Author: Tom Patriot

Mouse model validates how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria affect acne

Tom Patriot

Researchers have long believed that Propionibacterium acnes causes acne. But these bacteria are plentiful on everyone’s skin and yet not everyone gets acne, or experiences it to the same degree. Genetic sequencing recently revealed that not all P. acnes are the same — there are different strains, some of which are abundant in acne lesions and some that are never found there. Still, acne research and therapeutic development have been hampered by the lack of an animal model that replicates the human condition. When administered to mice, for example, P. acnes don’t cause long-term skin lesions…

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Mindy Kaling Says People Have Trouble With “Women Who Don’t Hate Themselves,” and It’s a Sad Truth

Tom Patriot

There’s no denying that Mindy Kaling is goals—she’s a showrunner, actress, and best-selling author, and she seems to genuinely love the skin she’s in. Which—as she noted in a recent speech—isn’t always easy, or even encouraged, for women. During Glamour’s 2018 Women of the Year Summit on November 11th, the Mindy Project star noted that some people are “turned off” by her confidence. “It’s not that I’m into myself,” she said. “It’s that I don’t hate myself. In my career, a lot of people have a problem with being around women who don’t hate themselves. Never…

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How the brain decides what to learn

Tom Patriot

In order to learn about the world, an animal needs to do more than just pay attention to its surroundings. It also needs to learn which sights, sounds and sensations in its environment are the most important and monitor how the importance of those details change over time. Yet how humans and other animals track those details has remained a mystery. Now, Stanford biologists report Oct. 26 in Science, they think they’ve figured out how animals sort through the details. A part of the brain called the paraventricular thalamus, or PVT,…

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Higher fitness level can determine longer lifespan after age 70

Tom Patriot

Researchers have uncovered one more reason to get off the couch and start exercising, especially if you’re approaching your golden years. Among people over age 70, physical fitness was found to be a much better predictor of survival than the number of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session. While high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and smoking are closely linked with a person’s chance of developing heart disease, these factors are so common in older people that…

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