The geologic conditions that very nearly annihilated life 250 million years ago are still killing people today. Parts of Xuan Wei County in Yunnan Province in China have the world"€ s highest known death rates from lung cancer in non-smoking women. For thirty years the region, which uses locally mined coal for domestic cooking and heating, has been the focus of intense scientific research to establish a cause.

Visually impaired people appear to be fearless, navigating busy sidewalks and crosswalks, safely finding their way using nothing more than a cane as a guide. The reason they can do this, researchers suggest, is that in at least some circumstances, blindness can heighten other senses, helping individuals adapt.

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have discovered that patients with recent-onset schizophrenia have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their brains. Their findings offer hope of being able to treat schizophrenia with drugs that affect the immune system. The causes of schizophrenia are largely unknown, and this hinders the development of effective treatments.

BERKELEY — Could it be that the generous Mother Teresa and the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge from “A Christmas Carol” were influenced by their genes? Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found compelling evidence that people who are more empathetic possess a particular variation of the oxytocin receptor gene.

A University of Plymouth-led team of international scientists has pioneered a novel geological technique and used it to shed new light on how the oceans form during ‘seafloor spreading’, the process that constantly ‘re-paves’ the crust of the Earth’s seas. This new approach was developed following a multi-million dollar Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition to the mid-Atlantic ridge in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, on board the research ship the JOIDES Resolution.

Scientists use the Roadrunner supercomputer to model a fundamental process in physics that could help explain how stars begin to explode into supernovae Los Alamos, New Mexico, November 16, 2009 — Despite decades of research, understanding turbulence, the seemingly random motion of fluid flows, remains one of the major unsolved problems in physics.

Schoolchildren at the Pueblo of Jemez get hands-on learning at a geothermal well during a recent Earth Day event. The well may be used for power or warmth. Los Alamos National Laboratory is providing technical assistance in the project thanks to funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Nanotechnology has shown great promise for applications in the areas of energy, information technology and the environment. In the health and medicine fields, however, its promise has progressed beyond possibility to become reality. Nanoscale research has led to techniques and devices with the potential to revolutionize health care, including imaging tools that detect cancers at the atomic level, nanomachines programmed to release drugs within specific cells, and biosensors that monitor changes from deep within body organs.

One difficulty with fighting cancer cells is that they are similar in many respects to the body's stem cells. By focusing on the differences, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found a new way of tackling colon cancer. The study is presented in the prestigious journal Cell. Molecular signal pathways that stimulate the division of stem cells are generally the same as those active in tumour growth.

Treating patients who suffer from narrowing of the main blood vessel to the kidney by inserting a metal stent provides little or no worthwhile clinical benefit, and given the risk of serious complications it should be used less, according to an international trial led by the University of Birmingham.

Combination therapies to tackle multiple changes in the brain may be needed to combat the growing problem of dementia in ageing societies, according to a study by the University of Sheffield. The findings, which were published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, show that multiple abnormal (pathological) processes in the brain are often involved in cases of dementia, and that the drugs currently in development to treat individual brain pathologies may have a limited impact on the overall burden of dementia in the population.

November 12, 2009 — Coral Gables — There is a tendency to think that only men treat women in a sexist way, but a new study by a University of Miami researcher and his daughter shows that both men and women participate in maintaining a gender hierarchy in our society. The study, titled 'Social Dominance and Sexual Self-Schema as Moderators of Sexist Reactions to Female Subtypes,' was recently published by the journal of Sex Roles.

Scientists suspect that part of the answer to the mystery lies in a gene called FOXP2. When mutated, FOXP2 can disrupt speech and language in humans. Now, a UCLA-Emory University study reveals major differences between how the human and chimp versions of FOXP2 work, perhaps explaining why language is unique to humans.

A reduction in recent years in the number of cases of breast cancer in women aged 50-59 years most probably depends on a decrease in the use of hormone replacement therapy to relieve problems associated with the menopause. A large Swedish study under the auspices of Karolinska Institutet confirms suspicions against the hormone therapy.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism that controls the brain's ability to create lasting memories. In experiments on genetically manipulated mice, they were able to switch on and off the animals' ability to form lasting memories by adding a substance to their drinking water.

Press Release Links: The long-held theory that our brains use different mechanisms for forming long-term and short-term memories has been challenged by new research from UCL, published today in PNAS . Neuroscientists formed this theory based on observation of patients with amnesia, a condition that severely disrupts the ability to form long-lasting memories.

New insights into the genetic basis of rheumatoid arthritis are reported in two papers published online in the scientific. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have participated in both studies. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an acquired, chronic autoimmune disease, characterized by inflammation of the lining of multiple joints.

Links: UCL researchers were part of the team to discover that mutations in either of two related genes can cause a severe form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in young children. Erik Glocker (UCL Infection & Immunity) said: 'This discovery is a milestone in research on inflammatory bowel disease, and will enable us to gain further insights into the physiology and immunity of the intestine.' Glocker found the first mutation in the protein IL10R2 identified in the study.

November 06, 2009 — A team from the University of Miami, University of El Paso and University of Rochester have employed Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images compiled over a decade to study volcanic activity in the African Rift. The study, published in the November issue of Geology , studies the section of the rift in Kenya.

BERKELEY — An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf onto another and detonates in a thermonuclear explosion. Artist's impression of an AM-CVn star system, where helium flows from one star, a helium white dwarf (upper right), onto another, piling up in an accretion disk around a small, dense primary star.