Male songbirds' sly tricks can get them girls

Males songbirds that cannot compete at singing one song will switch to another to try and trick females. The females comparison-shop for mates just as cell phone customers compare plans,...

Bone Cells Found to Influence Blood Stem Cell Replication and Migration

Using a novel investigatory technique, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have established that osteoblasts, cells responsible for bone formation, are also directly involved in the proliferation and expansion of...

Japan to probe whale meat 'theft'

Investigations begin into claims that meat from Japan's whaling programme is being stolen with official knowledge.

Structure of receptor for hot chilli pepper and pain revealed

You can now not only feel the spicy kick of a jalapeno pepper, you can also see it in full 3D, thanks to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in...

Video: Panda Cubs Rescued After Quake

Seen in cell-phone camera footage, handlers at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China evacuated more than a dozen panda cubs just after the massive May 12 earthquake.

Genes from extinct Tasmanian tiger function in a mouse

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Texas, USA, have extracted genes from the extinct Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), inserted it into a mouse and observed a...

Unique adaptive evolution in snake proteins -- insight into vertebrate physiology

Prior to the advent of large sequence datasets, it was assumed that innovation and divergence at the morphological and physiological level would be easily explained at the molecular level. Molecular...

Aviation impacts 'hotly disputed'

Green advisers tell the government airport expansion should be suspended pending an inquiry.

Scientists discover a molecular scaffold that guides connections between brain cells

Brain cells known as neurons process information by joining into complex networks, transmitting signals to each other across junctions called synapses. But “neurons don’t just connect to other neurons,” emphasizes...

Some biofuel crops could become invasive species: experts

Countries thinking of joining the rush for biofuels run the risk of planting invasive plant species that could wreak environmental and economic havoc, biologists warned on Tuesday.

Gene mutations in mice mimic human-like sleep disorder, UT Southwestern researchers find

Mutations in two genes that control electrical excitability in a portion of the brain involved in sleep create a human-like insomnia disorder in mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have...

Scientists receive unexpected help in whale recovery

Researchers from the University of British Columbia working to unearth a blue whale on P.E.I. received some surprise assistance on the weekend.

Protein key to neuro-regeneration

Researchers at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England, University College London, the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan and Cancer Research UK, have for the first...

Plant flavonoid found to reduce inflammatory response in the brain

Researchers at the University of Illinois report this week that a plant compound found in abundance in celery and green peppers can disrupt a key component of the inflammatory response...

Artificial Bladders Pass More Early Tests

A company called Tengion announced recently that its full-size, neo-bladder replacements performed well in large animal models. Tengion's technology - the commercialized version of the work of Anthony Atala -...

Giant kangaroo gives clues on climate

A New Target To Fight Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping sickness affects more than 50,000 people around the world, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by the Trypanosoma parasite, which is transmitted by the tsetse fly. A team...

Scientists 'paint' viruses to track their fate in the body

Biologists from Austria and Singapore developed a technique that adds a new twist on the relationship between biology and art. In an article recently published online in The FASEB Journal...

Beyond the Male "Pill"

Last January, an Australian engineer announced a bizarre new contraceptive for men: a radio-controlled implant that could block the flow of sperm with the click of a button. The device,...

Do chemicals in the environment affect fertility?

Our day-to-day exposure to chemicals is on the increase. From food packaging to the air we breathe, every day contact with potentially-toxic substances could be affecting our health — and...

'Mind-Blowing' New Creature Discovered

Mysterious sea creatures grow into simple slug-like cell masses. These are no sea monkeys.

Researchers find smallpox drug may also target adenovirus

Scientists at Saint Louis University have made two key discoveries that could lead to the first-ever human testing of a drug to target the adenovirus, which causes a number of...

Those with rare diseases offered a chance for free treatment

(AP) -- They're the cold cases of medicine, patients with diseases so rare and mysterious that they've eluded diagnosis for years.

Clue to mystery crustacean in parasite form

First identified in 1899, y-larvae have been one of the greatest zoological mysteries for over a century. No one has ever found an adult of these puzzling crustaceans, despite the...

Researchers bring new meaning to the term 'computer bug'

US researchers have created ‘living computers’ by genetically altering bacteria. The findings of the research, published in BioMed Central’s open access Journal of Biological Engineering, demonstrate that computing in living...

Gaming 'not green enough'

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are not producing 'green' enough consoles, says Greenpeace.

Observatory: Telltale DNA Bits Give Away Presence of Secretive Invaders

Some animals are so secretive that finding them, to determine how far they have spread, is nearly impossible.

UF researchers develop improved gene therapy agent

Replacing one amino acid on the surface of a virus that shepherds corrective genes into cells could be the breakthrough scientists have needed to make gene therapy a more viable...