A role for prion proteins, the much debated agents of mad cow disease and vCJD, has been identified. It appears that the normal prions produced by the body help to prevent the plaques that build up…

Technical advances over the past 50 years have allowed improved knowledge to be gained of the properties of sea water at great depths. Yet the first centimetres of the ocean remain its least well…

The most common procedure for clearing blocked kidney arteries can also release thousands of tiny particles into the bloodstream that can impair kidney function, according to researchers from Wake…

Women with at least three sites of cellular atypia in breast tissue are nearly eight times more likely than average women to develop breast cancer, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic Cancer…

The first pigs containing genes responsible for Alzheimer’s disease will be born in Denmark in August. This event is a landmark achivement in the effort towards finding a cure for the disease.…

Bats are one of the zoological groups attracting most interest around the world in terms of studying the epidemiology of rabies. However, the dynamics of the viral infection in these organisms…

A man/woman relationship graphic.

Today ended more than a year of hard work for Europe's space-based scientists and their collaborators located all over the world. It was final submittal day to the European Space Agency's (ESA's)…

In May, Nobel Laureate James D. Watson, the scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA, became the first person to receive his own complete personal genome -- all three billion base pairs of…

A factor in immune cells regulates human semen and seems to determine whether a man will be fertile, according to a new study. Yousef Al-Abed, PhD, and his colleagues at The Feinstein Institute for…

Using echo-sounding equipment to create images and maps of areas below the ocean floor, researchers have begun to unravel a new story about the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Images of areas below the Eastern…

The Genographic Project is studying the genetic signatures of ancient human migrations and creating an open-source research database. It allows members of the public to participate in a real-time…

About 250 years before Daniel Massey built his farm house in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, his great-grandfather came to the New World as an indentured servant. 150 years later, Penn State's…

A NASA satellite has captured the first occurrence this summer of mysterious iridescent polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth's surface. The first observations of these clouds by the Aeronomy…

Scientists have obtained the first-ever 3D pictures of magnetic reconnection events, the dances on the solar winds of near-Earth space. In magnetic reconnection, magnetic field lines from different…

Researchers in the group "Alcoholism and drug addiction" of the University of Granada have shown that a hereditary lack of endorphin is a genetic predisposition to become addicted to alcohol. Beta…

Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL) have made the discovery that tuberculosis and leprosy bacteria follow a different path into the host cell…

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm…

The so-called Ret Chip, the world's first genetic chip to be produced for diagnosing hereditary diseases of the retina in a genetic examination, will become available in mid-July. The chip is the…

The core of the gaming industry has always been young men with plenty of free time but increasingly investors and developers are trying to attract the casual gamers, including women, who have less…