With its effects costing 18 billion dollars annually just in the United States, any discovery attempting to stop antibiotic resistance in bacteria is warmly welcomed. This time however, the news is not about a new antibiotic, but about taking advantage of bacterial clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) DNA sequences

US Government health officials have just reported a national outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning in 42 states, totaling up to nearly 400 cases by Thursday.

China's top health officials have just confirmed the death of a 16-year-old boy from the deadly bird flu virus H5N1, as reported by the Associate Press. The boy became the third victim this month to have died from the disease. These three cases are the first reports of the reemergence of bird flu in China since February of 2007. China's top health officials are urging for immediate awareness and prevention measures against the deadly infection, which has already killed a 27-year- old woman in the Shandong province and a 19-year-old woman in Beijing this month. In addition, there have been 34 other reported cases of infection as well.

Centuries have gone by leaving aside an exquisite collection of carefully handwritten books. However, for most of them, the present dating techniques based on the handwriting and dialect of the scribe have not been able to tell us their either their age or origin. After a long time of neglecting the fact that most parchments are made of animal skin, a young researcher has decided to extract and compare their DNA. Timothy Stinson from North Carolina State University presented his first findings at the annual meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America, held last week in New York.

Eating a high-fat diet and staying lean without exercise is something that many people wish for. Now this dream is a reality, if you are, say, a genetically engineered mouse. Researchers at the University of California, Berkley, led by Dr. Hei Sook Sul, identified an enzyme that plays a key role in fat metabolism and when disabled, allowed mice to gorge on a high-fat diet without the consequences of weight-gain. Published in the January 11th issue of Nature Medicine, these findings might be an early step toward finding a treatment for some forms of human obesity.

A new class of chemicals with anti-androgenic properties have been identified in UK river waters, according to a recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives. Anti-androgenic chemicals inhibit the normal function of androgens, or male sex hormones that are responsible for male sexual characteristics. The study suggests that these chemicals cause decreased fertility in wildlife, and could have further implications in human reproductive health

Have you ever caught yourself singing Bobby Vinton's classic, Mr. Lonely? If so, maybe you should consider some companionship – some female companionship that is. It might have more benefits than one might think, such as improving male fertility. A study performed at the University of Pennsylvania set out to understand the impact female mice had on the production of sperm cells in male mice.

A collaboration of scientists led by Gregory S. Barsh, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, recently determined that the black coating on North American coyotes and wolves originated from a genetic mutation in domesticated dogs. This black coating, found mostly in the species inhabiting in the forests (as opposed to the tundra), signifies a rare moment in evolution where the genes from the domestic species became beneficial to the wild species.

Assistant Professor Aaron D. Gitler and colleagues, from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine, claim to have found a gene which can prevent manganese-induced Parkinson's disease as reported in Nature Genetics. The gene called PARK9, localized in the vacuole membrane of a cell, helps to store manganese and thereby prevent its toxicity, Gitler explained.

After the results from a clinical trial, a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has just reported a promising gene therapy against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. UCLA researcher Ronald T. Mitsuyasu, MD, and colleagues said that this was a "major advance in field of HIV gene therapy."

The results from a seven-year clinical study have recently suggested that a combination of vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid intake may reduce the risk for Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). The study, led by William G. Christen, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, revealed that this combination may be effective against one of the leading causes of vision loss in older Americans.

Memory recall involves shuffling through the innumerable scenes or scenarios stored in our brain. Inevitably, one memory leads to another, so instead of just recalling what movie you watched two weeks ago, you also remember a delicious (or unfortunately horrible) meal you had the very same day. Researchers led by Fred H. Gage at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences found in their study, published on January 29th in Neuron, that new born neurons may have the ability to create time codes for memories that are formed around the same time, very much like a digital camera dates photos.

A team of NASA and university scientists have found methane on Mars which shows that the red planet is either geologically or biologically active. Since the carbon and hydrogen compound is typically destroyed quickly in the Martian atmosphere, the team concludes that something on Mars must be actively releasing this methane, refuting previous notions that Mars is a "dead planet."

Once, an Asiatic freshwater turtle decided to migrate to an attractively warm paradise called the Arctic. Ninety millions years later, a shivering team, from the University of Rochester found its fossilized shell haphazardly in the same area. The decision of migrating may now prove to be the wisest in the turtle's life, since its fossil is helping us build in our minds what the Arctic used to be like and how the Earth's dynamics have radically transformed the landscape. The findings were published in the February edition of the journal Geology.

Ask any four year old or seventy four year old and they will be able to recite that timeless saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Well, that universal saying has garnered some scientific investigation. Recently, researchers at Cornell University have shed light on why apples have been reputed so well–they may help fight against breast cancer.

Nowadays, we are bombarded by all sorts of advertisements urging us to get as many antioxidants in our diet as possible. The list of must-eats' and benefits is quite overwhelming. Perhaps the most attractive feature of antioxidants is its supposed anti-aging properties. It turns out that these super nutrients might not be that magical after all. In a study published in the February issue of PLoS Genetics, researchers at McGill University have questioned the entire oxidative stress theory.

After detecting high levels of arsenic in the earthworms living near a mine, British scientists came up with an unusual way to detect human exposure to the chemical - by testing toenail clippings. The researchers from Nottingham Trent University, Leicester University, and the British Geological Survey published their findings on the Journal of Environmental Monitoring

Scientists have found that iron is spewed out by hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor which could be a source of nutrients for sea life at shallower depths. Published in Nature Geoscience, aquatic organisms can metabolize unoxidized iron more efficiently than its oxidized form, and so this discovery would help elucidate the mechanisms by which sea microorganisms obtain nutrients.

A team of researchers funded by the Canadian Cancer Society have identified eight gene mutations that are believed to be responsible for medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor in children. These findings are a major step forward because they have improved our understanding of the cause of medulloblastomas, which currently account for over 20% of childhood cancer deaths. The findings of this study were reported today in the online publication of Nature Genetics.

Early Monday, astronomers confirmed the passing of an asteroid a mere 45,000 miles above the Earth's surface. This distance is about twice as high as the locations of most satellites that orbit the Earth in free fall, but about only one-fifth the distance between the Earth and its moon. Although it passed somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and did not reach the Earth's surface, it did receive some publicity among the scientists. "It's pretty unusual to see one this close," said Timothy Spahr, an astronomer at Harvard University, "if an object of this size were to impact the Earth, it would be equivalent to a small nuclear explosion."

One of the biggest costs involved in treating water is cleaning the filters that purify the water. Microbes in the water agglomerate on the surface of the filters in a process called biofouling. This clogs the filters, requiring costly cleaning. New research at Duke University could help prevent this clogging through the use of a carbon nanoparticle called the "buckyball."

We've all been told to turn off the lights when leaving the room, and now University of Michigan researchers have proposed a similar plan, called PowerNap, for the world's data centers. The results of their work have been summarized in the APLOS 2009 proceedings.

The results from a recent clinical study suggested the promising ability of "functional" yogurts that have been strengthened with antibodies to prevent and treat stomach ulcers and gastritis. The study was conducted by a group of Japanese researchers at Kyoto Women's University and the results were recently presented at the 237th meeting of the American Chemical Society at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

A team of scientists from Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom has recently built the first robot to "independently discover new scientific knowledge." Their results were recently published in the journal Science.

Picture this: You're sitting on a grassy field in the Savanna, watching the sun set while the birds chirp around you and a cool spring breeze tickles your face. Then you turn on the TV to catch the evening news. Sound impossible? Maybe not.

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto and Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Lab in Karlsruhe (CVUA), Germany stated in a review published online in Addiction on 17th March 2009 that current risk assessments of acetaldehyde-induced cancer do not accurately portray risks associated with the disease. They also stated that alcoholic beverages carry the highest risk of acetaldehyde-induced cancer.

Why do domesticated dogs come in so many different shapes and colours, while wolves appear to be much similar to each other? Scientists have long theorized that humans had something to do with this increased phenotypic diversity within the species, and now researchers from the Universities of Uppsala and Durham have confirmed one piece of the puzzle in a study published in PLoS Genetics in March.

In a recent study, fossilized coral reefs gave new insight into the direct correlation between an increase in global temperature and the rise in sea level. The results from the study, done by a team of collaborators from Mexico and Germany, were published on April 16, 2009 in the journal Nature.

Although it's still winter in Alaska, one of its volcanoes has begun to heat up. Starting the night of March 22, Mount Redoubt, located 106 miles southwest of Anchorage, began to spew ash over the south-central part of Alaska. This was just the beginning of a series of explosive eruptions that have been shaking the state.

Recently, a study discussing the evolution of the rhinovirus genome that is responsible for nearly half of all cold infections was conducted by researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU). The knowledge gained from this study could make important contributions to the discovery of potential vaccines, which may be much more effective than common self-remedies.

This past month, scientists from Cornell University published a paper in the journal GENETICS that detailed a new tool for identifying groundbreaking events in the history of humanity's evolution. This tool also serves to hone in on the origins of mutations, or permanent changes, in genes, the working subunits of DNA. By determining the source of genetic mutations, scientists can come closer to understanding and treating the origins of numerous diseases.

Most frequent travelers have their own home remedies for jet lag, using techniques from light meditation to walking barefoot across a fluffy carpet. Now, a joint effort by researchers at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and the University of Michigan has produced a new remedy that has been proven effective in clinical studies: a computer program.

The search for a memory trace', the chemical and biophysical changes that occur in the brain when we form memories, has been one of the most researched areas in neuroscience. Despite this, many important questions remain unanswered, such as: what factors influence whether a neuron will be incorporated into a memory network, and indeed, is there a network of neurons responsible for a specific memory?

On June 5th 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that an anti-diarrheal vaccine has been approved for use. The vaccine targets the rotavirus, a vicious double-stranded RNA virus that is the leading cause of severe diarrhea among children.

With the number of internet users going up daily, there is an increasing demand for high speed and reliable internet access. Current telecommunications networks must convert optical signals to electrical signals, a somewhat inefficient process. An international team of researchers from Lehigh University, University of Karlsruhe in Germany, Ghent University in Belgium and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich say that a full optical pathway could provide a tremendous boost to data processing. They are getting closer to this goal,by going organic! They have discovered an organic silicon material, of which a description was published on the Nature Photonics website on March 15th, with unprecedented optical quality.

Spending hours in front of a TV playing video games may actually be good for teenagers. Previous studies have shown that these games enhance motor skills and reaction time, but this time around, a study published in April's issue of Nature Neuroscience demonstrates that playing violent video games improves visual functions in young males. The study was a joint effort between researchers from the University of Rochester and Tel Aviv University.

Visits to auto body shops might become obsolete after Marek Urban, a researcher from the University of Southern Mississippi, announced the development of a car paint that heals itself from scratches when exposed to sunlight. By adding a chemically modified version of chitosan, a crab shell component, to polyurethane, Urban's team obtained the remarkable coating. Their study was published in the March 13 issue of Science.

Two years ago, Mary Schweitzer stirred paleontologists all over the world after announcing that she had recovered intact proteins from a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. Her findings defied the general belief that proteins degrade over time, and hence were received amidst much skepticism and controversy. However, Schweitzer's paper in the May 1st edition of Science confirms that her techniques revolutionized paleontology. Along with her team from North Carolina State University, she has recently found intact proteins in an 80-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur.

Our fascination with extraterrestrial life has grown over the years, with the first unmanned voyage to Mars and the iconic hollow-eyed, slithery green alien frequenting sci-fi movies and novels. Are aliens simply objects of the imagination, or have we just not looked long and far enough?

01 November 2008 - The memories of the violent tsunami that ravaged the coastal areas of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia in 2004 are still very vivid, with the victims still in the process of rebuilding their communities. There is, however, hope of minimizing casualties if such a disaster were to happen again, in the unlikely form of a mathematical formula.

Surprisingly, not only atoms prefer to form crystals. For a system of polymer-like chains of particles, the best way to maximize entropy is letting them form crystal structures as well. Manuel Laso and his team at the Technical University of Madrid reported the finding in the 24th July Physical Review Letter.

Imagine each universe is a bubble. Physicists recently found that a classical collision of two bubble universes results in a new, long-lived one. There is a chance our universe was created by this collision process, and cosmological observations are one way to test that theory. Professor Richard Easther of Yale University and collaborators submitted the theory to arXiv (an open e-print archive for mathematics and physical sciences) on July 19, 2009.

Surprisingly, not only atoms prefer to form crystals. For a system of polymer-like chains of particles, the best way to maximize entropy is letting them form crystal structures as well. Manuel Laso and his team at the Technical University of Madrid reported the finding in the 24th July Physical Review Letter.

A team of University of Central Florida research scientists, led by Asst. Prof. J. Manuel Perez, has developed what could become an alternative treatment to chemotherapy for patients diagnosed with cancer. The research centered on engineered nanoparticles designed to eliminate tumors in the body.

Researchers led by Dr. Ashok Aiyar at the Louisiana State University Health Center (LSUHC) have uncovered the gene that is responsible for abnormal cell proliferation in cancers resulting from the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The Epstein-Barr virus, which originates from the Herpes family of viruses, is common and most of the human population will contract the virus at some point in their lives. In fact, at least 95% of adults in the U.S. between the ages of 35-40 have contracted the virus.

The lateral line system, the ability to sense the surroundings, could be the sixth sense organ for which we are looking. Professor Leo van Hemmen and his team from the Department of Physics at the Technische University, Muenchen wrote about their progress in decoding the amazing sensory system of fishes and amphibians in Physical Review Letters1,2 August 2009.

A common example of a parasitoid relationship, where an organism lies inside a single host organism for a significant part of its life history, is between the wasp and the aphid because parasitoid wasps lay eggs inside aphids. Aphids, commonly known as plant lice, are small plant-eating insects. When the eggs hatch, the larvae survive by consuming the aphid. It used to seem that the aphids had no defense mechanism against the parasitoid larvae, but scientists from the University of Arizona have discovered a method that allows the aphid to survive. Results of a study recently published in the August 2009 issue of Science show that virus-infected Hamiltonella defensa, a bacterium that resides inside aphids, can help confer survival.

Scientists from Indiana University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have provided a scientific rationale for the evolution of sex by studying the host-parasite relationship in the New Zealand snail. The unique ability of the snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, to hold asexual and sexual forms allowed scientists to confirm the strategic advantage of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction. The results of this study were recently published in the July issue of the American Naturalist.

With potent and volatile bacteria such as E.Coli and Giardia lamblia in the world's drinking water, the scientific community is developing new ways for effective water purification techniques. The presence of coliforms like E.Coli in drinking water can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhea and even death. Researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories have created a new coagulant, a substance used for water purification, that substitutes a gallium atom in the center of an aluminum oxide cluster. The discovery has led to the creation of an effective decontaminant that creates a strong bond with waste matter and has a longer shelf life than those of other water purification products currently on the market. The Sandia Advance coagulant material is effective in removing bacterial, viral, organic and inorganic contaminating substances from river water that have the potential to infiltrate the world's drinking supply.

With potent and volatile bacteria such as E.Coli and Giardia lamblia in the world's drinking water, the scientific community is developing new ways for effective water purification techniques. The presence of coliforms like E.Coli in drinking water can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhea and even death. Researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories have created a new coagulant, a substance used for water purification, that substitutes a gallium atom in the center of an aluminum oxide cluster. The discovery has led to the creation of an effective decontaminant that creates a strong bond with waste matter and has a longer shelf life than those of other water purification products currently on the market. The Sandia Advance coagulant material is effective in removing bacterial, viral, organic and inorganic contaminating substances from river water that have the potential to infiltrate the world's drinking supply.

A proofreading mechanism exclusive to the Y chromosome has revealed its dark side: it may be responsible for male infertility, sex reversal, and even genetic syndromes. David Page and his team at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research studied this mechanism in patients' DNA samples. Their findings were published on the September 4 issue of Cell.

An international network of scientists from Singapore, The Netherlands, and France has developed a unique method of immunization that can provide key information on how to prevent Plasmodium falciparum from infecting humans. This parasite is the cause of malaria, a disease that kills an average of one million people per year. The results were recently published in the July 30 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

A study was published in the November issue of Cancer Prevention Research describing the plausible positive effects of green tea. While green tea is well known to have beneficial effects in preventing heart disease and certain types of cancer, this study is one of the first to confirm the medicinal benefits of green tea.

How do birds know which direction to go during migrating season? While different theories exist to explain this phenomenon, the exact reason had yet to be confirmed. A new study, published in the October issue of Nature, shows that European robins use their eyes to detect magnetic field, as there are magnetic sensing cells in the eyes and a visual center in the brain to process the signal. The author of the study, Henrik Mouritsen from University of Oldenburg, Germany, believes that the result can potentially improve conservation efforts for migratory birds.