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For the first time scientists have put a figure on how much it would cost to learn about the conservation status of millions of species, some of which have yet to be identified. The price tag is US$60 million, according to a team of scientists, including those from IUCN and Conservation International, who presented their case in this week's Science magazine in an article called "The Barometer of Life."

Santa Barbara, Calif., April 8, 2010 – Researchers have shown that a peptide (a chain of amino acids) called iRGD helps co-administered drugs penetrate deeply into tumor tissue. The peptide has been shown to substantially increase treatment efficacy against human breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers in mice, achieving the same therapeutic effect as a normal dose with one-third as much of the drug.

An international team of scientists has described a new fossil find and a new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba, thought to be at least 2 million years old in an area of South Africa known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Dan Farber's work involved describing the geological, geochronological, geomorphological and faunal context of the Malapa site - which holds the fossils of an adult and a juvenile of the new species. The research appears in a pair of papers in the April 9 issue of the journal, Science.

A cache of cuneiform tablets unearthed by a team led by a University of Toronto archaeologist has been found to contain a largely intact Assyrian treaty from the early 7th century BCE.

A new study, published online April 8 by Cell Press in the journal Immunity, describes a unique therapeutic "nanovaccine" that successfully reverses diabetes in a mouse model of the disease. In addition to providing new insight into diabetes, the research also reveals an aspect of the pathogenesis of the autoimmune response that may provide a therapeutic strategy for multiple autoimmune disorders.

NEW YORK, April 8, 2010 -- Using a sophisticated nanotechnology-based "vaccine," researchers were able to successfully cure mice with type 1 diabetes and slow the onset of the disease in mice at risk for the disease. The study, co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, provides new and important insights into understanding how to stop the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, and could even have implications for other autoimmune diseases.

NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have developed a powerful new method to investigate the discrete steps necessary to turn on individual genes and examine how the process goes wrong in cancer and other diseases. The finding, based on seven years of research and described in the April 9 issue of Molecular Cell, allows scientists to investigate the unfolding of DNA, a process required for gene activation.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Press freedoms are eroding as courts step in to restore personal privacy battered by an explosion of tabloid reporting on the Internet and 24-hour news outlets hungry for fresh stories, a study by a University of Illinois legal expert warns.

Amy Gajda says long-held boundaries for news coverage have narrowed in a recent spate of privacy rulings, which could ultimately have a chilling effect on mainstream journalists whose watchdog role helps safeguard against corruption and other misconduct.

Kidney damage associated with chronic reflux is the fourth leading cause of chronic kidney disease and is the most common cause of severe hypertension in children. Doctors and researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a new mouse model of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), a common childhood condition that can lead to chronic kidney disease in children.

OTTAWA – In today's world more geographic information is being collected about us, such as where we live, where the clinic we visited is located, and where we work. Web sites are also collecting more geographic information about their users. This location information makes it easier to identify individuals, which can raise privacy concerns when location is coupled with basic demographics and sensitive health information. Individuals living in small areas tend to be more easily identifiable because they are unique on their local demographics.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University anthropologist Kristian J. Carlson today (April 8) joined an international team of six other scientists announcing discovery of the fossil remains of a new species of early man that could help rewrite the path of human evolution.

Two partial skeletons unearthed from a cave in South Africa belong to a previously unclassified species of hominid that is now shedding new light on the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens, researchers say. The newly documented species, called Australopithecus sediba, was an upright walker that shared many physical traits with the earliest known Homo species—and its introduction into the fossil record might answer some key questions about what it means to be human.

New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows no risk in combining two commonly-prescribed treatments for patients at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Published this month in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the study is the largest investigation yet into concerns of an adverse interaction between Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) and the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel.

Surface ozone levels in the south west of the Iberian Peninsula usually exceed the protection threshold established by EU regulations for people and plants in spring and summer, according to data gathered between 2000 and 2005 by four measuring stations in Huelva, one of them next to the Doñana National Park.