A team of astronomers led by Tomoharu Oka, a professor at Keio University in Japan, has found an enigmatic gas cloud, called CO-0.40-0.22, only 200 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. What makes CO-0.40-0.22 unusual is its surprisingly wide velocity dispersion: the cloud contains gas with a very wide range of speeds. The team found this mysterious feature with two radio telescopes, the Nobeyama 45-m Telescope in Japan and the ASTE Telescope in Chile, both operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

A new study from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, shows lesions, which can best be seen on MRI scans, could help identify individuals who are more likely to suffer from more rapidly progressing osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the UK and can cause the joints to become painful and stiff. Almost any joint can be affected, but it most often causes problems in the knees, hips, and small joints of the hands. It can progress at varying speeds.

Occupational exposure to textile dust is associated with a more than doubling in the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, finds research published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

And it is also linked to a heightened risk of genetic susceptibility to the risk of developing antibodies to rheumatoid arthritis, known as ACPA, which hasten progression of the disease.

This is the first time that such associations have been identified, say the researchers.

The researchers base their findings on 910 Malaysian women who had been diagnosed with early stage rheumatoid arthritis and 910 women of similar age, but free of the disease.

Spending time in close contact with others often means risking catching germs and getting sick. But being sociable may also help transmit beneficial microbes, finds a multi-institutional study of gut microbiomes in chimpanzees.

Researchers based at The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University, The University of California, Berkeley and other institutions monitored changes in the gut microbes and social behavior of wild chimpanzees. Their research -- linked to a population of chimpanzees studied over eight years in Gombe National Park, Tanzania -- found that the number of bacteria species in each chimp's GI tract increases when the chimps are more gregarious.

The results help scientists better understand the factors that maintain a healthy gut microbiome.

The fatal shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, set off a national wave of dialogue and protests, from the streets to social media, as people nation­wide grappled with myriad complex issues, including police use of force, race relations in America, and criminal justice reform.

Now, new research from two Northeastern University professors shows that in the days following Brown's shooting, everyday citizens--not politicians, celebrities, or other prominent public figures--were the ones who, using Twitter, shaped the national conversation. African Americans with close ties to the Ferguson area, they found, played a particularly influential role on the day of the incident.

Researchers from the Cancer Research Center of Toulouse have conducted the first comprehensive review on dendrogenin A (DDA). DDA is a steroidal alkaloid arising from cholesterol and histamine cross-metabolization that they recently discovered. Importantly, they found that DDA is a tumor suppressor metabolite. Thus 100 years after the discovery of all-trans-retinoic acid, DDA appears as a rare example human metabolite promised to extensive basic research studies and clinical developments.

There is a growing demand for fruit and vegetables across the Western world, thanks to increased awareness of their nutritional and health benefits. But we’ve always been taught they might not be safe to eat straight out of the supermarket, and they have to be washed first. Is this the case? And what might happen if we don’t?

Amid the many calls for scientists to engage with the general public, there are some who feel that scientists ought to remain aloof and disconnected from the broader public.

They believe academics shouldn’t even attempt to communicate their research to common folk. And many scientists oblige them, by writing in a turgid manner that is highly effective at keeping the public (and their peers) at bay.

So, here are a few of the tricks that scientists use to produce such turgid science writing. These methods restrict science to the smallest and most specialist audience possible.

Imagine a virus so serious the government recommends that women stop getting pregnant.

It exists, and it is now in Brazil, which is a big concern as the Olympics approaches. The Zika virus, native to parts of Africa and Asia, has been spreading locally among people who have not traveled abroad. There is no vaccine against the virus or antiviral treatment.

Zika is generally a mild illness, spread by a day-biting mosquito. However, there is a worrisome, but as of yet unproven, association of infected mothers in Brazil giving birth to babies with small heads and underdeveloped brains, Dr. Khan said. There has been a 20-fold increase in the number of babies born with this condition, known as microcephaly, since Zika first appeared in Brazil in May 2015.

Meeting patients' preferences for the time and place of their psychological treatment may affect their perception of treatment outcome, a cross-sectional survey by researchers from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Imperial College London involving 14,587 respondents suggests.