Scientists from the University of California-Davis recently developed a mathematical model of the rate of gene transfer among bacteria in the environment. Researchers believe this new model improves upon existing models by taking into account characteristics of the natural subsurface environments, the typical bacteria hangouts. This model will help scientists to quantify the spread of important bacterial traits.

How did the hearing of dinosaurs compare to that of present-day animal species" What are some ways to improve acoustical conditions in office cubicles" How can sound waves diagnose and monitor muscle activity"

Two mathematical equations (represented by red lines) can describe all the observed motions of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes (blue or green lines). Mutant strains do not move in ways predicted... Circles, slaloms, figure eights, and loop-the-loops – biologists studying the motion of Listeria monocytogenes sensed that these paths were related, but they didn’t have a good way to define what fit in and what didn’t. A remarkably simple new mathematical description, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [Abstract], reproduces all these shapes with just one pair of equations and only two key variables. Besides helping to identify bacterial mutants, the equations suggest which mechanisms could be driving the motion.

While regular multivitamin use is not linked with early or localized prostate cancer, taking too many multivitamins may be associated with an increased risk for advanced or fatal prostate cancers, according to a study in the May 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"My baby is doing what other babies her age are doing -- she's feeding herself, putting on her own clothes and she loves to dance."

Researchers observing wild chimpanzees in Uganda have discovered repeated instances of a mysterious and poorly understood behavior: female-led infanticide. The findings, reported by Simon Townsend, Katie Slocombe and colleagues of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the Budongo Forest Project, Uganda, appear in the May 15th issue of the journal Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Coral reef bleaching, believed to be one of the detrimental effects of climate change, may receive a welcomed "buffer" through effective local management, according to new research by a team of scientists recording the long-term recovery of coral reefs in Palau and elsewhere.

Go a few nights without enough sleep and you're more likely to get sick, but scientists have no real explanation for how sleep is related to the immune system. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine are finding that fruit flies can point to the answers.

Soil contaminants lead to rapid genetic adaptations in the nematode Acrobeloides nanus. The worms from contaminated soil live longer and lay more eggs under polluted conditions than the worms from unpolluted soil. Dutch-sponsored researcher Agnieszka Doroszuk demonstrated this in her study into the long-term effects of environmental pollution on soil organisms.

Human beings are directly responsible for more than 110,000 chemical substances which have been generated since the Industrial Revolution. Every year, we "invent" more than 2,000 new substances, most of them contaminants, which are emitted into the environment and which are consequently present in food, air, soil and water. Nonetheless, human beings are also victims of these emissions, and involuntarily (what is known in this scientific field as "inadvertent exposure"), every day humans ingest many of these substances which cannot be assimilated by our body, and are accumulated in the fatty parts of our tissues.

A thin strip that dissolves in the mouth like a popular breath-freshener could someday provide life-saving rotavirus vaccine to infants in impoverished areas. The innovative drug-delivery system was developed by Johns Hopkins undergraduate biomedical engineering students. A thin strip that dissolves in the mouth like a popular breath-freshener could someday provide life-saving rotavirus vaccine to infants in impoverished areas. The innovative drug-delivery system was developed by Johns Hopkins undergraduate biomedical engineering students.

In the daunting marathon that leads to successful drugs, promising drug candidates must pass toxicity tests before entering clinical trials. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Whitehead Institute have developed a cell culture test for assessing a compound's genetic toxicity that may prove dramatically cheaper than existing animal tests. This assay would allow genetic toxicity to be examined far earlier in the drug development process, making it much more efficient.