A small study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress found what you likely knew, if you are old enough to remember when smoking was common; smoking made people thinner.

But the paper says people don't gain weight after while quitting because of oral smoking habits being replaced by eating ones, they speculate about an effect on levels of the hormone ghrelin (also known as the hunger hormone). 

Traditional efficacy trials have limited relevance to everyday clinical practice and should be changed, according the authors of a new study into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatments. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine details a new method of testing effectiveness of drugs which puts the patients' clinical experience at the heart of the process.

Human longevity has been previously linked by researchers to genetic factors, calorie restriction, and certain life-style factors such as physical activity or the Mediterranean diet. Now, Italian researchers from La Sapienza University in Rome have identified an additional factor, which significantly contributes to a longer life. In a pilot study on some of the oldest people of the world, they discovered that the perfusion of organs and muscles of the centenarians was as efficient as that in people who were 30 years younger. Results of the CIAO (Cilento Intitiative on Aging Outcome) pilot study, presented today in the Italian town of Pollica, suggest that low blood levels of the peptide hormone Adrenomedullin (bio-ADM) are an indicator for such a good microcirculation.

Gino Bolla was an Italian scientist and the head of the Silicon Detector Facility at Fermilab. And he was a friend and a colleague. He died yesterday in a home accident. Below I remember him by recalling some good times together. Read at your own risk. 

Dear Gino,

   news of your accident reach me as I am about to board a flight in Athens, headed back home after a conference in Greece. Like all unfiltered, free media, Facebook can be quite cruel as a means of delivering this kind of information, goddamnit.

“Never put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear” is something we’ve been wisely cautioned against at some stage or another. But more of us are ignoring this advice.

We use in-the-ear-headphones to listen to music, car keys and hair pins to scratch that particularly unpleasant itch, and hearing aids to enable better communication.

Many of us also use disposable foam earplugs to protect from damaging noises in the workplace, or to block the noise of snoring partners, loud traffic outside bedroom windows, dogs barking and any other bothersome sounds that prevent a good night’s sleep.

Zen cooking according to the teachings of the master-less monk Feng Sa Sha (风洒沙, Wind Sprinkling Sand) is, unsurprising perhaps when considering the radical fundamentality of Zen, not only the most inexpensive and easy as well as perhaps most importantly, great tasting of all cooking, but moreover it is the most healthy and wholesome diet – no surprise that it is consistent with and full of good science.

 

A peptide and its receptors work to regulate auxin response and control leaf tooth growth in plants.

The plant hormone auxin has been known to take part in the development of leaf teeth, but the exact mechanism of their formation has been a mystery up till now. In this study, the research group has found that a peptide called EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR-LIKE 2 (EPFL2) and its receptor protein, ERECTA family receptor kinases, control the amount of auxin during leaf tooth growth. In plant leaves where the EPFL2 peptide is inactive, the leaf becomes round without teeth.

COLUMBIA, SC - Antibiotic treatment within the first year of life may wipe out more than an unwanted infection: exposure to the drugs is associated with an increase in food allergy diagnosis, new research from the University of South Carolina suggests.

With nearly sixty percent of American adults now taking prescription medications--from antidepressants to cholesterol treatments--there is growing concern about how many drugs are flowing through wastewater treatment facilities and into rivers and lakes. Research confirms that pharmaceutical pollution can cause damage to fish and other ecological problems--and may pose risks to human health too.

Scientists have assumed that people flushing their unused medications down the drain or toilet was a major source of these drugs in the water.

But a new first-of-its-kind study tells a different story.

Scientists have revealed molecular differences between how the African and Asian strains of Zika virus infect neural progenitor cells.

The results could provide insights into the Zika virus' recent emergence as a global health emergency, and also point to inhibitors of the protein p53 as potential leads for drugs that could protect brain cells from cell death.

The findings, from the Emory/Johns Hopkins/Florida State team that showed this spring that neural progenitor cells are particularly vulnerable to Zika infection, were published in Nucleic Acid Research. The paper was also posted on BioRxiv before publication.