Stem cells from umbilical cord blood can be used to help treat adult blood cancers, but few individual cord blood samples contain enough of the cells for a transplant. Now new research provides strategies for controlling and enhancing the growth of these stem cells, which means that more donated samples can be used for transplants, […]
Category: Paper of Interest
Mapping the meaning of words in the brain
Researchers have mapped out how meanings of words are represented in the human brain. Researchers collected MRI data from seven participants while they listened to over 2 hours of stories on a radio show called The Moth Radio Hour. They found that information about the meaning of language is distributed broadly across over 100 distinct […]
High death rate among previously incarcerated Canadians 
Individuals who have been incarcerated have an overall shorter life expectancy than the average Canadian, as well as a far greater likelihood of dying due to an overdose. Authors of a new Canadian study believe the consistently high death rate, both while in custody and after release, suggests this is not simply a result of […]
The use and abuse of Accutane among pregnant Canadians
The potent acne medication Accutane, also known as isotretinoin, is being used by pregnant women despite the risks the drug poses to a developing fetus as well as increasing the likelihood of miscarriage. The authors of a new study believe this shows Canada’s program that aims to prevent pregnancy in women using Accutane is not effective. […]
Expanding Canadian HPV vaccination program to boys
Expanding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs to include males in Canada will help protect them against HPV-related cancers. Authors of a new Canadian analysis explain that it’s important for policy-makers to recognize that HPV can cause cancer in males as well as females, but current vaccination programs in Canada don’t address these risks. HPV is […]
Mysteries of the chameleon’s amazing tongue, revealed
The chameleon’s tongue is one of nature’s wonders – it relies on a highly specialised structure that allows it to extend to twice the length of its owner’s body while unravelling telescopically, all rapidly enough to catch passing insects. Now, US and UK scientists have built a mathematical model that explains the mechanics of the […]
The global health map of Indigenous communities
The health of about half of the world’s Indigenous peoples – 28 populations in 23 countries from the Arctic through to Oceania – have been mapped out in a recent study out of Australia. This global health map includes Indigenous peoples from Africa, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Thailand, Myanmar, the Americas, Scandinavia, Circumpolar Russia, Greenland, […]
This is why you feel groggy after sleeping in a new place
When sleeping in an unfamiliar environment, half of your brain doesn’t really sleep. Instead, that hemisphere stays awake to “guard” against potential threats. In a new study, researchers from Brown University monitored the brain activity of 35 people in a sleep lab over the course of two nights. The first night sleeping in the new […]
Tweet louder, I can’t hear you: Highway noise disrupts information transfer between bird species
Communication between birds is disrupted near major roadways, where the noise levels are unnaturally high. According to new research from University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, this avian communication breakdown may help explain the pattern of reduced biodiversity near highways. Authors of the new study were curious about how building homes in […]
Dinosaur population doomed millions of years before the asteroid
The dinosaurs were on their way out before the asteroid hit, researchers say. It seems the big lizards’ numbers were gradually declining for at least 40 million years before the final extinction event. This decrease in dinosaur population likely favoured the rise of mammals, which began flourishing in ecological niches previously occupied by dinosaurs. Using […]
Warmer labs for mice make for more accurate cancer research results
New research shows that keeping laboratory mice warmer could mean more realistic results in cancer research studies. Lab temperatures are often 4-10 degrees colder that the toasty 30 degrees Celsius preferred by mice. Authors of a new study out of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, suggest the mice use more energy to […]
Mingling lab and pet store mice helps mimic human-like immune system
Letting lab mice mix with their pet-store cousins may help future research by better mimicking adult human immune systems, according to the results of a new study. Normally, adult lab mice live in abnormally clean environments, which means their immune systems rarely get exposed to different types of bacteria and viruses. Mice in a pet […]
A missing piece in the North American monkey puzzle
Fossilized monkey teeth, found during the expansion of the Panama Canal, suggest that monkeys arrived in Central and North America much earlier than previously thought. Researchers believed that monkeys did not reach Central America until a strip of land between North and South America, called the Isthmus of Panama, formed 3.5 million years ago. But […]
Ancestors of modern birds saved by seeds
The secret of survival for bird-like dinosaurs was simple: eating seeds. The reason behind the survival of the ancestors of modern birds has puzzled researchers for years, and a recent Canadian study of fossil dinosaur teeth may have provided the answer. According to a new hypothesis from dinosaur specialists at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur […]
Palliative care viewed as a stigma, despite improving quality of life
Canadians with cancer and their caregivers, associate “palliative care” with impending death, and consequently are not taking advantage of the benefits early palliative care can bring to a patients’ quality of life, according to the authors of a new study. Originally, in the 1960s, palliative care referred to end-of-life care, mainly for cancer patients. The […]
New research on the Zika virus
Further evidence is linking the Zika virus to fetal brain damage and now to serious neurological disease in adults. In the first paper researchers performed brain scans on 23 babies born to mothers thought to be infected with Zika. The scans revealed a majority of the babies had severe brain malformation and scar-like lesions […]
