Fitting in a workout after a long day of sitting at a desk might not be enough to compensate for the impacts of sedentary behavior on the heart. Investigators from Mass General Brigham, found that excessive sedentary behavior (waking activity with low energy expenditure while sitting, reclining, or lying down and not including hours spent sleeping at night) was linked to increased risk of heart disease, especially heart failure and cardiovascular death, and that these risks could be significantly reduced by substituting sedentary time for other activities. They also found that meeting guideline levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity may be insufficient on its own to reduce cardiovascular risk if one is also sitting too much. Their results are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 

The rod-shaped tuberculosis (TB) bacterium, which the World Health Organization has once again ranked as the top infectious disease killer globally, is the first single-celled organism ever observed to maintain a consistent growth rate throughout its life cycle. These findings, reported by researchers on November 15 in the journal Nature Microbiology, overturn core beliefs of bacterial cell biology and hint at why the deadly pathogen so readily outmaneuvers our immune system and antibiotics. 

Children born to mothers who take antiseizure medications to manage seizures and psychiatric conditions during pregnancy may face increased risks of neurodevelopmental conditions, according to new data from researchers at Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health.