Contrary to generally accepted belief, Anatolia was not geographically isolated 25 million years ago (during the Oligocene epoch): this has just been demonstrated by researchers from the Laboratoire des Mécanismes et Transferts en Géologie (LMTG) (CNRS/ University of Toulouse 3/IRD) and the Paléobiodiversité et paléoenvironnements laboratory (CNRS/Muséum national d’histoire naturelle/University of Paris 6). These results were obtained thanks to analyses of the first fossilized giant rhinocerotoid bone discovered in 2002 in an Anatolian deposit during a Franco-Turkish paleontology expedition funded by the ECLIPSE INSU-CNRS program. The presence of this bone in Anatolia, with the remains of associated fauna, are indicative of animal migrations between Europe and Asia. The results, published online in the March 2008 issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, thus call into question the isolation of Anatolia, which until now was considered to have been an archipelago.

A significant drop in abnormal Pap test results happened after girls and women were given a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, according to a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Scientists using a new drug screening method in Drosophila (fruit flies), have identified several drugs and small molecules that reverse the features of fragile X syndrome -- a frequent form of mental retardation and one of the leading known causes of autism. The discovery sets the stage for developing new treatments for fragile X syndrome.

Drug resistance is making many diseases increasingly difficult--and sometimes impossible--to treat, according to Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. “Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are just two recent examples of this problem that pose serious threats to domestic and global health,” he adds. In a new report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, Dr. Fauci outlines NIAID’s commitment to addressing this urgent public health issue.