Nanoscale assembly of the new lipid (green) and DNA (purple). Credit: Peter Allen, UCSB. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have created a new molecule that holds promise in fighting disease via gene therapy. Inherited diseases, as well as many cancers and cardiovascular diseases, may eventually be helped by this approach, which delivers therapeutic genes directly to cells. These genes can correct genetic defects, for example, or help the body's immune system fight cancer cells.

When high-ranking monkeys are shown images of other monkeys glancing one way or the other, they more readily follow the gaze of other high-ranking monkeys, Duke University Medical Center neurobiologists have discovered. By contrast, they tend to ignore glance cues from low-status monkeys; while low-status monkeys assiduously follow the gaze of all other monkeys.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have successfully "knocked down" the expression of possible disease-causing genes in a cloned goat fetus, perhaps paving the way for breeding disease resistance in other animals, even those genes that might cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease.

Although more than 100 people have been infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, mostly from close contact with infected poultry, the fact that the virus does not spread easily from its pioneering human hosts to other humans has been a biomedical puzzle.

Since the mid-1990s a great debate has raged over whether organic compounds and tiny globules of carbonate minerals imbedded in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 were processed by living creatures from the Red Planet.

Wild type (left) and noxA mutant (right) perennial reygrass infected with E. festucae fungus.A symbiotic relationship is one in which two organisms of different species interact in ways that profoundly affect their livelihoods and reproductive success.

Using new DNA "fingerprinting" techniques, two University of Minnesota researchers have become the first to unequivocally separate hemp plants from marijuana plants with genetic markers.

Economic and political forces are rapidly transforming the forests of the Amazon basin, precipitating one of the world's greatest environmental crises.

Fighting the fungus that wipes out rice - scientists a step closer to protecting world's most important crop

Are plant species real or imaginary? Many botanists have argued grouping plants into species is merely an exercise of convenience.Credit: Robert CzarnyNotoriously "promiscuous" plants like oaks and dandelions have led some biologists to conclude plants cannot be divided into species the same way animals are.