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An international team of researchers including professor Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has published a comprehensive new analysis showing that loss of plant biodiversity disrupts the fundamental services that ecosystems provide to humanity.

Plant communities—threatened by development, invasive species, climate change, and other factors—provide humans with food, help purify water supplies, generate oxygen, and supply raw materials for building, clothing, paper, and other products.

Laminin, long thought to be only a structural support protein in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissues, is "famous" for its cross-like shape.

Research continues to show that the controversial abortion drug mifepristone might have another use, as a therapeutic option besides hysterectomy for women who suffer from severe symptoms associated with uterine fibroids.

The University of Rochester Medical Center in 2004 began investigating mifepristone, in a class of drugs known as progesterone receptor modulators (PRMs), to treat fibroids, which affect roughly half of all women younger than 50. Results showed the drug shrank the fibroids and greatly improved the quality of life for the women involved in the clinical trial.

MANHASSET, NY --Having a child is a life event that is equal parts magic and fear. Will the baby be healthy? Will labor and delivery pose challenges? Are there ways to reduce the risk for adverse events? Hospital obstetrical units face these questions round-the-clock.

Improved environmental conditions have enabled the otter (Lutra lutra) to spread in Andalusia over the past 20 years. However, the recovery of populations of this mammal has been "relatively" slow, and in some areas the impact of human activities still prevents the species from gaining a foothold.

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), both in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method that uncovers the combined effects of genes. Published online today in Nature Methods, it helps understand how different genes can amplify, cancel out or mask each others' effects, and enables scientists to suggest genes that interfere with each other in much the same manner that facebook suggests friends.

A tropical frog – the only one of its kind in the world – is providing conservationists with exclusive insights into the genetic make-up of its closest endangered relatives.

University of Manchester scientists have allowed two critically endangered species of Central American Leaf frogs to interbreed, producing the unique frog – a hybrid of the two species. DNA tests using a harmless mouth swab showed that the two parent frogs were actually very closely related despite being different species.

Scientists on the Norwich Research Park have sequenced the genome of a novel strain of Clostridium botulinum, one of the most dangerous pathogens known to man. The strain produces an unusual botulinum neurotoxin, known as type A5 neurotoxin, which was isolated by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), following a case of wound botulism.

"Many people are now saying: 'Is it really that easy? Then why didn't anyone think of it a long time ago?' But you have to have the right idea at the right time," says Annette Röttger, physicist at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), in a pleased way. Annette Röttger and her scientific team managed to do something that was previously thought to be impossible: they developed a primary standard for the measurement of short-lived radioactive thoron.

HOUSTON, March 7, 2011 – Cleaning up pollution, protecting soil from erosion and maintaining species-rich ecosystems are some of the goals of a computational ecology project by a University of Houston (UH) scientist and his team. Published recently in a top journal, the work sheds light on a new method to speed up research in the ecology of plants.

Burkitt's lymphoma is one of the most aggressive tumors affecting humans. Multiple alterations in genes that regulate cell proliferation rate explain its aggressive behavior.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 7, 2011) -- All our daily activities, from driving to work to solving a crossword puzzle, depend on signals carried along the body's vast network of neurons. Propagation of these signals is, in turn, dependent on myriad small molecules within nerve cells -- receptors, ion channels, and transmitters -- turning on and off in complex cascades.

Microbicides can be used to protect against HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases, either on their own or with the added protection of a condom. New research published by BioMed Central's open access journal AIDS Research and Therapy has investigated the use of lubricants, originally designed for vaginal application, and has developed and tested new, rectal specific, formulations.

CHICAGO (March 4, 2011) – From its involvement in a healthy immune system to its role in cell growth, zinc is an essential mineral for the human body. Zinc deficiency is a worldwide problem that affects approximately 4 million people in the U.S. alone.

Consumed naturally in the human diet, zinc can be found in food sources, such as beef, yogurt, eggs, and fish. Furthermore, zinc is widely used in dental products, specifically denture adhesives.