Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

You probably hadn’t noticed, but the head shape and overall size of rodents has been changing over the past century. University of Illinois at Chicago ecologist Oliver Pergams has tied these changes to human population density and climate change.

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Scientists are racing to arm Afghanistan against a new invader — a deadly, airborne wheat rust disease that threatens wheat production and food security in this war-torn nation and the region that stretches east across neighboring Pakistan and into India.

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Patients with cystic fibrosis usually experience significant muscle loss, a symptom traditionally considered to be a secondary complication of the devastating genetic disease. However, a recent study by Dr. Basil Petrof reverses the equation: his results show that muscle atrophy and weakness may be a primary symptom caused by the effects of CFTR gene mutations on the muscle itself. Dr. Petrof’s findings will be published on July 31 in Public Library of Science — Genetics.

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Short-term complications and death rates were low following bariatric surgery to limit the amount of food that can enter the stomach, decrease absorption of food or both, according to the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS-1). The study was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Nine-year-olds can and should learn CPR. A study of 147 schoolchildren, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical Care, has shown that, although the smallest may lack the requisite strength, the knowledge of how to perform basic life support is well retained by young children.

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A study of almost 25,000 coronary artery bypass graft patients has shown that receiving blood from another person is associated with a two-fold increase in post-operative infection rates. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, also found considerable hospital variation in transfusion practices.

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The effects of amphetamines on gene expression in zebrafish have been uncovered. This new study, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Genome Biology, provides clues to the genetics that underlie susceptibility to addiction by describing the nad zebrafish mutant, which does not feel the rewarding effects of the drugs.

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Chronic kidney disease can significantly lessen patients’ quality of life, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology. Certain types of patients — women, diabetics, and those with a history of heart complications — are most affected. These findings indicate that medical care for CKD patients should include strategies to lessen the negative impact of CKD on quality of life.

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A new approach to statistical analysis may be better suited to study the relationship between higher “dose” of dialysis and survival time for patients with advanced kidney disease, according to an upcoming paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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Bing-Cheng Wang, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor of pharmacology and senior staff scientist at MetroHealth Medical Center, and Sudha K. Iyengar, Ph.D. professor of genetic and molecular epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, have discovered the first gene associated with the formation of age-related cataracts, a leading causes of blindness.

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