biology

"Sex segregation directly harms many intersex and transgender athletes and would-be athletes. But, these policies also harm many cisgender people who do not see a place for themselves in certain sports because they sense and are told by parents, peers, teachers, and coaches that they do not measure up to the normative masculinities and femininities that we attach to those sports. … [T]he material evidence of binary sex is not always visible, measurable, or stable over time."

"The plasma membrane is a heterogeneous structure whose thickness ia around 75 Å and which bounds the cell. An important constituent is lipid, which often represents as much as 70% of the membrane volume (depending on cell type). The membrane lipid readily excludes the passage of ions; it remains for imbedded proteins to form the channels which permit exchange of ions between intracellular and extracellular space. For nerve and muscle, electrical activation is associated with the movement of sodium and potassium (and other) ions across membranes by means of these channels; the proteins not only facilitate the flow of each ion but they control the flow of each giving rise to the ' of the membrane."

"Waste biomass is a cheap and relatively abundant source of electrons for microbes capable of producing electrical current outside the cell. Rapidly developing microbial electrochemical technologies, such as microbial fuel cells, are part of a diverse platform of future sustainable energy and chemical production technologies. We review the key advances that will enable the use of exoelectrogenic microorganisms to generate biofuels, hydrogen gas, methane, and other valuable inorganic and organic chemicals. Moreover, we examine the key challenges for implementing these systems and compare them to similar renewable energy technologies. Although commercial development is already underway in several different applications, ranging from wastewater treatment to industrial chemical production, further research is needed regarding efficiency, scalability, system lifetimes, and reliability."

"… once a healthy cell sort of abandons ship and decides that it's going to just be, like, a ravenous, invasive cancer cell, its voltage changes radically. And what you can do with an ion channel drug is change the electrical state of that cell by messing with the ion channels. And in tadpole experiments — and this is early days, but this is moving really fast. In tadpole experiments, they were able to use ion channel drugs to keep cells that had been genetically engineered to be tumors from changing their electrical voltage, right? And without doing any kind of genetic mucking around, they kept these tumors from forming in tadpoles that had been genetically engineered to express tumors."

"Bioelectricity is about the electrical phenomena of life processes, and is a parallel to the medical subject electrophysiology. One basic mechanism is the energy consuming cell membrane ion pumps polarising a cell, and the action potential generated if the cell is excited and ion channels open. The dipolarisation process generates current flow also in the extracellular volume, which again results in measurable biopotential differences in the tissue. An important part of the subject is intracellular and extracellular single cell measurements with microelecroeds. Single neuron activity and signal transmission can be studied by recording potentials with multiple microelectrode arrays. In addition to measure on endogenic sources, bioelectricty also comprises the use of active stimulating current carrying (CC) electrodes. Since bioelectricity is about life processes the experiments are per definition in vivo or ex vivo."

"Since microorganisms play major roles in maintaining earth's life-support systems, we need to be especially careful about tinkering with decomposition and other recycling processes. ... What is needed now is a reasonable procedure for assessment at the ecosystem level that leans to the side of caution when there are a lot of unknowns. Accordingly, there is urgent need for increased support for research in environmental microbiology (that is, microbial ecology) and ecosystem science."

"Microbiology is a biologic science as well as an applied field of human or veterinary medicine. In consequence, its scope ranges from problems of molecular biology including biochemistry and pathology to those of human behavior and socioeconomics as they influence infection."

"Those scientists who grew up in the tradition of medical microbiology naturally knew that animal viruses should be treated as potentially dangerous. They could reassure themselves that animal virologists didn't have shorter life spans than the average, and Dulbecco and Stoker, for example, did their experiments on the open bench."

"Q: The moment in your special that really made me gasp out loud is when you joke about how you suffered a miscarriage before, and how you were secretly relieved because they were twins. Do you think that joke only works because the audience could see that you got pregnant again, so there is redemption to the loss?"

"Ali Wong: I think that’s part of it, for sure. But it really helped me when I had a miscarriage to talk to other women and hear that they’d been through it, too. It’s one thing to hear the statistics, but it’s another to put faces to the numbers so you stop feeling like it’s your fault. I think that’s one of the reasons women don’t tell people when they’ve had a miscarriage – they think it’s their fault. I remember I worried what my in-laws would think, which is so crazy. I thought they’d think their son had married a terrible person. Also, because I made the mistake of telling people as soon as I got pregnant, I then had to tell them the bad news, and then I felt like I was burdening them. So being able to joke about it was such a relief. Comedy only works when it comes from an honest place, and the relief that I’d miscarried twins was real!"

"The authors concluded: “Patients who have experienced miscarriage may benefit from further counselling by healthcare providers, identification of the cause, and revelations from friends and celebrities. Healthcare providers have an important role in assessing and educating all pregnant patients about known prenatal risk factors, diminishing concerns about unsubstantiated but prevalent myths and, among those who experience a miscarriage, acknowledging and dissuading feelings of guilt and shame.”"

"It is likely that an alternate mechanism exists in obesity that may be responsible for ‘biological super-fertility’ in obese women. Teklenburg et al.40 elegantly showed that the endometrial stromal cells transform into biological sensors of embryo quality upon decidualisation. There is a good body of evidence, from in vitro studies, to suggest that the inability of the peri‐implantation endometrium to mount an adequate decidual response impairs embryo recognition and selection upon implantation,34, 40, 41, 43, which leads to shorter TTP intervals and predisposes to RMC. This abnormal phenotype results in an extended window of implantation, which reduces the endometrial ability to be ‘selective’ in response to embryo quality.8 This concept is consistent with the previously reported association of late implantation of embryos with an increased risk of early miscarriage.44 The findings from our study may suggest that an obesogenic environment might have a negative influence on the peri‐implantation endometrium, which would predispose women to RMC."

"Miscarriage remains the most common complication of pregnancy despite many advances in the understanding of early pregnancy. Loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies before 24 weeks of gestation is the most accepted definition for recurrent miscarriage (RMC) in Europe, but has recently been defined by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine as a disease with two or more failed pregnancies. Despite best efforts to identify the underlying causes for RMC, it remains ‘unexplained’ in the majority of cases. Chromosomal errors appear to be common in the pre-implantation developing embryos6, 7, which predispose to increased risk of pregnancy losses. High rates of chromosomally abnormal cells within human embryos mean that the reproductive success is dependent on the endometrial ability to distinguish between normal and abnormal embryos. In vitro studies have provided convincing evidence that perturbation in the bio‐sensor function of the decidualised endometrium is an important mechanism underpinning RMC."

"Our study findings support the concept of ‘biological superfertility’ in women with RMC and present a unique finding that superfertility may be more prevalent in obese women with a history of RMC. Further prospective studies in women with idiopathic RMC are required to confirm the association of BMI, RMC and superfertility. If confirmed, further investigation is required to understand why obesity predisposes to superfertility. Superfertility may likely be linked to impaired endometrial development in the peri‐implantation period; further research to describe the peri‐implantation endometrium in obese women and to study the exact mechanism by which obesity affects the endometrium is required. Clinical trials with therapeutic targets to improve decidualisation and thus reproductive outcome in obese women could hold significant clinical potential."

"It is difficult to investigate very early miscarriages using prospectively collected exposure information, since the time period, in which collection of exposure information must take place, that is, the time from detection of pregnancy to the occurrence of an early miscarriage, is short."

"Only a few previous studies have investigated the association between exercise and miscarriage. The only study that clearly supports our findings is a cohort study, which concluded that self-reported physical strain around the time of implantation (days 6–9 after ovulation) was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage (HR 2.5, 95% CI = 1.3–4.6). In contrast, Latka et al found a reduced risk of miscarriage with no chromosome defect in women who exercised compared with those who did not (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–1.0). The case–control design was, however, based on a hypothesis that exercise cannot lead to chromosome aberrations in the fetus, as the control group consisted of women with miscarriages with chromosome aberrations. This assumption may be questioned since mode of action is unknown. In a small prospective study, Clapp found no statistically significant difference in risk of miscarriage between recreational runners (n = 49), aerobic dancers (n = 39) and a control group of active women, who had stopped exercising before the time of conception (n = 29). The study population was in excellent condition and had been exercising for years prior to the pregnancy, and the results may not be representative of the population at large. Two other studies have only investigated late miscarriages."

"Our study findings are supportive of the concept that increased female BMI may have a negative influence on the early pregnancy outcome. We found a significant positive correlation between the BMI and first-trimester pregnancy losses and anembryonic miscarriages. There were also significantly more first-trimester miscarriages in obese women than in normal-weight or overweight women with recurrent miscarriage."

"A significant number of the respondents were under misapprehensions as to what caused the loss of the pregnancy. Three-quarters believed that a stressful event could bring about a miscarriage, 64% thought that lifting a heavy object could be a cause, and a fifth that previous use of oral contraceptives could induce pregnancy loss."

"Fetus death risk reduction is included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, little is known about how missed abortion in the first trimester (MAFT) is related to maternal air pollution exposure. We quantify the link between air pollution exposure and MAFT in Beijing, China, a region with severe MAFT and air quality problems. We analyse the records of 255,668 pregnant women from 2009 to 2017 and contrast them with maternal exposure to air pollutants (particulate matter PM2.5, SO2, O3 and CO). We adjust for confounding factors such as sociodemographic characteristics, spatial autocorrelation and ambient temperature. We find that, for all four pollutants, an increased risk of MAFT is associated with rises in pollutant concentrations, and the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of these associations increase with higher concentrations. For example, the adjusted OR of MAFT risk for a 10.0 μg m−3 increase in SO2 exposure is between 1.29 and 1.41 at concentrations of 7.1–19.5 μg m−3; it drops to 1.17 below this range and rises to 1.52 above it at higher SO2 concentrations. This means that the risk increase is not linear but becomes more severe the higher the pollutant concentration. The findings provide evidence linking fetus disease burden and maternal air pollution exposure."

"We always write stories of tragedies because that's how we reach our human depth. How we get to the other side of it? We look at the cruelty, the darkness and horrific events that happened in our life, whether it be a miscarriage or a husband who is not faithful. Then you find this ability to transcend. And that is called the passion, like the passion of Christ. You could call this the passion of Frida Kahlo, in a way. When I talk about passion, and I'm not a religious person, but I absolutely am drawn and attracted to the power of religious art because it gets at that most extreme emotion of the human experience."

"In the existing body of literature, exercise during pregnancy has generally not been associated with miscarriage,17–19 and one case–control study has even reported a protective effect of exercise during pregnancy.20 In contrast, Hjollund et al.21 found an increased risk of early miscarriage among women who reported a high physical strain around the time of implantation of the embryo. Furthermore, lay people have tried to use excessive physical exercise as an abortifacient, and older literature mentions physical activity (e.g. jumping, running, and horseback riding) as a cause of miscarriage. Considering the relatively sparse literature and the somewhat inconsistent results, we wanted to examine the association between exercise during pregnancy and miscarriage in a large population-based cohort."

"A study that examined miscarriage type and fetal karyotypes in RMC women found that very early pregnancy losses (anembryonic and embryonic loss with embryo <3 mm) are more likely to be karyotypically normal, and embryonic miscarriage (with embryo ≥3 mm) and fetal demise to be karyotypically more likely abnormal.36 It is possible to speculate from our study findings that obesity is likely to be associated with an increased risk of first-trimester miscarriages and, in particular, increases the risk of miscarriage of anembryonic pregnancies, which are likely to be karyotypically normal. However, it remains uncertain whether BMI may have any significant effect on the embryo loss pattern, and further well‐controlled studies are required to analyse their association."

"Occupational studies included in this review found that several occupational and non-occupational factors influenced reproductive outcomes. Occupational factors involved included standing, lifting, and exposure to chemicals—typically, individuals exposed to noise were also exposed to other occupational hazards. Important non-occupational factors were mother’s age, mother's weight and height, mother’s weight gain during pregnancy, smoking, education, race and socioeconomic status. Gravidity and parity, and chronic diseases of the mother were also important factors for the examination of spontaneous abortion or preterm labour."

"New multi-disciplinary research on brain–body interactions triggered by stress in early pregnancy has shown that maternal biological responses, including localised inflammation in uterine tissue and sustained depression of progesterone production, challenge the endocrine-immune steady state during pregnancy, leading to serious consequences for the fetal environment. Recent basic science findings and new theoretical development around a ‘pregnancy stress syndrome’ associated with over-activation of the HPA axis warrant a new look at the epidemiological evidence around the age-old question of whether or not stress can actually cause human reproductive failure."

"The main results based on the total data material showed that an increasing amount of time spent on exercise was associated with a greater risk of miscarriage compared with non-exercisers. Exercising 1–44 minutes/week was not associated with an increased risk of miscarriage."

"Of those who took part 15% said they or their partner had suffered a miscarriage, but the majority of respondents (55%) believed that miscarriages are uncommon (defined as less than 6% of all pregnancies). The truth is that miscarriages end one in four pregnancies and are by far the most common pregnancy complication, the paper says. A fifth of people incorrectly believed that lifestyle choices during pregnancy, such as smoking or using drugs or alcohol, were the single most common cause of miscarriage, more common than genetic or medical causes. In reality, 60% of miscarriages are caused by a genetic problem."

"The effect of long-term exposure to dirty air on the risk of miscarriage has been analysed previously. Studies from Brazil to Italy to Mongolia found a link, but others failed to do so. However, the latest study is the first to assess the impact of short-term exposure to air pollution. It found that raised levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution that are commonplace around the world increased the risk of losing a pregnancy by 16%. “It’s pretty profound,” said Dr Matthew Fuller, at the University of Utah’s department of emergency medicine and one of the research team. “If you compare that increase in risk to other studies on environmental effects on the foetus, it’s akin to tobacco smoke in first trimester pregnancy loss.” NO2 is produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles."

"Few studies on job stress relative to pregnancy have been carried out, but both animal and epidemiological studies have shown effect of exposure to stressful conditions during pregnancy and adverse effects on the offspring."

"It is important to note once again that the prohibition of murder and abortion must be appreciated in a therapeutic, not a juridical or punitive light, with which such offenses are often regarded in most Western moral, philosophical, and theological systems: the goal is not to subject the sinner to just punishment, but to bring the sinner through repentance and God’s grace to holiness. Because of this perspective the Orthodox Church never endorsed a doctrine of double effect, such as developed in the West, which allowed Roman Catholicism to approve of indirect abortions. The doctrine of double effects holds that when an action produces two effects, one good and one evil, one may nevertheless act, as long as the act is not evil in itself, the good effect is not produced by the bad effect, the evil effect is not intended,, and there is a proportionate reason (more good will be produced than evil). According to the doctrine of double effect, when these conditions are fulfilled, one is held to be juridically innocent In contrast, the Orthodox Church recognizes that close causal involvement in the death of another, whether a guilty or an innocent person, may harm one’s spiritual life. Orthodox Christianity recognizes harms from both involuntary and “justifiable” homicide, including homicide in a just war, both of which incur excommunication not as punishment, but as spiritual therapy (Basil, 1983, Canon 13, pp. 801-802). It is in this spiritually therapeutic context that one should understand the absolution of women who miscarry. The absolution expresses the Orthodox Christian healing approach to the involuntary loss of life."

"Overweight women are more likely to miscarry a healthy baby, according to research involving 204 women who had suffered a miscarriage. The researchers said the findings back up advice that obese women should lose weight before trying to conceive. "The excess miscarriage rate in overweight and obese women is due to the loss of chromosomally normal embryos," said Dr Inna Landres of Stanford University School of Medicine. "It's important to identify elevated BMI [body mass index] as a risk factor for miscarriage and counsel those women who are affected on the importance of lifestyle modification"

"In this study, based on data from nearly 93,000 women, a dose-response relation was seen for the association between the amount of weekly exercise and the risk of miscarriage early in pregnancy. Certain types of exercise, and particularly high-impact types of exercise, were found to be associated with a higher risk of miscarriage. In the analyses based only on prospectively collected exposure data, the association did, however, attenuate, indicating a certain degree of recall bias. An alternative explanation to recall bias may be that exercise only in the early stages of pregnancy hurts the pregnancy outcome. In this case, the difference in the HRs between the analyses based on the total data material and the subcohort of only prospectively collected data is not as much a result of the mode of data collection as a reflection of the fact that the total data material encompasses the very early miscarriages. Even within the subperiods of gestational age, the miscarriages occur earlier for the pregnancies with retrospectively collected exposure information than for pregnancies with a first pregnancy interview (Figure 2). In addition, we did see a positive trend in the association between exercise and the risk of miscarriages in the earliest period of pregnancy (gestational weeks 11–14) in the subcohort using prospectively collected data only."

"Because spontaneous miscarriage and self-managed abortion are medically indistinguishable in most cases, prohibitions on abortion will predictably lead to the investigation and detention of many women experiencing miscarriages as well as those self-managing abortions."

"The woman who has suffered a miscarriage is not held to be guilty in a juridical sense, but in need of God’s loving grace. It is within this therapeutic perspective that the Orthodox Church approaches decisions made by women to engage in operations that will also incidentally lead to the abortion of a child (e.g., the removal of a cancerous uterus containing an unborn child), which in Roman Catholic terms would not count as an abortion. In such cases, the spiritual father must help the patient through repentance and love to repair the spiritual damage from the serious evil of involvement in the death of another person."

"Spontaneous miscarriage affects 12–15% of all pregnancies ( Zinman et al ., 1996 ). Eighty percent of miscarriages occur before 12 weeks of gestation, and the majority are due to chromosomal abnormalities (Harlap et al ., 1980). Our figures from this study population are consistent with previously published data. The risk of miscarriage after the detection of a fetal heart on ultrasound scan is reduced to 5%, except in patients who have had recurrent miscarriages ( van Leeuwen et al, 1993 ). Many factors have been described to increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage; however, obesity was not found to be a risk factor by Risch et al . (1990). Recent evidence indicated that obese women undergoing infertility treatment were at increased risk of spontaneous miscarriage ( Hamilton‐Fairley et al, 1992; Wang et al, 2000 ). However, this point has also been controversial (Lashen et al, 1999; Roth et al., 2003 )."

"Dr Sarah Stock, at the University of Edinburgh and not part of the research team, said: “Air pollution is clearly detrimental to the health of millions of mothers, babies and children worldwide. Measures to reduce the impact of air pollution are crucial to ensure the health of future generations.”"

"From a medical perspective, there is no physically significant difference between a medication abortion and a spontaneously occurring miscarriage. For example, the medicines used in medication abortion are used to help safely manage an incomplete miscarriage."

"Obesity has become a major health problem across the world. In the UK, obesity affects one‐fifth of the female population ( Anonymous, 2001 ). Maternal obesity has been reported as a risk factor for adulthood obesity in offspring ( Parsons et al ., 2001 ). Obesity may also lead to a poor pregnancy out-come, such as sudden and unexplained intrauterine death ( Froen et al ., 2001 ), and in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) receiving infertility treatment is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage ( Hamilton‐Fairley et al ., 1992 ; Wang et al ., 2000 ). However, in the general population there is less evidence for a link between obesity and spontaneous miscarriage ( Risch et al ., 1990 )."

"Phytoplankton and zooplankton — tiny drifting plants and animals — are vital components of the marine and freshwater aquatic food chains, and our waterways. Plankton communities reflect the effects of water quality and cannot isolate themselves as oysters do by closing their shells in adverse conditions. Plankton are effectilvely our aquatic 'canaries-in-a-cage' — they accumulate over days the effects of hourly changes in water quality."

"The inability to control horizontal position or to swim against significant currents in open waters separates 'plankton' from the 'nekton' of active swimmers, which include adult fish, large cephalopods, aquatic reptiles, birds and mammals. In this way, plankton comprises organisms that range in size from that of viruses (a few tens of nanometres) to those of large jellyfish (a metre or more). Representative organisms include bacteria, protistans, fungi and metazoans."

"Oceanic phytoplankton seems generally to be associated with low biodiversity, and phytoplankton biodiversity does not correlate with zooplankton biodiversity ..."

"Bioremediation technologies use microorganisms to treat contaminants by degrading organic compounds to less toxic materials, such as CO2, methane, water, and inorganic salts. These technologies include intrinsic or enhanced bioremediation, which is the focus of this report, and can be performed in situ or ex situ under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. During enhanced bioremediation, amendments are typically added to the media to supplement biodegradation processes. Amendments include nutrients (such asnitrogen and phosphorus), electron donors (such as methanol or lactic acid for anaerobic processes), electron acceptors (such as oxygen for aerobic processes, ferric iron or nitrate for anaerobic processes), or microbes (bioaugmentation) (EPA 1994, EPA 2000)."

"Bioremediation is a technology that uses microorganisms to treat contaminants through natural biodegradation mechanisms (intrinsic bioremediation) or by enhancing natural biodegradation mechanisms through the addition of microbes, nutrients, electron donors, and/or electron acceptors (enhanced bioremediation). This technology, performed in situ (below ground or in place) or ex situ (above ground), is capable of degrading organic compounds to less toxic materials such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and water through aerobic or anaerobic processes. Bioremediation is being used with increasing frequency to remediate contaminated media at hazardous waste sites because, compared with other remediation technologies, it often is less expensive and more acceptable to the public."

"[E]ntomoremediation as a novel concept was critically projected as a bioremediation technique that needs to be harnessed in line with global realities of involving organisms like microorganisms and earthworms in soil decontamination. Entomoremediation is defined as a type of remediation in which insects are used in order to decontaminate a degraded soil. The candidacy of collembolans, ants, beetles and termites in entomoremediation is advocated because of their role as ecosystem engineers. The need for mass rearing of the insects to be used in proposed bioremediation is discussed. Bioremediation as a measure that requires interdisciplinary approach is emphasized. The need to use insects that are neither threatened or endangered in entomoremediation in order to achieve overall healthy balance of the soil environment is stressed."

"Logic, I should maintain, must no more admit a unicorn than zoology can; for logic is concerned with the real world just as truly as zoology, though with its more abstract and general features."

"So far as happiness is concerned it matters very little what one wants; the main thing is that one should get it. Besides, zoology makes it clear that a sum of reduced individuals may very well form a totality of genius."

"It is not clear that people have fully taken on board the idea that humans are animals. If they had, then perhaps academic disciplines such as sociology and anthropology would be viewed as specialist branches of zoology; medical doctors would be viewed as a subtype of veterinarians (one that specializes in tending to the health needs of just one species); human rights would be viewed as a subset of animal rights; and the socialization of children would be viewed as one example of the training or domestication of animals (making parents and teachers a subtype of animal trainers)."

"Another immense service rendered by Dalton, as a corollary of the new atomic doctrine, was the creation of a system of symbolic notation, which not only made the nature of chemical compounds and processes easily intelligible and easy of recollection, but, by its very form, suggested new lines of inquiry. The atomic notation was as serviceable to chemistry as the binomial nomenclature and the classificatory schematism of Linnæus were to zoölogy and botany."

"These people call what they do "cryptozoology" — "-zoology" meaning "the study of animals", and "crypto-" meaning "shit we made up"."

"ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, including its king, the House Fly (Musca maledicta). The father of Zoology was Aristotle, as is universally conceded, but the name of its mother has not come down to us. Two of the science's most illustrious expounders were Buffon and Oliver Goldsmith, from both of whom we learn (L'Histoire generale des animaux and A History of Animated Nature) that the domestic cow sheds its horn every two years."

"Even village women and children know that the unicorn is a lucky sign. But this animal does not figure among the barnyard animals, it is not always easy to come across, it does not lend itself to zoological classification."