Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@social.cleverlibre.org

On this day in 1918: Ruth Sager born, pioneer of cytoplasmic genetics and research into tumour suppressor genes #WomenInBiotech #ThisDayInBiotech

Preterm births linked to 'hormone disruptor' chemicals
“grouping mothers based on the amount of DEHP metabolites in their urine, the 10% with the highest levels had a 50% increased risk of giving birth before week 37 of their pregnancy compared with the 10% with the lowest levels. Meanwhile, the risk for preterm birth was doubled for women exposed to the highest quantities of three common DEHP alternatives…compared with those who had little to no exposure”
#pregnancy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-preterm-births-linked-hormone-disruptor.html?utm_source=apple&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=apn

Like lovers of jigsaws, scientists can also be often found scrabbling around the floor trying to find some tiny piece that is vital to solving their puzzle/working equipment

"Base editing has arrived on the cellular immunotherapy scene, allowing the simultaneous manipulation of numerous genes—and bringing with it promising proof-of-concept data among the first patients who received the technology."

#Immunology #Immunotherapy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-023-02092-0

'Começam a faltar as palavras para descrever o funcionamento da FCT. Como se já não bastassem as taxas de aprovação infinitesimais dos projetos (apesar da contabilidade criativa usada para dourar a pílula), colossal desperdício de recursos de vária ordem, impera a navegação à vista, a desorganização e a desconsideração pelas horas de trabalho e pela vida dos milhares de cientistas, muitos deles com contratos a terminar e outros a tentar encontrar uma solução para o futuro próximo que, de forma mais ou menos direta, dela dependem.'

https://www.publico.pt/2024/02/04/opiniao/opiniao/afinal-serve-fundacao-ciencia-tecnologia-2078580

"For thousands of years, Parsi communities, first in Persia and later in India, placed their deceased on squat stone structures called Towers of Silence, in a practice known as sky burial. Historically, in places like Mumbai, vultures disposed of the bodies—but, in the nineties, the vultures stopped showing up."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-nepal/consider-the-vulture

"Se espreitarmos os objectivos curriculares até ao 9.º ano, apenas aparece uma dezena de menções à teoria da evolução de Charles Darwin (e suas ramificações) – as bases da selecção natural e da adaptação ao ambiente que explicam a sobrevivência e a evolução das espécies. Portugal não é caso único. Em boa parte da Europa, as aprendizagens essenciais dos anos comuns a todos os alunos não contemplam a explicação dos mecanismos evolutivos (como a deriva genética ou os processos de selecção natural), nem como a evolução está presente no dia-a-dia (desde a preservação de espécies em extinção à covid-19)."

https://www.publico.pt/2024/02/05/ciencia/noticia/evolucao-darwin-relegada-segundo-plano-escolas-portugal-europa-2079070

From the Grauniad

UK cancer patients forced to go private while King Charles begins treatment

As NHS targets are being missed nearly 300,000 people paid for chemotherapy in last five years

Well it is good to see we are all in it together

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/07/hundreds-of-thousands-of-uk-cancer-patients-forced-to-pay-for-private-treatment

#Cancer #NHS #RoyalFamily

mercredi, c'est atelier dessin.
Fotografia de Miró por Ida Kar, intervenida por Rrose Sélaby
#photography

In Slate, I wrote about yet another problem due to car bloat:

Researchers found that SUVs and pickups have grown so huge that they can destroy highway guardrails.

Taxpayers are on the hook for fixes that could cost billions.

Add it to the list of societal challenges worsened by oversized cars (pedestrian deaths, climate change, unaffordable mobility, highway erosion...).

https://slate.com/business/2024/02/car-safety-guardrails-bloat-electric-vehicles.html

#cars #highways #suvs

'Although @WHO declared an 'end' to the COVID public health emergency in May 2023, the organization emphasized that the pandemic isn’t over, it’s just entered an endemic phase, meaning that the virus will continue to circulate indefinitely.' @meghanbartels
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rampant-covid-poses-new-challenges-in-the-fifth-year-of-the-pandemic/

"Nearly 15% of Americans deny climate change is real, AI study finds"

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-americans-deny-climate-real-ai.html

"Using social media data and artificial intelligence, a new University of Michigan-led study reveals that nearly 15% of Americans deny that climate change is real.#

#climatechange

Which sex is more sensitive against heat stress? Probably it is male, and probably that is true. But, quite likely it is only half of the whole story.

We tested the impact of heat on the fertility of hermaphroditic snails. Since they are male and female at the same time, we can compare the effects of heat on both sex functions in same snails. We found both sexes are affected, and more severe in male function.

#fertility #heat #snail #hermaphrodite #ClimateChange

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231287

#MultisensoryPerception changes as we get older, but how? @samuel_a_jones &co use multivariate #fMRI to show that older adults recruit similar brain regions, but increase activations in some of these regions to preserve performance #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/4923V6I

Get the latest research articles from our journals, direct to your inbox. Sign up for content alerts at https://journals.biologists.com/my-account/alerts
#biology #biologicalsciences #researchpaper #journals #scienceresearch #researcharticle

Postdoc to develop tools to image and manipulate cancer cell chromosomes.

UCSF, Cell and Tissue Biology

Join us as a postdoc at #UCSF to develop cool tools and advanced microscopy to mess with chromosomes in cells.

See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/ucsf-cell-and-tissue-biology-27778-postdoc-to-develop-tools-to-ima...
https://jobrxiv.org/job/ucsf-cell-and-tissue-biology-27778-postdoc-to-develop-tools-to-image-and-manipulate-cancer-cell-chromosomes/?feed_id=71154