High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy

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During pregnancy, chronic high blood pressure can raise the risk of serious health problems or even death for both parent and baby. If a pregnant person has severely elevated blood pressure, doctors will usually treat it. But for milder cases, where there's a less severe elevation in pressure, the question of treatment has been controversial. To address this uncertainty, researches conducted a randomized clinical trial of over two thousand women with mildly high blood pressure who were less than 23 weeks into their pregnancy. Some received medications to treat their condition, while others did not, unless they developed severe hypertension. The women who received treatment experienced fewer pregnancy related complications, with lower incidents of developing cardio vascular complications or severe hyper tension.

00:54 How Mammals’ mutation rates affects their lifespan

For biologists, a long-standing question has been why some animals live longer than others. This week a team have attempted to answer this, by measuring the rates that different animal species accumulate mutations. They show that longer-lived animals acquire mutations at a slower rate, which helps to explain why cancer risk does not scale with lifespan.

Research article: Cagan et al.

News and Views: Mutational clocks tick differently across species

07:56 Research Highlights

A clinical trial suggests a change to the treatment of a pregnancy ailment, and astronomers identify the largest known structure produced by a single galaxy.

Research Highlight: Ambitious trial inspires a rethink on a common ailment of pregnancy

Research Highlight: Even among ‘giant’ galaxies this one is record-setting

10:43 The war in Ukraine’s effects on global energy

Many European countries are dependent on Russian fossil fuels for energy production. Following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, these countries are looking to wean themselves off these fuels, which could have short- and long-term impacts on emissions and food production.

Feature: What the war in Ukraine means for energy, climate and food

Editorial: The EU can simultaneously end dependence on Russia and meet climate goals

Editorial: The war in Ukraine is exposing gaps in the world’s food-systems research

19:58 A new measurement of a particle’s mass hints at new physics

Last week, a new estimate of the W boson’s mass caused much excitement among physicists. The result suggests that this particle is heavier than theory predicts, a finding that could be the first major breach in the standard model of particle physics. However, measuring W bosons is notoriously tricky, and further work will be needed to confirm the finding.

News: Particle’s surprise mass threatens to upend the standard model

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