News by Subject Medicine & Health

Millions of sperm enter the race to fertilize, but only one wins the sprint to the egg. Now Yale researchers have discovered that these winning sperm possess a few key molecular characteristics that differentiate them from those left behind, they report Dec. 1 in the journal eLife.

One of world's earliest examples of art, the enigmatic `Venus' figurines carved some 30,000 years ago, have intrigued and puzzled scientists for nearly two centuries. Now a researcher from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus believes he's gathered enough evidence to solve the mystery behind these curious totems.

Having children doesn't just make you feel like you've aged overnight -- a new study led by Penn State researchers found that the number of times a person gives birth may also affect the body's physical aging process.

Why do some people age faster than others? A new UCLA-led study indicates that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological aging later in life. A second UCLA-led study from the same research group found that women suffering from high stress during the months and even years before conception -- defined as feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope -- had shorter pregnancies than other women.

MSK researchers have uncovered an important finding about the relationship between the microbiota and the immune system, showing for the first time that the concentration of different types of immune cells in the blood changes in relation to the presence of different bacterial strains in the gut.

Laboratory research and analysis of epidemiological data by Silvia Corvera, MD, and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, and colleagues show that low levels of a protein commonly seen in screening tests for chromosomal disorders during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with adipose tissue remodeling, glucose resistance and gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnant women.

Plastics in the ocean can release chemicals that cause deformities in sea urchin larvae, new research shows.