Body

ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- Talking with doctors about cancer and cancer treatments can feel like learning a new language, and people facing cancer diagnoses often need help to understand their treatment options, and the risks and benefits of each choice.

Common woodland creatures, including woodlice, millipedes and worms, can help ensure the survival of weaker species of woodland fungi, according to new research from Cardiff University.

Huge fungal networks, often stretching over several hectares of woodland, compete with each other for space and resources and, now, findings have shown that invertebrates living on the woodland floor have the potential to govern the outcome of these battles.

Scientists have discovered how living organisms – including humans – avoid poisoning from carbon monoxide generated by natural cell processes.

Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that can prove fatal at high concentrations; the gas is most commonly associated with faulty domestic heating systems and car fumes, and is often referred to as 'the silent killer'.

High blood pressure is a well-known risk factor for heart disease. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have participated in an international study of 200,000 Europeans which has identified 16 new genetic variations that affect blood pressure. The discovery, presented in Nature, is an important step towards better diagnostics and treatment.

Boston, Mass. – By taking local biosurveillance data into account when assessing patients for communicable diseases, doctors may be able to make better diagnostic decisions, according to researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. For instance, in the case of strep throat, awareness of local epidemiology at the time of diagnosis could help more than 166,000 people avoid unnecessary antibiotic treatment in the United States every year and catch more than 62,000 missed cases.

Raptor dinosaurs like the iconic Velociraptor from the movie franchise Jurassic Park are renowned for their "fear-factor." Their terrifying image has been popularized in part because members of this group possess a greatly enlarged talon on their foot—analogous to a butcher's hook. Yet the function of the highly recurved claw on the foot of raptor dinosaurs has largely remained a mystery to paleontologists.

Could engineered fatty particles help prevent AIDS?Liposomes block HIV infection in early tests; could be a cost-effective preventive for developing countries

HIV vaccines are in their infancy, and effective microbicides to prevent sexual transmission of HIV still don't exist. Protection is especially needed for women, who make up nearly half of all global cases. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston envision a new way for women to protect themselves before sex: an applicator filled with specially formulated fatty particles called liposomes.

A regulatory bias against taking oral anti-cancer medications with food places many patients at increased risk for an overdose and forces them to "flush costly medicines down the toilet," argues Mark Ratain, MD, an authority on cancer-drug dosing.

CHICAGO – A preliminary study suggests that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called SWIFT (sweep imaging with Fourier transform) appears feasible to help provide a three-dimensional assessment that may aid in detecting involvement of the jawbone by oral cancer, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

CHICAGO – The ultrasonic bone aspirator, which uses sound waves to remove bone without damage to surrounding soft tissue or mucous membranes, may be a useful tool for surgeons performing cosmetic rhinoplasty (cosmetic surgery of the nose), according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A new study puts an end to the longstanding debate about how archaic birds went extinct, suggesting they were virtually wiped out by the same meteorite impact that put an end to dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

For decades, scientists have debated whether birds from the Cretaceous period — which are very different from today's modern bird species —died out slowly or were killed suddenly by the Chicxulub meteorite. The uncertainty was due in part to the fact that very few fossil birds from the end of this era have been discovered.

PHILADELPHIA — University of Pennsylvania evolutionary biologists have resolved a long-standing paleontological problem by reconciling the fossil record of species diversity with modern DNA samples.

CT scans of fossil skull fragments may help researchers settle a long-standing debate about the evolution of Africa's Australopithecus, a key ancestor of modern humans that died out some 1.4 million years ago. The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how CT scans shed new light on a classic evolutionary puzzle by providing crucial information about the internal anatomy of the face.

Our livers can fight back against the immune system—reducing organ rejection but also making us more susceptible to liver disease.

Scientists at the Centenary Institute in Sydney have seen for the first time (in mice) how the liver goes independent, engulfing and destroying the body's defence troops—T-cells.

MGB Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company which has licensed technology from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, is developing a powerful new antibiotic treatment for resistant infections including the deadly MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C. diff.) bugs.

The Glasgow-based company is working on a new compound which has proved to be more effective in killing and preventing C diff. than vancomycin, currently one of the most widely used treatments against this bacterium.