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Panel physicians are increasingly offering individual health services (IHS) to patients with statutory health insurance. This is documented by Susanne Richter et al. of the Department of Social Medicine, Lübeck University, in the new edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106(26): 433-9). IHS include medical health services which are not reimbursed by the health insurance funds and which the patient has to pay for himself.

DURHAM, N.C. -- As flowering plants like giant trees quickly rose to dominate plant communities during the Cretaceous period, the ferns that had preceded them hardly saw it as a disappointment.

In fact, they flourished. While modern tropical rain forests were becoming established, ferns climbed aboard, and experienced a flowering of their own species diversity.

"The canopy is there and -- boom -- diversification," said Duke University researcher Eric Schuettpelz, who is completing a post-doctoral fellowship in biology with associate professor Kathleen Pryer.

The Archaea are single-celled organisms and a domain unto themselves, quite apart from the so called eukaryotes, being bacteria and higher organisms. Many species live under extreme conditions, and carry out unique biochemical processes shared neither with bacteria nor with eukaryotes. Methanogenic archaeans, for example, can produce methane gas out of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The underlying chemical reaction, a reduction, involves the cofactor known as F0 or F420 which is the tiny molecule deazaflavin.

London, 2 July 2009 – The partners of Research4Life announced today at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2009 that a new research impact analysis has demonstrated a dramatic rise in research output by scientists in the developing world since 2002. By comparing absolute growth in published research before (1996 – 2002) and after (2002 - 2008) the advent of the Research4Life programmes, the analysis has revealed a 194% or 6.4-fold increase in articles published in peer reviewed journals.

Cancer experts at Johns Hopkins say a study tracking 774 prostate cancer patients for a median of eight years has shown that a three-way combination of measurements has the best chance yet of predicting disease metastasis.

Scientists have performed the first DNA-based reconstruction of the giant extinct moa bird, using prehistoric feathers recovered from caves and rock shelters in New Zealand.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide and Landcare Research in New Zealand have identified four different moa species after retrieving ancient DNA from moa feathers believed to be at least 2500 years old.

RESTON, Va.—A new study published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine shows that positron emission tomography (PET) scans in mice can be used to determine whether a novel type of breast cancer treatment is working as intended. Researchers successfully used PET and a specially-developed radioactive compound to image HER2—a protein often associated with aggressive breast cancer—in breast cancer cells before and after treatment aimed at decreasing HER2 expression.

Researchers from across Europe have united to build the largest quantum key distribution network ever built. The efforts of 41 research and industrial organisations were realised as secure, quantum encrypted information was sent over an eight node, mesh network.

Declining bumblebee populations are at greater risk of inbreeding, which can trigger a downward spiral of further decline. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have provided the first proof that inbreeding reduces colony fitness under natural conditions by increasing the production of reproductively inefficient 'diploid' males.

A team of Penn State scientists has shed light on the processes that lead to certain human DNA mutations that are implicated in hundreds of inherited diseases such as tuberous sclerosis and neurofibromatosis type 1. The results one day could influence the way couples who seek to have children receive genetic counseling. The team, led by Kateryna Makova, an associate professor of biology, also includes Erika Kvikstad, a graduate student in the Department of Biology, and Francesca Chiaromonte, an associate professor of statistics.

New research, conducted by Charles Wingo and his colleagues, at the University of Florida, Gainsville, suggests a link between the circadian rhythm and control of sodium (salt) levels in mice.

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Louisville and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France, have identified the target antigen PLA2R in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (kidney disease), which has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. These findings appear in the July 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (Wed., July 1, 2009) – Microbial populations have traditionally been studied in carefully controlled, laboratory-grown cultures. New metagenomic approaches are being developed to study these organisms in environmental or medical samples.

The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) known as 2q35-rs13387042 is associated with increased risk of estrogen receptor (ER) -positive and -negative breast cancer, according to a study published online July 1 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This study was undertaken to confirm previous research that identified this SNP as a marker of susceptibility to ER–positive breast cancer.