The rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, is cultivated in many humid tropical countries for the latex it produces, from which is extracted natural rubber mainly used by the tyre industry. Asia alone provides almost 95 % of the world production, where the first producer is Thailand whose rubber industry earns a regular income for 10 % of the population. However, a disease is attacking rubber trees that causes irreversible drying-up of latex flow, and can affect up to 30% of trees in African, Asian

A primitive star with extremely low iron content has been discovered by an international research team from Sweden, Japan, Germany, USA, Australia and Great Britain. The results are published in Nature online this week.

In 2001, the giant star HE0107-5240 was discovered among a large number of stars examined as part of the Hamburg/ESO* survey. Detailed studies revealed that the star had by far the lowest iron content ever recorded – 200 000 times lower than the Sun. Previously,

Understanding the interaction of Fragile X mental retardation protein and kissing complex RNAs

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited form of mental retardation, affecting approximately 1 in 3600 males and 1 in 4000-6000 females. Fragile X syndrome results from loss of expression of the Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), the product of the FMR1 gene. Now, Drs. Robert and Jennifer Darnell and colleagues, from The Rockefeller University, report the uncovering of

Research could lead to new drugs for HIV

The increased frequency of drug resistance in isolates of the AIDS virus, HIV, makes identification of new antiviral targets an urgent necessity. Host genes required to support the replication of HIV are a potential source of such novel targets, but relatively few appropriate target genes have been identified in animal cells thus far. A new study, conducted by Dr. Suzanne Sandmeyer and colleagues at the University of California, reports t

A fundamental number that affects the color of light emitted by atoms as well as all chemical interactions has not changed in more than 7 billion years, according to observations by a team of astronomers charting the evolution of galaxies and the universe.

The results are being reported today (Monday, April 18) at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) by astronomer Jeffrey Newman, a Hubble Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory representing DEEP2, a

Screening for breast cancer and the early detection of other tumors one day may be as simple as spitting into a collection tube or cup, according to recent studies by UCLA researchers.

In one early study based on a risk model, presented here at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the UCLA scientists reported that genetic “biomarkers” isolated in saliva predicted oral squamous cell carcinoma in about nine out of 10 cases.

A recent stud

pH value in rock pores where organisms live acidic enough to dissolve nails, say researchers

University of Colorado at Boulder researchers say a bizarre group of microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal environment at Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park could provide tantalizing new clues about ancient life on Earth and help steer the hunt for evidence of life on Mars.

The CU-Boulder research team reported the microbes were discovered in the p

Shock therapy, a controversial practice conjuring frightening images of behavior control, still has a place in schizophrenia treatment, a newly updated research review shows.

Although the data confirmed that antipsychotic drugs are still the first choice for schizophrenia treatment, they also showed that electroconvulsive, or shock, therapy clearly works, and combining both treatments can accelerate benefits to some patients, the review finds.

Dr. Prathap Tharyan, head of

New data from the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab shows the pentaquark doesn’t appear in one place it was expected. The result contradicts earlier findings in this same region and adds to the controversy over whether research groups from around the world have caught a glimpse of the so-called pentaquark, a particle built of five quarks.

Researchers in Jefferson Lab’s CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) collaboration took data with a high energy photon beam on a liquid hydrogen

A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, is giving new relevance to the term “sharper image” by creating a superlens that can overcome a limitation in physics that has historically constrained the resolution of optical images.

Using a thin film of silver as the lens and ultraviolet (UV) light, the researchers recorded the images of an array of nanowires and the word “NANO” onto an organic polymer at a resolution of about 60 nanometers. In comparison, curren

A 15-year search for fossils in Africa has led to the discovery of eight fish specimens that are 450 million years old – 50 million years older than any previous fish fossil on the continent and amongst the oldest in the world.

Professor Richard Aldridge, of the Department of Geology at the University of Leicester, who co-led the scientific expedition, says the fossil discovery is among the most remarkable and exciting ever to be found on the continent. He said:

‘These

A team of marine scientists has mapped the undersea journeys of Atlantic bluefin tuna and concluded that tighter restrictions should be placed on commercial fishing to protect the feeding and breeding grounds of this top migratory predator–one of the most commercially valuable fish in the sea.

Researchers from Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium say that their new study, published in the April 28 edition of the journal Nature, offers substantial evidence that signi

Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep.

In its normal state, the Drosophila (fruit fly) gene, called Shaker, produces an ion channel that controls the flow of potassium into cells, a process that critically affects, among other things, electrical activity in neurons. A handful of recent

Children facing surgery can be made more comfortable with little risk by allowing them to have certain liquids up to two hours before the operation, a new review of recent studies has found.

Like adults, children are often required to go without food or drink up to a half-day before surgery to prevent their stomach contents from being regurgitated or sucked into the lungs under general anesthesia. In the review of 43 randomized controlled trials involving 2,350 children, only one

Observers in eastern Arkansas have reported at least eight independent sightings of a bird that appears to be an ivory-billed woodpecker, a species widely thought to be extinct. A video clip of one bird, though blurry, shows key features, including the size and markings, indicating that the bird is indeed an ivory-billed woodpecker, according to John W. Fitzpatrick of Cornell University and coauthors of a paper released online today by Science.

One of the world’s larges

No reliable studies exist to support removal of trouble-free impacted wisdom teeth, according to a systematic review of evidence. Despite this surprising lack of data, extraction of third molars has long been considered appropriate care in most developed countries.

“Watchful monitoring” of asymptomatic wisdom teeth may be a more appropriate strategy, suggest review authors led by Dr. Dirk Mettes of Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Furthermore, they ad

In vitro fertilization can improve pregnancy rates among couples with unexplained infertility, but there is little evidence to show whether IVF results in more live births than other treatments, according to a new review of recent studies.

Although expensive and invasive, IVF is a widely used treatment, despite potential complications, including a multiple pregnancy rate of about 25 percent.

According to the analysis by Dr. Zabeena Pandian of the University of Aberdeen,

We will all soon be able to watch what we want on our televisions, when we want thanks to a project funded with the help of six million euros from the Information Society Technologies area of the EU’s Framework Programme.

Building on the communication technologies developed and improved in recent years, ‘Share it!’ developed an end-to-end system that provides seamless access to on-line, broadcast and personally stored content. It allows easy access and transfer of the content bet

Ever since the internet was created, it has developed and advanced as new services have been introduced that have made it easier to access and send data between remote computers. Electronic mail and the easy-to-use interactive interface known as the World Wide Web are just two of the most important services that have helped to make the internet as popular as it is today. GRID technology, one of the latest systems that has been developed for linking computing resources, connects hundreds of la

In 2002-2003, three expeditions involving specialists of the Institutes of Geochemistry, of Solar-Terrestrial Geophysics, and of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Irkutsk) looked for traces of meteoroid that had fallen down in the north-east of the Irkutsk Province, in the Mamsko-Chuisk region. None of the expeditions found either craters or meteoroid fragments. Only fallen trees and minor particles of meteorite substance mark the direction of celestial body fa