Scientists have discovered how ocean circulation is working in the current that flows around Antarctica by tracing the path of helium from underwater volcanoes. The details are published in Nature this week.

Using techniques that could revolutionize manufacturing for certain materials, researchers have grown carbon nanotubes that are the longest in the world. While still slightly less than 2 centimeters long, each nanotube is 900,000 times longer than its diameter.

Catheter techniques are expanding into new territory, successfully aiding in the replacement of narrowed, calcified aortic valves in patients too sick to withstand open-chest surgery. According to a study reported at the 30th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), May 9–12, 2007, in Orlando, FL, patients who were treated with the CoreValve Revalving System (CoreValve, Irvine, CA) experienced improvements in both the size of the aortic valve and in the severity of heart failure.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease, primarily carried by cats. It is transmitted to humans by eating undercooked meat or through contact with cat faeces. It is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, whose foetuses can be infected via the placenta, and those with a weakened immune system, such as people infected with HIV. In severe cases, toxoplasmosis can cause damage to the brain and eyes, and even death

ON THE COVER OF SCIENCE: A bat, Glossophaga soricina, in flight in a wind tunnel at Lund University, Sweden. The velocity field induced by the wingbeat is shown superimposed and to scale. The bat wake reconstructions have features that have not been observed in similar-sized birds. Membranous and feathered wings of natural and engineered flyers may have significantly different aerodynamic properties. Credit: Lund University, Sweden Bats generate a measurably distinct aerodynamic footprint to achieve lift and maneuverability, quite unlike birds and contrary to many of the assumptions that aerodynamicists have used to model animal flight, according to University of Southern California aerospace engineer Geoffrey Spedding.

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have shown that cytomegalovirus (CMV) in the salivary glands can be reduced – and in some cases eliminated – through the use of antibodies to enhance the disease-fighting power of the immune system. The research team’s findings, based on controlled laboratory studies of mice, may also have implications for other chronic virus infections, such as hepatitis and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions today announced the launch of the Encyclopedia of Life, an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens would have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered.

Peter Baumann, Ph.D., Assistant Investigator, and Nancy Bae, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Baumann Lab, have published a paper offering insight into the way cells protect chromosome ends from misguided repair.

Male Fiddler Crab, Uca terpsichores, with hood. In dangerous environments, females looking for a mate run great risks. Scientists from Seoul National University, in Korea, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama present a new take on sexual signaling in the May issue of the Public Library of Science. The researchers report that females prefer a male sexual signal that helps them avoid their predators as they sequentially visit and assess potential mates.

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have discovered that when a crucial portion of a peptide structure in monkeys that defends against viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders is reversed, the peptide actually encourages infection with HIV.

Sometimes, it pays to be rare—think of a one-of-a-kind diamond, a unique Picasso or the switch-hitter on a baseball team.

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital had a molecule’s eye view of the human cell’s DNA repair kit as it assembled on a double-strand break to link together the broken ends. Double-strand breaks are ruptures that cut completely across the twisted, ladder-like structure of DNA, breaking it into two pieces.

School of Population Health Professors Jake Najman and Gail Williams and Stockholm University's Professor Robin Room examined death rates among Australian men from liver cirrhosis between 1981 and 2002.