Body

How food poisoning bacteria get really mean

If the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria behind food poisoning are starved of oxygen, they are liable to turn really nasty according to research published today. Limiting oxygen produces bacteria up to 100 times more invasive than similar bacteria grown with ample oxygen supplies.

How Staph infections hide for weeks

A major cause of human and animal infections, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria may evade the immune system’s defences and dodge antibiotics by climbing into our cells and then lying low to avoid detection. New research shows how S. aureus makes itself at home in human lung cells for up to two weeks.

A team of 12 researchers from University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland and the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK set out to uncover what S. aureus (6850) did inside human lung epithelial cells (A549) using an in vitro model.

Hormone therapy offers new hope for ovarian cancer patients

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have shown that hormone therapy can extend life in ovarian cancer patients, giving women a new alternative to chemotherapy.

The study has proved for the first time that the targeted use of an anti-oestrogen drug could prolong the life of some patients by up to three years, and delay the use of chemotherapy in others.

Turns Out We All Dream About Sex

Some advice my dad gave me: "If your wife says she never dreams about sex with another man, she's lying. If she says she never dreams about sex with another woman, she's lying then too."

He may have been on to something. It turns out everyone, men and women alike, dream about sex.

In a detailed study that served to investigate the actual nature and content of sexual dreams across a large sample of dream reports from men and women, approximately eight percent of everyday dream reports from both genders contain some form of sexual-related activity.

Unravelling the genetic secrets of silk

Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the "dragline silk" of the black widow spider - an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.

Getting cute with science class doesn't create gender balance

"Innovative" science classes - new ways of teaching that are interactive, non-boring and therefore in defiance of every method that made America the home of great scientists for 150 years, are all the rage. The goal is to get more women in science, more minorities in science, more everyone in science.

3-D look at breast cancer

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first three-dimensional optical images of human breast cancer in patients based on tissue fluorescence.

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography, or FDOT, relies on the presence of fluorophore molecules in tissue that re-radiate fluorescent light after illumination by excitation light of a different color.

Molecular Pirouettes

Ultrafast intramolecular electronic charge separation during photo-chemical reactions cause up to tenthousand surrounding molecules to perform aligning pirouettes. Researchers observed for the first time such light induced reorientations in an organic molecular crystal.

ENCODE Project challenges conventional view of genome biology

A major study of the organization and regulation of the human genome published today changes our concept of how our genome works. The integrated study is an exhaustive analysis of 1% of the genome that, for the first time, gives an extensive view of genetic activity alongside the cellular machinery that allows DNA to be read and replicated.

Scientists solve genome of anti-cancer bacteria Salinispora tropica

Scientists at UC San Diego have solved the genomic puzzle of an organism discovered in the oceans with potential for producing compounds showing promise in treating diseases such as cancer.

Nanoparticles unlock the future of superalloy metals

Sandia National Laboratories is pioneering the future of superalloy materials by advancing the science behind how those superalloys are made.

Hydrogen fuel cell sealing technology breakthrough

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) have attracted major interest from research and development communities as an alternative source of power. In these fuel cells electricity is generated via electro-chemical reactions using hydrogen based gas and oxygen as a fuel and oxidant, respectively.

An important discovery in gene replication

A team of researchers led by University of Virginia Health System geneticists has uncovered a major secret in the mystery of how the DNA helix replicates itself time after time.

It turns out that it is not just the sequence of the bases (building blocks) in the DNA, but also how loosely or tightly the chromatin (the material that makes up chromosomes) is packed at different points of the chromosome that is critical.

Extremophiles,Sulfurous Cauldrons, and the Ethanol Puzzle

Buried beneath a sulfurous cauldron in European seas lies a class of microorganisms known as “extremophiles,” so named because of the extreme environmental conditions in which they live and thrive. Almost as radical, perhaps, is the idea that these organisms and their associated enzymes could somehow unlock the key to a new transportation economy based on a renewable biofuel, lignocellulosic ethanol.They're called extremophiles for a reason.

Migrating herds of animals still exist in southern Sudan

Seen thundering across the landscape during an aerial survey, more than 1.3 million white-eared kob, tiang (African antelope), and mongalla gazelle are thriving in Southern Sudan, despite all odds. An estimated 8,000 elephants, concentrated mainly in the Sudd, the largest freshwater wetland in Africa, have also been observed.