New Research at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology suggests that Botulinium type-A toxin (BTX-A) passes easily to surrounding muscles and is more difficult to control once injected than many people suspect. The paper will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Biomechanics and is posted on the journal's "In Press" website at: http://www.jbiomech.com.

The first 30,000 pages of a massive online Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) were unveiled today as scientists assemble for the prestigious Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California.

An experimental, combination vaccine against Ebola and Marburg viruses using virus-like particles (VLPs) provides complete protection against infection in monkeys. Researchers from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) report their results today (Feb. 26) at the 2008 ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting in Baltimore, MD.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that living human nerve cells can be engineered into a network that could one day be used for transplants to repair damaged to the nervous system. They report their findings in the February issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

In repeated invasions of a new territory, the honey bee, Apis mellifera, can benefit from the genetic endowment of its predecessors. Like any species that aspires to rule the world, the honey bee, Apis mellifera, invades new territories in repeated assaults. A new study demonstrates that when these honey bees arrive in a place that has already been invaded, the newcomers benefit from the genetic endowment of their predecessors.

High energy oil-in-water emulsions used in the U-M vaccines are made up of droplets 200 nanometers in size. A novel technique for vaccinating against a variety of infectious diseases – using an oil-based emulsion placed in the nose, rather than needles – has proved able to produce a strong immune response against smallpox and HIV in two new studies.

A Columbia University Medical Center research team has discovered a new gene involved in determining hair texture in humans. The team's genetic analysis demonstrated that mutations in a gene, known as P2RY5, cause hereditary "woolly hair" — hair that is coarse, dry, tightly curled and sparse.

A protein that stimulates blood vessel growth worsens ovarian cancer, but its production can be stifled by a tiny bit of RNA wrapped in a fatty nanoparticle, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

On Sunday, February 17, 2008 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its largest meat recall in United States history, less than three weeks after a slaughterhouse worker secretly made a tape depicting violations of federal animal care regulations by a Westland division of the Hallmark Company.

Cary Fowler at Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

An innovation called Carbon Hero may help reduce global warming by making people more aware of their carbon footprint. Regional prize winner in the 2007 European Satellite Navigation Competition, sponsored by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme, the device uses satellite navigation technology to track journeys.

A beautiful black, white and yellow butterflyfish, much admired by eco-tourists, divers and aquarium keepers alike, may be at risk of extinction, scientists have warned.

The pea is one of many important crop species that is unsuited to the Agrobacterium-based genetic modification techniques that are commonly used to work with crops. Researchers, reporting in the open access journal Genome Biology have now discovered the first high-throughput forward and reverse genetics tool for the pea (Pisum sativum), could have major benefits for crop breeders around the world..

Scientists have identified the role of two proteins that contribute to disease-causing bacteria cells’ versatility in resisting certain classes of antibiotics.

Genomatix Software GmbH, a Systems Biology company focussed on high quality annotation and the understanding of gene regulation, has begun showcasing its abilities in the analysis of data generated by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology.