Volcanic hazards aren't limited to eruptions, debris landslides can also cause a great deal of damage and loss of life. 

Stratovolcanoes, with their steep, conical shapes made up of lava and unconsolidated mixed materials, can reach a critical point of instability when they overgrow their flanks. This leads to partial collapse, and the product of this slope failure is a large-scale, rapid mass movement known as a catastrophic landslide or debris avalanche. 

Results from a clinical trial show that high doses of the corticosteroid fluticasone propionate safely and effectively induce remission in many people with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a chronic inflammatory disease of the esophagus characterized by high levels of white blood cells called eosinophils. However, some trial participants did not respond to fluticasone even after six months of high-dose treatments, providing evidence that certain people with EoE are steroid-resistant.

In the last few months, pop star Selena Gomez and actress Kristen Johnston have said they struggle with lupus, bringing new attention to the autoimmune disease.

They join a list of celebrities such as R&B singer Toni Braxton, Nick Cannon, host of “America’s Got Talent” and Seal, who has a form of the disease that caused the infamous scars on his face. Even Lady Gaga claimed she tested “borderline positive” for lupus.

But while people may be familiar with who has it, many do not know what it actually is.


Selena Gomez. Credit: North Shore LIJ

A new image-based strategy helps identify and measure placebo effects in randomized clinical trials for brain disorders. 

The U.S. Department of Energy has given the green light to the LUX-Zeplin (LZ) experiment, which wants to help figure out dark matter, an invisible substance that must make up a lot more of the universe than visible matter does. It is essentially a scientific placeholder because whatever it is should explain a number of important behaviors of the universe, including the structural integrity of galaxies. 

A study out today says has confirmed a link between antipsychotic medication and a measurable, decrease in brain volume in patients with schizophrenia.

The research say this is the first time research has been able to examine whether this decrease is harmful for patients' cognitive function and symptoms, and noted that over a nine year follow-up, this decrease did not appear to have any effect.

As we age, our brains naturally lose some of their volume – in other words, brain cells and connections. This process, known as atrophy, typically begins in our thirties and continues into old age. Researchers have known for some time that patients with schizophrenia lose brain volume at a faster rate than healthy individuals, though the reason why is unclear.

Spanish scientists did an experiment using obese rats and found that the consumption of probiotics over 30 days (equivalent to almost four years in human terms) helped diminish the accumulation of fat in the liver.

It's uncommon to identify a new species of mammal these days, but four new species of Ctenomys, a genus of gopher-like mammal commonly called tuco-tucos and found throughout much of South America, have been identified.

Tuco-tucos are burrowing rodents ranging from 7 to 12 inches long and weighing less than a pound. They demonstrate the broad range of biological diversity in the lowlands and central valleys of Bolivia, where all four new species were found.

It's a common trope among Hollywood celebrities; media is alarmed at weight gain, celebrity says they are proud of their body, they feel better than ever, people clap, celebrity appears two months later and lost 25 lbs. and is on magazine covers with diet tips and talking about how much better they feel.

Celebrities are externally driven and they add external motivations to boost their willpower, what about people who can't afford personal chefs and trainers? What about regular people who are already demoralized? An intervention program aimed at helping obese women maintain their weight also had the benefit of significantly reducing depression in nearly half the participants, according to a new study.

We all understand light has a wide electromagnetic spectrum and we only see a small band of that. In physics terms, that is between 400 - 700 nanometers and they show up as colors,from violet to red.

We can't see in the ultraviolet radiation spectrum because it is a shorter wavelength than what we can detect - violet - which is why it's in the name, and we can't see infrared because its wavelength is longer than red, which is why the name is infrared.