Two studies conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have shown that aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) do not protect memory or prevent dementia, as had been previously believed.

Findings published in this week's edition of Science reveal a link between massive volcanic eruptions and ancient global warming. The international team of researchers used rock dating to relate a sudden 5°C warming 56 million years ago, known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), to major volcanic events occurring at the beginning of the PETM.

New research gives hope to finding a way to beat antibiotic resistance. A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has isolated four compounds which offer antibacterial activity close to some of the most potent antibiotics available. The findings of this team are published in the April 27th edition of Chemistry and Biology.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered the current view of water is not as clear as we thought. It appears water at the nanoscale actually behaves like molasses, with a thick, viscous consistency. This new discovery changes some previously held views on the properties of waters, and creates new ones that were previously unreachable.

It has been said that color is only skin deep. Now, Dr. Xianglin Du and his colleagues at the University of Texas have shown that this adage holds true despite differences in survival between African-Americans and Caucasians suffering from colorectal cancer. According to their latest meta-analysis, published online this month by the journal Cancer, these differences are almost entirely due to social factors. As a result, the authors concluded that "efforts to eliminate racial disparities in health care and to minimize disparities in socioeconomic status have the potential to reduce racial inequalities in colon cancer survival".

Researchers at Columbia University have found antidepressant treatments in adult monkeys can induce neuron growth in the hippocampus of the brain. This research, published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides new clues into how the antidepressant medication works and how it may work in humans, as well.

How morphine produces that "kick" and leads to the compulsive drug-seeking behavior characteristic of addiction has been a subject of intense research over the past decades. Adding a new facet to the underlying complex neurobiology, researchers at Brown University have demonstrated that morphine can block the strengthening of inhibitory signals to a key reward area of the brain, thereby exciting it. This mechanism, write the authors, might contribute to the early stages of addiction, and could be exploited to yield effective therapies against the same.

Researchers at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have made the world's first attempt at using gene therapy to treat a visual disorder. The team operated on Robert Johnson, who lives in the UK and has a sight disorder that deteriorates with age.

Scientists at Whitehead Institute have discovered important regions in yeast prions that explain their ability, and potentially the ability of prions in general, to self-propagate or "infect". By analyzing yeast prions, researchers were able to identify specific recognition elements that control the switch from non-infectious to infectious conformations. Their findings are published in the May 9 online issue of the journal Nature.

Impaired wound healing is a major clinical problem in diabetic patients, affecting about 15 percent of them and is the leading cause of lower limb amputations. Reporting in the May issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center have, for the first time, identified the molecular basis of impaired vasculogenesis in diabetic wound healing. By fixing the defective links in the process, they were able to significantly enhance wound healing, thus providing novel potential targets for therapeutic intervention in diabetic wound healing. The current therapies for this impairment are few and inadequate.

Scientists let by Simon Melov, PhD of the Buck Institute and Mark Tarnopolsky MD,PhD of McMaster University Medical Center have found that exercise, in addition to improving the way people feel and operate, can revitalize muscle tissue in healthy senior citizens.

Scientists at the University of Georgia have developed a process to extract and refine liquid biofuel from wood so that it may be used in conventional diesel engines without extensive modification. The findings come at a time when significant resources in the United States are being channeled into alternative energy research in the hopes of reducing both the country's need for outside oil and its carbon emissions through efficient and economically favorable methods. The researchers, led by Thomas Adams, Director of Faculty of Engineering Outreach Service at UGA, published their findings in the journal Energy and Fuels last week.