ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

New research finds that the consumption of healthy plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee, and legumes, is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in generally healthy people and support their role in diabetes prevention.

A combined study of genetics and skeletal remains show that the switch from primarily hunting, gathering and foraging to farming about 12,000 years ago in Europe may have had negative health effects as indicated by shorter than expected heights in the earliest farmers, according to an international team of researchers.

Two DNA defense systems protect the bacterial strains responsible for the ongoing seventh cholera pandemic from potentially harmful genetic material and viruses, scientists have found. Their study also shows that the defense systems may have been key in the evolution and success of these strains.

Researchers have discovered a new design motif derived from the rigid external covering of invertebrates that may help create more damage tolerant materials for future building and construction.

New research highlights a technique known as Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE), in which samples of municipal wastewater can be used as a diagnostic tool to explore a surprisingly broad range of community-wide health indices.