Image of a sycidium gyrogonite surrounded by its utricule.Researchers from the Université de Montpellier II (France), the Institute of Geology of China, and the ESRF have been able to identify enigmatic fossils from Devonian (about 400 million years) as fructification of charophyte algae. Charophytes are land plants living in fresh water that still exist nowadays. This breakthrough allows researchers to better understand the evolution of these very old plants of the Paleozoic era and to have an improved overview of the climate at this period. The use of powerful X-rays beams to perform high resolution microtomography at the ESRF was one of the major keys in helping to understand the internal structure of these fossils. The results of this research are published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Botany with the title "New insights into Paleozoic charophyte morphology and phylogeny".

Research into the evolution of protein design by a University of Houston professor will be featured among nearly 20 presentations at the 2005 Nano Summit Research Conference July 28.

A team of scientists has discovered three molecules –– from a search of 58,000 compounds –– that appear to inhibit a key perpetrator of Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists at Galileo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have demonstrated a direct relationship between inflammation and glucose levels. Through its recently established metabolic disease program, Galileo confirmed in preclinical models that inhibiting lipoxygenases, known mediators of inflammatory response, significantly lowers blood glucose levels in animal models of diabetes.

The North Atlantic right whale's future looks grim if the current mortality rates continue, according to Florida State University assistant professor of oceanography Douglas Nowacek and a group of fellow scientists from across the nation.

The natural world has been medicine's most effective arsenal, providing life-saving antibiotics and our most potent anti-cancer drugs.

Millions of bacteria live within the recesses of our noses and upper respiratory tracts, waiting for a chance to infiltrate and infect. But long before these bacteria break through our immune defenses, they must first compete against other bacterial species to colonize the mucus-lined surfaces of our noses.