science wire

Kendall Buster has delved into art and science over the course of her career. The work she created for Princeton University's new Frick Chemistry Laboratory has emerged from both of her worlds.

Plans for the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI), a new world-leading medical research institute at St Pancras and Somers Town in London, have been presented to Camden Council.

World’s first summit on citizen cyberscience 02 Sep 2010, PR 184/10 The world's first summit on citizen cyberscience is taking place at King's College London today and tomorrow (2-3 September).

Montreal, September 1, 2010 - The potential health benefits associated with a soy-rich diet have been a source of interest and debate for many years.

Over 350 scientists from around the world are gathering at The University of Manchester for 'Neurofly', the 13th conference on Drosophila neurobiology, which starts today and runs until 5 September. Drosophila is the tiny fruitfly which has been used for a century to unravel the secrets of how genes contribute to the formation and function of the brain and influence behaviour, in both health and disease.

A new book that graphically documents the spectacular natural recovery of Victoria's ash forests after the Black Saturday bushfires also argues that wildfires are typical natural disturbances in these environments.

Stanford researchers have developed a water-purifying filter that makes the process more than 80,000 times faster than existing filters.

A research clinic for multiple sclerosis patients is being set up with a £10 million donation from author J K Rowling.

The medicinal use of cannabis has been debated by clinicians, researchers, legislators and the public at large for many years as an alternative to standard pharmaceutical treatments for pain, which may not always be effective and may have unwanted side effects. A new study by McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University researchers provides evidence that cannabis may offer relief to patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.

Number of children admitted to English hospitals with bacterial pneumonia decreases Introduction of a vaccine to combat the disease causes admission to decrease by a fifth in the two years Friday 27

Liverpool, UK - 27 August 2010: Scientists at the University of Liverpool have decoded the genome of wheat - the largest genome to be sequenced to date - to help crop breeders increase the yield of British wheat varieties.

The first sequence coverage of the wheat genome has been publicly released by a team of UK researchers, including scientists from the University of Bristol.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In these lean times, smart consumers refuse to pay a lot for throwaway items, but will shell out a little more for products that can be used again and again. The same is true of bacteria and other microbes, researchers at the University of Michigan have learned. Some proteins cost more (in terms of energy) for cells to produce than others.

By Nick Bascom Research/Penn State Have you ever had a dream that just didn't feel like a dream - where, like Alice in Wonderland, you had trouble telling fiction from reality?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Thanks to a single-molecule imaging technique developed by a University of Illinois professor, researchers have revealed the mechanisms of an important DNA-regulating enzyme. Helicase enzymes are best known for 'unzipping' DNA for replication, but have many other functions for DNA repair and maintenance.

A medical researcher from Germany has won a fellowship at Sydney to work on a project that looks into the drug fenofibrate's remarkable success in treating diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Science 19 Aug 10 Females with fewer sexual partners can explain where bird species have evolved to cooperate in the rearing of their young, according to Oxford University research. In a study of 267 bird species, the researchers found that promiscuity rates overall were three times higher among species that show no social cooperation than in species where adult birds other than the parents help in raising chicks, for example by assisting in providing food, incubation or defence.

Scientists have reprogrammed stem cells from a key organ in the immune system, which could have implications for tissue regeneration. The study shows that it is possible to convert one stem type to another without the need for genetic modification. The research Researchers, who used rat models, grew stem cells from the thymus - an organ important for our immune systems - in the laboratory using conditions for growing hair follicle skin stem cells.

PASADENA, Calif.—Two scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for their innovative and high-impact biomedical research programs.

Portrait of one Polistes dominulus paper wasp displaying aggressive behavior Click on image for larger version. Photo credit: Elizabeth Tibbetts ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Falsely advertising one's fighting ability might seem like a good strategy for a wimp who wants to come off as a toughie, but in paper wasp societies, such deception is discouraged through punishment, experiments at the University of Michigan suggest.

The University of Melbourne will lead two major research infrastructure projects worth $67 million that will help lead to more sustainable urban growth and will better connect the country's researchers through improved Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure.

The circled portion of the older adult? brain on the left indicates the cross-talk between the two hemispheres that is not apparent in the younger brain on the right. Click above image for higher resolution. Image credit: Rachael Seidler ANN ARBOR, Mich.—It's unavoidable: breakdowns in brain connections slow down our physical response times as we age, a new study suggests.

Adult autism diagnosis by brain scan 11 Aug 2010, PR 172/10 Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London have developed a pioneering new method of diagnosing autism in adults.

Scientific advances, ethical issues in personalised medicine, genetic testing and stem cell research were among the topics discussed during a science youth parliament held at the University of Cambridge from August 4-6.

If the eyes are the window to the soul, psychologists hoping to solve the mystery of why our neural impulses do not always trigger an immediate response could find the answer in the flick of the eye. The reasons why the speed of human responses to a given event can be so variable - even in laboratory controlled conditions where determining factors such as alertness and vigilance are a constant - remain a mystery to scientists studying the connection between our brains and behaviour.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians suffering from glaucoma will have access to more accurate information about their deteriorating sight thanks to today's arrival of a supercomputer.

Results from a unique 20-year study of the ecology of the Simpson Desert will be revealed on Thursday 12 August, when Professor Chris Dickman from the School of Biological Sciences presents his Sydney Science Forum presentation, Some Like It Hot .

Science 06 Aug 10 A new £15 million research centre is to be established at Oxford University to investigate how intelligence arises in our brains from the way nerve cells, with no intelligence of their own, are wired into circuits.

Imperial scientists showcase their research at the Science Museum Scientists talk in a video about their work and what it means to have it on display in a world leading museum - News Friday 6 August

Researchers from UCL Medical Physics & Bioengineering and the UCL Cancer Institute have won an award for a paper on a pioneering medical imaging instrument that they have developed.

BERKELEY — The evolution of a group of muscled frogs scattered throughout Asia is telling geologists about the sequence of events that led to the rise of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau starting more than 55 million years ago.

"The tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), also known as the citric acid or Krebs cycle, holds a special place in biology as a key source of energy generation (ATP production) in most organisms.

Zemer Gitai, at Princeton University, and scientists from the California Institute of Technology have published results of new research into how a metabolic enzyme in bacteria forms cytoplasmic filaments that affect bacterial cell shape.

Post-16 school students from Britain and Japan will attend a unique workshop this week in Cambridge which aims to promote scientific achievement and at the same time develop global awareness and international understanding for young people through science.

But baring all when you've been covered up all year is a recipe for raising the risk of melanoma - a serious form of skin cancer that can spread rapidly. Far better to take it easy in the sun, a new study from the University of Leeds shows. Doctors already know that people with a lot of moles on their skin have a greater risk of getting melanoma than people who hardly have any.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. Researchers studying the genetic roots of antisocial behavior report that children with one variant of a serotonin transporter gene are more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits if they also grow up poor. The study, the first to identify a specific gene associated with psychopathic tendencies in youth, appears this month in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Innovations in biomedical engineering, which will help in the fight against some of the world's most feared diseases, will be discussed at the University's third symposium at the Shanghai Expo.

To understand how animals experience the world and how they should be treated, people need to better understand their emotional lives. A new review of animal emotion suggests that, as in humans, emotions may tell animals about how dangerous or opportunity-laden their world is, and guide the choices that they make.