A recent study by researchers at the University of Bath and London's Natural History Museum has found that scientists' knowledge of the evolution of dinosaurs is remarkably complete.

A key phase in the repair process of damaged human DNA has been observed and visually recorded by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. The recordings provide new information about the role played by a protein known as Rad51, which is linked to breast cancer, in this complex and critical process.

Times are tough for wildlife living at the frontier between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Armies are reportedly encamped in a national park and wildlife preserve on the Congolese side, while displaced herders and their cattle have settled in an adjoining Ugandan park.

Followers are just as important to good leadership as are the leaders themselves, reveals a new study of stickleback fish published online on January 29th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

Scientists have uncovered the underlying biological reason why locusts form migrating swarms. Their findings, reported in today's edition of Science, could be used in the future to prevent the plagues which devastate crops (notably in developing countries), affecting the livelihood of one in ten people across the globe.

Two common strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, were virtually eradicated in the laboratory by exposing them to a wavelength of blue light, in a process called photo-irradiation that is described in a paper published online ahead of print in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery. The article will appear in the April 2009 issue (Volume 27, Number 2) of the peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/pho

Last week, a presidential limousine shuttled Barack Obama to the most important job in his life. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now identified a protein that does much the same for the telomerase enzyme — ferrying the critically important clump of proteins around to repair the ends of chromosomes that are lost during normal replication. Without such ongoing maintenance, stem cells would soon cease dividing and embryos would fail to develop.

Researchers at Heidelberg University have found a molecular mechanism for anaphylactic shock. The activation of specific proteins in the cell walls of small blood vessels plays an important role. Suppressing the respective genes protects mice from the potentially fatal reactions of the immune and circulatory systems (anaphylactic shock) without disrupting circulatory regulation. This paves the way for the development of new drugs for the treatment and prevention of anaphylactic shock.

Is it possible to share a pain that you observe in another but have never actually experienced yourself? A new study uses a sophisticated brain-imaging technique to try and answer this question. The research, published by Cell Press in the January 29th issue of the journal Neuron, provides insight into brain mechanisms involved in empathy.

Mice with increased levels of a natural brain chemical don't gain weight when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

Approximately 1.6 million people die worldwide every year as a result of pneumococcal infection, which causes grave illnesses, including pneumonia, meningitis, and middle-ear infections. Children and the elderly are especially at risk. Vaccines are only effective against a few of the pneumococcal types and increasing resistance to antibiotics is making treatment more difficult. Researchers led by Jesús M. Sanz at the Miguel Hernandez University (Elche, Spain) and Maarten Merkx at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) have now introduced a highly promising new approach for the development of drugs to treat pneumococci. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the scientists copied the choline architecture of the pneumococcal cell wall. They were thus able to trap the choline-binding proteins that have a critical effect on the infectiousness of pneumococcal bacteria.

High levels of certain proteins in the spinal fluid could signal the onset of Lou Gehrig's disease, according to researchers. The discovery of these biomarkers may lead to diagnostic kits for early diagnosis, accurately measuring the progression of the disease and monitoring the effects of treatment.

In a paper published in the journal Nature this week, Rutgers researchers Joachim Messing, Rémy Bruggmann, and a team of international collaborators have described the genome of sorghum, a drought-tolerant African grass. The findings could one day help researchers to produce better food crops for arid regions with rapidly expanding human populations, such as West Africa.

The declining mountain caribou populations of Canada's southern Rockies are a more distinct breed than scientists previously believed, according to a new study by University of Calgary researchers that is shedding light on the ancient ancestry of the mountain-dwelling herbivores.

There is no good evidence supporting a harmful effect of exercise on joints in the setting of normal joints and regular exercise, according to a review of studies published in this month's issue of the Journal of Anatomy.

Popularized by the 2005 movie "March of the Penguins," emperor penguins could be headed toward extinction in at least part of their range before the end of the century, according to a paper by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers published January 26, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Many studies have shown that breastfeeding appears to reduce the chance of children developing asthma. But a newly published study led by a University of Alberta professor has found that eating fast food more than once or twice a week negated the beneficial effects that breastfeeding has in protecting children from the respiratory disease.

A paper co-authored by Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and director of UC San Diego's Statin Study group cites nearly 900 studies on the adverse effects of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), a class of drugs widely used to treat high cholesterol.

People who buy fake internet drugs could be risking their lives and supporting terrorism, according to an editorial in the February issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

Old technologies, bone cement and a well known antibiotic, may effectively fight an emerging infection in soldiers with compound bone fractures, according to a study published online today in the Journal of Orthopedic Research. An urgent search for solutions is underway as 20,000 additional American soldiers head for Afghanistan, and as evidence emerges that the infection studied may set the stage for more dangerous infections that can lead to amputation.

Helicobacter pylori, a Gram-negative, flagellated, microaerophilic bacterium, can selectively colonize in the human stomach. Its infection is widespread throughout the world, and is present in about 50% of the global human population with 80% in developing countries and 20-50% in industrialized countries. Infection of the stomach with H. pylori induces a local immune response with infiltration of the mucosa by macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes. Although the innate and adaptive immune responses are activated, the bacterium is rarely eliminated and infections can last for decades if left untreated. Most infections are asymptomatic, but overt diseases can occur in 10-20 % of infected individuals. The disease spectrum ranges from gastritis to peptic ulceration disease. A long-term chronic infection will increase the risk to gastric adenocarcinoma and mucosa-associated lymphoid-tissue lymphoma. It has been classified as a class I carcinogen by the WHO. Despite intensive studies, and the award of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology for the discovery of the bacterium H. pylori by Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, our understanding of H. pylori-infection-caused disease is still limited. H. pylori has evolved several mechanisms to increase its adherence and persistence in the host. In addition, it must also evade immune clearance. Elimination of H. pylori by phagocytes is inefficient because H. pylori exhibits several virulence factors to evade opsonization, retard phagocytosis, and disrupt membrane trafficking and phagosome maturation after internalization of the microorganism.

Three billion years ago, a "new" amino acid was added to the alphabet of 20 that commonly make up proteins in organisms today. Now researchers at Yale and the University of Tokyo have demonstrated how this rare amino acid — and, by example, other amino acids — made its way into the menu for protein synthesis. The study appeared in the December 31 advance online publication of the journal Nature.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus. Using a cell culture model for Ebola virus infection, they have discovered that the virus disables a cellular protein called tetherin that normally can block the spread of virus from cell to cell.

A component of DNA that can both stimulate and suppress the immune system, depending on the dosage, may hold hope for treating cancer and infection, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

Astronauts spending months in space lose significant bone strength, making them increasingly at risk for fractures later in life.

Through work originally designed to remove contaminants from soil, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and their Belgium colleagues at Hasselt University have identified plant-associated microbes that can improve plant growth on marginal land. The findings, published in the February 1, 2009 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, may help scientists design strategies for sustainable biofuel production that do not use food crops or agricultural land.

A genomewide scan of millions of genetic mutations has revealed four new DNA "hotspots" that affect the risk for psoriasis, a national group of researchers led by the University of Michigan and including several from the University of Utah School of Medicine has shown in a just-published study.

New research from Monash University bee researcher Adrian Dyer could lead to improved artificial intelligence systems and computer programs for facial recognition.

Actor and pancreatic cancer patient Patrick Swayze's recent hospitalization with pneumonia as a result of his compromised immune system underscores the sensitivity of the lungs: many patients die from lung complications of a disease, rather than the disease itself.

The rate of sudden deaths increased six-fold in the first year that California law enforcement agencies deployed the use of stun guns, according to a UCSF study. Findings also showed a two-fold increase in the rate of firearm-related deaths during the same time period.

In an effort to improve rice varieties, a Purdue University researcher was part of a team that traced the evolutionary history of domesticated rice by using a process that focuses on one gene.

Bioengineers at Harvard University have shown that small plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin can reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors.

Trees are dying twice as fast as they did three decades ago in older forests of the western United States and scientists suspect warming temperatures are a contributing factor.

As parts of us age, even the membrane bound nuclei , which house the genetic instructions for life that are "written" in our DNA, begin to show considerable wear and tear, suggests a new report in the January 23rd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. The nuclear pore complexes that normally act as gatekeepers--selectively importing and exporting the molecular ingredients for life to and from the nucleus--begin to break down and spring leaks.

Researchers have created a precise biosensor for detecting blood glucose and potentially many other biological molecules by using hollow structures called single-wall carbon nanotubes anchored to gold-coated "nanocubes."

In an upcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Yale researchers used newly developed mathematical models to analyze huge amounts of data on physical characteristics such as temperature and salinity in different ocean habitats and metabolic activity in marine micro-organisms.

When anthrax was sent through the U.S. Postal Service in 2001, an overwhelming majority of postal workers elected not to be inoculated with the available vaccine because of confusion and distrust, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study. Although the FBI officially closed the case on the attacks this year, lingering suspicion and uncertainty remain, say study authors, which could influence the public's reactions to future emergencies.

According to Professor Demain, the petroleum-based economy in the US is getting close to the end of its lifecycle. Global oil reserves and new petroleum discoveries will not be enough to meet the annual demand worldwide. It is therefore essential to anticipate and avoid any shortfall in future supply and to provide access to new bioenergy alternatives for the marketplace.

Spitting cobras have an exceptional ability to spray venom into eyes of potential attackers. A new study published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology reveals how these snakes maximize their chances of hitting the target.

The global trade in frog legs for human consumption is threatening their extinction, according to a new study by an international team including University of Adelaide researchers.