Monthly focus

The endocrine machine

04 December 2017

Hormones and the endocrine system have a deep impact on human health. Credit — Shutterstock/ PKpix

Hormones are blamed for everything from weight gain to mood swings and this December, Horizon takes a closer look at these chemical regulators and their effects on our bodies and minds. We explore the impact of the so-called love hormone on the human-dog relationship and what it can tell us about social disorders. We find out what’s being done to neutralise the hormone-disrupting chemicals that are found in water and sewage, and we discover the importance of hormonal rhythms in tracking disorders that can lead to obesity, heart disease and osteoporosis.

A new filtration system is using natural molecules to remove 95 % of hormone-affecting chemicals from wastewater. Credit – CC0

health

18 December 2017

Natural enzymes filter hormone-disrupting chemicals from sewage

A new filtration system that uses natural molecules to remove hormone-affecting chemicals from wastewater has succeeded in trapping 95 % of these substances before the water goes back into the environment.

Professor Eystein Sverre Husebye said hormone disorders have consequences including obesity, hypertension, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and ulcers. Credit — Eystein Husebye

interview | health

11 December 2017

New device will shed light on hormonal disorders – Prof. Eystein Sverre Husebye

Hormonal disorders can affect people's immune systems, metabolism and even bones, and unravelling the mystery around something called ultradian rhythms could help improve diagnosis and lead to better treatments, according to Professor Eystein Sverre Husebye, who works at the Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway.

Scientists have identified five genes that are associated with help-seeking behaviour in dogs. Credit – Pixabay/ Kat Jayne

health

04 December 2017

Human-dog bond provides clue to treating social disorders

The chemistry behind social behaviour in animals, including the bond between people and dogs – and the lack of one between humans and wolves – could help scientists identify new ways of treating social disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

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Image credit - ESA/Gaia/DPAC, licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Milky Way

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Bacteria that can help buildings heal themselves have been tested at Tintern Abbey in Wales and shown to improve the stone's microstructure without affecting colour or breathability. Image credit- Nilfanion/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>

Buildings, tunnels and bridges could soon repair themselves

Stone and concrete structures with the ability to heal themselves in a similar way to living organisms when damaged could help to make buildings safer and last longer.

Pining down causality between online extreme speech and offline violence is very difficult, says Prof. Udupa but you can clearly identify trends and correlations. Image credit - Pawel Janiak/Unsplash

Q&A: Why cultural nuance matters in the fight against online extreme speech

Artificial intelligence (AI) used by governments and the corporate sector to detect and extinguish online extreme speech often misses important cultural nuance, but bringing in independent factcheckers as intermediaries could help step up the fight against online vitriol, according to Sahana Udupa, professor of media anthropology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

The endocrine machine

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Natural enzymes filter hormone-disrupting chemicals from sewage

New device will shed light on hormonal disorders – Prof. Eystein Sverre Husebye