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GAINESVILLE, Florida (KXAN) — Did you ever wonder where butterflies came from? A recently published research paper has revealed a surprising origin: North and Central America.

The paper, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, examined DNA from nearly 2,300 species of butterfly. The team used the data to develop a family tree and track down where the species came from.

Turns out, butterflies evolved from nocturnal moths around 101.4 million years ago.

Knowing that you’ve inherited genetic mutations that increase the risk of cancer can help you catch the disease earlier, and if diagnosed, choose the most effective treatments. But despite guidelines that recommend genetic testing for the majority of cancer patients, far too few are tested, according to new research by Stanford Medicine scientists and collaborators.

Among more than a million patients with cancer, only 6.8% underwent germline genetic testing — an analysis of inherited genes — within two years of diagnosis, according to the study published June 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The rates were particularly low among Asian, Black and Hispanic patients.

Continue reading “Few patients receive recommended genetic testing after cancer diagnosis” »

The microbe Akkermansia muciniphila is found in many animals and is a common part of the human gut microbiome; three to five percent of all the microbes found in human stool are A. muciniphila. This bacterium has been found to degrade mucin, a major component of mucus. This can pose a problem for people who are receiving chemotherapy. Higher levels of A. muciniphila have also been linked to an increase in symptoms of nausea during pregnancy. But this microbe may have many important and beneficial impacts too; it has also been connected to a lower risk of metabolic disease, and abnormal levels of the microbe have been associated with immune dysfunction, neurological disease, and other disorders.

There is still a lot to learn about A muciniphila, such as what its genes do. About one-third of its genome encodes for proteins with unknown functions. Scientists have now used molecular techniques to reveal the genes in A. muciniphila that might be related to its growth in the gut, how it uses mucin, and how is related to the production of cholesterol. The findings have been reported in Nature Microbiology.

Vitamin D supplements may reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks among people aged over 60, finds a clinical trial published by The BMJ.

The researchers stress that the absolute risk difference was small, but say this is the largest trial of its kind to date, and further evaluation is warranted, particularly in people taking statins or other cardiovascular disease drugs.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels and is one of the main causes of death globally. CVD events such as heart attacks and strokes are set to increase as populations continue to age and chronic diseases become more common.

Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-biorisk.
This video was made possible through a grant by Open Philanthropy.
Check out the biorisk career guide from 80,000 hours:
https://80000hours.org/kurz-bio.
Find the Map of Evolution and other fascinating infographic posters on the kurzgesagt shop here: kgs.link/shop-179

A breathtaking scientific revolution is taking place – biotechnology has been progressing at stunning speed, giving us the tools to eventually gain control over biology. On the one hand solving the deadliest diseases while also creating viruses more dangerous than nuclear bombs, able to devastate humanity.

Continue reading “The Most Dangerous Weapon is NOT Nuclear” »

Computers are built around logic: performing mathematical operations using circuits. Logic is built around things such as Adders—not the snake; the basic circuit that adds together two numbers. This is as true of today’s microprocessors as all those going back to the very beginning of computing history. You could go back to an abacus and find that, at some fundamental level, it does the same thing as your shiny gaming PC. It’s just much, much less capable.

Nowadays, processors can do a lot of mathematical calculations using any number of complex circuits in a single clock. And a lot more than just add two numbers together, too. But to get to your shiny new gaming CPU, there has been a process of iterating on the classical computers that came before, going back centuries.

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Continue reading “Metabolite Ratios As An Index Of Oxidative Stress” »

AG mednet’s abraham gutman on harnessing AI in medical imaging.

Abraham gutman speaks at national cancer institute medical imaging workshop.

Scientists discovered Fanzor proteins, which work like CRISPR but are smaller and more easily delivered into cells, and used them to edit human DNA.