The sense of smell in women who are on the pill is tuned in to food, while women who are not on the pill are better at picking up the odor of male sweat. This is shown by Swedish and American researchers in the latest issue of Biological Psychology.

It has long been known that the use of hormones affects the sense of smell in humans, but this influence has been seen as general, that is, that the sensitivity to all smells is impacted to the same extent. The researchers study at th

An international team of transplant physicians has shown that the investigational drug belatacept (LEA29Y) preserves transplanted kidney function as effectively as cyclosporine, the drug most commonly used to prevent the immune system from rejecting transplanted organs. At the same time, belatacept avoids many of the toxic side effects that adversely affect kidney function, blood pressure and cholesterol levels of patients undergoing long-term anti-rejection therapy with immunosuppressant drug

New research from Sweden has shown that psychological stress does not appear to influence the outcome of IVF – good news for women who fear that the understandable anxiety that they suffer during fertility treatment might damage their chances of conceiving.

“This means that we can use these findings to reassure women and this information should, in itself, help to reduce their stress and worry levels,” said lead author Dr Lisbeth Anderheim whose team’s research is reported t

Chemists at Ohio State University have gained new insight into how sunlight affects DNA. And what they found overturns ideas about genetic mutation that originated decades ago.

In the current issue of the journal Nature, Bern Kohler and his colleagues report that DNA dissipates the energy from ultraviolet (UV) radiation in a kind of energy wave that travels up the edge of the DNA molecule, as if the energy were climbing one side of the helical DNA “ladder.”

The f

Using muscle tissue from tarantulas, an HHMI international research scholar and his colleagues have figured out the detailed structure and arrangement of the miniature molecular motors that control movement. Their work, which takes advantage of a new technique for visualizing tissues in their natural state, provides new insights into the molecular basis of muscle relaxation, and perhaps its activation too.

“We have solved the structure of the array of miniature motors that for

Cornell researchers say double knocks may be ’soundprints’ of ivory-bills
The public is invited to join in, listen and help decipher the sounds of the ivory-billed woodpecker By Simeon Moss

Now hear this: After analyzing more than 18,000 hours of recordings from the swampy forests of eastern Arkansas, researchers at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University have released recordings offering further evidence — including the legendary bird’s dist

Rutgers’ Bonnie Firestein likens nerve cells to trees — some are short and bushy with many branches while others are tall with a few branches coming out of one or two main trunks. Different branching patterns correlate with specific disorders and Firestein’s quest is to discover how these dissimilar patterns come about and why.

A new paper by Firestein and her colleagues at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, examines the role of the protein snapin in ner

Investigators at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA examining responses to cocaine and methamphetamine use find distinct differences in onset, pattern and duration.

Subjective, or self-reported, responses to cocaine peak and decline more rapidly than those of methamphetamine, the study shows. Cardiovascular responses to the two stimulants are similar at onset but responses to cocaine decline more rapidly.

In press with the pee

Discovery has implications for control of mosquitoes, malaria and West Nile Virus

Prior to coming to Nevada 16 years ago, David Schooley was a key figure at a small company in Palo Alto, Calif. that developed methoprene, an insecticide that halts the maturation of insect larvae to adults.

Methoprene, which has the same effect as an insect hormone called juvenile hormone, also stops the insect from reproducing. It is being used heavily throughout the United S

The first clinical trial of a biologic nanoparticle designed to give back to cancer patients the tumor-busting gene they have lost is expected to start in September at Georgetown University Medical Center.

The phase I clinical study will enroll 20 patients with advanced solid cancers (including most common tumor types), and is the culmination of more than a decade of work by a team of researchers led by Professor Esther H. Chang, Ph.D. at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Ce

Carrying the right bacterial hitchhiker can make the difference between life and death for an aphid.

Pea aphids are often under attack by wasps seeking to lay their eggs inside aphids, turning them into an all-you-can-eat buffet for the larval wasps.

The aphids vary in their resistance to the wasps, which scientists had chalked up to genetic differences between aphids.

But it’s not in their genes at all — the wasp-resistant aphids owe their lives to the

New portable device captures pictures beneath the living brain’s surface

Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated a promising, minimally invasive optical technique that can capture micron-scale images from deep in the brains of live subjects. The method, called two-photon microendoscopy, combines a pair of powerful optical and mechanical techniques into one device that fits in the palm of the hand. The results appear in the September 1, 2005 issue of Optics Lette

Findings could lead to new types of therapeutic RNAs for cancer, genetic diseases

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have published the first study to test the role of RNA chemical modifications on immunity. They have demonstrated that RNA from bacteria stimulates immune cells to orchestrate destruction of invading pathogens. Most RNA from human cells is recognized as being self and does not stimulate an immune response to the same extent as invading

Engineered bug makes key chemical precursor from grain sorghum

Trials have begun in Kansas on a “green” production method for succinate, a key ingredient of many plastics, drugs, solvents and food additives. Developed at Rice University, the technology uses a genetically modified form of the bacteria E. coli that metabolizes glucose and produces almost pure succinate.

Finding “green” methods to make key chemical intermediates like succinate is a high priority for the

Genetic finding may have implications for farsightedness and nearsightedness, too.

Working with an Amish-Mennonite family tree, Johns Hopkins researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute have discovered what appears to be the first human gene mutation that causes extreme farsightedness.

The researchers report that nanophthalmos, Greek for “dwarf eye,” is a rare, potentially blinding disorder caused by an alteration in a gene called MFRP that helps control eye growth and regulate

Neuroscientists from the University at Buffalo have described for the first time how rotenone, an environmental toxin linked specifically to Parkinson’s disease, selectively destroys the neurons that produce dopamine, the neurotransmitter critical to body movement and muscle control.

Microtubules, intracellular highways that transport dopamine to the brain area that controls body movement, are the crucial target, they report.

Damage to microtubules prevents dopa