Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

The COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin, scientists say

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Why don't antibodies guarantee immunity?

With millions of COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, people are turning to antibody tests to find out whether they have been exposed to the coronavirus that causes the disease. But what are antibodies? Why are they ...

Medications

Researchers find that aspirin alters colorectal cancer evolution

Cancer starts when cells start dividing uncontrollably. Scientists have known that taking aspirin can help protect against the development of colorectal cancer—cancer afflicting the colon or rectum—but the exact reason ...

Medical research

Can changing the microbiome reverse lactose intolerance?

After childhood, about two-thirds of the world's human population loses the ability to digest milk. As far as we know, 100 percent of nonhuman mammals also lose this ability after weaning. The ongoing ability to digest lactose, ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

CDC warns that gonorrhea on verge of being untreatable

(Medical Xpress)—The CDC has issued a report detailing its findings in attempting to trace the increasing difficulty in treating gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can cause severe discomfort, serious ...

Genetics

World's most advanced genetic map created

A consortium led by scientists at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School has constructed the world's most detailed genetic map.

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World population

The term world population commonly refers to the total number of living humans on Earth at a given time. As of 29 July 2009, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6.774 billion. The world population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death around 1400. There were also short term falls at other times due to plague, for example in the mid 17th century (see graph). The fastest rates of world population growth (above 1.8%) were seen briefly during the 1950s then for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s (see graph). According to population projections, world population will continue to grow until around 2050. The 2008 rate of growth has almost halved since its peak of 2.2% per year, which was reached in 1963. World births have levelled off at about 134-million-per-year, since their peak at 163-million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant. However, deaths are only around 57 million per year, and are expected to increase to 90 million by the year 2050. Since births outnumber deaths, the world's population is expected to reach about 9 billion by the year 2040.

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