science wire

Scientists from The University of Manchester say a naturally occurring chemical found in soy could prove to be an effective new treatment for a fatal genetic disease that affects children. Dr Brian Bigger, from the University's MPS Stem Cell Research Laboratory, found that genistein - derived from soya beans and licensed in the US as an osteoporosis drug - had a dramatic effect on mice suffering from the human childhood disease Sanfilippo.

FRANK FENNER 21 December 1914 - 22 November 2010 By Peter McCullagh Frank Fenner was a member of The Australian National University over six decades.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. They are dark, sometimes forbidding landscapes molded by volcanic eruptions or subterranean streams, but caves are also home to a host of creatures strangely adapted to the underworld.

Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Christina Smolke has engineered biological molecules that regulate a cell's behavior by adjusting their own forms and functions in response to the internal conditions of the cell.

The University of Melbourne has been awarded $21 million from the Australian Research Council to establish Stem Cells Australia (SCA), an initiative that will position Australia as a major world player in stem cell research.

Global warming devastated tropical rainforests, 300 million years ago. Now scientists report the unexpected discovery that this event triggered an evolutionary burst amongst reptiles - and inadvertently paved the way for the rise of dinosaurs, a hundred million years later.

Health Jonathan Wood | 29 Nov 10 During his career in tropical medicine Professor David Warrell has milked snakes, studied malaria and rabies and helped thousands of medical students learn about the deadliest diseases.

Study finds patients are missing out on specialist care Less than 10 per cent of the estimated 3,591 adults in the UK with the genetic condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) receive specialist endocrine care, according to new research from the University of Sheffield. The study also found that there is no standard treatment for the condition.

The plaque, which has generously been sponsored by the Thackray Museum, will be unveiled today on Astbury's former Headingley home, in the presence of his family and representatives of Leeds Civic Trust, the Thackray Museum and the University of Leeds.

If you see your special someone lose a competition, your subconscious may start whispering, "He's a loser," even as you insist your love is unaffected, according to Stanford researchers studying African cichlid fish. When female cichlids saw a favored suitor lose a fight with another male, the females showed marked changes in relatively primitive parts of their brains.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. In a new study published in the Nov. 25 issue of Nature , MIT cancer biologists show that restoring the protein p53?s function in mice with lung cancer has no effect early in tumor development, but restoring the function later on could prevent more advanced tumors from spreading throughout the body.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Neuroscientists at MIT and Harvard have made the surprising discovery that the brain sees some faces as male when they appear in one area of a person's field of view, but female when they appear in a different location.

Marsupial carnivores, including bizarre pouched lions, wolves, and sabretooths, were once as diverse in their appearance as their placental counterparts are today, according to new research. Millions of years ago large marsupial carnivores dominated both Australasia and South America. Today, the Tasmanian Devil is the largest marsupial carnivore left, and is on the brink of extinction.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

Three University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers are among 43 researchers to receive prestigious Air Force Young Investigator Research Program funding through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Insight into how biological clocks adjust to less sunlight in the winter could help us understand the impact of jet lag and shift work.

With the holiday season well on its way, research showing reduction of calories may increase life spans is not the most welcome of news. But if you ask Penn State researcher Roger McCarter how to live longer, he'll tell you just that - consume fewer calories. McCarter has shown this in rat and mouse models (a 40 percent reduced-calorie diet leads to a 40 percent longer life), and other researchers have duplicated this in spiders, yeast, worms and humans.

'Life-changing' prosthetic technology developed at UCL is increasing mobility in humans and animals and changing the shape of artificial limb engineering.

Researchers at King's College London's Department of Twin Research have discovered, as part of a large international consortium, 30 new genes that control the age of sexual maturation in women, publishes today. Many of these genes are also known to act on body weight regulation or biological pathways related to fat metabolism.

A recent survey conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that the most important motivations for hunters in Wisconsin are spending time outdoors and being close to nature.

A team of Cornell researchers will develop a tool to knock out genes in maize and another team will sequence wild rice genes, identify their functions and insert key genes into cultivated lines for breeders, thanks to multimillion-dollar grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

When resolving why electrons can never beat the speed limit set by light, it might be best to forget about time.

In a continuing research partnership to identify ways to tackle the world's climate problem, Princeton’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) has received a commitment of $11 million from BP as part of an extension of their partnership first announced in October 2008.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. In September, 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire burned more than 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska's North Slope, doubling the area burned in that region since record keeping began in 1950. A new analysis of sediment cores from the burned area revealed that this was the most destructive tundra fire at that site for at least 5,000 years.

Health 16 Nov 10 Plans would join up the University, science parks (like Begbroke Science Park above), and healthcare providers in bringing research advances to market Oxford could become a world cen

The University of Birmingham has recruited its 1,000th patient to PD GEN, a Parkinson's Disease DNA Bank being created by neurologists at the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. Parkinson's affects around 100,000 patients in the United Kingdom and is the most common neurodegenerative condition after Alzheimer's disease.

By JP Jones In recognition of its continuing growth and success, and in its tenth anniversary year, Imperial's Chemical Biology Centre has been reconstituted as the Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB).

Press release issued 15 November 2010 A new research study will look at Deaf people's concerns about the advances of genetic technology.

A family has pledged a six-figure sum to increase understanding of a genetic condition that affects their son.

Two University of Manchester clinical academics have been featured in a national newspaper's list of Britain's top doctors.

Using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with Rett syndrome, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have created functional neurons that provide the first human cellular model for studying the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and could be used as a tool for drug screening, diagnosis and personalized treatment.

How well a person performs in a coalition is partly hereditary, according to a recent study. Researchers found that how successfully an individual operates in a group is as much down to having the right genetic make-up as it is to having common cultural ties with fellow group members.

Volunteers needed for meningitis study A new research study into how meningitis develops in young adults could lead to a new vaccination programme which tackles the bacteria at source.

Mike Larkum, who worked as a technician in UCL Biochemistry & Molecular Biology for 26 years, has sadly died.

The consortium behind the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) has formally agreed to build the new institute at St Pancras and Somers Town in the London Borough of Camden.

The University of Birmingham and medical diagnostics specialists, Abingdon Health Ltd, announce the launch of Bioscience Ventures Limited ("Bioscience Ventures"), a new joint venture aimed at developing and marketing new diagnostics products for the healthcare and other industries.

Seeing meat provokes a sense of non-aggression that could be related to primate's family feasting Frank Kachanoff was surprised.

Ornithologists from the University of Birmingham have joined forces with researchers from the University of Cape Town to come up with a new way of tackling the problem of birds colliding with power l