Science News

THE science of synthetic biology took an important step forward this week with the announcement in Science, by a team from Jef Boeke's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, of the first completely synthet...

Light speed is no limit in the quantum world - so why can't we exploit that freedom? Perhaps because we're living in the dead husk of a richer cosmos (full text available to subscribers)     

Light waves can be defined by three fundamental characteristics: their color (or wavelength), polarization, and direction. While it has long been possible to selectively filter light according to its color or polarizatio...

Stroke survivors who consistently control their blood pressure may reduce the likelihood of a second stroke by more than 50 percent. Less than a third of stroke survivors maintained consistent blood pressure control more...

People recovering from serious strokes should be given access to palliative care. Palliative care -- which focuses on minimizing suffering -- should be customized to stroke patients and their families. The statement is t...

You've switched to the night shift and your weight skyrockets, or you wake at 7 a.m. on weekdays but sleep until noon on weekends -- a social jet lag can fog your Saturday and Sunday. Life runs on rhythms driven by circa...

Factors other than receipt of painkillers -- including opiates -- in the emergency department appear to be more important to patient satisfaction, as reflected in a new analysis. In some emergency departments, physician ...

Antidepressant medications taken by pregnant women are associated with increased rates of preterm birth, research shows. This finding reinforces the notion that antidepressants should not be used by pregnant women in the...

A new understanding of proteins at the nexus of a cell's decision to survive or die has implications for researchers who study cancer and age-related diseases. Experiments and computer analysis of two key proteins reveal...

Rates of diabetes are unusually high among Mexican-Americans who live near the U.S. Mexico border and new research finds that those dealing with depression and anxiety in this population are less likely to properly manag...

The estimated prevalence of autism among 8-year-olds in New Jersey rose in the latest reporting year, 2010, to nearly 22 children per thousand, or approximately one child in 45. That figure represents the "highest ever r...

A new approach to breast-conserving surgery that simplifies the procedure for women whose breast cancer is too small to be felt has been developed by physicians and engineers. By combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI...

The effectiveness of radiation treatments for patients with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck has been reviewed by an international team of researchers. They identified two biomarkers that were good at predicting...

In experiments to assess the impacts of social stress upon adolescent mice, both at the time they are experienced and during adulthood, a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory team conducted many different kinds of stress tests ...

A computerized process that could make minimally invasive surgery more accurate and streamlined using equipment already common in the operating room has been developed by researchers.

In a study of 14,000 US children, 40 percent lack strong emotional bonds -- what psychologists call 'secure attachment' -- with their parents that are crucial to success later in life, according to a new report. The rese...

Inspiration has been linked with people at risk of developing bipolar disorder for the first time in a study. For generations, artists, musicians, poets and writers have described personal experiences of mania and depres...

The reason why some animals can regenerate tissues after severe organ loss or amputation while others, such as humans, cannot renew some structures has always intrigued scientists. In a study, a research group provided n...

A new organ to help return blood flow from veins lacking functional valves has been invented in an American lab.

Mitochondria are essential for proper cellular functions. Mitochondrial defects are often observed in a variety of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease, and are the hallmarks of a numb...

A new function of AID, a crucial enzyme for the immune response has been uncovered by researchers. The discovery helps explain a rare genetic disorder that causes an immunodeficiency syndrome. AID initiates a mechanism w...

UK health professionals are suffering from severe professional anxiety because they are being inadequately trained to treat minority ethnic groups - with their treatment often based on cultural stereotypes, research has ...