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Controlling the building blocks of life

A simple and reliable method for converting one of the simplest chemical entities into one of the most difficult-to-make molecular building blocks of life, with complete control over its shape, is reported by scientists at the University of Bristol in this week's Nature.

10 Dec 2008

Advances in tissue engineering

Some patients wish they had a second skin - for instance because their own skin has been burnt in a severe accident.

10 Dec 2008

Researchers visualize how cells coordinate their movements

Using novel imaging, labeling, and data-analysis techniques, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been able to visualize, for the first time, large numbers of cells moving en masse during some of the earliest stages of embryonic development.

10 Dec 2008

Stress relief: Lab mice that exercise control may be more normal

Purdue University scientists found that mice raised in cages may relieve stress with behaviors associated with mice in the wild.

8 Dec 2008

Mathematical model shows how organelles function within cells

Cells are filled with membrane-bound organelles like the nucleus, mitochondria and endoplasmic reticula.

8 Dec 2008

C. elegans worms may hold key to new treatments for obesity in humans

A previously unknown mutation discovered in a common roundworm holds the promise of new treatments for obesity in humans, McGill University researchers say.

8 Dec 2008

Biologists spy close-up view of poliovirus linked to host cell receptor

Researchers from Purdue and Stony Brook universities have determined the precise atomic-scale structure of the poliovirus attached to key receptor molecules in human host cells and also have taken a vital snapshot of processes leading to infection.

8 Dec 2008

Osmium as a cancer treatment

A precious metal which has never before been used in a clinical setting is being developed as an anti-cancer agent by University of Warwick researchers.

8 Dec 2008

Metabolic reactions: Less is more in single-celled organisms

A Northwestern University study has found a surprising similarity among four quite different organisms.

5 Dec 2008

Scientists film immune cell becoming infected by a parasite

Forget what's number one at the box office this week. The most exciting new film features the intricate workings of the body, filmed by scientists using ground-breaking technology.

3 Dec 2008

Tobacco plants grown in novel mist bioreactor system provide new soure of interleukin-12

Interleukin-12 is a naturally occurring protein essential for the proper functioning of the human immune system.

3 Dec 2008

Scientists produce illusion of body-swapping

Cognitive neuroscientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet (KI) have succeeded in making subjects perceive the bodies of mannequins and other people as their own.

3 Dec 2008

Scientists discover new properties of imidazolium salts

Scientists at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have uncovered new properties of imidazolium salts (IMSs), which suggest that they could play a vital role in disease prevention and treatment.

1 Dec 2008

Scientists discover possible mechanism for chirality in biological molecules

The basic molecules that make up all living things have a predetermined chirality or "handedness," similar to the way people are right- or left-handed.

1 Dec 2008

UW tackles neglected realm of training for science professors in training

U.S. science and engineering students emerge from graduate school exquisitely trained to carry out research.

28 Nov 2008

Protein-misfolding accelerates yeast evolution

Under stress, yeast cells can unleash a remarkable mechanism based on protein-misfolding that gives them new characteristics without requiring genetic mutations.

28 Nov 2008

Condensin II proteins found to keep chromosomes apart when necessary

If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be genetic disaster.

28 Nov 2008

Scientists uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs

A very small fraction of our genetic material - about 2% - performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life.

26 Nov 2008

Tiny protein provokes healthy bonding between cells

In human relationships, a certain "spark" often governs whether we prefer one person to another, and critical first impressions can occur within seconds.

25 Nov 2008

Discovery of new mechanism for cell division

A Swedish research group, partly financed by NWO, has discovered a new mechanism for cell division in a microorganism found in extremely hot and acidic conditions.

25 Nov 2008