Researchers at the University of Central Florida have discovered that a protein present in the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes induces the internalization and degradation of a human receptor known to be involved in the development of certain cancers. This research, led by Lisa A Elferink of the University of Texas Medical Branch, could lead to a better understanding of cancer treatments.

Researchers at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis recently developed a way to predict if a smallpox vaccine will result in an adverse reaction. This new development will not only help those that receive the smallpox vaccine, but may also improve the safety of other popular vaccines.

Landslides in the tropics can kill thousands and cause catastrophic loss of property. Now, engineers at MIT have developed a ranking system that quantifies a slope's susceptibility to landslides caused by tropical storms, a tool they hope will be used to guide future construction and current mitigation measures in at-risk areas.

Intercytex, a UK-based company, has developed a prototype artificial skin that can be used to heal wounds. The research team, led by Dr. Paul Kemp, published their findings in the journal Regenerative Medicine and hope that their finding can provide an alternative treatment to skin grafts that is better at integrating with wounds.

Diseases can result from a mutation of genes (coding segments of DNA that comprise only about 2.5 percent of the entirety of human DNA), and often, mutations of non-gene DNA lead to illness as well. Researchers at the University of Utah recently published a report in the journal Nature Genetics, outlining a faster and more cost-effective method for mutating long stretches of such DNA.

Scientists from the University of Bath (UK) and Alfacell Corporation (USA) have characterized a molecule found in Northern Leopard frog egg cells that may dramatically improve the prognosis of brain cancer patients. The findings, which were published online in the Journal of Molecular Biology, describe the structure of an enzyme called Amphinase that can detect and bind to the sugary coating of tumor cells, subsequently causing them to die.

Although often criticised for influencing political agendas, newspaper articles may impact favorably on levels of organ donation. According to a content analysis published in the journal Health Communication earlier this month, 57 percent of newspaper articles portray organ donation in a positive light.

Collaborating at the University of Oregon, associate professor of economics William Harbaugh, professor of psychology Ulrich Mayer, and economics graduate student Dan Burghart published results in Sciencethis week, suggesting that giving money voluntarily or paying taxes brings about the same satisfaction that well-documented pleasures such as food and social contact do.

Traditionally, anger is associated with bad reasoning and poor decisions, but a recent study from the University of California, Santa Barbara suggests that this may not be true. New findings show that even in the presence of automatic responses, or heuristics, angry people are actually better suited to analytical thinking.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel recently released findings in Nature Neuroscience that reveal new crucial aspects of nerve cell communication. Their discovery of proteins that signal the start of myelination,a process that allows faster communication within the nervous system,may allow future researchers to develop cures for neurologically degenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

In a collaborative effort, two engineers and a team of skilled scientists have discovered a way to specifically target and destroy cancer cells using electric pulses. These engineers, Rafael V. Davalos, a faculty member of the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science (SBES), and Boris Rubinsky, a bioengineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley developed a technique, called irreversible electroporation (IRE), by which cancerous cells can be specifically targeted and destroyed.

At first glance, Carine appears to be an ordinary healthy nearly one-year-old infant. However, her normal development signifies a great success on the part of a group of Canadian researchers, as she is the first baby to be born from a fertilized, lab-matured egg.

Does talking about a problem actually make it easier to handle? Researchers at UCLA not only believe it, they can prove it. Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience, conducted experiments into a cognitive phenomenon called mindfulness in which a specific part of the brain in the frontal lobe lessens the effects of an emotional experience after it is consciously identified.

A study of nearly 250,000 military conscripts found a favorable relationship between low birth order and high IQ in families with multiple children. The difference between the eldest child and the closest sibling is almost 3 IQ points, according to the study conducted by Norwegian epidemiologists Dr. Petter Kristensen and Dr. Tor Bjerkedal.

Obesity is a growing health problem in our current society that puts increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke diagnosis. A lifestyle that includes a high fat diet is often a main contributor to the development of obesity, but researchers at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have found a protein required for diet-induced obesity.

One explanation frequently suggested for America's growing obesity epidemic is that humans may metabolize high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener whose use was adopted only a few decades ago, differently than the sucrose found in naturally sweet foods. However, a new study in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discounts that explanation, showing instead that corn syrup and cane sugar in beverages affect hunger, fullness, and food consumption in similar ways at lunch.

David Erickson of Cornell University implanted a silicon chip inside flying insects to control their movement. The results were published June 22 by AZoNano. These "insect cyborg sentinels" ranging from cicadas to dragonflies are a new pass in cyborg technology, possessing the ability to detect details about the presence of harmful gases, explosives or viruses in the air. The project intends to control the insects' movement by motion trajectories obtained from GPS coordinates or from using an ultrasonic based remote control. Gaining control of an insect's movement is necessary because it enables scientists to position the insect in an area where a toxic substance is suspected to be present

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have described a molecular mechanism that plants use to regulate growth in their natural environment. The findings, published in the June advance online edition of Nature, outline a method of growth that involves the coordination of a plant's internal clock with its exposure to light.

For the first time ever researchers were able to successfully use stem cells to treat Parkinson's disease in our closest relatives. primates. These results, released this month, show that stem cells can actually alleviate the damage caused by Parkinson's disease. The stem cells work in a very surprising way to do this, not only replacing damages neurons, but also rescuing and repairing pre-existing ones. This opens a whole new door in the quest for alleviating Parkinson's and curing neurological disorders in general.

A study published in the July 17 issue of Neurology showed that students with previous brain tumors performed markedly worse in school, with females affected more than males and foreign language suffering more than other subjects. The report cards of 300 ninth graders with previous brain tumors treated with surgery or radiation therapy were compared to 1,473 healthy children in Finland. The researchers said that this is the first time brain tumor survivors have had their grades and subjects studied.