Understanding what makes people crave the high of nicotine is a key to developing treatment for this highly addictive drug. And that understanding involves tracing the neural machinery by which nicotine switches on the brain's reward machinery.

Bacteria in the soil can transform the most commonly used flame retardant compound in the United States into more toxic forms that could be harmful to humans, according to a new laboratory study published today on the Web site of the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology. The study is scheduled to appear in the July 15 print issue of the journal.

The lead researcher for the team who - 10 years ago - created the cloned sheep "Dolly," will kick off the 2006 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference in Boston, June 18-21. At the meeting, nearly two-thousand of the world's leading scientists will discuss a variety of critical issues affecting pharmaceutical biotechnology including Biogenerics, a field that is being hailed as the next revolution in healthcare.

A scanning electron micrograph to illustrate the fibrous structure of the tube wall. The fibers are fewer than 500 nanometers in diameter, compared with the average hair shaft, which is 80,000-100,000 nanometers.Virginia Commonwealth University engineers and scientists have developed a new material that may one day help patients with damaged arteries regenerate new ones.

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A motion-triggered camera trap set up in a remote jungle has captured the first-ever photo of a rhino in the wild on the island of Borneo, World Wildlife Fund and the Sabah Wildlife Department announced today.

A specialist in stem cell biology at the University at Buffalo has received a $1.98 million grant from National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of bone marrow-derived adult stem cells to treat the serious heart malfunction known as hibernating myocardium.

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Calgary have found that stem cells derived from adult skin can create neural cell types that can be transplanted into and function in mouse models of disease. This research is reported in the June 14, 2006 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Standard methods of predicting air pollution don't take atmospheric chlorine into account, but the chemical could be responsible for 10 percent or more of daily ozone production in local air, research at UC Irvine has found.

Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, thanks to research published this week.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and Ceregene Inc., San Diego, have successfully used gene therapy to preserve motor function and stop the anatomic, cellular changes that occur in the brains of mice with Huntington's disease (HD). This is the first study to demonstrate that, using this delivery method, symptom onset might be prevented in HD mice with this treatment.

A scientific expedition to a remote glacier field in Canada's High Arctic may help researchers unlock the secrets about the beginning of life and provide insights for future exploration of our solar system.