Environmental arsenic pollution is a serious and growing environmental problem, especially on the Indian subcontinent. Researchers at the University of Georgia had, several years ago, used genetic techniques to create "arsenic-eating" plants that could be planted on polluted sites.

Fish kills, foul odors and closed beaches hit Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay during the summer of 2001. The culprit was hypoxia, or oxygen depletion, which literally suffocates sea life. While some evidence of this "dead zone" could be seen on the bay's surface, Brown University ecologists went underwater and discovered a massive mussel die-off.

Yale School of Medicine researchers have new data showing chloride ions are critical to hearing in mammals, which builds on previous research showing a chemical used to keep barnacles off boats might disrupt the balance of these ions in ear cells.

Scientists have made significant progress toward elucidating key genetic events associated with the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable malignancy that is the second most common cancer of the blood. The results, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, provide new genetic and biological insights that open innovative directions for the discovery of effective therapeutics that can be targeted to specific MM patients based on genetic perturbations known to contribute to MM pathogenesis.

Scientists have discovered that a stem cell factor overexpressed both in brain tumor cells and in neurons following brain injury promotes tumor survival by inducing angiogenesis. The research study, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, examines the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding tissues and may have substantial significance for design of more effective therapeutics for one of the most lethal types of tumor, malignant gliomas.

The lab-on-a-chip is a miniaturized, portable version of a blood-count machine. On long missions, astronauts will need the ability to analyze blood samples in real-time to diagnose infection, allergies, anemia...A cell phone-sized blood-count machine requiring less blood than a mosquito bite will make blood tests easier for many patients, from neonatal units to astronauts in space.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research (CILR) has lodged a complete patent application for compounds to treat cancer.

Although most people consider bird droppings a nuisance, scientists at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab see them as a rich source of phosphorus, a natural fertilizer for grassbeds which have been destroyed by boat propellers. Over the next couple of months, Sea Lab scientists Dr. Ken Heck and Dr. John Dindo will be setting out bird stakes in an effort to revive scarred grassbeds around the popular recreational spot of Robinson Island in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The same signal responsible for promoting the type of immune responses that cause asthma and allergy can also limit the type of inflammation associated with debilitating diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The researchers discovered how IL-25, a signaling protein known as a cytokine, both prevents destructive inflammation and promotes immune responses associated with asthma and allergic responses.

Researchers have discovered how the protein Hap1, which is abundant in the brain's hypothalamus, serves as the link between circulating insulin in the blood and the neural circuitry that controls feeding behavior in mice.

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.