Ed : Don't miss out the cool movies, link at the end of the press release!

Yale University School of Medicine researchers have found a way to exercise a little mind control over fruit flies, making the flies jump, beat their wings, and fly on command by triggering genetic "remote controls" that the scientists designed and installed in the insects' central nervous systems, according to a new report in the 8 April issue of the journal Cell.

OWL Genomics, biotechnological company, has presented at the CIC bioGUNE hold at the Bizkaia Technological Park (Derio), the first DNA chip concerning diagnosis and prognosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), allowing the discrimination between normal, steatosis and NASH predisposed subjects.

Mankind's closest living relatives-the world's apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates-face increasing peril from humans and some could soon disappear forever, according to a report released today by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN-The World Conservation Union's Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Conservation International (CI).

It's been known for a long time that only 2% -- 3% of human DNA codes for proteins. Much of the rest of our genomes -- often referred to as junk DNA -- consists of retroelements: genomic elements that are transcribed into RNA, reverse-transcribed into DNA, and then reinserted into a new spot in the genome. Human endogenous retroviruses make up one class of these retroelements. Retroviruses can insinuate themselves into the host's DNA in either soma (nonreproductive cells) or the germline (sperm or egg).

The GARBAN project, drawn up by Navarre University, will enable the identification of therapeutic targets for cancer, depression and hepatitis.

Photo courtesy of NOAA/Sandy ShumwayExposure to toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning can result in a mutation that makes some clams much more resistant to the toxin, which can result in a greater danger to humans, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature. Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) are produced by algae that appear in certain coastal areas in the United States in an event known as an algal bloom, commonly called a "red tide." People who eat clams exposed to the PSTs can suffer the paralytic effects of the toxins, and there is no cure for the poisoning.

A major new Dutch study has found that smoking adds the equivalent of ten years to a 20-year-old subfertile woman's reproductive age and has a "devastating" impact on a couples' chances of having a live birth after IVF. Being overweight also seriously damages their chances.

The charming meanderings of butterflies are not as random as they appear, according to new research. Scientists at Rothamsted Research, a research institute sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in Hertfordshire, have found that their seemingly irresolute flutterings are in fact decisive flight paths. The harmonic radar has been used before to track the flights of bumblebees and honeybees. Now it has been shown to work for butterflies too, opening a new window on the flight behaviour of these important pollinating species.