A study of about 50,000 pregnant women has shown that the integrated test for Down’s syndrome offers a “significantly higher” level of safety than the screening available to most women in the UK. The study, which will be reported in the June Journal of Medical Screening, was carried out by Professor Nicholas Wald and colleagues at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and University College Hospital. Their report also shows that the integrated test is best in terms of efficacy and cost.

Warnings about methylmercury contaminated fish are not just for young children and expectant mothers, according to new research published today in Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source. Adults who regularly eat contaminated fish could find that their concentration, dexterity and verbal memory are impaired.

The major source of methylmercury is diet, particularly large fish like shark and swordfish. The authors of this new research concluded: “methylmercury exposure at levels of

In a clinical trial conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago, researchers have demonstrated the first promising drug treatment for a common and life-threatening sleep disorder called sleep apnea.

The drug, an antidepressant called mirtazapine, significantly reduced the symptoms of sleep apnea. It cut in half the number of times breathing stopped or slowed during sleep and reduced the number of times sleep was disrupted by 28 percent. All 12 patients who participated in the study s

A diabetes epidemic that appears to have claimed the life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach may explain baffling disparities in the disease’s rates among 21st-century ethnic groups, a UCLA geographer and evolutionary biologist says in the current issue of Nature.

Aside from speculating that many people may carry genes that predispose them to diabetes, researchers have been at loss to explain why, for instance, only 2 percent of Europeans contract the disease as opposed to 13 percent of

Technology is bringing precision agriculture one-step closer to widespread use

USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists at the George E. Brown, Jr. Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California, have developed general guidelines for soil mapping using mobile equipment. This advanced technology is valuable for looking at changes in soil quality over time; including the presence of pollutants such as salts, pesticides, and fertilizers; and for use in precision agriculture to determine

Neurons transmit chemical signals in a fleeting “kiss-and-run” process, which in large part determines how quickly neurons can fire, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.

The transfer of information between nerve cells occurs when chemicals called neurotransmitters are released into the synapse, the junction between neurons. Electrical impulses in the neuron cause tiny vesicles loaded with neurotransmitters to move to the tip of the nerve terminal where th