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Scientists in Massachusetts are reporting new evidence that certain high blood pressure drugs may be useful in preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. The study, the largest to date on proteins in the retina, could lead to new ways to prevent or treat the sight-threatening disease, they say. The findings are in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.

Post-menopausal women who reported consuming the most daily dietary fat had a 40 percent higher incidence of clot-caused strokes compared to women who ate the least amount, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2010.

The incidence of ischemic stroke also increased by 30 percent in the quartile of women consuming the highest daily amount of trans fat (average intake 7 grams per day) compared to those who consumed the least (average 1 gram/day). Two common sources of trans fat are processed foods and fried foods.

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – February 24, 2010 – Scientists at the University of Rhode Island are gaining new insight into the mechanisms that generate huge, steep underwater waves that occur between layers of warm and cold water in coastal regions of the world's oceans.

New Haven, Conn. — More frequent tropical cyclones in Earth's ancient past contributed to persistent El Niño-like conditions, according to a team of climate scientists led by Yale University. Their findings, which appear in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Nature, could have implications for the planet's future as global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change.

A Chilean hospital's early use of antiviral treatment in influenza patients and other aggressive measures helped reduce the number of severe H1N1 cases and related deaths. Those are the findings of a new study, now available online (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/650750), published in the March 15, 2010 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

HOUSTON, Feb. 24, 2010 – Thanks to a pair of University of Houston researchers who found a possible new solution to a 163-year-old puzzle, ecological factors can now be added to physiology to explain why animals grow bigger in the cold.

OTTAWA, FEBRUARY 24, 2010 — Integrating real-time Internet-based infectious disease surveillance with knowledge of worldwide air traffic patterns could help in confronting infectious disease threats at mass gatherings, such as the Olympics and other large scale events, suggests an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.100093.

More intelligent people are significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds.

DURHAM, N.C. -- If a Tiger's feet were built the same way as a mongoose's feet, they'd have to be about the size of a hippo's feet to support the big cat's weight. But they're not.

For decades, researchers have been looking at how different-sized legs and feet are put together across the four-legged animal kingdom, but until now they overlooked the "shoes," those soft pads on the bottom of the foot that bear the brunt of the animal's walking and running.

TORONTO, On – February 24, 2010 – As the world watches the Vancouver Olympics, researchers at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and Children's Hospital Boston have teamed up to monitor and assess potential infectious disease threats to Vancouver during the Winter Games by integrating two independently developed intelligence systems that focus on global infectious diseases; bio.DIASPORA and HealthMap.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — With the world awash in information, curating all the scientifically relevant bits and bytes is an important task, especially given digital data's increasing importance as the raw materials for new scientific discoveries, an expert in information science at the University of Illinois says.

Carole L. Palmer, a professor of library and information science, says that data curation – the active and ongoing management of data through their lifecycle of interest to science – is now understood to be an important part of supporting and advancing research.

The American Stroke Association and other organizations have spent the last decade changing the care delivery system for stroke in the United States. Now the focus must include greater emphasis on prevention and recovery, according to a special report published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA) are often called "mini strokes" for good reasons -- the short-term symptoms can mimic a stroke and up to 10 percent of first-time sufferers often experience full-blown strokes within as little as 90 days. Despite the well-known statistics, no post-TIA regimen exists to help prevent future strokes -- but this might be changing.

Iodine is an essential element for synthesising thyroid hormones. A team of researchers from the Childhood and Environment Project (INMA) has studied the consequences of pregnant women consuming it in their diet and in supplements. The results suggest the need to evaluate their iodine nutritional status before systematically recommending taking it during pregnancy.

For the first time, a woman has given birth to two children after her fertility was restored using transplants of ovarian tissue that had been removed and frozen during her cancer treatment and then restored once she was cured.

Following her ovarian transplant, Mrs Stinne Holm Bergholdt gave birth to a girl in February 2007 after receiving fertility treatment to help her become pregnant. But then, in 2008, she discovered she had conceived a second child naturally and gave birth to another girl in September 2008.