epithelial cells lining the lungs because these are the cells that become infected and killed while producing new copies of the virus. But other cells lining the upper airways are exposed to viruses in the same amounts and somehow aren’t as likely to be […]
New way to analyze fMRI data offers path to improving treatment for schizophrenia
Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have developed tools to improve the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Tülay Adali, professor of computer science and electrical engineering and director of UMBC’s Machine Learning for Signal Processing Lab, and Qunfang Long, a Ph.D. candidate at UMBC in electrical engineering, have spearheaded […]
Healthier food can contain more contaminants – but there’s a simple way to stay safe
A recent study found that brown and organic rice sold in the UK tends to contain significantly more arsenic than white inorganic varieties that are often considered less healthy. Arsenic is found in many foods but can be especially concentrated in rice, particularly in the husk, which is removed to produce white rice but retained […]
Way too many Americans have gargled with bleach, sprayed their bodies with disinfectants to prevent COVID-19
Nearly 4 in 10 American adults reported engaging in dangerous cleaning practices to prevent COVID-19, such as washing food with bleach, using household disinfecting products on their skin or intentionally inhaling vapors from cleaning products, according to a recent survey. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) follows an earlier study […]
WHO warns ‘long way to go’ in coronavirus crisis
The global coronavirus crisis will not end any time soon, with many countries still in the early stages of the fight, health experts have warned as researchers revealed the first US deaths from the disease came weeks before the alarm was raised there. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 180,000 people and infected more […]
Manipulating cell death signaling after radiation could offer a new way to treat cancers
Cancer cells avoid an immune system attack after radiation by commandeering a cell signaling pathway that helps dying cells avoid triggering an immune response, a new study led by UTSW scientists suggests. The findings, published in a recent issue of Nature Immunology, could eventually lead to new ways to augment existing treatments to fight this […]