A protein that activates estrogen receptors in breast cancer may play a role in resistance to therapeutic effects of anti-estrogen tamoxifen treatment, according to a study in the May 17 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Seventeen years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, compelling new evidence suggests that remnants of the worst oil spill in U.S. history extend farther into tidal waters than previously thought, increasing the probability that the oil is causing unanticipated long-term harm to wildlife. The finding appears today on the Web site of the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science & Technology.

In response to cold, plants trigger a cascade of genetic reactions that allow them to survive. University of California, Riverside Professor of Plant Cell Biology Jian-Kang Zhu has described how a little-known biochemical reaction regulates that genetic cascade.

The world is filled with cues that could influence the daily feeding patterns of an organism. Many plants, for example, respond to foraging damage by releasing specialized chemical signals - volatile organic compounds that evaporate in the air - that attract the forager's natural enemies. This strategy is obviously no use against a cow, but proves effective when the offender is a caterpillar and the summoned predator is a wasp. Just how much control such biotic factors exert over a forager's daily routine has remained an open question. But in a new study in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Kaori Shiojiri, Rika Ozawa, and Junji Takabayashi show that plant signals can indeed regulate herbivore behavior.

In an important new paper forthcoming in the June issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, Robert Shapiro (New York University) argues against the widely held theory that the origin of life began with the spontaneous appearance of a large, replicating molecule such as RNA. Instead, Shapiro raises an alternative that does not depend on a "stupendously improbable accident," presenting the more plausible idea that life began within a mixture of simple organic molecules, multiplied through catalyzed reaction cycles and an external source of available energy.

Nearly half of the people responding to an online survey about obesity said they would give up a year of their life rather than be fat, according to a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have demonstrated that normal development of the eye requires the right amount of a neural stem cell gene be expressed at the right time and place.

A group of German scientists has synthesized a new compound that dramatically decreases the damage to neurons in rats demonstrating stroke symptoms. The research appears as the "Paper of the Week" in the May 26 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

Development of a new technique for detecting brain damage caused by stroke has been boosted up by a £1m grant to scientists at The University of Manchester. Professor Gareth Morris of the School of Chemistry and Professor Risto Kauppinen of the University of Birmingham are to lead the development of a new non-invasive technique which measures acidity (pH) in the brain.

Scientists have identified a new molecule that inhibits proliferation of a broad range of lethal malignant glioma cells in vitro and in vivo. The findings, published in the May issue of Cancer Cell, shed light on which PI3 kinase family members are most likely to play a role in cancer progression. This study reinforces the concept that successful small molecule kinase inhibitors must display a broad reactivity to effectively attenuate the complex signaling pathways involved in malignant transformation and to thwart to the ability of cancer cells to adapt to stress.