A hanging basket style device is at the heart of a plan by researchers at the University of Warwick to harness the sex drive of a major pest of fruit orchards as a weapon to spread a virus to kill that very same pest. The device allows growers to selectively target the pest with a virus that kills its larvae without killing other beneficial insects.

University of Pittsburgh researchers first to report function of tunneling nanotubules

Immune system cells are connected to each other by an extensive network of tiny tunnels that, like a building's hidden pneumatic tube system, are used to shoot signals to distant cells. This surprising discovery, being reported by two University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in the September issue of the journal Immunity, may explain how an immune response can be so exquisitely swift. The research not only proves cells other than neurons are capable of long-distance communication, but it reveals a hereto-unknown mechanism cells use for exchanging information.

Daniel Gallie's findings propose a useful approach to feed the world's growing population

Corn with twice its usual content of protein and oil and about half of its usual carbohydrate content is what Daniel Gallie, professor of biochemistry at UC Riverside, will present at a congressional seminar in Washington, D.C., this week.

Novel use of genetic testing methods helped public health officials control and limit the further spread of four outbreaks of foodborne hepatitis A virus in 2003 related to the consumption of green onions, according to a detailed analysis published in the October 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

Individuals treated with antibiotics for acne for more than six weeks were more than twice as likely to develop an upper respiratory tract infection within one year as individuals with acne who were not treated with antibiotics, according to an article in the September issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Large-scale computer simulations have pinpointed a tiny change in molecular structure that could account for drug resistance in Streptomices pneumoniae, the organism that causes childhood pneumonia and claims 3.5 million lives a year, mainly in developing countries. Such knowledge could be invaluable in designing new drugs that are effective against the drug resistant strain.

Addicts crave drugs and suffer relapse not just because of the alluring high of drugs, but also because they are compelled by the powerful, haunting memory associations with the environment surrounding their drug taking. Thus, treatments that could eliminate those memory associations could prove effective in treating addiction, researchers believe.