image credit: veeterzy on Unsplash Air pollution threatens the health of more than 90% of the world’s population — and it all starts with changes triggered at the molecular level. In a newly published study which followed pollution levels before, during, and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, researchers at the University of Buffalo found that 69 metabolites were affected when air pollution changed. Metabolites are the end products of the body’s metabolism as well as the results of environmental exposures. Beijing, a city numbering over 21 million people, is one of the most polluted cities in the world. But during the 2008 Olympic Games, local authorities enacted temporary measures that cleared the air — at least for the duration of the games. While most of the world’s population focuses their attention on global terrorism and economics, scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed at how air pollution affects human health. Research indicates that 5.5 million people around the...

Each dot represents a single cell in the developing embryo, with the number of specialized cells increasing across the 48hrs from embryonic day 6.5 to embryonic day 8.5. The dots are colored based on which major cell type they represent, such as heart, lungs, brain and gut. The 116,000 dots are arranged so that cells with similar genetic activity are close to each other. This new Molecular Map is freely available to researchers to give them access to the complete genetic programs that drive the development of all major organ systems, and opens up new avenues for regenerative medicine and drug development | Credit: Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute The eminent biologist Lewis Wolpert famously stated that "It's not birth, marriage or death, but gastrulation that is truly the most important time in your life." Gastrulation represents the process in animal (and human) development whereby precursor cells in the embryo become genetically programmed ...