Viruses infecting the liver cause thousands of cases of liver failure, cancer and death each year. Now, two such viruses, hepatitis A and hepatitis C, have been shown to attack the same part of the immune system, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month. Stanley Lemon, a University of Texas microbiology professor, and his colleagues believe that destroying a protein called mitochondrial antiviral signalling (MAVS) may be a necessary step for viruses seeking to infect the liver.

In a world of fad diets and rising incidence of eating disorders, Inger Stallmann-Jorgensen, a research dietician, offers some surprising news. Published in the April issue of The International Journal of Obesity, Stallmann-Jorgensen et al.'s findings show that teenagers who exercised the most and ate the most were the leanest.

Two studies conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have shown that aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) do not protect memory or prevent dementia, as had been previously believed.

Findings published in this week's edition of Science reveal a link between massive volcanic eruptions and ancient global warming. The international team of researchers used rock dating to relate a sudden 5°C warming 56 million years ago, known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), to major volcanic events occurring at the beginning of the PETM.

New research gives hope to finding a way to beat antibiotic resistance. A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has isolated four compounds which offer antibacterial activity close to some of the most potent antibiotics available. The findings of this team are published in the April 27th edition of Chemistry and Biology.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered the current view of water is not as clear as we thought. It appears water at the nanoscale actually behaves like molasses, with a thick, viscous consistency. This new discovery changes some previously held views on the properties of waters, and creates new ones that were previously unreachable.

It has been said that color is only skin deep. Now, Dr. Xianglin Du and his colleagues at the University of Texas have shown that this adage holds true despite differences in survival between African-Americans and Caucasians suffering from colorectal cancer. According to their latest meta-analysis, published online this month by the journal Cancer, these differences are almost entirely due to social factors. As a result, the authors concluded that "efforts to eliminate racial disparities in health care and to minimize disparities in socioeconomic status have the potential to reduce racial inequalities in colon cancer survival".

Researchers at Columbia University have found antidepressant treatments in adult monkeys can induce neuron growth in the hippocampus of the brain. This research, published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides new clues into how the antidepressant medication works and how it may work in humans, as well.

How morphine produces that "kick" and leads to the compulsive drug-seeking behavior characteristic of addiction has been a subject of intense research over the past decades. Adding a new facet to the underlying complex neurobiology, researchers at Brown University have demonstrated that morphine can block the strengthening of inhibitory signals to a key reward area of the brain, thereby exciting it. This mechanism, write the authors, might contribute to the early stages of addiction, and could be exploited to yield effective therapies against the same.

Researchers at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have made the world's first attempt at using gene therapy to treat a visual disorder. The team operated on Robert Johnson, who lives in the UK and has a sight disorder that deteriorates with age.

Scientists at Whitehead Institute have discovered important regions in yeast prions that explain their ability, and potentially the ability of prions in general, to self-propagate or "infect". By analyzing yeast prions, researchers were able to identify specific recognition elements that control the switch from non-infectious to infectious conformations. Their findings are published in the May 9 online issue of the journal Nature.

Impaired wound healing is a major clinical problem in diabetic patients, affecting about 15 percent of them and is the leading cause of lower limb amputations. Reporting in the May issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center have, for the first time, identified the molecular basis of impaired vasculogenesis in diabetic wound healing. By fixing the defective links in the process, they were able to significantly enhance wound healing, thus providing novel potential targets for therapeutic intervention in diabetic wound healing. The current therapies for this impairment are few and inadequate.

Scientists let by Simon Melov, PhD of the Buck Institute and Mark Tarnopolsky MD,PhD of McMaster University Medical Center have found that exercise, in addition to improving the way people feel and operate, can revitalize muscle tissue in healthy senior citizens.

Scientists at the University of Georgia have developed a process to extract and refine liquid biofuel from wood so that it may be used in conventional diesel engines without extensive modification. The findings come at a time when significant resources in the United States are being channeled into alternative energy research in the hopes of reducing both the country's need for outside oil and its carbon emissions through efficient and economically favorable methods. The researchers, led by Thomas Adams, Director of Faculty of Engineering Outreach Service at UGA, published their findings in the journal Energy and Fuels last week.

Scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that an extract of shark cartilage, AE-941, is not a beneficial therapeutic agent for those with advanced non-small cell lung cancer when used in combination with radiation and chemotherapy. The results, which principal investigator Charles Lu presented this week at the 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, contradict both preclinical studies and popular belief.

Are you a heavy snorer? You could be affecting your own health in addition to your partner's beauty sleep. Researchers from the University of Leeds in Great Britain recently discovered that a build-up of glutamate, a neurotransmitter, in brain cells called astrocytes, contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease, as well as the cellular process that allows the chemical to collect. Glutamate forms when the brain does not have access to enough oxygen, such as during a stroke or even during heavy snoring. The team published their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience.

In a commentary featured in June's Nature Chemical Biology, a professor from Brandeis University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) recognizes the somewhat bleak outlook that the future of science has for students in the United States due to college students' decreasing interest in the subject.

A team of scientists from the UK recently used stem cell therapy to treat the world's leading cause of blindness, age-related macular degeneration. According to a BBC news report, the stem cell therapy has already been successful in "a handful of patients" using the patients' own eye cells.

Summer beach-goers soaking up the sun without wearing sunscreen can rest a little easier. Scientists at Duke University have developed a device which uses two lasers to obtain high-quality images up to a millimeter under the skin. Both researchers and doctors hope to use the device to make diagnosis of cancerous skin cells, or melanomas, a non-invasive process.

Researchers at Ghent University and the Université catholique de Louvain have developed "self-exploding" microcapsules which release drugs at a desired time after ingested. Now one can inject drugs and vaccines weeks or months before the body needs its activity. These findings appear in the January 9, 2006 issue of the American Chemical Society's journal Biomacromolecules.

Uncertain whether to bubble the "A" or "C" on a multiple choice test, students dig into their pockets to find a coin to toss. But, the new "Brain-Machine Interface" machine can interpret the mixed brain waves in indecisive minds to help make the right choice.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered a thorough way to target and beat cancer in patients by not only attacking the majority of the tumor and the rapidly proliferating cells, but also by eliminating the small group of tumor-initiating, drug resistant cells that survive current cancer treatments, known as "cancer stem cells." This research provides clues to why cancer patients, after being treated with current therapies, still experience relapses.

Most people have heard of one form or another of the "hygiene hypothesis," whereby the cause of allergies is linked to our high degree of cleanliness and our immune system's resulting oversensitivity to infection. However, researchers at University College London's Institute of Child Health have uncovered another piece of the allergy puzzle--the overuse of harsh soap and skin care products may be a more direct cause of allergic diseases such as eczema. According to research published in the journal Trends in Immunology, these products remove a protective layer of skin and increase people's vulnerability to allergic diseases.

Scientists are one step closer to correcting hearing disorders like deafness using genetic engineering. Last week, researchers at the University of Virginia, led by Dr. Jeffrey Holt, published a report in the journal Gene Therapy which outlined a method for potentially repairing damaged hair cells, the cells in ears responsible for converting sound into electrical signals, by using a virus.

The capability of proteins to capture photons and convert the signals to longer duration and greater amplitude changes has captured the interest of Cornell University and Darthmouth College scientists. Studies on the fungus Neurospora crassa have proven how minute changes in one's genetic makeup could stimulate a series of protein modifications that ultimately account for noticeable difference in behavior in correspondence to altered biological rhythms.

Scientists have discovered that mice can see new colors with the insertion of a single human gene into a mouse chromosome. The study, published in the March 2007 issue of the journal Science, demonstrates that sight can be profoundly altered with simple genetic changes.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have developed artificial blood vessels that may revolutionize the way patients with heart and kidney disease receive treatment. The findings, which were presented at a conference of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) on June 15, move away from traditional vessel grafting procedures to reveal a novel technique utilizing muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs).

In research recently released in Science, scientists at Imperial College have identified the genes present in the Aedes aegypti mosquito's immune system that allows it to transmit deadly viral diseases to humans.

Researchers have discovered a relationship between an animal's style of locomotion and the dimensions of the semicircular canals of its inner ear, an organ that controls balance. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could allow scientists to predict more accurately how extinct species moved and develop a more complete history of the evolution of different forms of movement.

Over half of the US population possesses sensitivity to at least one allergen, and allergic diseases rank 5th in the list of leading chronic diseases. Hence the desire for a new allergy treatment has gained attention.

Researchers from the University of Dundee have identified the gene which produces the protein filaggrin. Defects in this protein are known to cause asthma and eczema, and now scientists have found that such defects could affect the day-to-day amount of treatment needed for children or young adults with asthma, potentially greatly reducing the medications patients need.

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) will embark on a forty day voyage to the Arctic Ocean next week in an attempt to study a mid-ocean ridge recently discovered to have hydrothermal vents. Using newly-designed, underwater, unmanned vehicles, they hope to be the first scientists to find signs of life in the seemingly uninhabited Gakkel Ridge, close to the geographic North Pole. If successful, their research could provide another dimension to the biodiversity that exists on Earth.

Neuroscientists have long been fascinated by the brain's remarkable ability to adapt to traumatic changes in body structure,the loss of a limb, for instance. New findings show that the brain can also respond to the loss of sensory organs, and in unexpected ways. This finding could have a profound impact on the way doctors treat patients suffering from sensory damage following a stroke or other brain injury.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have discovered that a protein present in the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes induces the internalization and degradation of a human receptor known to be involved in the development of certain cancers. This research, led by Lisa A Elferink of the University of Texas Medical Branch, could lead to a better understanding of cancer treatments.

Researchers at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis recently developed a way to predict if a smallpox vaccine will result in an adverse reaction. This new development will not only help those that receive the smallpox vaccine, but may also improve the safety of other popular vaccines.

Landslides in the tropics can kill thousands and cause catastrophic loss of property. Now, engineers at MIT have developed a ranking system that quantifies a slope's susceptibility to landslides caused by tropical storms, a tool they hope will be used to guide future construction and current mitigation measures in at-risk areas.

Intercytex, a UK-based company, has developed a prototype artificial skin that can be used to heal wounds. The research team, led by Dr. Paul Kemp, published their findings in the journal Regenerative Medicine and hope that their finding can provide an alternative treatment to skin grafts that is better at integrating with wounds.

Diseases can result from a mutation of genes (coding segments of DNA that comprise only about 2.5 percent of the entirety of human DNA), and often, mutations of non-gene DNA lead to illness as well. Researchers at the University of Utah recently published a report in the journal Nature Genetics, outlining a faster and more cost-effective method for mutating long stretches of such DNA.

Scientists from the University of Bath (UK) and Alfacell Corporation (USA) have characterized a molecule found in Northern Leopard frog egg cells that may dramatically improve the prognosis of brain cancer patients. The findings, which were published online in the Journal of Molecular Biology, describe the structure of an enzyme called Amphinase that can detect and bind to the sugary coating of tumor cells, subsequently causing them to die.

Although often criticised for influencing political agendas, newspaper articles may impact favorably on levels of organ donation. According to a content analysis published in the journal Health Communication earlier this month, 57 percent of newspaper articles portray organ donation in a positive light.

Collaborating at the University of Oregon, associate professor of economics William Harbaugh, professor of psychology Ulrich Mayer, and economics graduate student Dan Burghart published results in Sciencethis week, suggesting that giving money voluntarily or paying taxes brings about the same satisfaction that well-documented pleasures such as food and social contact do.

Traditionally, anger is associated with bad reasoning and poor decisions, but a recent study from the University of California, Santa Barbara suggests that this may not be true. New findings show that even in the presence of automatic responses, or heuristics, angry people are actually better suited to analytical thinking.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel recently released findings in Nature Neuroscience that reveal new crucial aspects of nerve cell communication. Their discovery of proteins that signal the start of myelination,a process that allows faster communication within the nervous system,may allow future researchers to develop cures for neurologically degenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

In a collaborative effort, two engineers and a team of skilled scientists have discovered a way to specifically target and destroy cancer cells using electric pulses. These engineers, Rafael V. Davalos, a faculty member of the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science (SBES), and Boris Rubinsky, a bioengineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley developed a technique, called irreversible electroporation (IRE), by which cancerous cells can be specifically targeted and destroyed.

At first glance, Carine appears to be an ordinary healthy nearly one-year-old infant. However, her normal development signifies a great success on the part of a group of Canadian researchers, as she is the first baby to be born from a fertilized, lab-matured egg.

Does talking about a problem actually make it easier to handle? Researchers at UCLA not only believe it, they can prove it. Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience, conducted experiments into a cognitive phenomenon called mindfulness in which a specific part of the brain in the frontal lobe lessens the effects of an emotional experience after it is consciously identified.

A study of nearly 250,000 military conscripts found a favorable relationship between low birth order and high IQ in families with multiple children. The difference between the eldest child and the closest sibling is almost 3 IQ points, according to the study conducted by Norwegian epidemiologists Dr. Petter Kristensen and Dr. Tor Bjerkedal.

Obesity is a growing health problem in our current society that puts increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke diagnosis. A lifestyle that includes a high fat diet is often a main contributor to the development of obesity, but researchers at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have found a protein required for diet-induced obesity.

One explanation frequently suggested for America's growing obesity epidemic is that humans may metabolize high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener whose use was adopted only a few decades ago, differently than the sucrose found in naturally sweet foods. However, a new study in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discounts that explanation, showing instead that corn syrup and cane sugar in beverages affect hunger, fullness, and food consumption in similar ways at lunch.

David Erickson of Cornell University implanted a silicon chip inside flying insects to control their movement. The results were published June 22 by AZoNano. These "insect cyborg sentinels" ranging from cicadas to dragonflies are a new pass in cyborg technology, possessing the ability to detect details about the presence of harmful gases, explosives or viruses in the air. The project intends to control the insects' movement by motion trajectories obtained from GPS coordinates or from using an ultrasonic based remote control. Gaining control of an insect's movement is necessary because it enables scientists to position the insect in an area where a toxic substance is suspected to be present

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have described a molecular mechanism that plants use to regulate growth in their natural environment. The findings, published in the June advance online edition of Nature, outline a method of growth that involves the coordination of a plant's internal clock with its exposure to light.

For the first time ever researchers were able to successfully use stem cells to treat Parkinson's disease in our closest relatives. primates. These results, released this month, show that stem cells can actually alleviate the damage caused by Parkinson's disease. The stem cells work in a very surprising way to do this, not only replacing damages neurons, but also rescuing and repairing pre-existing ones. This opens a whole new door in the quest for alleviating Parkinson's and curing neurological disorders in general.

A study published in the July 17 issue of Neurology showed that students with previous brain tumors performed markedly worse in school, with females affected more than males and foreign language suffering more than other subjects. The report cards of 300 ninth graders with previous brain tumors treated with surgery or radiation therapy were compared to 1,473 healthy children in Finland. The researchers said that this is the first time brain tumor survivors have had their grades and subjects studied.

Researchers from the Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have discovered that the molecule chemotoxin, which is found in scorpions, binds specifically to tumor cells. By developing the molecule into a type of tumor paint,' surgeons could possibly target cancer cells more accurately during surgeries and decrease the chances of remission.

Researchers at Rockefeller University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the National Cancer Institute, led by Michel Nussenzweig and his brother Andre Nussenzweig and their colleagues, have discovered this month that a protein, known as ATM has new and extraordinary abilities. Not only does it help repair breaks in the double-stranded structure of DNA in immune cells, but it also prevents genetic damage from being passed on when the cells divide. This new discovery could potentially influence future studies of cancers of the lymph and immune system, known collectively as lymphomas, as ATM has a crucial role in the life cycle of immune cells.

As if arthritis sufferers were not already disadvantaged, they also face slower rates of recovery following knee surgery. According to research announced this month at the Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, being female and suffering from osteoarthritis are both risk factors for delayed recovery after knee arthroscopy.

Approximately one in every 400 children suffers from Type 1 Diabetes . However, a team of scientists from the University of Florida recently discovered that blood from the umbilical cord might contain stem cells that can help defeat this debilitating disease.

Although raised lymph nodes, or glands', are often associated with minor infections such as colds, they may also hold clues to the effect of treatment on each case of esophageal cancer. John Vincent Reynolds, a professor of surgery at the University of Dublin in Ireland, and his colleagues found that the success of treatment may be determined, in advance, by the presence of cancer cells in local lymph nodes. This is important as clinicians may now predict more accurately whether a patient is likely to survive after treatment for cancer of the esophagus.

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel collaborated with the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut to investigate the types of cell-to-cell interactions that play a role in myelination. The results published this week in Nature Neuroscience reported that an interaction between two molecules on axons and "helper" Schwann cells is necessary for myelination, with important implications for the treatment of the host of human diseases affected by the loss of myelin.

A decade-long study of young children with brain tumors found that the use of chemotherapy instead of radiation therapy reduces the chances for long-term brain damage. Radiation therapy was previously believed to be the best treatment for brain tumors despite an increased risk for future learning difficulties. However, the study, conducted in the UK and published in Lancet Oncology, demonstrated that chemotherapy was just as effective and had fewer side effects on children's developing brains.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is finally gaining credibility now that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has released studies linking the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression.

While many students of evolution are familiar with the story of the peppered moth, the most recent chapter of evolutionary theory has been written about a black butterfly. The butterfly species Hypolimnas bolina, H. bolina, has experienced "the fastest evolutionary change that has ever been observed", according to Sylvain Charlat, a post-doctoral researcher, who led a study published in Science earlier this month.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have found that the brains of people who suffer from continued episodes of bipolar disorder shrink at a progressively faster rate. This new insight into bipolar disorder shows that relapses of this life-long condition actually produce worsening changes in the brain, possibly affecting current treatments.

Last week, scientists at the University of Central Florida announced and demonstrated a possible way to cure Type-1 diabetes, an auto-immune disease which destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas.

It's not a magic wand, but it could be the next best thing. Researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a new way to treat cancer: with a zap. The treatment uses a process called electroporation to selectively eliminate tumours with minimal surgery.

An important step in combating infectious diseases like HIV is exploring the origin and evolution of the disease. Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is the equivalent of HIV for monkeys and chimpanzees. It is believed that HIV arose from SIV, which was then transmitted to humans by contact with chimpanzees. In a study published in PLoS Pathogens, scientists from the University of Arizona in Tucson have found that SIV may have infected the African green monkey population much later than previously thought.

In addition to providing much-needed energy boosts, coffee has now been shown to protect your skin from the sun. According to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, coffee increased mice's natural defense against pre-cancerous cells by 400 percent.

On Wednesday, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced a new radiation therapy for early stage breast cancer, designed by oncology group Xoft, Inc. The new treatment, called Axxent® Electronic Brachytherapy System, allows for Medicare patients to receive treatment while delivering minimal radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.

Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have identified a molecule that could explain why some people are affected by food allergies while others remain allergy-free. Led by Claudio Nicoletti, the scientists determined that a molecule Interleukin-12 (IL-12) plays a key role in resisting food allergies in mice. Published online last month by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, their research could eventually lead to a treatment for food allergies.

Scientists at the Department of Neuroscience and Center for Neuroscience Research (CNR) at Tufts University School of Medicine recently showed that glial cells of the nervous system may have a more active role in neuronal activity than previously thought. In their research, published in the August 2 edition of Neuron, the scientists found that a specific group of glial cells is required to control Drosophilia circadian behavior, the flies' internal 24-hour clock.

While it was once believed that harmless bacteria used up their host's energy by inducing an immune system response and increased the aging process, scientists from the University of Southern California have now shown that bacteria are actually not as bad as one may think.

Last week, scientists at Penn State University announced the discovery of a new planet orbiting a star ten times larger than our sun. The find will help astronomers determine the evolution of a solar system, resembling our own, as the central star ages and expands, and will be published in the November issue of the journal Astrophysics.

It is an astonishing fact that man shares 99% of his genes with the humble chimpanzee. Now, a team of researchers from Duke University has shown that differences in dietary preference and cognition are largely due to regulation of genes rather than their sequence.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) may help patients with severe brain injuries who are in the minimally conscious state (MCS). This comes after a team of researchers led by Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Cornell University and Joseph T. Giacino of the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute and the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, in conjunction with a team from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, achieved dramatic results with the technique. They reported their work in last week's issue of Nature.

In exploring the benefits of green tea, researchers at the Arizona Cancer Center determined that chemicals from the drink can increase the level of key detoxification enzymes in humans. Because these enzymes help rid the body of toxins, the increase could explain why green tea seems to play a role in preventing cancer. The research was published in the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

A study, lead by Amit Bar-Or of the Montreal Neurological Institute, investigating a new DNA vaccine could eventually lead to great advancements in treating multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system. This research, to be published in the October 2007 edition of Archives of Neurology, showed that the vaccine known as BHT-3009 both countered some ill effects of MS and improved patients' lives.

Last week, a study was published by researchers at the University of Montreal linking genomic factors to alcohol and tobacco consumption. This study explored the theory that an individual's alcohol and tobacco intake is due to a genetic predisposition rather than the influence of external forces. Researchers taking part in this discovery managed to pinpoint specific chromosomes in human DNA that link a person's desire to consume alcohol or tobacco. The results were published in the study, Genome-wide Scan for Genomic Determinants of Alcohol and Tobacco Use in French Canadian Families.

Countless women have had their dreams realised or dashed by finding out that they are pregnant. Now research published in the journal Sleep earlier this month has shown that pregnancy can affect women's dreams in a literal sense as well.

For years, doctors have emphasized that pregnant women should attempt to minimize their stress during their pregnancies. Now, thanks to a research group from Temple University, doctors can prove that increased stress can potentially induce hypertension (more commonly referred to pre-eclampsia) that could be life-threatening.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that is easily mistaken for a black piece of paper. The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, thin as a sheet of paper, extremely durable, and geared toward meeting any design and energy requirements of electronic devices, medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Scientists at the University of Washington are working with Harborview Medical Center to study a novel approach for treating lung injuries,ultrasound. Resembling very much the "sci-fi" technology seen on popular TV series, this technique includes using ultrasound rays to seal punctured lungs.

Schizophrenia is commonly known as one of the most horrific mental illnesses, however, new research has suggested that it is also the inevitable outcome of human creativity. According to data published in Proceedings of the Royal Society earlier this month, genes which predispose to schizophrenia may have been favoured by natural selection. Lead author Bernard Crespi, professor of evolutionary biology at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and his colleagues concluded that "schizophrenia represents, in part, a maladaptive by-product of adaptive changes during human evolution".

A yearlong review by the United States Geological Survey concluded that the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may lead to the disappearance of about two-thirds of the world's polar bear population by the year 2050. The report, released earlier this month details the startling fate of the polar bears as a result of the shrinking sea ice coverage due to increasing summer temperatures. This summer alone has seen the greatest retreat of sea ice since satellite tracking began in 1979.

Last month, scientists at the University of Arkansas and University of New Mexico announced the finding of a new, economical method to generate nanowire scaffolding on titanium metal. The research, published in the August issue of Chemistry of Materials, gives scientists and doctors the opportunity to make more durable, longer-lasting, and multi-functional bone implants and stents. The find comes at a time when the number of people needing bone replacements is increasing, and cardiovascular disease continues to be the number one killer in the United States.

In a study published online by Cell, a publication of Cell Press, scientists have found that a gene known to have a significant part in the neurological disorder known as schizophrenia also has a greater role in the brain than previously thought. The newly discovered aspects of the gene, known as Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), could lead to better explanations of the development and observed prognosis of schizophrenia.

NASA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, took the next step in the Cassini-Huygens mission by commencing a flyby of Saturn's icy moon, Iapetus,100 times closer than its previous flyby three years ago. Radar images gathered from this flyby, the first by Cassini of an icy moon other than Titan, will help scientists learn to interpret surface features of an icy body with the aid of supplemental ultraviolet or visual light images.

In Malawi, a small country in Southeast Africa, thousands of children fight a daily battle against hunger. Now, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have formulated a new high-calorie, high nutrient content food that is more effective against malnutrition,an enriched peanut butter mixture called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food' (RUTF).

In an article published this past Thursday in BMC Nursing, researchers report that female teens are less likely to be victims of abuse during dating if they have strong support from friends. Dating violence is a serious issue, as it contributes greatly to teen morbidity and mortality, in forms such as substance abuse, eating disorders, depression, early sexual behavior, pregnancy, STDs, and suicide. The findings from the study will help identify female adolescents at risk for dating violence and prevent such violence.

On September 16th, 1987 several nations met in Montreal to discuss the causes and solutions of the growing ozone hole over the Antarctic. Many of these nations signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to limit the production of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Since then, a total of 191 countries have signed the protocol, amendments have strengthened the limitations to CFC productions, and monitoring technologies have improved.

Researchers at Harvard University recently coated cardiac muscle cells with a plastic polymer to create an artificial muscle that can contract like a real heart. The marriage between the plastic polymer, polydimethylsiloxane and rat muscle cells stimulates movement that has the potential for many scientific and medical uses.

Imagine a laser hundreds of times more powerful than any laser known to man, an antimatter lattice that can trap even light, or a molecule that holds the secrets to the universe's greatest bias. This may seem strange, but a recent study conducted by David Cassidy and Allen Mills of the University of California Riverside, detailed the creation of dipositronium – the antimatter equivalent of hydrogen gas.

Although most people go to hospitals for treatment and relief from illness, many find that their health is at risk from hospital acquired infections. New research published in Clinical Infectious Diseases has shown that infections caused by a common bacterium have increased by over 7 percent every year between 1998 and 2003. In addition, hospital expenditure has increased annually by nearly 12 percent to compensate for these infections.

It is common knowledge that too much sleep kills thousands of people at the wheel of their car every year. Now, scientists have shown that, while lack of sleep doubles the incidence of death from cardiovascular disease, excessive sleep can also increase the risk of death from other causes. According to data presented to the British Sleep Society this month by Francesco Cappuccio, Cephalon Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Warwick, career changes and leisure pastimes have "meant that reports of fatigue, tiredness and excessive daytime sleepiness are more common than a few decades ago." Furthermore, "sleep represents the daily process of physiological restitution and recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects."

Advances in the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) are giving hope to physicians, patients, and family members for earlier diagnosis and treatment. Researchers led by Dr. Howard Feldman, Head of the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine, have developed new guidelines for the diagnosis of AD based primarily on the structure of the brain. AD may now be diagnosed when patients are experiencing only slight to mild degrees of cognitive impairment; an improvement on current guidelines which often delay treatment until severe dementia has already set in.

University of Cambridge researchers recently produced real time footage of the nanoscale interaction that occurs between a restriction enzyme and the DNA of an attacking virus. Using a revolutionary Scanning Atomic Force Microscope in Japan, the research team was able to film the mechanism by which the host restriction enzyme unravels the foreign viral DNA. This research, published online on July 23, 2007 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), demonstrates a new method that can be used to visualize DNA-enzyme interactions in real time. This will help improve understanding of other cellular processes, such as DNA replication and DNA repair.

Apart from the ability to cause fear and sometimes anaphylactic shock in humans, bees can now add elephants to their list of "victims." Researchers from Oxford University recently reported in Current Biology that recordings of angry African bees caused elephants to quickly leave the immediate vicinity. African bees owe their elephant-repellant powers to their ability to sting the interior of the elephants' trunks, resulting in elephants' learned behavior to avoid bees.

One of the most famous examples of inter-species viral transfer is the passing of HIV from primates to humans. Earlier this month, researchers have discovered that bats may potentially infect humans with the Marburg virus, a close relative to the Ebola virus.

Recognizing global warming as a threat to life on Earth, scientists are trying to develop a method to alleviate or reverse its effects. Recently Nature published a letter to the editor that suggested how large vertical pipes can be used to mix the ocean's nutrient-rich deep waters and nutrient deficient surface waters in an effort to sequester the planet's excess of CO2 and to potentially cool the climate.

A case of swords into ploughshares? Perhaps. This week, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Harvard University reported in the cover article of the Journal of Neurophysiology on their progress in the design of algorithms in neural prosthetic devices to restore function in patients who suffer from motor deficits. The central themes – graphical models and statistical signal processing – have their roots in the flurry of research that followed America's victory in World War II. WWII researchers' discoveries brought together these themes with modern neuroscience to form a cohesive mathematical approach to designing neural prosthetic devices. This new type of technology could one day dramatically improve the quality of life of patients with neurological disease, where current medical and surgical therapies have fallen short.

It's hard to believe that not so long ago, no one knew that cells could be spun finer than silk. However, earlier this month, scientists reported that they have found a new, safer way of spinning nanothreads of living tissue for use in medical procedures. With this technique, they can use the nanothreads to help construct living scaffolds for medical repairs, tissue regeneration, drug delivery system, and many other medical uses.

Most people have experienced vivid recall of memories that relate to significant life events. Now, a paper published in Cell earlier this month has shown that the hormone noradrenaline, released during periods of high emotion, strengthens connections between neurons in the brain. As a result, the brain distinguishes between significant and insignificant events when allocating its memory capacity.

An HIV-suppressing drug may soon be prescribed to cancer patients. Nelfinavir (Viracept, Pfizer), a drug that hinders the HIV virus's ability to infect new cells, also has the ability to reduce the growth of certain cancer cells. This discovery is published recently in Clinical Cancer Research by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

To some they are just ambulance drivers,' but some paramedics in the UK have demonstrated their worth by treating patients without taking them to hospital. According to one study published in the British Medical Journal earlier this month, paramedics can provide an effective alternative to taking patients directly to hospital. The work was led by Dr Suzanne Mason, a reader in emergency medicine at the University of Sheffield, and concluded that paramedics may be trained to provide a viable alternative "to standard ambulance transfer and treatment in an emergency department for elderly patients with acute minor conditions."

Short afternoon naps, or siestas, can reduce the risk of heart diseases, a team of researchers from John Moores University in Liverpool have found. According to Mohammad Zaregarizi and his colleagues, it is the anticipation period before the sleep that benefits our heart. These findings were first published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in July 2007.

In a study published this month in Genome Research, researchers at the University of Illinois documented the evolution of protein structure. Proteins are found in all living organisms and carry out some of the most important biological reactions, so understanding protein structure in an evolutionary context can be very powerful.

On the 4th of this month, astronomers reported that they had found a solar system that has all the makings for a habitable planet to form. Although this planet may not form for millions of years, it is in the right spot for life to form, or even just to support life.

More than a decade ago, Professor Neil Turok of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, proposed that a certain cosmic defect,called a texture,could be observed from the hot and cold spots they create in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The significance of these textures lies in the fact that they are remnants of symmetrical imperfections in matter, although on extremely small scales, dating all the way back to the Big Bang. Now, using modernized methods, observational backing of this theory is beginning to surface.

There is mounting evidence that some of the viral vector systems used in creating a proper vaccine can interfere with the host immune system and are thus too dangerous to use for vaccine development. The latest study from The Wistar Institute provides strong support for the idea that viral vector vaccines could cause more harm than good. Recent study from researchers at The Wistar Institute has made scientists re-evaluate efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.

An article published October 29th in the New York Times details the exchange of $110 million for 161,000 acres of the Adirondack Mountains. The Nature Conservancy, one of the largest environmental groups in the world, bought the lands from the Finch, Pruyn & Company, a timber company who has held the vast expanse of acreage since the Civil War. The controversy surrounding the deal is that the Finch paper mill will continue logging there for the next twenty years.

Researchers from the Biocommunications Research Institute in Wichita, Kansas, along with teams from the University of Alberta and the University of Western Ontario have discovered a stem cell from menstrual blood in women that has the potential to treat damaged or senesced tissue.aged tissue. During menstruation – a monthly cycle where blood and mucosal tissue from the uterus in nonpregnant women is released – cells that line the womb wall are shed. Researchers discovered that some of these cells are a type of stem cell, which they called Endometrial Regenerative Cells (ERC), and that these cells can differentiate into several different cell types. This research was published in the November issue of the Journal of Translational Medicineand sponsored by Medistem Laboratories.

Results published in PLoS One suggest that inhalation of carbon dioxide can trigger symptoms in healthy individuals that resemble those of panic attacks in anxiety-prone individuals. These results imply that neuronal misfiring leads to the body's oversensitive reaction to changes in carbon dioxide levels. This, in turn, causes the body to believe that it is suffocating and leads to symptoms that resemble panic attacks. One implication of the findings is the possibility of inducing anxiety in the laboratory for the purpose of testing of anti-anxiety drugs.

One of the most anticipated annual events in the scientific community is undoubtedly the Nobel Prize for Physics. This is a prestigious award, which in recent memory has been dominated by purely scientific research interests such as blackbody radiation and elementary particle research. This year, French physicist Albert Fert and German physicist Peter Grünberg were awarded the prize for their independent discovery in 1988 of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR).

In September 2007, scientists from all over the world met at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to discuss the viability of offsetting global warming by fertilizing parts of the ocean with iron.

A research team, led by Clifford J. Woolf and Bruce Bean, tested the combination of capsaicin (the active ingredient in chilli peppers) and a drug called QX-314 (a derivative of lidocaine, the most commonly used local anesthetic) on rats, and showed that the combination was effective in alleviating pain without causing motor impairment. The drug combination took half an hour to fully block pain in the rats. However, once it began, the pain relief lasted for several hours.

A team of researchers from China led by Tao Liu and Chun-You Wang have performed the differentiation of rat pancreatic ductal epithelial cells into insulin-producing cells after transfection with pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor-1 (PDX-1) gene. The researchers have shown that the production and insulin secretion of insulin-producing cells differentiated from pancreatic ductal epithelial cells were higher than those of the untransfected cells in vitro with a significant difference.

Some genes when transferred between bacteria could be lethal to the recipient, barricading the transmission of genetic material between the organisms, an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) revealed in the October 19 edition of the journal Science. Eddy Rubin, director of DOE JGI, suggested that this research could present a novel approach to the discovery of new antibiotics.

The smallpox vaccine is back! But don't be alarmed, the smallpox disease is still eradicated. A joint research team from Stanford University and Jennerex Biotherapeutics, headed by Stephen Thorne, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh, investigated into the smallpox vaccine's potential in eradicating tumors. Results published in October 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation revealed that liver tumor growths in rabbits can be deterred or even reversed. These results suggest a very optimistic outlook in the vaccine's application as an anti-cancer treatment in humans.

In research featured recently in Nature, a group led by Dr. Haifan Lin, Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center and professor of cell biology at Yale School of Medicine, has found that newly discovered piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) may have a greater genetic function, specifically in stem cells, than previously thought.

Caesarean section raises the risk of asthma by 20% and this might be the reason behind the increasing incidence of asthma these days, Dr. Suren Thavagnanam and his colleagues at the Royal Belfast Hospital for sick children in Northern Ireland concluded in their meta-analysis report published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy, July 2007.

Fat cells produce an enzyme which triggers pancreatic beta cells to secret more insulin, concludes a study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis and published in the November issue of Cell Metabolism. Shin-ichiro Imai, the lead researcher, asserts this finding could provide a better therapy for Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, which more than 7 million people are living with in the USA alone.

Researchers at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) and at the University of Pavia have found that RNA is present in the components of chromosomes called telomeres. This discovery about telomeres, whose DNA has long been thought to not transcribe into RNA as the rest of the DNA present on a chromosome does, could provide scientists with a novel way of halting the replenishment of telomeres in cancer cells.

In research published online in a November edition of Nature, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have found that a deficiency in serotonin is associated with abnormally violent, aggressive behavior.

With the climbing demand for whole blood (blood containing all of its components), a new blood substitute may soon offer hope. Researchers at HemoBioTech have solved the problems that have been plaguing artificial blood for several decades. With this new development called HemoTech, the company is taking their product through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trials and hope to have it on the market in a few years. Despite the massive benefits of this new substitute blood, it still has a few hurdles to overcome before we see it in wide use.

More than a decade ago, Professor Neil Turok of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, proposed that a certain cosmic defect,called a texture,could be observed from the hot and cold spots they create in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The significance of these textures lies in the fact that they are remnants of symmetrical imperfections in matter, although on extremely small scales, dating all the way back to the Big Bang. Now, using modernized methods, observational backing of this theory is beginning to surface.

In an article published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Gonzalor Laje, M.D. and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, University of Texas, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, report findings that there may be two genetic markers that increase the likelihood of suicidal thoughts during the course of antidepressant treatment. Their motivation for the study was in part guided by the life-threatening nature of suicidal thoughts during the course of antidepressant treatment with SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, despite being a relatively rare occurrence.

Scientists from Madison, Wisconsin have reported in the most recent issue of Science that they are now able to turn adult skin cells into stem cells. Stem cells hold the promise of curing chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, or Multiple Sclerosis. Although most scientists already recognize this potential, the ethical concerns surrounding the methods of isolating stem cells from human embryos have impeded stem cell research. Fortunately, new methods of obtaining stem cells bypasses the need for human embryos, and Dr. Douglas A. Melton, co-director of the Stem Cell Institute at Harvard University, even claims that it is "ethically uncomplicated (1)."

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have ranked the potential for biodiesel production by nation. The study, published by Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway in Environmental Science and Technology, highlights biodiesel production potential in many developing countries, in addition to current industrialized agricultural exporting nations.

Lidocaine is a local anesthetic that is often administered intravenously or by subcutaneous injection. Recently, however, researchers from the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Lebanon found a more delectable way to package lidocaine,in a lollipop. For patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy procedures, lidocaine lollipops were found to completely eliminate the need for additional sedation. Previously, patients undergoing upper endoscopy procedures were anesthetized with a lidocaine spray. Although lidocaine lollipops have been used previously in children, they have never been reported for use by adults.

HIV has killed over 25 million people since its emergence in late 1981. The virus' resilience comes from mutations – there could be thousands of different HIV strains in a single patient, each with their own resistance to treatments. Research teams from the University of Zurich and the University of Washington have potentially developed a new class of drugs to treat the pandemic Human Immunodeficiency Virus

An international research team is currently working to test Einstein's long-ago dismissed theory of a cosmological constant, noted by Einstein himself as being his "biggest blunder." In the project ESSENCE, this group of scientists is studying supernovae to see whether the accelerating force of the universe, known as "dark energy," is related to Einstein's postulation.

Dr. Nissim Benvenisty and Dr. Rachel Eiges from the Hebrew University Department of Genetics in Jerusalem, Israel, and Dr. Dalit Ben-Yosef from the in vitro fertilization unit at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center have determined the order of events that lead to Fragile X syndrome early in development by using a line of embryonic stem cells carryiwwwng the mutation for the syndrome. The results are published in the November issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Schizophrenia is commonly known as one of the most horrific mental illnesses, but new research has suggested that it is also the inevitable outcome of human creativity. According to data published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B earlier this month, genes which predispose to schizophrenia may have been favoured by natural selection. Lead author Bernard Crespi, professor of evolutionary biology at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and his colleagues concluded that "schizophrenia represents, in part, a maladaptive by-product of adaptive changes during human evolution".

The first artificial mind is closer than we think: it is already here. Many researchers have built many different types of thinking machines, and none so far have come to become the thinking, feeling, song-singing machines that we might expect. But scientist have given the next generation of robot new, remarkable features, the foremost being the ability to remember and to guess. These abilities, though are present in even the most simplistic mammal, have already made improvements to the functions and performance of today's robots.

Advances in the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) are giving hope to physicians, patients, and family members for earlier diagnosis and treatment. Researchers led by Dr. Howard Feldman, Head of the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine, have developed new guidelines for the diagnosis of AD based primarily on the structure of the brain. AD may now be diagnosed when patients are experiencing only slight to mild degrees of cognitive impairment; an improvement on current guidelines which often delay treatment until severe dementia has already set in.