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A simple application of honey to horses' leg wounds results in smaller wound sizes and faster healing time, University of Sydney researchers have found. Honey has been used to treat wounds in humans since ancient Egypt, but this study, using manuka honey from New Zealand, is the first time in the world a clinical trial has been conducted in horses.

The structures inside animals' thigh bones that enable them to support huge loads whilst being relatively lightweight are revealed in research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers say their work could lead to the development of new materials based on thigh bone geometry.

A study has gained new insight into the minds of domestic hens, discovering, for the first time, that domestic hens show a clear physiological and behavioural response when their chicks are mildly distressed. The research by academics at the University of Bristol's Animal Welfare and Behaviour research group in the School of Veterinary Sciences , and funded by the BBSRC Animal Welfare Initiative, is published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B .

From the Asian elephant to the roadrunner: study of 90 animals? thigh bones reveals how they can efficiently carry loads Study suggests new materials could be developed that are inspired by geometry inside thigh bones The structures inside animals' thigh bones that enable them to support huge loads whilst being relatively lightweight are revealed in research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers say their work could lead to the development of new materials based on thigh bone geometry.

Anyone taking the recent, mysterious deaths of 200 steers in a Portage County, Wis., feedlot as a sign of the apocalypse can rest easy. The cows, according to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory , were done in by bad spuds. Specifically, the cows were poisoned by a toxin found in moldy sweet potatoes, which apparently were mixed in with potato waste fed to the animals.

PA 13/11 At least one in five horses used for leisure are overweight or obese. It's a condition which can lead to laminitis and equine metabolic syndrome. The pilot study, carried out by The University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, showed that rates of obesity among horses are likely to be just as high as they are among people.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers have identified a new target for the treatment of lymphoma and are testing a potential new drug in pet dogs afflicted with the disease. At low doses, the compound, called S-PAC-1, arrested the growth of tumors in three of six dogs tested and induced partial remission in a fourth.

The research, published in scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B , shows that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognised source of ancient DNA and can provide exceptional long-term preservation of DNA in warmer climates. The findings will boost research in archaeology and biology where species identifications can add significantly to our understanding of biodiversity, evolutionary processes, past environmental change and dispersal of animal and human populations.

PA 47/10 It will cost £3.5m and take 10 years, but once established the new Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (CEVM) will be the very first initiative that integrates the most up to date, accurate and relevant evidence with clinical decision making in the veterinary profession. Hosted by The University of Nottingham and partly funded by Novartis Animal Health, the new Centre aims to develop and promote the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine in all aspects of the veterinary profession.

Cambridge, Mass. March 4, 2010 - Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a “snowball Earth” event long suspected to have taken place around that time. Led by scientists at Harvard University, the team reports on its work this week in the journal Science.

Where others see dirt, John Bonner sees beauty. Where others see jumbled clumps, he sees highly sophisticated organization. At age 89, Bonner, the George M. Moffett Professor Emeritus of Biology , is one of the world's leading experts on cellular slime molds, found in soils the world over. He has led the way in making "Dictyostelium discoideum" a model organism central to examining some of the major questions in experimental biology.

Cambridge, Mass. December 3, 2009 - Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware. The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound - and profoundly difficult to mimic.

Cambridge, Mass. September 7, 2009 - Neurobiologist Florian Engert, a pioneer in the development of the larval zebrafish as a system for study of neural circuits and behavior, has been named professor of molecular and cellular biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009.

A team of researchers at UCL's Ear Institute is using a unique machine to deepen our understanding of how the brain responds to sound. The Ear Institute's new small-animal magnetoencephalograph, or MEG for short, is the most advanced machine of its type in the world. Its installation is a result of a collaboration between UCL, the Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) in Japan and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, France.

Cambridge, Mass. April 30, 2009 - Researchers at Harvard University have found that humans aren't the only ones who can groove to a beat - some other species can dance, too. This capability was previously believed to be specific to humans. The research team found that only species that can mimic sound seem to be able to keep a beat, implying an evolutionary link between the two capacities.

In einem Projekt mit der Veterinärwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Zürich und dem appenzellischen Textilunternehmen Eschler hat die Empa mit Unterstützung von Swiss Olympic neuartige Pferdedecken entwickelt.