Gene therapy painkiller gets body to produce its own pain relief drugs
University of Michigan scientists running a human trial of the first ever gene therapy treatment for pain relief say that…
Naked chicks baffle penguin boffins
Large numbers of young penguins in colonies around the Atlantic are suffering what is known as feather-loss disorder and scientists…
Physics community buzzing over possible new particle
Experiments at Fermilab’s soon-to-be-mothballed Tevatron particle accelerator in the United States have produced collision outcomes that indicate the existence of…
Retina built using stem cells
The processes involved in the formation of complex tissues and organs involving multiple cell types are still mostly a mystery…
Strong evidence for liquid water in comet
The idea that comets are “dirty snowballs” frozen in time looks set for revision now that scientists have found evidence…
Women: they don’t make ’em like they used to
A study of 16th century European skulls by North Carolina State University researchers has found that women are beginning to…
Penn State researchers uncover new type of symmetry
The discovery of a new type of symmetry in the structure of materials will greatly expand the options available for…
Spin sensitivity of DNA surprises researchers
Weizmann Institute researchers investigating quantum interactions in biological molecules have shown that DNA is extremely sensitive to particle “spin.” Their…
Electronic components made from human blood
Indian researchers from the Changa Education Campus in Gujarat have demonstrated a memristor made from human blood and are now…
Salinity differential turns river mouths into power plants
Alternately using seawater and freshwater as the electrolyte, Stanford researchers have developed a battery that takes advantage of the difference…
Aphrodisiac plants put under the microscope
The scientists who examined findings from recent research into the aphrodisiac properties of plants say that both ginseng and saffron…
Electrical “wand” extinguishes fires
A 200-year-old observation that electricity can affect the shape of flames is being revisited with an experimental device that uses…
Obesity and infertility linked across generations
The hormonal changes which are triggered by obesity can “program” the reproductive systems of the female offspring of obese women…
Novel psychiatric drugs aimed at gut bacteria
Communication between the bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness,…
New Chinese virus has “alarmingly high” mortality rate
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists explain how a previously unknown and dangerous virus carried by tics…
Men fueling plastic surgery boom
Statistics released this week by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) show that more men are going under the…
Potent anti-aging mechanism identified
How well the integrity of our DNA is maintained is a critical factor in determining how our bodies age. Now,…
Cassini tracks equatorial methane rainstorms on Titan
Showers on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rains to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by…
Collecting items can trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder
Whatever you collect – porcelain dolls, precious stones, shoes, thimbles, watches or fans – your hobby could easily become a…
LHC may produce time travelling particles
If the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) does produce the elusive Higgs boson, then Vanderbilt University physicists speculate that it will…
Sex selection gender skew in East raises concerns
A preference for sons in China, India and South Korea combined with easy access to sex-selective abortions means that some…
Researchers speculate that hormonal imbalances might create geniuses
The discussion about whether genius is a byproduct of good genes or good environment may take an entirely new direction,…
Low birth weight infants “programmed” for obesity
When mothers have poor or inadequate nutrition, their newborns are “programmed” to eat more because they develop less neurons in…
Liver, not brain, may originate Alzheimer’s
Unexpected findings from a Scripps Research Institute study could completely alter prevailing notions about Alzheimer’s disease – pointing to the…
Alarming sperm quality decline in Finland
Over the last 10 years, Finnish researchers have charted a dramatic decline in both sperm quality and sperm counts in…
Novel CO2 turbine promises leap in generator efficiency
Turbines that utilize supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) for the generation of electricity could deliver a huge 50 percent improvement in…
Discoverer of alien bacteria says life probably exists “everywhere”
NASA scientist Richard B. Hoover has sparked controversy with claims that he has identified bacterial microfossils in several meteorites. If…
“Profound” plant water cycle changes add new wildcard to climate change guesstimates
Botanists from Indiana University (IU) and Utrecht University (Netherlands) have discovered that rising carbon dioxide levels over the last 150…
Aspirin, ibuprofen linked to impotence
Erectile dysfunction is often one of the first symptoms men with cardiovascular disease exhibit, leading Kaiser Permanente researchers to believe…
Bacteria in gut can control organs
The bacteria that live in the human gut may be doing quite a bit more than simply helping us digest…