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RALEIGH, NC—Each year, a wide variety of new cut flower cultivars and species are evaluated in trials administered by North Carolina State University and the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. The research, conducted at about 50 locations in the United States and Canada, provides valuable production and marketing information.

QUEBEC—A new, versatile strawberry has been introduced for home gardeners. 'Roseberry' is predicted to be very popular as an ornamental addition to gardens. The strawberry features attractive pink blooms and produces sweet, aromatic fruit all summer long. Because it produces flowers and fruits on stolons before they root, 'Roseberry' works equally well in hanging baskets and when planted as groundcover. 'Roseberry' premiered in HortScience.

CHASE, LA—Sweetpotato is gaining popularity in the United States, where health-conscious consumers have created increased demand for the tasty, versatile food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, per capita consumption of the crop increased over 24% from 1998-2008 and the value of the U.S. sweetpotato crop in 2009 exceeded $400 million.

KINGSTON, R.I. – July 1, 2011 – Tiny marine organisms called zooplankton can use specialized adaptations that allow them to hide from predators in areas of the ocean where oxygen levels are so low that almost nothing can survive, but they may run into trouble as these areas expand due to climate change.

DETROIT – Wayne State University researchers believe medical practitioners can help reduce the number of breast cancer deaths among low-income African-American women by more effectively educating their patients about the importance of mammography screening.

• Patients with a form of pulmonary fibrosis often do not get referred to a tertiary care center quickly.
• Delayed access is associated with a higher death rate.
• Better methods of early detection would shorten time from first symptoms to referral.

DALLAS – July 1, 2011 – Surgery and all its implications can be scary, especially so for pediatric patients and their parents who dread sometimes disfiguring scars.

Now a UT Southwestern Medical Center urologist has developed a new "hidden" minimally invasive procedure that makes scarring virtually invisible yet is just as effective as more common surgical methods.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have discovered the first of an entirely new class of antiangiogenesis drugs – agents that interfere with the development of blood vessels. In a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences/Early Edition, the investigators describe how a compound derived from a South American tree was able, through a novel mechanism, to interfere with blood vessel formation in animal models of normal development, wound healing and tumor growth.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers have filled an important gap in the study of tunicate evolution by genetically sequencing 40 new specimens of thaliaceans, gelatinous, free-swimming types of tunicates. Their study was featured on the cover of the June issue of the Journal of Plankton Research.

Tunicates are a phylum of animals closely related to vertebrates, with a firm, rubbery outer covering called a tunic, from which the name derives.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A new study co-authored by University of Florida researchers provides details on the first cookiecutter shark attack on a live human, a concern as warm summer waters attract more people to the ocean.

The study currently online and appearing in the July print edition of Pacific Science warns that swimmers entering the cookiecutter's range of open ocean tropical waters may be considered prey.

Under certain conditions, private and commercial propeller planes and jet aircraft may induce odd-shaped holes or canals into clouds as they fly through them. These holes and canals have long fascinated the public and now new research shows they may affect precipitation in and around airports with frequent cloud cover in the wintertime.

Studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have confirmed that the presence of Escherichia coli pathogens in surface waters could result from the pathogen's ability to survive for months in underwater sediments. Most E. coli strains don't cause illness, but they are indicator organisms used by water quality managers to estimate fecal contamination.

These findings, which can help pinpoint potential sources of water contamination, support the USDA priorities of promoting sustainable agriculture and food safety.

Professor Bill Keevil, Head of the Microbiology Group and Director of the Environmental Healthcare Unit at the University of Southampton, has presented research into the mechanism by which copper exerts its antimicrobial effect on antibiotic-resistant organisms at the World Health Organization's first International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC).

If a person were to climb a towering redwood and take a sample from the top and bottom of the tree, a comparison would show that the DNA are different.

Christopher A. Cullis, chair of biology at Case Western Reserve University, explains that this is the basis of his controversial research findings.

Cullis, who has spent over 40 years studying mutations within plants, most recently flax (Linum usitatissimum), has found that the environment not only weeds out harmful and useless mutations through natural selection, but actually influences helpful mutations.