There are many reasons why living in dense groups with others of your own kind is a good idea. Oftentimes, aggregations of a species serve as protection from predators and harsh environments or may be beneficial to future reproductive success. However, in the case of oyster larvae, the selection of a place to call home can be a life or death decision.

A comprehensive survey of lizards on islands around the world has confirmed what island biologists and seafaring explorers have long observed: Animals on islands are much more abundant than their counterparts on the mainland.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has been associated with altered amounts of slow wave sleep, which could reflect reduced electroencephalograph (EEG) activity and impaired sleep regulation. A study published in the May 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that CFS is also associated with a blunted slow wave activity (SWA) response to sleep challenge, suggesting an impairment of the basic sleep drive and homeostatic response.

Even though they had the ability to evolve and survive for hundreds of millions of years - since before the time of the dinosaurs and through many climatic regimes - the massive, worldwide decline of amphibians can best be understood by their inability to keep pace with the current rate of global change, a new study suggests.

Research teams at Yale University and the University of Rhode Island have demonstrated a new way to target and potentially treat tumors using a short piece of protein that acts like a nanosyringe to deliver “tags” or therapy to cells, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The antiviral drug peramivir might offer humans significant protection during a pandemic of the avian influenza virus H5N1, according to results of mouse studies conducted by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

This zoom-in Scanning Electron Microscope image shows a five-nozzle M3 emitter, where each nozzle measures 10x12 microns. In recent years, the science of biology has been dominated by genomics – the study of genes and their functions. The genomics era is now making way for the era of proteomics – the study of the proteins that genes encode. Future proteomics research should see a substantial acceleration with the development of a new device that provides the first monolithic interface between mass spectrometry and silicon/silica-based microfluidic "lab-on-a-chip" technologies. This new device, called a multinozzle nanoelectrospray emitter array, was developed by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that malfunction of a gene that had been associated with schizophrenia and depression does indeed cause symptoms of those disorders. They said their findings in mice offer a possible animal model for developing treatments for schizophrenia and depression. Also, they said their findings support the theory that the two disorders share common genetic mechanisms.

Researchers have pinpointed in humans how a "backup" brain region springs into action to compensate for disruption of a primary functional area, as happens during stroke. Their finding offers new insight into how the brains of stroke victims can quickly reorganize to enable the beginning of recovery of movement.

By adulthood, most people have suffered at least one bout of painful cold sores brought on by the Herpes simplex virus 1, also known as HSV-1. After the initial infection, the virus usually remains in the body, hiding out in nearby nerve cells where the victim's immune defenses cannot reach it, causing no symptoms at all.

When it comes to studying energy transfer in photosynthesis, it's good to think "outside the bun."