News

Phage imbalances may disrupt wastewater treatment

In findings published this year in Water Research X, scientists from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology report that viruses may pose a previously unrecognized threat to some of our most important tamed species: The bacteria in our wastewater treatment plants. A healthy wastewater treatment plant teems with tireless but benign prokaryotes. By devouring all the let’s-call-it-food in household and industrial effluent, they leave nothing left for harmful bacteria to grow on. Bacteriophages and other factors Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

Taking out macrophages allows the immune system to target tumors

According to findings published earlier this month in Cancer Immunology Research, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report a new means of counteracting therapeutic resistance in cancer cells: Take out their goons. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells can be made to target the tumor-associated macrophages that protect cancer cells from the rest of the immune system. CAR T cells have been used to treat cancer before, but always by targeting Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

Community organizations outperform hospitals in COVID-19 awareness

Findings of a study out of Rutgers University show that while thinking globally has its place, acting locally may be more effective in the Black and Latino communities of the Garden State, at least when it comes to educating the public about how to access free COVID-19 testing. The research team focused on COVID-19 testing and awareness in four New Jersey Black and Latino communities from May through December 2021. They compared the level of Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

New study challenges Neanderthal non-carnivory

According to a study published Monday in PNAS, a team led by Klevia Jaouen of CNRS found that the Neanderthals of what is now Spain may not have been the plant-eating peninsulars that other studies suggest. Earlier research teams examined the dental tartar of preserved Neanderthal teeth, and their findings suggested a heavily plant-based if not entirely vegetarian diet. The present work examined a single tooth from a Neanderthal who lived at the Gabasa site. Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

Pain in the gut may be part of a protective cycle

In findings published October 14 in Cell, researchers from Harvard Medical School report that physical pain may do more than alert the conscious mind to injury. It may provide some of humanity’s most important partners, our symbiotic gut bacteria, with the environment they need to help us thrive. The researchers raised a group of laboratory mice without pain neurons and discovered that they also suffered from dysregulation of both the production of mucus along the Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

Breathe in air pollution and pack on the pounds

We have come a long way since the 3500 calories = 1 lb of fat conventional wisdom of the 1990s fitness fads, but one thing remains the same: What goes into your body does matter …it just might not get there through your mouth. Researchers from the University of Michican School of Public Health led by reported in Diabetes Care that fine-particle air pollution may be a factor in the obesity epidemic. Scientists led by Read more…

By D Flynn, ago

D. Flynn

Precise, board-certified proofreader and editor with 12+ years of experience. Specialties include scientific editing, AMA Style, APA Style, AP Style, curriculum development, K-12, manuscript development, copy editing, line editing. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION Board of Editors in the Life Sciences, Certified Editor SECURITY CLEARANCE Public trust EDUCATION and AWARDS Degrees: New York University – New York, NY                                       Master of Arts, World History                                          Columbia University – New York, NY                                       Bachelor of Arts,Biological Sciences Continuing Education: Intro to business, Read more…

By D Flynn, ago