In recent years, the use of nanomaterials for water treatment, food packaging, pesticides, cosmetics and other industries has increased. Such particles, like silver nanoparticles deployed as a pesticide, are used to suppress the growth of harmful microorganisms. The increased use has led to concerns that these toxic particles could end up in food designed for human consumption. One study showed that artificial silver nanoparticles from polyethylene films destined for package of such foods as ...

Brains are built over time, from the bottom up. The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Early experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health and behavior that follow. In the first few years of life, 700 new neural connections are formed every second. After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are...

Up to thirty percent of the rain that falls in tropical forests is water that the rainforest has recycled into the atmosphere. Water evaporates from the soil and vegetation, condenses into clouds, and falls again as rain in a perpetual self-watering cycle. In addition to maintaining tropical rainfall, the evaporation cools the Earth’s surface. In many computer models of future climate, replacing tropical forests with a landscape of pasture and crops creates a drier, hotter climate in the tropics...

OBJECTIVES: Stress and anxiety-related problems are some of the most common and costly behavioral health problems in society. For those working in operational environments (i.e., astronauts, flight controllers, military), stress and anxiety-related problems before, during, or after missions can seriously compromise efficiency, safety, and performance. To address behavioral health issues like stress, it is important to maximize the privacy, validity, and acceptability of the training and counter...

A variety of large-scale medical studies are being conducted in space by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study, in which astronauts (including former ISS Commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. Usually there is no physician on board the International Spa...

Dynamic light scattering technology, which was developed at the NASA's Glenn Research Center to protect the health of astronauts, can be used in simple noninvasive eye examinations to diagnose health problems long before clinical symptoms appear. The technology uses light to look into the eye as a "window to the body." It works because, for every tissue type in the body, there is a corresponding tissue type in the human eye. By measuring subtle changes in the tissues, fluids, and blood vess...

According to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey, male bass are experiencing sex changes due to chemicals that are found in most waterways across Northeast National Wildlife Refuges. Studies have found that up to 85% of male smallmouth bass in the region are demonstrating "characteristics of the opposite sex" – including eggs being located where testes should be. This isn't a one off – in fact, 27% of largemouth bass in the same region also show undesirable sex change indications. M...

When you stroll through your front door in the morning, does the yellow haze coating the porch send you leaping back into the house? Can the mere word "pollen" make you start to sniffle, sneeze and reach for the tissue to blow your nose? If you answered "yes" to these questions, you're probably one of millions of people in the United States suffering from hay fever. Pollen can do more, however, than just make you sneeze. If you have asthma, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonar...

Using new, high-resolution global satellite maps of air quality indicators, NASA scientists tracked air pollution trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. The findings were presented Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. "These changes in air quality patterns aren't random," said Bryan Duncan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Mary...

Scientists have successfully cultivated a range of human body structures, similar structures that have been successfully tested in animals, and small-scale human organs known as "organoids," which are used to study human organ function and structure at a level of detail that was previously impossible. Using stem cells, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin grew the innermost cellular layer of human fallopian tubes, the structures that connect the ovaries and...

High school student Judith Miles Skylab experiment with Keith Demorest and Henry Floyd, both of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In her experiment, called "Web Formation in Zero Gravity," spiders were released into a box and their actions recorded to determine how well they adapted to the absence of gravity. The experiment flew aboard the Skylab 3 mission and proved that spiders could still spin webs in microgravity. The experiement was designed to measure motor response, an indicat...

Long-duration storage has a more significant impact on the nutritional value of space foods than does spaceflight, a NASA study has found. Results of the study point to the need to develop different packaging or other means to increase the shelf life of nutrients in the space food system for future multiyear exploration missions. These findings also highlight the importance of minimizing the time from food production to crew consumption. The status of certain vitamins in the human body is alt...

Astronaut Scott Kelly Grew 2 Inches in Space and Aged Less Than People on Earth Image Credit: NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly Grew 2 Inches in Space and Aged Less Than People on Earth After 340 days on the International Space Station, Scott Kelly grew 2 inches taller than his twin brother who spent the time on Earth, CNBC reports. Gaining a couple inches is pretty common among astronauts who spend a significant amount of time in space. That's because the microgravity environment allows room ...

Telomere-lengthening procedure turns clock back years in human cells Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a new procedure to increase the length of human telomeres. This increases the number of times cells are able to divide, essentially making the cells many years younger. This not only has useful applications for laboratory work, but may point the way to treating various age-related disorders – or even muscular dystrophy. The role of telomeres and telo...

Gene Therapy for Diseases Gene Therapy has made important medical advances in less than two decades. Within this short time span, it has moved from the conceptual stage to technology development and laboratory research to clinical translational trials for a variety of deadly diseases. Among the most notable advancements are the following: Gene Therapy for Genetic Disorders Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (ADA-SCID) ADA-SCID is also known as the bubble boy disease. Affected children are b...

The first gene identified for graying hair has been discovered by an international UCL-led study, confirming graying has a genetic component and is not just environmental. Published today in Nature Communications, the study analyzed a population of over 6,000 people with varied ancestry across Latin America to identify new genes associated with hair color, graying, density and shape - i.e. straight or curly. "We already know several genes involved in balding and hair color but this is the ...