Isolated tribes have unique gut bacteria
It seems that our comfortable modern lifestyles may have gutted our microbiomes.
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It seems that our comfortable modern lifestyles may have gutted our microbiomes.
There are 21 million people living with diabetes in the U.S., six million of whom take insulin. Although insulin has been used as the life-saving drug of choice to control diabetes for nearly 100 years, generic insulin has yet to be seen on the market.
The Japanese believe that everyone has a “reason for being,” or “ikigai.” In Japanese culture, searching for one’s ikigai is regarded as very important, as the discovery of one’s ikigai is believed to bring meaning, direction and satisfaction to life. In fact, National Geographic writer Dan Buettner theorizes that one of the main reasons Okinawans are among the longest-lived people on the planet is because they have a high sense of ikigai.
The inner workings of tuberculosis — historically known as “consumption” and the “White Plague” — have remained shrouded in mystery since antiquity. However, tuberculosis’s estimated 5000-year reign of terror may soon be grinding to a halt. A recent study has discovered more about how our bodies react to bacteria that causes the disease.
2014 saw the deadliest and most widespread Ebola epidemic in history. It was the first to occur in West Africa as well as the first and only Ebola outbreak ever to reach epidemic proportions. The epidemic began in Guinea in December 2013 and soon spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as to other West African nations. As of Feb. 3, a total of 9,019 deaths due to this epidemic of Ebola have occurred with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia bearing the overwhelming majority of the disease’s burden.
At some point or another, everyone has wondered how long he or she will live. Although obtaining a completely definite and reliable answer is essentially impossible, a recent study shows that your close friends may be able to provide a fairly accurate assessment of your life expectancy.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an average of 18 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant. Instead of relying solely on people to donate organs to recipients, imagine if scientists could construct the necessary organs using readily available materials. Fortunately, this science fiction fantasy may soon become a viable reality for patients who require heart transplants.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Countries often aim to present the best version of themselves to the world when hosting major international events. Some countries have taken drastic measures to ensure that visitors see as much of the nation’s good side and as little of its bad side as possible.
Just as the severity of the Ebola epidemic has varied from country to country, the severity of the disease when contracted varies from person to person. Some people who contract the virus are able to completely resist the disease; some suffer varying severities of illness and eventually recover, while others succumb to internal bleeding, organ failure and death. A new study led by systems biologists and virologists Angela Rasmussen and Michael Katze at the University of Washington Department of Microbiology suggests that genetic factors may cause the wide range of responses to the Ebola virus.
In developed nations home births, or “natural births,” are a growing trend among middle-class moms-to-be who choose not to give birth in a hospital. However, in many areas of developing nations, poor rural women have no choice but to give birth at home, often with adverse medical consequences. Researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) found that more than one quarter of all women in rural Bangladesh experienced complications during pregnancy and/or childbirth.
Given a choice between a sugary beverage and water, would you still drink the sugary beverage if you knew how many miles you would have to walk in order to burn off the calories?
“What happens to us after we die?” This question has bewildered mankind since the dawn of human civilization. In attempting to find an answer, mythological traditions and major religions have arisen.
It is hard to fathom that animals as complex as humans evolved from tiny microscopic organisms. A recent fossil discovery may provide more insights into how exactly the evolution from single-celled forms of life into the intricate life forms alive today happened.
Contrary to what many Hopkins students seem to believe, a good night’s sleep is essential for optimal physical, mental and emotional functioning. Despite the recognized importance of sleep, the brain structures responsible for sleep regulation are still relatively unfamiliar territory. However, several research pioneers have started blazing the trail into the wilderness of the neuroscience of sleep.
While binging on Twinkies, picking up daddies at the playground and drinking up all your money may not constitute constructive life decisions, Tove Lo might be on to something in her 2014 single “Stay High,” in which she documents her experiences of, well, getting high.
Just like Miley Cyrus came in like a wrecking ball, cancer often comes in the same way, wanting only to break your walls. Although Miley never hit so hard in love, cancer has been hitting the human body hard since the beginning of time. But a year and a day after Miley closed her eyes and swung, a team of researchers published a study online in Genome Medicine that could leave cancer cells crashing in a blazing fall and lamenting “all you ever did was wreck me; yeah, you, you wreck me!”
Modern human energy consumption can be compared to Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster. Just like Cookie Monster is always hungry for cookies, humans are always hungry for energy. Since Cookie Monster eats more and more cookies everyday, eventually, all the cookies will be gone. Likewise, as nonrenewable energy sources are quickly being depleted in nearly every corner of the world, scientists across the globe have been hunting for new materials and methods to generate clean and sustainable energy from renewable resources.
It is certainly more difficult to make foods from scratch than to purchase their ready-to-eat counterparts. Creating pancake batter and then grilling them to the perfect golden-brown requires a lot more effort than popping a couple of frozen pancakes in the toaster. Squeezing fresh oranges to make orange juice takes more energy than pouring a glass of orange juice from concentrate.
Walk around the periphery of the Hopkins campus on any Friday or Saturday night, and you are likely to see flocks of underclassmen scurrying into one of many fraternity houses. For most of these students, their mission upon arriving at their destination is simple: obtain and consume alcohol.