Ohio at bottom in preparedness against outbreak of infectious diseases, says report

A report card released about a year ago by the nonpartisan Health Policy Institute of Ohio has painted a grim picture of Ohio in terms of preparedness to tackle the outbreak of any infectious disease. In fact, Ohio has been put in the bottom tier of states.

Ohio could manage points for only three of the 10 indicators that were assessed in the report, titled “Outbreaks: Protecting Americans From Infectious Diseases”. The other states that shared the bottom rank with Ohio were Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah.

Ohio has been faring poor for the past three years since the authors started preparing the report.

Screening regularly for Ovarian Cancer may not necessarily reduce death risk

In a discouraging finding for ovarian cancer patients, a screening conducted at the University College London, which scientists claimed was one of the largest so far, did not find much decline in the death rate of the affected persons even if they religiously came for a follow-up of the disease for more than a decade. It found that the difference was no better than those patients who did not go in for screening during the trial period.

The research, reported in The Lancet, showed a yearly decline in the death risk by a 15% (for those who opted for follow-up) and 11% (those who did not come forward for screening).

Ian Jacobs, MD, of University College London, and co-authors, though, said they would continue follow-up in the study to determine minutely the magnitude of mortality.

Researchers solve Century-Old Evolutionary Riddle

Two evolutionary biologists when met for the first time four-and-half years ago, they decided to carry out an experiment to solve a century-old evolutionary riddle, and now it seems that the duo have an answer to it.

The duo was looking for a gene that helped make each species look unique and separate from each other. At their first meeting, Phadnis, who now leads a research team at the University of Utah, sketched out the experiment’s parameters and planned to mutate one of the fly species, thus allowing males to be born.

For this they needed to find seven male flies to identify the mystery gene’s identity. The scientists called the elusive sons as the Seven Samurai.

Scientists Discover Remains of Medium-Sized Dinosaur Named Morelladon

A team of researchers has revealed that they have discovered remains of a new medium-sized dinosaur near the town of Morella in Spain's Castellon Province. The dinosaur has an unusual sail-like structure on its back, found researchers.

According to the team, Morelladon was a four-legged herbivore that measured around six meters long i.e. almost 20 feet. The team noted that a series of boney spines were protruding out from its back. These unusual bones formed a sail-like structure, which was about two feet (60 cm) tall.

Climate Change: Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet has doubled

The Greenland Ice Sheet is shrinking at a high rate, according to a new study. The vast body of ice has lost approximately 9,013 gigatonnes ice in last 110 years and the shrinking rate is increasing rapidly, it added.

The study published in the journal Nature also suggested that from 2003 to 2010, ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet has been removed at a rate over twice the rate during the entire 20th century.

To collect information on the ice sheet’s mass loss, researchers have been using satellite data from last more than two decades. They believe that the outcomes may help them in knowing the effects of global warming and rising ocean levels.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures Rare Exploding Supernova

Astronomers know that a number of stars end their life with an explosion, but it is very rare when these acts are captured. But now, astronomers have captured an image of the stellar activity, thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

The astronomers not only imaged the young star in action, but also predicted the first supernova coming. The space telescope in low earth orbit captured the stellar explosion in action on December 11, 2015.

The supernova, named Refsdal, has been captured by Hubble in the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Light from the cluster took approximately 5 billion years to reach earth’s surroundings, but the star exploded about 10 billion years ago, according to the astronomers.

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