The Ebola outbreak has brought the fear of a viral pandemic to the headlines once more, as it happened before with the avian or swine flu. Although viruses-caused infections catch most of attention on the media, the greatest risk to human health comes from other microorganisms, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Contrary to viral outbreaks, the threat […]
It is possible that we know more about the cause of skin cancer than about any other type of cancer. The link between sun exposure (UV radiation) and the development of skin cancer is solidly established. And yet, the incidence of this disease is increasing year after year with a steepest slope than any other […]
That the so-called “Mediterranean diet” is good to keep a healthy heart is well known. However, how the eating habits of this population help them to stay healthy is not fully understood yet. Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK have investigated the effect of lycopene , the substance that gives the red […]
… if you want to want to be alive. The rock band Wilco already said it back in 2002 when they released the much-acclaimed album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This simple statement found in one of the songs of that LP was able to summarise the paradoxical essence of life: death. But leaving any philosophical meaning […]
A human body harbors around 37 trillion [1012] cells that came from a single fertilized egg by a process known as mitotic division or mitosis. While the first cellular divisions of an embryo occur without gaining mass, most of the following ones are linked to cell growth and are required for the correct development and […]
Biochemistry • Biomedicine • Molecular biology • Neurobiology
Natural selection has been sculpturing living organisms for millions of years, enabling them to get adapted to an ever-changing environment. Gradually, certain traits are selected over others based on the advantage they confer to the population. Natural selection is not a random process and it relies on genetic variation. Random mutations serve as the substrate […]
Few weeks ago, a new report by WHO reveals that antibiotic resistance is now a major threat to global public health: “ the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era ”. One of the priorities is the treatment of urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli strains isolated from several countries and which are resistant […]
Advances in the knowledge of the molecular basis of life have provided some of the most impressive and certain proofs to the notion that all organisms on Earth form part of a unique and ancient lineage. One of the most typical examples is the fact that the molecular machinery regulating the biochemical processes common to […]
Tuberculosis (TB) represents a serious public health problem. The latest reports estimate an incidence of 8.7 million cases in 2001 and over 1.4 million deaths per year. The disease is usually be treated with a first-line drugs, isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent anti-tuberculosis agents. However, the prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis cause by […]
With most of the conferences scheduled between June and October, beginning of the year brings with few novelties in robotics. During this time, roboticists must wait and wonder what the advances and “hot research topics” will be in their respective fields. Most likely, this year too one of those “hot” areas will be robotic insertion […]