Common allergens (such as dust mite and grass pollen) and viruses may act together to exacerbate asthma, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.

Sixty patients (aged 17 to 50) admitted to hospital over a year with acute asthma were matched with two controls: patients with stable asthma and patients admitted to hospital with non-respiratory diseases (inpatient controls). Skin tests for dust mite, cat, dog, and grass allergens were performed on all patients.

A significantly higher propo

Results of a Dutch study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how a male genital disorder could be more common among boys born to mothers who were prenatally exposed to a synthetic hormone withdrawn in the late 1970s.

The drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) was previously prescribed to prevent spontaneous abortion and preterm delivery. DES was withdrawn in the 1970s when it became clear that it was associated with vaginal cancer and fertility disorders in women who were exposed to the drug

A US randomised trial in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggests that vitamin C and E supplementation could be of clinical benefit in delaying the onset of arteriosclerosis in the first year after heart transplantation.

Around 70% of patients develop arteriosclerosis within three years after heart transplantation, which is thought to be associated with oxidant stress. James Fang and colleagues from Brigham and Women`s Hospital, Boston, USA, proposed that treatment with antioxidant vitamins

A tiny measurement system that incorporates a lens as thick as two human hairs has been developed by researchers to investigate the force exerted on the wall of an artery as blood whooshes past. In a research paper published today in the Institute of Physics publication Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Dr Rob Keynton and colleagues at the University of Louisville, Kentucky and Michigan Technological University, USA describe how they have designed and made an integrated miniature acous

A computational trick that stops imaginary knots collapsing could help us understand how to unravel a loop of DNA or reveal the true nature of elementary particles, research published today suggests.

In the New Journal of Physics, published jointly by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society, Phoebe Hoidn and Andrzej Stasiak of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Robert Kusner of the University of Massachusetts, USA, explore the mathematical complexities of particula

Friction pushes a spinning egg from horizontal to vertical.

Mathematicians have cracked the conundrum of the spinning egg. A hard-boiled egg spun on its side flips upright because of friction between the egg and the table, they calculate 1 .

The egg’s elevation appears paradoxical. Its centre of gravity moves up – making the system seem to be gaining energy.

In fact, spinning energy, translated into a horizontal force, pushes the egg upright, sa