Carmen Leitch

Chicago

Freelance Writer at LabRoots

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Articles

Updates on the Expanding Measles Outbreak in the Americas

4 days ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Measles is caused by a virus that is thought to be one of the most infectious pathogens ever known to humankind. Easy to access to vaccines had enabled the United States to nearly eradicate measles. But vaccine rates have decline sharply in recent years, and many places are now far below the vaccination rate needed for herd immunity, which is 95%. Worldwide, childhood vaccination rates have fallen to about 83%.
Scientists Find the First Evidence of a Lion Bite on a Gladiator

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

If you have seen Roman gladiators depicted on TV or in movies, you probably saw them in an arena with lions. Gladiators have also been immortalized in artwork that has shown them fighting big cats. But how realistic are these depictions? Did gladiators really fight giant cats with massive teeth as crowds of spectators looked on? And how would archaeologists answer that question?
Genetic 'Superpowers' in Korean Women Divers

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

The Haenyeo, or "women of the sea," are a group of all-women extreme divers who work off the coast of Korea. They have spent their entire lives free-diving as much as 60 feet under the surface in the waters off Jeju Island, 50 miles south of mainland South Korea. The divers collect foodstuffs like abalone and seaweed from the seafloor, and do so while spending hours in the water every day, year round.
Gut Microbes Can Modify Immune Cells & Boost Arthritis

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Millions of people around the world have an autoimmune disorder known as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which can cause serious joint pain, swelling, and damage, among other symptoms. The disease is thought to arise when the immune system erroneously attacks the body's tissues, but the triggers and mechanisms underlying the disease are not known. Some research has suggested that problems with the community of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract - the gut microbiome could be related to RA.
Changing What We Thought We Knew About Cell Division

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

It's long been assumed that when a parent cell divides into two daughter cells, the parent assumes a spherical shape, which then splits into two cells that have roughly the same, round size. But a new study reported in Science has suggested that not all cells become spherical and rounded during division, and in the body, it doesn't usually work that way. Instead, the daughter cells aren't typically round after division, and they are asymmetrical.
Finding the Missing Link Between a Super-Eruption & Geology

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Scientists long wondered whether there were places on Earth where extremely hot material from the core of the Earth moves up through the mantle, and if these plumes were responsible for some volcanic hotspots. In recent years, this theory seems to have been confirmed with seismic data. The Louisville hotspot is one such place. It sits in the southern Pacific Ocean, and hot, dynamic material from the Earth's core moves up to form volcanoes.
Advances in Parkinson's Diagnostic Techniques

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Parkinson's disease is often not diagnosed until later stages, when many nerve cells in the brain have already died off, and movement problems have started. This means that many people don't start treatment until the disease is advanced. Better diagnostic tools could help Parkinson's patients get help sooner, which may improve outcomes. Several studies have outlined new diagnostic tools for the neurodegenerative disorder.
A New Antibiotic is Found on Human Skin

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

The human body plays host to many microbes, and the communities that these microorganisms form are known as microbiomes. There are some fungi, or yeast that are normal parts of the skin microbiome. Researchers have now identified an antimicrobial molecule made by yeast that live on human skin. They determined that it had powerful effects against Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that has many forms, some of which are harmful while others can cause serious infection.
Bird Flu - The Current Situation & Possible Close Call with Mutations

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Avian influenza has been rampaging in wild birds around the world since late 2021. It can now be considered widespread in many types of wild birds, and has also spread to many other species including dairy cattle. Highly pathogenic forms of avian influenza, like H5N1, are thought to have caused the deaths of millions of birds around the world, both wild and farmed.
Babesiosis is Emerging in the Mid-Atlantic

1 week ago | labroots.com | Carmen Leitch

Babesiosis is a tick-borne disease that is caused by differetn types of Babesia parasites that infect red blood cells. The symptoms can present in a range of severities, and can impact the elderly and immunocompromised significantly. The initial symptoms, like fever, cough, chills, headache, and sweating, can resemble other illness, and babesiosis may be tough to diagnose. Antibiotics are not effective against the the parasitic disorder, however, so an accurate diagnosis is important.