One of the biggest problems in fighting breast cancer is the lack of inexpensive, early detection diagnostic tools.

By searching through all the genes in the fruitfly genome, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified those required for a certain type of cell migration and simultaneously captured a global view of all the genes turned on when cells are on the move.

Previously unknown molecules and regulatory pathways in human glomerular diseases have been identified by a joint effort of the Medizinische Poliklinik, Munich, the University of Bristol´s Children´s Renal Unit, the German Cancer Research Center, sanofi-aventis, and Genomatix Software GmbH.

An Australian research team has solved one of biology's most fundamental questions – why males produce sperm and females produce eggs. The finding is a breakthrough that could lead to improved infertility treatment, cancer therapy and pest management.

Do you remember learning to swim? Thrashing around, floundering, until suddenly it all clicks into place and a few feeble strokes of doggy-paddle propel you away from your parent's arms. Surely, you think, fish must be born as expert swimmers. Actually, fish larvae are pretty feeble when it comes to an efficient mode of swimming called 'burst-and-coast'. Dr Ulrike Müller from Wageningen University studies how fish swim: "Fish larvae are the most critical life history stage. In marine fish more than 99% of the mortality occurs in the larval stage so anything that might explain what holds them back is useful". Müller will present her research on Monday 3rd April, at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Main Meeting in Canterbury [session A5].

There's no doubt that laughter feels good, but is there real neurophysiology behind it and what can you do about it?

In a paper being presented in two American Physiological Society sessions at Experimental Biology 2006, a joint Estonian-French team demonstrated "for the first time that mitochondria are able to induce nuclear deformation, suggesting that mitochondria may mechanically regulate nuclear function."

Corals don't only occur in warm, sun-drenched, tropical seas; some species are found at depths of three miles or more in cold, dark waters throughout the world's oceans. Some cold-water coral reefs are home to more than 1,300 species of animals, a diversity rivaling some better known tropical coral reefs. Until now, scientists believed bottom trawling – a commercial fishing method in which vessels drag large, heavily weighted nets across the bottom – to be the greatest threat to cold-water corals. Now, however, a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment suggests that human activities could be threatening cold water reefs in another way.

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. But these pictures could one day be worth much more -- the lives saved by the development of new vaccines.