One might call it a tale of two melanocytes. Given the same genetic mutation, why does one melanocyte shut down growth and become a relatively benign mole, while another rages out of control and develops into deadly melanoma"

A radiated tortoise at Cap Saint Marie -- a protected area on the southernmost tip of Madagascar. Madagascar’s turtles and tortoises, which rank among the most endangered reptiles on earth, will continue to crawl steadily toward extinction unless major conservation measure are enacted, according to a recent assessment by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups.

Lice from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru may unravel important clues about a different sort of passage: the migration patterns of America’s earliest humans, a new University of Florida study suggests.

Beneficial bacteria found in healthy women help to reduce the amount of vaginal HIV among HIV-infected women and might make it more difficult for the virus to spread, boosting the possibility that “good bacteria” might someday be tapped in the fight against HIV.

A tattoo can be more than just a fashion statement – it has potential medical value, according to an article published in the online open access journal, Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.

In the first application of high throughput DNA sequencing technology to investigate an infectious disease outbreak, scientists from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIRDL) in Melbourne, Australia, the Centers for Disease Control and 454 Life Sciences link the discovery of a new arenavirus to the deaths of three transplant recipients who received organs from a single donor in Victoria, Australia in April 2007. The full findings are published in the March 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and are now online.

BOSTON, Mass. (February 6, 2008)—Perhaps the only positive spin one can put on the brain cancer glioblastoma is that it’s relatively uncommon. Other than that, the news is bad. It is nearly always fatal, it tends to strike people in the prime of their lives, and the limited treatment options have changed little over decades. It’s no wonder then that many researchers are determined to find new ways treat this poorly understood type of cancer.

Crayfish body fossils and burrows discovered in Victoria, Australia, have provided the first physical evidence that crayfish existed on the continent as far back as the Mesozoic Era, says Emory University paleontologist Anthony Martin, who headed up a study on the finds.

A feeding colugo sports a backpack containing accelerometers and flash memory to record several day's worth of data on its gliding, in particular take-offs and landings. The device is glued to a shaved area on the animal's back and falls off after a few days. Credit: Norman Lim/National University of SingaporeThe "flying" lemur of Malaysia is the champion of all gliding mammals, able to drop from the forest canopy, glide more than the length of two football fields, execute 90-degree turns and then alight gently on a tree trunk.