For the giant Australian cuttlefish, mating is a complicated undertaking complete with fighting, sneaking, and deception. In this week’s issue of the journal Nature, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) senior scientist Roger Hanlon and his colleagues demonstrate that for this species, deception while mating pays off.

Hanlon and his team present behavioral and genetic data demonstrating that small male cuttlefish that dramatically alter their appearance to look like females are highly

Watching flies fly may not seem like high-tech science, but for researchers using the Western Hemisphere’s most brilliant X-rays, located at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, it not only helps explain how insects fly but also may someday aid in understanding human heart function.

The researchers, from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Caltech and the University of Vermont, merged two distinct technologies

Just one cellular pathway produces the raw ingredients plants use to make thousands of compounds, from molecules with anticancer properties to the active ingredient in catnip, according to a team of researchers at Purdue University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

This finding challenges long-held assumptions about how plants produce these commercially important products. The research also could have important implications for researchers trying to harness plant

Researchers have discovered a link between the amount of blood flowing through the liver of the unborn baby in late pregnancy and the diet of expectant mums. In slim mothers and those who eat an unbalanced diet the amount of blood flowing to the liver is increased. While this ‘liver-sparing’ pattern of blood flow is thought to protect the foetus from a nutrient deficit, the researchers believe it may also affect liver function in later life, increasing the risk of adult heart disease and diabetes

Why is it that when you go on holiday some members of your family always seem to get bitten more than others? Researchers supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) think they may have found the answer and their work could lead to new types of insect repellent.

James Logan, a research student at the BBSRC-sponsored institute Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, has found that some people give off “masking” odours that prevent mosquitoes f

A couple of minutes is all it takes to ’knock out’ bits of your brain for an hour, according to a new study by a University College London (UCL) team. The team have been working on ways to improve a method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and are now using their adapted version of TMS to investigate possible treatments for stroke patients or those with Parkinson’s disease.

In the latest issue of the journal Neuron, Professor John Rothwell and col

Researchers now have a much better picture of how follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), one of the most frequently used fertility drugs, works, and with it new ideas for creating a new generation of oral medications to treat infertility.

The exquisite detail of the images produced by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Wayne A. Hendrickson and colleague Qing Fan begins to tell for the first time how the FSH hormone attaches to a key segment of its receptor on the ce

Heart patients with gastrointestinal complications should use low doses of aspirin combined with drugs that treat stomach ulcers rather than taking the anti-platelet drug Plavix, which has been thought to reduce bleeding ulcers, according to a gastroenterologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Physicians are challenged in treating heart patients who may be at high-risk for gastrointestinal bleeding from aspirin or other nonsteroidal

New Awareness Campaign Says “It’s Not Too Late” to Prevent the Disease

About 40 percent of adults ages 40 to 74 – or 41 million people – have pre-diabetes, a condition that raises a person’s risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Studies show that while adults over 60 are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, losing a small amount of weight and increasing physical activity is especially effective in reducing that risk among this age group.

According to a study published in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, fecal occult blood test (FOBT) performed in-office as part of a digital rectal examination failed to detect potentially cancerous colon growths 95 percent of the time. Furthermore, an at-home FOBT was found to detect cancerous polyps less than 24 percent of the time. The entire study population received follow-up colonoscopies, regardless of whether they received digital FOBT or the at-home stool

Liver disease sometimes causes hepatic encephalopathy, which involves brain damage, personality changes, and intellectual impairment due to hyperammonemia (high levels of ammonia in the blood). However, the mechanisms involved in both learning and how liver disease leads to learning impairment are unclear.

In a new study led by Vicente Felipo of the Laboratory of Neurobiology at the Fundacion Valenciana de Investigaciones Biomedicas in Valencia, Spain and published in the February

Stem cell transplantation using umbilical cord blood is a standard treatment option for blood disorders in children, but not for adults, due to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficiently large dose of cells. To solve this problem, researchers from the University of Minnesota examined a new technique that combines two cord blood units from different donors for transplantation into adult or adolescent leukemia patients. Their study is to be published in the February 1, 2005, issue of Blood, the o

University of Pittsburgh findings published in leading European journal

Reduced blood concentrations of a protein called adiponectin appear to indicate a significant risk of cardiovascular disease in one of the first studies to focus on risk of the disorder among patients with diabetes mellitus type 1, previously known as juvenile diabetes. Recent studies suggest that adiponectin, a protein specific to fat tissue, is involved in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Results of the

For decades, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was prescribed for postmenopausal women to protect them from cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, results from the Women’s Health Initiative questioned its effectiveness, which has led to more caution in prescribing and using HRT for this purpose.

So, are there other ways women can decrease their risk of heart disease? Yes – and new evidence shows that exercise may be the easiest. According to a new study, women who are more p

Additional evidence that a class of antidepressants can reduce the effectiveness of tamoxifen has been published by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University.

Results of the trial are published in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The large clinical trial confirmed data from an earlier study showing that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants may hinder th

Deficiencies in the ability of cells to repair damaged DNA are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

DNA repair is the system of defenses designed to protect the integrity of the genome. Studies have suggested that deficiency in cells’ capacity for DNA repair contributes to the accumulation of DNA damage and accelerates the genetic changes involved in carcinogenes