Body

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Your mother's wrinkles — or lack there of, may not be the best predictor of how you'll age. In fact, a new study claims just the opposite. The study, involving identical twins, suggests that despite genetic make-up, certain environmental factors can add years to a person's perceived age.

Scientists at the Universities of Bath and Leeds have discovered a chemical that stops stem cells from turning into other cell types, allowing researchers to use these cells to develop new medical treatments more easily.

Stem cells have the ability to develop into many other cell types in the body, and scientists believe they have huge potential to treat diseases or injuries that don't currently have a cure.

Intelligent robots come to life – a popular theme of science fiction movies. The creatures break away from their makers, develop feelings, become superior to humans, and ultimately attempt to conquer the world. The phenomen of artificial intelligence, AI for short, has fascinated mankind since before the time of Frankenstein.

"Corn belongs in the kitchen, not in biogas facilities" – objections like this can be heard more and more frequently. They are protesting against the fermentation of foodstuffs in biogas plants that generate electricity and heat. One thing the opponents are afraid of is that generating electricity in this way will cause food prices to escalate.

A study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers has revealed surprising new insights into the process used to initially identify an experimental drug now being tested in people with cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Researchers emphasized that the clinical implications of their findings are unclear, but said the results suggest more work may be needed to make sure the screening process to select promising agents was not flawed by its effects on a firefly enzyme used as a marker.

Researchers at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research in Molecular Oncology in Lausanne have developed a new test to predict how breast cancer patients respond to chemotherapy, which could help change how treatment is delivered in the future. In an article, 'A stroma-related gene signature predicts resistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer' i, published in Nature Medicine, Dr Pierre Farmer and colleagues showed the potential of the reactive stroma to modulate tumor phenotype and the clinical response to treatment.

"Then we looked at chimpanzees, who share common features with Australopithecus, and took measurements of how their muscles work and added that to the model. We were able to validate this model by comparing it to a similar model built for a species of monkey called macaques," Spencer explained.

The result – a rainbow colored virtual skull that illustrates forces absorbed by the cranial structure in simulated bite scenarios and how their unusual facial features were ideally suited to support the heavy loads of cracking hard nuts.

A team of Monash University researchers led by Professor James Whisstock has made a major breakthrough in the international fight against malaria, which claims the life of a child across the world every 30 seconds.

The research, performed in collaboration with Professor John Dalton at the University of Technology, Sydney, provides a new approach to treating and controlling the disease that is contracted by half a billion people and causes around 1 million deaths a year.

Chevy Chase, MD— Growth hormone treatment for six months after weight loss surgery reduces patients' losses in lean body mass and skeletal muscle mass, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

PHILADELPHIA – Vacationing at the shore led to a 5 percent increase in nevi (more commonly called "moles") among 7-year-old children, according to a paper published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Number of nevi is the major risk factor for malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Melanoma rates have been rising dramatically over recent decades. More than 62,000 Americans are diagnosed with melanoma each year and more than 8,000 die.

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 3 – Beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part D who reached a gap in health care coverage known as the "doughnut hole" were much less likely to use prescription drugs than those with an employer-based plan, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study. The findings, published in the Feb. 3 online issue of Health Affairs, raise concerns about health consequences and increased costs from hospitalizations and physician visits that may arise from lack of coverage.

CHICAGO (February 2, 2009) – New research published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests that a traditional, "open" appendectomy may be preferable to a less-invasive laparoscopic appendectomy for the majority of patients with acute appendicitis, contrary to recent trends.

CHICAGO (February 2, 2009) – New research published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows a warm-up of 15 to 20 minutes with simple surgical exercises prior to an operation leads to a substantial increase in proficiency of surgical skills in surgeons of all experience levels. The researchers found that a warm-up of both psychomotor and cognitive skills raises surgeons' alertness to a higher level for surgical procedures and improves performance for fatigued surgeons.

A new study published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine identifies molecular pathways associated with outcomes in ovarian cancer. Currently, outcomes following diagnosis of ovarian cancer are very poor, with up to 65-70% of women dying within five years of diagnosis.

Better strategies to tackle ghostwriting in the medical literature are the subject of a debate by leading authors in next week's issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. Ghostwriting is scientific misconduct, argues Peter Gøtzsche, Director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark, because it is dishonest and often does not allow for proper accountability of the role of authors and study sponsors in the publication process. "Court cases that allowed access to industry files have shown that ghost and guest authorship are common," says Dr.