The controversial idea that one cause of high blood pressure lies within the brain, and not the heart or blood vessels, has been put forward by scientists at the University of Bristol, UK, and is published this week in the journal Hypertension.

Dr. Hidefumi Waki, working in a research group led by Professor Julian Paton, has found a novel role for the protein, JAM-1 (junctional adhesion molecule-1), which is located in the walls of blood vessels in the brain.

Researchers have successfully applied X-ray scattering techniques to determine how dissolved metal ions interact in solution.

These findings will help researchers better understand how metal ions, such as those found in nuclear waste and other industrial processes, behave in the environment.

A new theoretical thermometer built from heavy-duty mathematics and computer code suggests that the surfaces of certain neutron stars run significantly hotter than previously expected. Hot enough, in fact, to at least partially answer an open question in astrophysics -- how to explain the observed frequency of ultra-violent explosions known as superbursts that sometimes ignite on such stars' surfaces?

Human bone marrow has been used to create early-stage sperm cells for the first time, a scientific step forward that will help researchers understand more about how sperm cells are created.

The research published in the academic journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, was carried out in Germany* by a team of scientists led by Professor Karim Nayernia, formerly of the University of Göttingen but now of the North-east England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI), based at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Dutch researcher Laura Brandán Briones, that's who.

She improved both the tests and the method to determine the reliability of the tests. This means, for example, that washing machines and coffee machines can be tested far better before they are launched on the market.

In a new study that will be published this year in Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Dr. Debbie Knapp, Kent State assistant professor of management and information systems, examines the efficacy of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue” policy. She finds that homosexuals are no more disruptive to military life than their heterosexual counterparts.

Approximately 60,000 gays are active in the U.S. military today, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military.

Small, clever process technology is essential for the future, but is it possible? Dutch-sponsored researcher Fernando Benito López investigated the possibilities of the so-called lab-on-a-chip: microreactor chips in which chemical reactions can take place under (high) pressure. The results were very promising. The reaction rate increased compared to conventional equipment, the measurements were accurate and safety was not a problem. Moreover it was possible to follow and regulate the reaction during the process.

Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States."

The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States," shows that 20 years later disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that they are not equally protected by environmental laws.

Immune cells that are the body’s front-line defense don’t necessarily rest quietly until invading bacteria lock onto receptors on their outside skins and rouse them to action, as previously thought. In a new paper, University of Michigan scientists describe their findings that bacteria can barge inside these guard cells and independently initiate a powerful immune response.

Research finds calorie-dense dessert recipes printed in major newspapers across the country may be contributing to obesity in large cities. The study, conducted by researchers at Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, Wis., is published in the latest issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal (Volume 106, No. 2).

The regions studied were in the West (Los Angeles, Denver, Portland), Midwest (Milwaukee, Detroit, Kansas City), South (Washington D.C., Dallas, Jacksonville) and the Northeast (New York, Philadelphia, Boston).