Author Archives: Science Media Centre
expert reaction to study comparing low-fat and low-carb diets and body fat loss
Publishing in the journal Cell Metabolism, a group of researchers has described their work into the differences between diets which are low in fat or those which are low in carbohydrates. They report that in the 19 obese people which they studied both diets resulted in loss of body fat, but that this loss was greater in the low fat diet. read more
expert reaction to study investigating improving IVF success rates for women aged 43 and above
Attempting to investigate possible reasons for the decline in pregnancy rates for older women who undergo IVF, a team of researchers have published their work in the Journal of Endocrinology. In a specific type of cell which surrounds the egg they report the expression of several genes to be different between older and younger women, and also that this cell type replicated less frequently in older women. read more
expert reaction to review investigating the effects of trans unsaturated fats and saturated fats on health
Exactly how much of different types of nutrients should be part of our diets is the focus of much research, advice and controversy. Publishing in the BMJ, a group has investigated the effects of saturated and unsaturated fats and they report that total trans unsaturated fat intake was associated with increased mortality and death from coronary heart disease, while this was not the case for saturated fats. read more
expert reaction to claims that using frozen eggs for IVF, rather than fresh eggs, is associated with lower live birth rates
Publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a group of researchers has compared the use of eggs which are “fresh” with those with are frozen before IVF, and report that IVF cycles which used fresh eggs were associated with a higher rate of live births. read more
expert reaction to study looking at iodine supplementation in pregnancy and estimated health care cost savings
A team of researchers, writing in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, have examined the cost effectiveness of iodine supplementation compared to no supplementation in pregnant women, who are mildly to moderately iodine deficient. They report that iodine supplementation for pregnant women in the UK is potentially cost saving. read more
expert reaction to Scottish government announcement on ban of GM crops
The Scottish government has announced that it is to ban the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops. read more
expert reaction to two papers reporting having converted skin cells into neurons using chemicals
Two independent labs in China have claimed to be successful in transforming skin cells into neurons using only a chemical approach. Both sets of findings have been published in Cell Stem Cell, with one study using human cells* from healthy individuals and Alzheimer’s patients, and the other using mouse cells‡. read more
expert reaction to study investigating consumption of spicy food and risk of death
Writing in the BMJ, a group of researchers have published their work into possible associations between consumption of spicy food and mortality in a Chinese population, reporting that those who regularly ate spicy food had a lower risk of death. read more
expert reaction to study reporting potential clinical biomarker associated with breast cancer risk
It is becoming increasingly clear that genes can be turned on and off by having different molecular tags added or removed; these epigenetic changes allow fine tuning of the DNA code. In a paper published in the journal Clinical Epigenetics, a group of scientists has studied one such epigenetic change in several hundred women in relation to breast cancer and reported that high levels of it were related to lower levels of breast cancer. read more
expert reaction to study investigating young fatherhood and likelihood of death in midlife
Publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, a team of researchers has investigated a possible connection between age of fatherhood and mortality using data from the 1950 Finnish census, reporting that younger fathers (under 25) had higher mortality than men who had children later in life. read more
expert reaction to impact of negative emissions technology on climate change
Strategies involving negative emissions, or the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, have been suggested as a way of mitigating the effects of climate change. Publishing in the journal Nature Communications, a team of scientists has concluded that based on their reported estimates, the development of such technologies should be accelerated and be central to climate policy. read more
expert reaction to carbon dioxide removal won’t reverse ocean acidification
Publishing in the journal Nature Climate Change, a group of researchers have modeled the effects of strategies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and report that in their systems such strategies would still leave long term negative effects on oceans in terms of pH and temperature. read more
expert reaction to trial results of VSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine in Guinea
Writing in The Lancet journal, a research team has published the results of a trial of an Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Merck, reporting 100% efficacy. read more
expert reaction to Lancet series of reviews on impacts of nuclear disasters, around the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The health effects and lessons learnt from nuclear disasters is the subject of three papers published in The Lancet. The papers report that survivors of such events have an increased risk of developing negative physical, psychological and social effects including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder. The papers concludethat physicians should receive training in how to deal with nuclear disasters, in order for them to provide decision aids to protect workers, vulnerable people and residents following a disaster. read more
expert reaction to potential wreckage from flight MH370
Debris from an aircraft thought to be a Boeing 777 has been found on an island in the Indian Ocean, and has been transported to France for testing as to whether it may be from the flight MH370 which went missing in March 2014. read more
expert reaction to Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)
In a paper published in The Ageing Male journal, a team of researchers have worked to establish the effect of different testosterone treatments on a group of men. The paper reports that different testosterone preparations appeared equally safe over long time periods, with either no change or improvement of cardiovascular risk factors observed in the patients. read more
expert reaction to study investigating switching off street lights, levels of crime and numbers of car crashes
The effects that different strategies for lighting streets at night (such as partial, dimmer or no lighting) might have on crime and car crashes is the subject of a paper published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, in which the authors report that there was little evidence for harmful effects due to changes in lighting. read more
radiotherapy – present and future
Polls show that the public do not recognise radiotherapy as a modern form of cancer therapy, and many would describe it as ‘frightening’. Yet radiotherapy is one of the most effective cancer treatments available, and a staggering array of new developments should allow radiotherapy to become increasingly personalised to individual cancer patients. Major advances, such as Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), proton therapy, Cyberknife technology and research combining radiotherapy with MRI imaging, viral therapy, and chemotherapy, promise to revolutionise radiotherapy in the future. read more
expert reaction to premature babies and personality disorders
In a paper published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal, a group of researchers have investigated a possible link between babies who were born very early or with a much lower than average weight, and different personality traits. The authors report that adults who were in either of those categories were more likely to display features of introversion, autism and neuroticism as well as lower risk taking. read more