Machine learning to the rescue

The tsetse fly has wreaked devastation across large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa. About the size of a housefly, the insect transmits a parasite that can be lethal to both humans (sleeping sickness) and animals (nagana) – especially cattle. In many countries of the sub-Sahara, there are large regions where farmers cannot raise cattle; most eventually…

At what age do you feel 65?

SEATTLE – At what age do you feel 65? A 30-year gap separates countries with the highest and lowest ages at which people experience the health problems of a 65-year-old, according to a new scientific study. Researchers found 76-year-olds in Japan and 46-year-olds in Papua New Guinea have the same level of age-related health problems…

THOR wrangles complex microbiomes into a model for improving them

IMAGE: Bacillus bacteria, marked with green fluorescence, changed its growth pattern around other members of the THOR community, spreading around and over other bacteria. view more  Credit: Gabriel Lozano and Jo Handelsman MADISON, Wis. — “Microbial communities run the world,” says Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “People…