Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) are an unusual sighting in most parts of the World, but are seen regularly in the Bay of Biscay. On a recent crossing of the Bay, a pod of 8 Cuvier’s beaked whales were observed to be displaying very unusual behaviour.

Cuvier’s beaked whales are amongst the more unusual and rare cetacean sightings globally. Like many species of beaked whale, they are known to inhabit deep-water canyons and slope waters, which tend to be found far from

A mechanism that lets herpes simplex virus infect most cells — and 45 million Americans — is discovered

It’s one of the most common viruses in America, and one that causes the most guilt and shame. It can get inside almost any kind of human cell, reproduce in vast numbers, and linger for years in the body, causing everything from recurrent genital blisters to sores around the mouth. Its complications can kill, and it may increase susceptibility to many nerve and brain disor

An innovative new statistical method, described in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, streamlines the computation required to identify all the potential locations in the genome that influence a particular physical trait, or phenotype. Thanks to the new method developed by John Storey, Joshua M. Akey, and Leonid Kruglyak, researchers have a more efficient genome-mining technique to help them identify all the genomic elements that produce specific traits. In brewer’s yeast alone, Storey and collea

Follow-up to landmark 2004 paper expands new understanding of female reproductive biology

Last year a group of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers announced surprising findings that female mice – contrary to longstanding theories of mammalian reproductive physiology – retained the ability to make new egg cells or oocytes into adulthood. Now the same investigators report new data supporting the earlier research and identifying a potential source for the production of

Search for a special ’genetic endowment’ snares new cancer candidates

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a telltale set of genes that causes breast cancer to spread and grow in the lungs, where cancer cells often flourish with lethal consequences.

The researchers said that the genes are more than markers that identify the presence of metastatic cancer. These genes are mediators that enable fragments of breast cancer tumors to take root

We look at a Gothic cathedral in a different way than we gaze at a standard apartment block, and when we scrutinize paintings, our gaze slides along differently than when we look at a datasheet with numerals to be memorized. And how are training materials – manuals, video films and websites – perceived, when as much information should be gained from a glance? How should they be made up to work most effectively? Specialists of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (Modern University for the Humanitie

The results of an international clinical trial led by Duke University Medical Center researchers has shown that a new drug is not a suitable replacement for protamine, a drug that has been used for more than 40 years after coronary artery bypass surgery to return thinned blood to its normal state.

While protamine is effective in reversing the blood-thinning properties of heparin, recent studies have shown that its use can cause changes in blood pressure which have been link

Amphetamines, including the drug popularly known as Ecstasy, can reverse the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in mice with an acute form of the condition, according to new research at Duke University Medical Center.

The researchers caution that the findings in animals do not suggest Parkinson’s disease patients should find relief by taking amphetamines, which are drugs of abuse with many dangerous side effects. The findings rather indicate that drugs with similar chemical

’Orbitronics’ could keep silicon-based computing going after today’s technology reaches its limits

For about 40 years, the semiconductor industry has been able to continually shrink the electronic components on silicon chips, packing ever more performance into computers. Now, fundamental physical limits to current technology have the industry scouring the research world for an alternative. In a paper published in the Aug. 1 online edition of Physical Review Letters

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have identified some of the key factors that prevent the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), complications of premature birth, and other diseases and conditions. The findings offer important clues about why the nervous system fails to repair itself and suggest ways that at least some forms of brain damage could be reversed. The research is published in the August edition of the scientific journal Nature Medicine.

Meteor impacts are generally regarded as monstrous killers and one of the causes of mass extinctions throughout the history of life. But there is a chance the heavy bombardment of Earth by meteors during the planet’s youth actually spurred early life on our planet, say Canadian geologists.

A study of the Haughton Impact Crater on Devon Island, in the Canadian Arctic, has revealed some very life-friendly features at ground zero. These include hydrothermal systems, blasted rock

They are called “hellfire”, “smart bombs”, “advanced penetrators” or “bunker-busters”. They all have the component of depleted Uranium (DU) in common. DU remains after the fissile isotope 235U has been extracted from natural Uranium for the production of nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. However 235U only comes to 5% of the total Uranium content, so that DU consists of the isotope 238U almost entirely. Between DU and natural Uranium there are no chemical and toxicological differences, merely the ra

Astronomers from the universities of Hertfordshire and Kent have received a grant which will allow them to map large areas of the sky 1000 times faster than with current technology.

The universities, in conjunction with the University of British Columbia and the Joint Astronomy Centre, have been awarded 1,500 hours of observation and survey time on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) at the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii. The award, which is part of the JCMT Major Legac

New work by two researchers at HP Laboratories Bristol sets out to solve one of the major difficulties in quantum computer architectures that use directly interacting qubits.

The problem is that the million-or-so qubits necessary to do useful calculations in a quantum computer would all feel the presence of each other, meaning that the information would leak in an uncontrollable way. The more qubits that are put together this way, the harder it is to control them.

The

Researchers have uncovered how members of one family of antibiotics kill bacteria that make people sick.

This new knowledge may help drug developers make slight changes to these antibiotics to make them more effective against drug-resistant strains of bacteria, said Irina Artsimovitch, a study co-author and an assistant professor of microbiology at Ohio State University.

The antibiotics studied belong to the rifamycin family. Until now, researchers believed that these antibi

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have harnessed a mobile gene from the cabbage looper moth and modified it for routine use to determine the function of genes in mice and other vertebrates. If the new tool works as they expect, it will speed understanding of genes involved in human biology and disease and accelerate the search for effective new therapies.

The researchers report their study in the August 12, 2005, issue of the journal Cell.

Certain genes or

Because atherosclerotic plaque typically builds up without symptoms and leads to more than 1 million deaths in America each year, the search is on to develop early detection devices that will enable physicians to offer treatment before the disease progresses to advanced stages.

Now, in a study involving laboratory rabbits, a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues has been able to detect the presence of inflammatory cells that are associa

The same family of chemical signals that attracts developing sensory nerves up the spinal cord toward the brain serves to repel motor nerves, sending them in the opposite direction, down the cord and away from the brain, report researchers at the University of Chicago in the September 2005 issue of Nature Neuroscience (available online August 14). The finding may help physicians restore function to people with paralyzing spinal cord injuries.

Growing nerve cells send out axons, long

Biologists testing a mathematical model of the mechanism birds use to control the growth of complex feathers found that plumed feather structures involve the coordination of at least two genes that activate and that inhibit barb growth.

“Understanding these mechanisms of feather growth gives a whole new perspective on the unique beauty of feathers,” said Richard Prum, senior author on the study. Prum is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, and Curator of Ornitho

Researchers studying zebrafish that die from anemia have discovered a new pathway for the synthesis of heme, the deep red, iron-containing molecule that is a component of hemoglobin and myoglobin. The research suggests that defects in this pathway may be an overlooked cause of anemia in humans.

A research team led by Leonard I. Zon, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, published its findings in the August 18,