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In graduate school, Jon Chase worked in a lab that set up small pond ecosystems in order to run experiments on species interactions and food webs. "And because this was an experimental science, we tried to replicate each pond system," Chase says.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Political and social chaos and a lack of international protections have put several species of rosewood trees in Madagascar in danger of becoming extinct from illegal logging, according to a policy forum paper in the latest issue of Science.

"Forty-seven of Madagascar's 48 species of rosewood (Dalbergia) are found nowhere else in the world," said Duke University graduate student Meredith Barrett, the lead author on the May 27 article.

An estimated 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Because most of the contaminated water is near the surface, many people in Bangladesh have installed deep wells to tap into groundwater that's relatively free of arsenic.

An active compound from fungi and lower animals may well be suitable as an effective weapon against dangerous bacteria. We're talking about plectasin, a small protein molecule that can even destroy highly resistant bacteria . Researchers at the Universities of Bonn, Utrecht, Aalborg and of the Danish company Novozymes AS have shed light on how the substance does this. The authors see plectasin as a promising lead compound for new antibiotics.

These results will be published in Science journal on 28th May.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Solar power might be nature's most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny black solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas, a Michigan State University scientist and colleagues warn.

SEATTLE – The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which lives in the human stomach and is associated with ulcers and gastric cancer, is shaped like a corkscrew, or helix. For years researchers have hypothesized that the bacterium's twisty shape is what enables it to survive – and thrive – within the stomach's acid-drenched environment, but until now they have had no proof.

PITTSBURGH, May 27 – A genetic mutation for inherited lymphedema associated with lymphatic function has been discovered that could help create new treatments for the condition, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Their findings are reported in the June issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

While attempting to solve one mystery about iron oxide-based nanoparticles, a research team working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stumbled upon another one. But once its implications are understood, their discovery* may give nanotechnologists a new and useful tool.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The BP oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico threatens the existence of a critically endangered sawfish and its relative that recently has been proposed to join it as the only two marine fish in United States waters to receive such federal protection, says a University of Florida researcher.

The largetooth sawfish, a popular curio item known for its sawlike snout, was proposed as a federally endangered species on May 7, less than three weeks after massive amounts of oil started gushing into Gulf waters, said George Burgess, a UF ichthyologist and sawfish expert.

Researchers at the UCLA Medical Center found that antiviral therapy during compensated cirrhosis, when compared with all other strategies, is the most cost-effective approach to treating patients with advanced liver disease due to hepatitis C (HCV) infection. Full details appear in the June issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

The title sounds like a crime novel on a dime-store shelf. But "An Invitation to Die" is quite literal in its meaning. And the prime suspect is very, very small.

Rice University evolutionary biologists reported in a paper published this week that the first cells to starve in a slime mold seem to have an advantage that not only helps them survive to reproduce, but also pushes those that keep on eating into sacrificing themselves for the common good.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have found that there are substantially increased death rates from alcohol-related diseases in socioeconomically deprived areas of England and Wales.