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• Surprising Discovery: Multicellular Response Is 'All For One'
  It has been widely assumed that, in single-celled organisms, each cell perceives its environment -- and responds to stress conditions -- individually. Likewise, it had been thought that cells in multicellular organisms respond the same way, but scientists have now discovered otherwise. In studies of the worm C. elegans, they found that authority is taken away from individual cells and given to two specialized neurons to sense temperature stress and organize an integrated molecular response for the entire organism.
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• Diet High In Saturated Fat Contributes To Prostate Cancer Treatment Failure, Study Suggests
  Men who consumed high saturated fat diets (HSF) were younger and had higher BMIs at diagnosis than men with who consumed low saturated fat diets (LSF). Saturated fats were most commonly consumed as beef steaks, cheese and cheese spreads, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, eggs, ice cream and salad dressings.
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• Biological Weapons To Control Cane Toad Invasion In Australia
  New research on cane toads in Northern Australia has discovered a way to control the cane toad invasion using parasites and toad communication signals. Biologists says that controlling toads has been difficult as things that kill them will often kill frogs. Professor Shine and his team studied cane toads in Queensland that lagged behind the invasion front and found they were infected with a lungworm parasite which slows down adults and, in laboratory tests, kills around 30% of baby toads.
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• Previously Unseen Switch Regulates Breast Cancer Response To Estrogen
  A tiny modification called methylation on estrogen receptors prolongs the life of these growth-driving molecules in breast cancer cells. Most breast cancers contain estrogen receptors, which enable them to grow in the presence of the hormone estrogen. Their presence can determine whether tumors will respond to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen. The finding will help researchers sort out how mutations change the estrogen receptor's function and allow some breast cancers to resist tamoxifen.
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• NASA Successfully Completes First Series Of Ares Engine Tests
  NASA engineers Thursday successfully completed the first series of tests in the early development of the J-2X engine that will power the upper stages of the Ares I and Ares V rockets, key components of NASA's Constellation Program. Ares I will launch the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to the International Space Station and then to the moon by 2020. The Ares V will carry cargo and components into orbit for trips to the moon and later to Mars.
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• Teen 'Self Medication' For Depression Leads To More Serious Mental Illness, New Report Reveals
  Millions of American teens report experiencing weeks of hopelessness and loss of interest in normal daily activities and many of these depressed teens are using marijuana and other drugs, making their situation worse, according to a new White House report.
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• Justice In The Brain: Equity And Efficiency Are Encoded Differently
  Which is better, giving more food to a few hungry people or letting some food go to waste so that everyone gets a share? A study appearing in Science finds that most people choose the latter, and that the brain responds in unique ways to inefficiency and inequity.
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• Suspected Cause Of Type 1 Diabetes Caught 'Red-handed' For The First Time
  Scientists working with diabetic mice have examined in unprecedented detail the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes. They caught the immune cells, known as dendritic cells, "red-handed": they were carrying insulin and fragments of insulin-producing cells known as beta cells. This can be the first step in a misdirected immune system attack that destroys the beta cells, causing diabetes.
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• Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts
  Research done by the US Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a new study. The Interior Department has been ordered to make a determination by May 15.
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• Arthritis Is A Potential Barrier To Physical Activity For Adults With Diabetes
  People with diagnosed diabetes are nearly twice as likely to have arthritis, and the inactivity caused by arthritis hinders the successful management of both diseases, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study. This is one of the first studies of its kind to look at the relationship between arthritis and diabetes and the outcomes associated with physical activity.
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• Swedish Space Gym Being Tested By Astronauts
  The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) is presently testing a Swedish space gym. The aim is to counteract muscle atrophy and osteoporosis in astronauts. Astronauts who spend a long time in space can face problems when they return to earth. Weightlessness atrophies the muscles and decalcifies the skeleton. It doesn't help to "pump iron." Barbells and dumbbells are also weightless on a space voyage.
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• Newest GREET Model Updates Environmental Impacts Of Specific Fuels And Automobiles
  The newest version of the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation model will provide researchers with even more tools to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of new transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. The newest update released May 9 will allow scientists to model combustion of ethanol produced from Brazilian sugarcane and used by U.S. automobiles; production and use of bio-butanol as a potential transportation fuel; and production and use of biodiesel and renewable diesel via hydrogenation, coal/biomass co-feeding for Fischer-Tropsch diesel production and various corn ethanol plant types with different process fuels.
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• Taking The Sex Out Of Sexual Health Screening
  Young women would accept age-based screening for the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia, but would want this test to be offered to everyone, rather than to people "singled out" according to their sexual history.
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• When Bears Steal Human Food, Mom's Not To Blame
  Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society found that the black bears that become habituated to human food and garbage may not be learning these behaviors exclusively from their mothers, as widely assumed. Bears that steal human food sources are just as likely to form these habits on their own or pick them up from unrelated, "bad influence" bears.
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• Virus Mimics Human Protein To Hijack Cell Division Machinery
  Viruses are masters of deception, duping their host's cells into helping them grow and spread. A new study has found that human cytomegalovirus can mimic a common regulatory protein to hijack normal cell growth machinery, disrupting a cell's primary anti-cancer mechanism.
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• Silicon's Effect On Sunflowers Studied
  As the popularity of sunflowers grows among commercial growers and everyday gardeners, scientists are looking for new supplements and growing methods to enhance production and quality of this celebrated annual.
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• Speedier Precise Cancer Radiotherapy Now Available
  RapidArc is the next-generation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) offering radiation delivery up to eight times faster than conventional IMRT. The first US patient to be given the new therapy is an Alabama man with early-stage prostate cancer whose treatment started May 6.
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• How Light Squeezes Through Small Holes: Detailed For First Time
  How does light pass through a tiny hole? For the first time, scientists have succeeded in mapping this process in detail. Their research also promises a significant improvement in Terahertz microscopy in the long term, a potentially interesting new imaging technique, and Terahertz microspectroscopy, a technique for identifying tiny quantities of substances using light.
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• Improving Anxiety Treatment Through The Help Of Brain Imaging: A Potential Future Treatment Strategy
  Wouldn't it be nice if our doctors could predict accurately whether we would respond to a particular medication? This question is important because research studies provide information about how groups of patients tend to respond to treatments, but inevitably, differences among groups of patients with the same diagnosis mean that findings about groups of patients may not apply to individuals from those groups.
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• Photosynthetic Dimmer Switch For Plants Identified
  In a study of the molecular mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from oxidation damage should they absorb too much sunlight during photosynthesis, researchers have discovered a molecular "dimmer switch" that helps control the flow of solar energy moving through the system of light harvesting proteins. This discovery holds important implications for the future design of artificial photosynthesis systems that could provide the world with a sustainable and secure source of energy.
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• A Real-life 'I Am Legend?' Researcher Champions Development Of 'Reovirus' As Potential Treatment For Cancer
  A virologists and cancer biologists was on his way to the American Association of Cancer Research in San Diego recently when he decided to check out the in-flight movie I Am Legend. The premise of the sci-fi horror movie is that a virus successfully used to fight cancer in clinical trials has gone out of control, pushing humankind to the edge of extinction. Early on in the movie, survivor Robert Neville (Will Smith) replays a three-year-old TV interview which foreshadows the impending disaster.
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• Computed Radiography System Helps Uncover Secrets From The Past
  Digital medical imaging and information technology is helping The Field Museum discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections. A computed radiography system enables the museum -- for the first time -- to capture, archive and share digital x-ray images from more than one million priceless artifacts in its Anthropology collection. The museum is also using a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) to manage, view and store the growing collection of digital images.
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• Genetic 'Tag Team' Keeps Cells On Cycle
  By surveying the activity of thousands of genes at several different time points, researchers have uncovered new evidence that a network of influential genes act as a kind of genetic tag team to orchestrate one of the most fundamental aspects of all life: the cell cycle.
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• Designer Isotopes Push The Frontier Of Science
  Designer labels have a lot of cachet -- a principle that's equally true in fashion and physics. The future of nuclear physics is in designer isotopes -- the relatively new power scientists have to make specific rare isotopes to solve scientific problems and open doors to new technologies, according to some physicists.
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• Young People Are Intentionally Drinking And Taking Drugs For Better Sex, European Survey Finds
  Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. A third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex.
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• Merging Antennae Galaxies Move Closer
  New research on the Antennae Galaxies shows that this benchmark pair of interacting galaxies is in fact much closer than previously thought -- 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.
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• New Link To Schizophrenia Discovered
  Neuroscientists have discovered that mice lacking an enzyme that contributes to Alzheimer disease exhibit a number of schizophrenia-like behaviors. The finding raises the possibility that this enzyme may participate in the development of schizophrenia and related psychiatric disorders and therefore may provide a new target for developing therapies.
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• Undergrad Has Sweet Success With Invention Of Artificial Golgi
  A graduating senior has put his basic knowledge of sugars to exceptional use by creating a lab-on-a-chip device that builds complex, highly specialized sugar molecules, mimicking one of the most important cellular structures in the human body -- the Golgi Apparatus.
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• Cane Use May Reduce Risk Of Knee Osteoarthritis Progression
  A common, incurable joint disease, osteoarthritis is the leading cause of disability in elderly people. While nearly any joint can be affected, OA most often strikes the knee, particularly the inner aspect of the tibiofemoral joint. One source of stress on this vulnerable joint compartment is the knee adduction moment, an indication of weight placement while walking.
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• Modern Ceramics Help Advance Technology
  Many important electronic devices used by people today would be impossible without the use of ceramics. A new study illustrates the use of ceramic materials in the development of technological devices, including mobile communication and ultrasonic imaging.
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• Carbon Dioxide Capture And Storage: Grasping At Straws In The Climate Debate?
  Great hopes are being placed on undeveloped technology. Capturing and storing carbon dioxide is predicted to be one of the most important measures to counter the threats to our climate. But the technology still hasn't been tested in full scale, and the complications and risks it entails may have been grossly underestimated.
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• What's Bugging Locusts? It Could Be They're Hungry -- For Each Other
  Since ancient times, locust plagues have been viewed as one of the most spectacular events in nature. In seemingly spontaneous fashion, as many as 10 billion critters can suddenly swarm the air and carpet the ground, blazing destructive paths that bring starvation and economic ruin. What makes them do it? In a word, cannibalism.
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• New Cancer Gene Found
  Scientists have identified a new gene that causes cancer. The gene and its protein, both called RBM3, are vital for cell division in normal cells. In cancers, low oxygen levels in the tumors cause the amount of this protein to go up dramatically. This causes cancer cells to divide uncontrollably, leading to increased tumor formation.
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• Piecing Together The Next Generation Of Cognitive Robots
  European researchers are making progress on piecing together a new generation of machines that are more aware of their environment and better able to interact with humans. While building robots with anything akin to human intelligence remains a far off vision, making them more responsive would allow them to be used in a greater variety of sophisticated tasks in the manufacturing and service sectors. Such robots could be used as home helpers and caregivers, for example.
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• When Statins Aren't Enough: New Trial Drug Points To Better Management Of Coronary Heart Disease
  Despite widespread use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, a significant number of cardiac patients continue to suffer heart attacks and stroke. Researchers theorize that high levels of an enzyme found in coronary plaques may be to blame, by making plaques more likely to rupture and block blood flow. The drug darapladib may offer a way to fight that risk, according to new research.
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• New Gas Sensors For Monitoring Carbon Dioxide Sinks
  A novel gas sensor system makes it possible to monitor large areas cost-effectively the first time. The patented gas sensor is based on the principle of diffusion, according to which certain gases pass through a membrane faster than others. Using a tube-like sensor it is possible to measure an average gas concentration value over a certain distance without influencing or distorting conditions in the measuring environment.
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• Elderly In Long-term Care Setting Suffer Depression More Than Those Cared For At Home
  Elderly in a long-term care setting are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and to self-report depression compared to those in a home-health care setting, according to a study. The study of 272 elders, with an average age of 81, examined how often patients reported feeling depressed and were prescribed antidepressants at both a long-term care facility and through a home-care agency in west-central Indiana.
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• Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change
  New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala. Biologists have been researching the effects of carbon dioxide increases and temperature rises on eucalypts. They have shown in the laboratory that increases in carbon dioxide affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or interfere with the digestion of nutrients) in eucalypt leaves. Anti-nutrients in eucalypts are built from carbon and an increase in carbon dioxide levels will favor the production of anti-nutrients over nutrients. Koalas are fussy about the species of eucalypts that they eat as different species contain different ratios of nutrients to anti-nutrients.
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• 'Dancing' Hair Cells Are Key To Humans' Acute Hearing
  Researchers have found that an electrically powered amplification mechanism in the cochlea of the ear is critical to the acute hearing of humans and other mammals. The findings will enable better understanding of how hearing loss can result from malfunction of this amplification machinery due to genetic mutation or overdose of drugs such as aspirin.
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• Cable Driven Robot Assists Patients With Neurological Disorders
  Scientists have invented a unique robotic device to assist with the physical rehabilitation process of patients suffering from neurological damages to their upper extremities such as those due to stroke or Parkinson's disease. They designed and built the device to aid physical therapists and their patients to retrain injured muscles.
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• Molecular Espionage Shows A Single HIV Enzyme's Many Tasks
  Using ingenious molecular espionage, scientists have found how a single key enzyme, seemingly the Swiss army knife in HIV's toolbox, differentiates and dynamically binds both DNA and RNA as part of the virus' fierce attack on host cells.
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• Priority Regions For Threatened Frog And Toad Conservation In Latin America
  Nearly 35% of all amphibians are now threatened of extinction raising them to the position of the most endangered group of animals in the world. Decline of amphibian populations and species is ongoing due to habitat loss, fungal disease, climate shift and agrochemical contaminants. These impacts are even worse to frogs that reproduce in water bodies such as streams and ponds. Scientists now propose a priority set of areas for the conservation of frogs and toads in Latin America. The study is unprecedented in terms of not only the proposition of key-conservation areas, but also because it shows that the inclusion of species biological traits, such as reproductive modes, affects the performance of area-prioritization analyses.
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• Asthma Inhaler Misuse Widespread Among Anti-social Teens
  Nearly one out of four teens who use an asthma inhaler say their intent is to get high. Findings from a new study identified high levels of asthma inhaler misuse among anti-social youths, who displayed higher levels of distress and were more likely to abuse other substances.
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• New Evidence From Earliest Known Human Settlement In The Americas
  New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.
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• Nitrates In Vegetables Protect Against Gastric Ulcers, Study Shows
  Fruits and vegetables that are rich in nitrates protect the stomach from damage. This takes place through conversion of nitrates into nitrites by the bacteria in the oral cavity and subsequent transformation into biologically active nitric oxide in the stomach. This also means that antibacterial mouthwashes can be harmful for the stomach.
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• How 'Horse Tranquilizer' Stops Depression
  Researchers have shown exactly how the anaesthetic ketamine helps depression with images that show the orbitofrontal cortex -- the part of the brain that is overactive in depression -- being 'switched off'. Ketamine, an anaesthetic that is popular with doctors on the battlefield and also with vets because it allows a degree of awareness without pain, is a new hope for the treatment of depression -- but the minute-by-minute images show how the drug achieves this in an unexpected way.
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• Skin Flaps Deliver Cancer-fighting Therapy, Study Reveals
  Using gene therapy, plastic surgeons have delivered cancer fighting proteins through skin flaps placed on cancerous tumors on rats with a 79 percent reduction in tumor volume, according to a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
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• Tiny Electronics: Contact Through Silver Particles In Ink
  Conductor paths in sensor systems have to be correctly "wired." Now, instead of using obtrusive connecting wires, researchers print the conductor paths. The connections thus produced are thinner, and the sensor delivers more accurate measurements.
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