By James Smith, Research Fellow in Fisheries at UNSW Australia It may sound overly simple, but just five processes can define us as animals: eating, metabolism, reproduction, dispersal and death.…

The moon is a tranquil place but an article in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets suggests that periodic storms of solar energetic particles may have significantly altered the properties of…

The recently published genome of Brassica napus — commonly known as canola — paves the way for improved versions of the plant, which is used widely in farming and industry.  Canola is native to…

Young girls with an intense, red, itchy rash on their outer genital organs - vulvitis - may be at increased risk of developing urinary tract infections, according to new research from Wake Forest…

Most new species come about in geographic isolation, or at due to least large-scale geographic distance, but a controversial hypothesis known as sympatric speciation, which occurs when a new species…

Across Australia, catch Mars and Saturn around 8 pm local time.Source: Museum Victoria/Stellarium By Tanya Hill, Museum Victoria Look up at the night sky this week and you’ll find Mars and Saturn…

By Mark Lawler, Queen's University Belfast Personalized medicine is the ability to tailor therapy to an individual patient so that, as it’s often put, the right treatment is given to the right…

It’s possible to assess dietary compliance from a blood sample - that is useful in controlled dietary intervention studies investigating the health benefits of specific diets, since such studies have…

Due to increased regulations, a culture war against pharmaceutical corporations, and the high costs of trials, companies have increasingly allowed early taxpayer-funded biomedical research to spread…

Tropical Storm Karina was weakening on August 20 when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard Terra snapped a visible…

A team of researchers  is a step closer to solving the mystery of how lizards regenerate their tails. They have found the genetic "recipe", which involves genetic ingredients in just the right…

When salmon encounter turbulent, fast-moving water, such as rapids or areas downstream of dams, they must move upstream using a behavior known as "burst swimming" that is similar to sprinting for…

A common orb-weaving spider may grow larger and have an increased ability to reproduce when living in urban areas, according to ecologists from the University of Sydney. They believe urbanization may…

The Paleolithic inhabitants of modern-day Spain may have eaten snails 30,000 years ago - 10,000 years earlier than their Mediterranean neighbors, according to a recent paper. Snails were widespread…

Biofuels production has never lived up to the hype. It does something, so it is less hype than quantum computers have been for 15 years, but biofuels suffer from inefficiencies that have kept it from…

Silent strokes are a loss of blood flow to parts of the brain. Such strokes do not cause immediate symptoms and typically go undiagnosed, but they cause damage. In kids, they can even lower IQ.…

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science From the classrooms to research facilities a cell phone could morph into a portable science lab. "If we could use a cellphone as a microscope that would be a very…

NASA proposes to return a sample from Mars in the 1920s and recently announced details of the successor for Curiosity which will drill and cache samples for return. But is this the best approach in…

One form of drug counseling to help young people with drinking problems makes people in a 'we must do something' culture feel better may be of limited benefit, a new systematic review suggests. …

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was once used in dry cleaning and as a fire-extinguishing agent but once it was found to be a cause of ozone depleted, it was regulated in 1987 under the Montreal Protocol…