People who bake aren't fans of sugar substitutes. 'Equal' does well in hot things like coffee that just require absorption but, for the most part, sugar remains king in the oven. Natur Research…

A research team at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City has identified two genes that may be crucial to the production of an immune system cytokine called interleukin-10 (IL-10). The…

Most people wouldn’t consider anthrax toxin to be beneficial, but this bacterial poison may someday be an effective cancer therapy. Anthrax toxin has actually been shown to be fairly selective in…

As electronics designers cram more and more components onto each chip, current technologies for making random-access memory (RAM) are running out of room. European researchers have a strong position…

When President George Bush announced in 2004 that he wanted to reinvigorate space exploration, he presented a number of arguments for increasing funding but they were all rather tepid. Space…

A new influenza virus discovered in Missouri pigs has a combination of genes from avian and swine flu viruses, supporting the theory that pigs can serve as a mixing vessel for flu viruses and a…

In the New York Times, Abigail Zuger, an M.D., recently reviewed a book called Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine by R. Barker Bausell — the “truth” being, if I…

In the 19th century, leaders like Bismarck understood that the politics of nation-states and warfare were going to be implemented by countries having the most effective transportation. Railroads…

Highly publicized events such as school shootings arouse public interest in the effects of media violence exposure on children, yet there is still considerable public debate about whether to take…

According to a new survey, 52 percent of Americans plan to lose weight in 2008 but as January comes closer and marketing efforts promising quick and easy weight-loss solutions ratchet up, people are…

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name given to two lung diseases that frequently co-exist, bronchitis and emphysema, characterized airflow obstruction that interferes with…

Genome rearrangements, resulting in variations in the numbers of copies of genes, occur when the cellular process that copies DNA during cell division stalls and then switches to a different genetic…

Laser surgery to correct vision problems has been in use since the early 1990s. Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) is typically used to correct low to moderate myopia, while laser in-situ…

The loss of deep-sea species poses a severe threat to the future of the oceans, suggests a new report in Current Biology. In a global-scale study, the researchers found some of the first evidence…

A team of biologists have developed a model mapping the control circuit governing a whole free living organism. This is an important milestone for the new field of systems biology and will allow the…

Over the course of the 20th Century, doctors waged war against infectious bacterial illness with the best new weapon they had: antibiotics. But the emergence of dangerous, multi-drug resistant…

When it comes to choosing a place to live, male chimpanzees in the wild don’t stray far from home, according to a new report in the Dec. 27th Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. The…

Many studies have been published that link specific “biomarkers” − genes, mRNA or proteins − with an aspect of cancer development or treatment, and the results often appear to be statistically valid,…

The annual America’s Most Literate Cities ranking, published today in “USA Today,” measures the cultural resources for reading in America’s largest cities. It names Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Paul,…

'Flag waving' is often considered a metaphor for stirring up the public towards adopting a more nationalistic, generally hard-line stance. It brings with it a host of other subtle terms, like…