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Biologists have recently discovered that a wallaby's perception of colour is more similar to a dog than a quokka, sparking questions as to why marsupial colour vision has evolved so selectively.

By developing a pokies-like game for the wallabies, the research – recently published in PLOS ONE by Curtin University's Dr Wiebke Ebeling and colleagues – was able to determine exactly what the animals saw and how their colour perception differed from other species.

Every year around 11 million people suffer severe burns. The resulting large, deep wounds caused by burning only heal slowly; this results in lifelong scars. What is needed to reduce this kind of scarring is the grafting of functional full-thickness skin. Only a very limited area of skin can be removed from the individual patient as the surgery, in turn, creates new wounds. Besides conventional skin grafting, another option is to engineer a skin graft in the lab which firstly is composed of the patient's cells and secondly is very similar to natural human skin.

The same form of Vitamin A used by teenagers to combat acne might offer benefits that are more than skin deep. That's because an international team of researchers have found that it may also help keep the immune system under control for people with autoimmune disorders or those who have received transplants. This finding was published in the February 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

When it comes to finding cures for heart disease scientists are working to their own beat. That's because they may have finally developed a tissue model for the human heart that can bridge the gap between animal models and human patients. These models exist for other organs, but for the heart, this has been elusive. Specifically, the researchers generated the tissue from human embryonic stem cells with the resulting muscle having significant similarities to human heart muscle.

Scientists have discovered a potential cure for one of the most aggressive and least treatable forms of breast cancer called "triple negative breast cancer." In laboratory experiments involving human cancer cells, scientists used a virus similar to the one that helped eradicate smallpox to coax cancer cells to produce a protein which makes them susceptible to radioactive iodine. This discovery was published in the February 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

Scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum München demonstrate that root extracts of the medicinal plant Pelargonium sidoides (PS) contain compounds that attack HIV-1 particles and prevent virus replication. A team spearheaded by Dr. Markus Helfer and Prof. Dr. Ruth Brack-Werner from the Institute of Virology and Prof. Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin from the Analytical BioGeoChemistry research unit (BGC) performed a detailed investigation of the effects of PS extracts on HIV-1 infection of cultured cells.

Since continuous miniaturization in microelectronics is already starting to reach the physical limits, researchers are seeking new methods for device fabrication. One promising candidate is the DNA origami technique in which individual strands of the biomolecule self-assemble into arbitrarily shaped nanostructures. The formation of entire circuits, however, requires the controlled positioning of these DNA structures on a surface – something which previously has only been possible using very elaborate techniques.

Novel or highly modified genes play a major role in the development of the different castes within ant colonies. Evolutionary biologists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) came to this conclusion in a recent gene expression study. Dr. Barbara Feldmeyer and her colleagues at the JGU Institute of Zoology studied the question how the different female castes arise. An ant colony generally consists of a queen and the workers. Moreover, workers can differ depending on the task they perform, such as brood care, foraging, or nest defense.

You may have seen one of the many advertisements geared toward men asking if they suffer from "low T" — low testosterone levels that, according to the ads, can result in lost sex drive, diminished energy and moodiness. The answer, they suggest, may be as simple as applying testosterone through a gel or patch.

So successful has the marketing for this testosterone therapy been that, according to Drugs.com, an independent medicine website, sales of the testosterone gel Androgel in 2013 exceeded sales of Viagra.

DALLAS – Jan. 30, 2014 – Patients who have had bariatric surgery may need to take dietary supplements and pay closer attention to their nutritional intake, a UT Southwestern Medical Center study suggests.

The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine, tracked a group of gastric banding patients and found that despite nutritional counseling over a three-month period, most still did not meet recommended daily requirements for important nutrients such as protein, vitamin D, and calcium.

WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2014 — A new study finds that corporate downsizing reduces managerial diversity, especially when layoff decisions consider workers' position or tenure. But when layoffs are based on performance evaluations, managerial diversity remains intact — at least when it comes to white women and blacks.

PHILADELPHIA — Contrary to existing understanding, long-term follow-up of patients with two types of breast tissue abnormalities suggests that both types of abnormalities have the same potential to progress to breast cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Findings from this study could improve clinical management of patients with breast tissue abnormalities.

New reseach reveals that women who have a child after experiencing fertility problems are more likely to remain with their partner following infertility evaluations. Findings in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, indicate that after 12 years of follow-up, nearly 27% of women were no longer living with the partner, which they had at the time of fertility evaluation, if they did not have a child.

A number of floating ice shelves in Antarctica are at risk of disappearing entirely in the next 200 years, as global warming reduces their snow cover. Their collapse would enhance the discharge of ice into the oceans and increase the rate at which sea-level rises. A rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could save a number of these ice shelves, researchers at Utrecht University and the British Antarctic Survey say in a new paper published today in the Journal of Glaciology.

If you're afraid of snakes, you're really not going to like the next bit: some snakes can fly. It sounds like a frightful nightmare, but for Jake Socha, the discovery was the start of a fascinating odyssey to learn how an animal that looks as unaerodynamic as a snake can glide as much as 30m from a tall tree. Socha describes the snakes as 'slithering' in an S-shape through the air as they descend through the Southeast Asian rainforest: 'They look like they are swimming', he adds. But what keeps the reptiles aloft?