Medical Daily
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Danger Lurking in Your Tank: “Disturbing” Number of Pet Fish Carry Deadly Superbug That Can Infect Humans
People who keep tropical fish in tanks at home or at work may be at risk from bacterial infections and life-threatening disease, according to a new study.
Scientists from Oregon State University found that a “disturbing” number of ornamental tropical fish in the U.S. are already resistant to antibiotics.
Modern Medicine Has Roots in 2,200-Year-Old Tuscan Shipwreck
We like to believe that modern medicine is a drastic improvement over the methods employed by ancient civilization. In fact, in many ways, modern medicine is a huge step up, since we no longer perform lobotomies, use leeches, and have lead in our beauty products. However, the finding of a shipwreck discovered off the coast of Tuscany indicates that our ancestors also knew a thing or two about medicine. Ingredients found in treatments that would have been used to soothe sore eyes are some of the same ones that we still use today.
Breast Milk Contains Over 700 Bacterial Species
It is well-known that breastfeeding gives infants nutrients. However, for the first time Spanish researchers created a map of the bacterial microbiota in new mothers’ breast milk. They found that, on average, women’s breast milk contains about 700 bacterial species.
Researchers had previously been well-aware that mothers’ breast milk is instrumental in creating a baby’s bacterial flora, or the unique bacterial community that exists in each person. However, until this study, it was not known what types of species existed in breast milk and what exactly their role was.
Panda Blood May Hold Potent Assailant Against Superbugs
Pandas have long been the face of conservation efforts by environmental activists, but a recent finding may boost even further the need for pandas to evade extinction. Researchers have discovered a powerful antibody in panda blood that could serve as the next frontier in the fight against increasingly prevalent superbugs.
The compound is called cathelicin-AM. Discovered when researchers analyzed the creatures’ DNA, it has been found to kill fungus and bacteria. It is believed that the antibiotic is released to protect the animal from infections in the wild and, in studies, it has been found to kill both standard and drug-resistant strains of microbes and fungi. The compound also worked extremely quickly, killing off strains of bacteria in just an hour, while conventional antibiotics needed six.
Human Cloning Will Be Possible Within 50 Years, Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Claims
Sir John Gurdon, the British developmental biologist whose research cloning frogs in the 1950s and 60s led to the later creation of Dolly the sheep in 1996, believes that human cloning could happen within the next 50 years.
He said that parents who lose their children to tragic accidents might be able to clone replacements in the next few decades.
Gurdon, who won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, said that while any attempts to clone a human would likely raise complex ethical issues, he believes that in the near future people would overcome their concerns if cloning became medically useful.
Scientists Make Life-Saving Injectable Foam to Fight Soldiers’ Internal Bleeding
The military has set its sights on a group of scientists working on powerful injectable foam designed to temporarily limit internal bleeding of soldiers wounded on the battlefield. Experts say that if the expanding foam technology proves successful in trials, it may also be used to save the lives of many civilians injured in serious accidents far from a medical facility.
The foam is made of two different liquids. Once the liquids are injected into the body, they mix, expand and harden to create an internal dressing.
Researchers Create Contact Lens With LCD Display
Call it your future eye phone.
Contact lenses that display information have long been a trope in science fiction. However, science is one step closer toward making that a reality. Researchers from Ghent University in Belgium have developed a way to convert contact lenses into LCD screens that can project information. The technology could rapidly change medicine and even cosmetics.
Dogs Are Able to Sniff Out Lung Cancer
Fido isn’t just man’s best friend - he’s also a cancer-sniffing machine. That’s the finding of one study conducted in Austria, which says that dogs are able to successfully sniff out lung cancer.
The test tasked dogs with sniffing out lung cancer from 120 breath samples. The researchers found that dogs were 70 percent successful at identifying which samples belonged to patients with lung cancer and which did not.
Could a Newly Developed RNA-Based Vaccine Offer Lifelong Protection From Flu?
A new experimental flu vaccine made out of mRNA that may work for life is now being developed.
Researchers said that the vaccine, made of the genetic material that controls the production of proteins, protected animals against influenza and, unlike traditional vaccines, it may work for life and can potentially be manufactured quickly enough to stop a pandemic.
Researchers explain that the current vaccines on the market work by instructing our immune systems to recognize two virus proteins called HA and NA. However, the problem is that these two proteins are constantly evolving, which is essentially why new vaccines are always needed.
Researchers believe that the secret for the everlasting vaccine against the multiple flu virus strains is to target something that never changes…
Startlingly Accurate Test Predicts How Long You’ve Left to Live
If you could find out exactly how long you have left to live, would you want to know?
A blood test could show you just that - and it is terrifyingly accurate.
Telomeres are located at the end of chromosomes. Each time that a cell replicates itself, the telomeres became shorter and shorter until they snap off. The length of telomeres should indicate how long you have left to live if you were to die of natural causes.
Telomeres have long been believed to be linked to the age of death and can be thought of as internal clocks. Tests are even on the market right now; a test in the United Kingdom can be bought for £400, or about $640.
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