New research in mice suggests that chronic infection with intestinal worms indirectly reduces the number of cells in lymph nodes near the skin, inhibiting the immune system's response to the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine for tuberculosis. Xiaogang Feng of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues present these findings in PLOS Pathogens.
Many people worldwide receive...
Limiting warming to 1.5 degree C would save majority of global species from climate change
Limiting global warming to 1.5oC would save the vast majority of the world's plant and animal species from climate change -- according to new research led by the University of East Anglia.
A new report published today in Science reveals that limiting warming to the ultimate goal of the Paris Agreement would avoid half the risks...
More than a living syringe: Mosquito saliva alone triggers unexpected immune response
Mosquito season is around the corner, bringing with it a higher risk of catching potentially serious diseases transmitted by their bite. Mosquitoes also may increase the severity of the diseases they transmit, and researchers think that mosquito saliva plays an active role in this process. A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has...
How Nagana is carried by tsetse flies
Researchers at the University of Bristol have revealed new details on how the animal disease Nagana is spread by tsetse flies in Africa.
When animals are bitten by bloodsucking tsetse flies, they don't just get a painful bite, as the flies may be carrying a cargo of deadly microbes, trypanosomes.
These microbes are squirted into the skin...
New Zealand has its own population of blue whales
A group of blue whales that frequent the South Taranaki Bight (STB) between the North and South islands of New Zealand appears to be part of a local population that is genetically distinct from other blue whales in the Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean, a new study has found.
The whales show a high level of...
After 60 years, Isle Royale continues world's longest predator-prey study
Researchers from Michigan Technological University have released the annual Winter Study report detailing updates on the ecology of Isle Royale National Park. For the third year in a row, the Isle Royale wolf population remains a mere two, while the moose population continues to stay above the historic average. Without the pressure of predation, the...