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An international team of archaeologists is reporting 77,000-year-old evidence for preserved plant bedding and the use of insect-repelling plants in a rock shelter in South Africa. This discovery is 50,000 years older than earlier reports of preserved bedding and provides a fascinating insight into the behavioural practices of early modern humans in southern Africa.

HOUSTON -- (Dec. 8, 2011) – Just as people's bodies and minds can become addicted to substances such as drugs, caffeine, alcohol, their cancers can become addicted to certain genes that insure their continued growth and dominance.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have developed ways to exploit the addictions of cancers to kill them without harming normal tissues. A report on their work appears online today in the journal Science.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Researchers at the University of Missouri have found a key process in a plant's immune system response that may help future crops fight off dangerous diseases.

Boston, MA--Researchers have found a way to kill human cells hijacked by a genetic accelerator that puts cancer cells into overdrive: the Myc oncogene. The discovery reveals new drug targets for Myc-driven cancers, which tend to be particularly aggressive.

The results are to be published online December 8 in Science.

A protein called enhanced disease susceptibility 1 (EDS1) plays a central role in plants' ability to defend themselves from pathogens. But in the almost two decades since it was discovered, how EDS1 works at the molecular level has been a mystery. Solving the mystery will help scientists enhance disease resistance in crops.

Palo Alto, CA -- Food prices are soaring at the same time as the Earth's population is nearing 9 billion. As a result the need for increased crop yields is extremely important. New research led by Carnegie's Wolf Frommer into the system by which sugars are moved throughout a plant -- from the leaves to the harvested portions and elsewhere -- could be crucial for addressing this problem. Their work is published Dec. 8 by ScienceExpress .

Los Angeles, CA (DECEMBER 8, 2011) Young football players may be at higher risk for stroke, according to a new study released in Journal of Child Neurology (JCN), published by SAGE.

Researchers Dr. Jared R. Brosch and Dr. Meredith R. Golomb looked at various case studies of football players in their teens that suffered a stroke and found some potential causes for strokes in young football athletes. Some of those potential risks include:

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Catching terrorists who detonate bombs may be easier by testing the containers that hide the bombs rather than the actual explosives, according to pioneering research led by Michigan State University.

Currently, law enforcement labs tend to test for DNA on the exploded bomb fragments – but this has a low success rate, said David Foran, an MSU forensic biologist and lead investigator on the research project.

Normally used to spot where people live, satellite images of nighttime lights can help keep tabs on the diseases festering among them, too, according to new research.

SAN ANTONIO — Breast cancer survivors who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation are at high risk for developing contralateral breast cancer — a new primary tumor in the other breast — and certain women within this group of carriers are at an even greater risk based on age at diagnosis and first tumor status, according to data presented at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.

SAN ANTONIO — Despite the benefits, only a small minority of women, regardless of age, are opting for immediate reconstructive breast surgery after undergoing mastectomy for treatment of breast cancer, according to data presented at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.

Research has shown that immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy improves psychological well-being and quality of life and provides women with improved body image and self-esteem compared with delaying the procedure.

SAN ANTONIO — Women who underwent surgery to remove their ovaries before the age of 45 years were more likely to have arthritis and low bone mineral density compared with women with intact ovaries, researchers found.

Anne Marie McCarthy, Sc.M., a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, presented the results at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.

An independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health has concluded that many men with localized, low-risk prostate cancer should be closely monitored, permitting treatment to be delayed until warranted by disease progression. However, monitoring strategies—such as active surveillance—have not been uniformly studied and available data do not yet point to clear follow-up protocols. The panel recommended standardizing definitions and conducting additional studies to clarify which monitoring strategies are most likely to optimize patient outcomes.

BOSTON – Prostate cancer screening that combines an adjusted blood test with other factors including the size of the gland, the patient's overall weight and family history, can help up to one-quarter of men avoid biopsies and the risks associated with them, a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-led research team says.

Researchers have revealed how a molecule called telomerase contributes to the control of the integrity of our genetic code, and when it is involved in the deregulation of the code, its important role in the development of cancer. The University of Montreal scientists involved explain how they were able to achieve their discovery by using cutting edge microscopy techniques to visualize telomerase molecules in real time in living cells in Molecular Cell on December 9, 2011.