All Subjects

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis wanted to find out the reasons behind inflammation in diabetics, which is an underlying cause of various problems such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney problems, and so on. To understand what causes inflammation, the researchers genetically altered mice that were incapable of producing the enzyme for fatty acid synthase in immune cells called macrophages. Read more about their research here.

To understand behavioral responses of animals to fast and slow rise in temperature, researchers at the University of California - Santa Barbara conducted a study on fruit fly larvae. They found that a quick rise in temperature to 25 degrees stimulated a writhing response in the larvae. On the contrary, upon a gradual increase to the same temperature fewer larvae exhibited responses and the average threshold for bearing higher temperature was high. Read more about their research here.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham conducted a study that found that high levels of cortisol, also known as the 'stress hormone', in the hair of women who were undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) were associated with about a third less chance of conceiving. Read more about their research here.

Many people use Internet or app-based symptom checkers to make self-diagnosis. To understand whether physicians are better at making diagnoses than symptom checkers, researchers at Harvard Medical School conducted a study that included 234 internal medicine physicians. Read more about their research here.

Those who campaign for the use of empirical research to drive public policy design and implementation should be reminded of the difficulties inherent in the task. A case in point would be to consider two recent papers that are well thought out, are based on plausible theory, and have sound research design but reach the exact opposite conclusions. Read more about these two studies here.

Cosmologists’ standard model of the universe assumes that the universe expands identically in all directions. A team of researchers at the University College London and Imperial College London proved this theory to be correct by studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is the Big Bang’s remnant radiation. Read more about their research here.

Sucralose is the choice of no-calorie sweetener for those who wish to keep their weight in check. However, many people have raised questions about how safe it is to consume sucralose and whether it is carcinogenic. To understand the impact of sucralose on the human body, researchers at the University of London reviewed existing studies that assessed sucralose carcinogenicity potential. Read more about their study here. 

A recent paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives by Cowen and Tabarrok examines the various questionable approaches used in defense of continued government support of grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) towards economic research. The authors acknowledge that there is a positive externality justification for public sector support of scientific research. The authors also go on to raise uncomfortable questions regarding the marginal value of NSF funding when there is significant institutional support for economic research. Read more about this here.

Contrary to popular belief that eggs from small local enterprises are safer than those produced commercially, researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences found that eggs from small flocks of birds are more likely to carry Salmonella enteritidis. Read more about their research here.

Do some mosquitoes prefer to feed on animals rather than humans? To understand if there is a genetic basis to the host preference, researchers at the Vector Genetics Lab at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine sequenced the genomes of 23 human-fed and 25 cattle-fed mosquitoes, which they collected indoors and outdoors from Tanzania’s Kilobero Valley. Read more about their research here.