With Oral Cancer, Early Detection Is Key

A new Cancer Research UK analysis reveals that rates of mouth (oral) cancer have jumped by 68% in the UK over the last 20 years. The figures – released during Mouth Cancer Action Month – reveal the cancer is on the rise for men and women, young and old, climbing from 8 to 13 cases per 100,000 people over the last two decades. For men under 50, the rate has jumped by 67% in the last 20 years – going up from around 340 cases to around 640 cases each year.

For men 50+ years, rates have increased by 59% climbing from around 2,100 cases to around 4,400 cases annually. Oral cancer is more common in men, but there have been similar increases women...

This image shows theoretical (right) and experimental (left) iso-frequency contours of a photonic crystal slabs superimposed on each other. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A new technique developed by MIT researchers reveals the inner details of photonic crystals, synthetic materials whose exotic optical properties are the subject of widespread research. Photonic crystals are generally made by drilling millions of closely spaced, minuscule holes in a slab of transparent material, using variations of microchip-fabrication methods...

Cygnus X-3 is an X-ray binary where a compact source is pulling material away from a massive companion star. Chandra’s high-resolution X-ray vision revealed a cloud of gas and dust that is a separated by a very small distance from Cygnus X-3. This gas cloud, dubbed the “Little Friend,” is a Bok globule, the first ever detected in X-rays and the most distant one ever discovered. Astronomers detected jets produced by the “Little Friend”, showing that a star is forming inside it. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.McCollough et al, Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA

A snapshot of the stellar life cycle has been captured in a new portrait from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Smithsonian’s Submillimeter Array (SMA)...

Highlights • Gut microbes show a dichotomy in ecological strategy for access to nitrogen • Beneficial microbes are overrepresented in the endogenous N source guild • Diets that reduce availability of dietary N to microbes promote healthy aging • Diet impact on host-microbiome interaction can be simplified for modeling

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the link between different diet strategies and gut health, with new research presenting the first general principles for how diet impacts the microbiota. Researchers from the University of Sydney have found that the availability of intestinal nitrogen to microbes in the gut plays a key role in regulating interactions between gut microbes and their host animal.

“This research really lays the groundwork for future modellin...