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The bird population on the University of California, Berkeley, campus has remained surprisingly diverse over the past 100 years, showing that it's possible to create a green wildlife haven within a dense urban area, researchers say.

How quickly can new species arise? In as little as 6,000 years, according to a study of Australian sea stars.

"That's unbelievably fast compared to most organisms," said Rick Grosberg, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis and coauthor on the paper published July 18 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

University of Michigan heart researchers are shedding light on a safer method for steadying an abnormal heart rhythm that prevents collateral damage to healthy cells.

Irregular heart rhythms, or arrhythmias, set the stage for a common, debilitating disorder called atrial fibrillation that puts adults as young as age 40 at risk for fatigue, fainting, cardiac arrest, and even death. Medications can help, but doctors also use catheter ablation in which electrical impulses are delivered to a region of the heart to disrupt the arrhythmia.

Why do Native Americans experience high rates of diabetes? A common theory is that they possess fat-hoarding "thrifty genes" left over from their ancestors – genes that were required for survival during ancient cycles of feast and famine, but that now contribute to the disease in a modern world of more fatty and sugary diets.

Increasing dietary intake of the antioxidant vitamins C, E, and selenium could help cut the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by up to two thirds, suggests research published online in the journal Gut.

If the association turns out to be causal, one in 12 of these cancers might be prevented, suggest the researchers, who are leading the Norfolk arm of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) study.

In January, 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidelines on dosing of an HIV medication used to treat people infected with both HIV and tuberculosis (TB) because of a potential interaction between two of the main drugs used to treat each disease.

The drug rifampin, used for treating TB, can lower levels of the HIV medicine efavirenz, so the FDA recommended that patients who weigh more than 50 kg (110 pounds) and who are taking both medications should get 30 percent larger doses of efavirenz (an increase from 600 mg to 800 mg).

WASHINGTON, DC/LONDON (July 23, 2012) – A novel approach to discover the first new tuberculosis (TB) combination drug regimen cleared a major hurdle when Phase II clinical trial results found it could kill more than 99 percent of patients' TB bacteria within two weeks and could be more effective than existing treatments, according to a study published today in the Lancet. These results add to a growing body of evidence that the new regimen could reduce treatment by more than a year for some patients.

FRESNO, Calif. (July 23, 2012) – New research published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests that eating raisins may provide the same workout boost as sports chews.

CHICAGO – A study of adolescents with hypertension enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid program suggests that guideline-recommended diagnostic tests – echocardiograms and renal ultrasonography – were poorly used, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

An analysis of newly sequenced polar bear genomes is providing important clues about the species' evolution, suggesting that climate change and genetic exchange with brown bears helped create the polar bear as we know it today. The international study, led by the Penn State University and the University at Buffalo, found evidence that the size of the polar bear population fluctuated with key climatic events over the past million years, growing during periods of cooling and shrinking in warmer times.

With widespread hunger continuing to haunt developing nations, and obesity fast becoming a global epidemic, any number of efforts on the parts of governments, scientists, non-profit organizations and the business world have taken aim at these twin nutrition-related crises. But all of these efforts have failed to make a large dent in the problems, and now an unusual international collaboration of researchers is explaining why.

The impact of deforestation on loss of biodiversity is undeniable. Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot for its richness of endemic species, has been especially hard hit by deforestation and subsequent destruction of natural habitats, caused mainly, it is thought, by human pauperisation, economic activities and population growth.

DURHAM, N.C. – A compound that mops up debris of damaged cells from the bloodstream may be the first in a new class of drugs designed to address one of medicine's most difficult challenges -- stopping the formation of blood clots without triggering equally threatening bleeding.

WASHINGTON (July 23, 2012) – A new study conducted by GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) researchers Edward C. De Fabo, Ph.D., Frances P. Noonan, Ph.D., and Anastas Popratiloff, M.D., Ph.D., has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Their paper, entitled "Melanoma induction by ultraviolet A but not ultraviolet B radiation requires melanin pigment," was published in June 2012.

Premature babies are more likely to survive when they are born in high-level neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) than in hospitals without such facilities, and this benefit is considerably larger than previously reported.