Botulinum neurotoxin A can be either the greatest wrinkle remover or one of the world’s most potent biological weapons. To perform either job, however, the toxin must first find a way to enter cells.

But understanding how the toxin — one of seven neurotoxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum — enters nerve cells has proved elusive for scientists. Despite a decade-long search for the receptor by labs around the world, researchers had come up empty handed.

Researchers at Purdue University have shown how a new ultra-fast chemical-analysis tool has numerous promising uses for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives residues on luggage and “biomarkers” in urine that provide an early warning for diseases.

The analytical chemists have most recently demonstrated how the technology, called desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI, rapidly detects the boundaries of cancerous tumors, information that could help ens

Multimedia providers and distributors are being sought by Leeds researchers, to test some of the latest technology for handling digital media such as music, games and TV.

In today’s digital world, multimedia entertainment reaches us in a huge variety of ways, whether it’s films watched on a laptop, interactive games on our mobile phones or music downloaded through the internet. As technology advances, these outlets proliferate, raising problems of compatibility and copyright prote

Very Cool Brown Dwarf Discovered Around Star in the Solar Neighbourhood

Using Eso’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, an international team of researchers [1] discovered a brown dwarf belonging to the 24th closest stellar system to the Sun. Brown dwarfs are intermediate objects that are neither stars nor planets. This object is the third closest brown dwarf to the Earth yet discovered, and one of the coolest, having a temperature of about 750 degrees Centigrade. It orbits a very sma

A simple and efficient method that facilitates Parkinson’s disease treatment has been developed by researchers of the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences. Influence of feeble electric current on the brain via electrodes laid on the head skin – the so-called transcranial electric polarization (TCEP) – reduces muscle tone and partially restores patients’ movements. In combination with antiparkinsonian drug intake, TCEP reduces their side effect.

Parkinson’s disease is a c

A new study of a meteorite that originated from Mars has revealed a series of microscopic tunnels that are similar in size, shape and distribution to tracks left on Earth rocks by feeding bacteria.

And though researchers were unable to extract DNA from the Martian rocks, the finding nonetheless adds intrigue to the search for life beyond Earth.

Results of the study were published in the latest edition of the journal Astrobiology.

Martin Fisk, a professor of

A team of three scientists and engineers from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, and the Astronomical Institute of the University of Wroclaw, Poland, are travelling to Libya to observe the total eclipse of the Sun on March 29th 2006. They will be using an instrument designed to understand why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is so hot.

The solar atmosphere or corona, which is normally only visible from the Earth at times of total solar eclipses, has a temperature of 1—2 million degrees

Youth with superior IQ are distinguished by how fast the thinking part of their brains thickens and thins as they grow up, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed that their brain’s outer mantle, or cortex, thickens more rapidly during childhood, reaching its peak later than in their peers – perhaps reflecting a longer developmental window for high-level thinking c

Unlike airplanes, leaving their landing gear down makes bees fly faster. When orchid bees extend their hind-legs they pitch forward to achieve maximal speed, and the legs produce lift forces to either side that help prevent the bee from rolling. “The hind-legs resemble airplane wings, which probably explains why they also generate lift”, says Dr Stacey Combes from the University of California, Berkeley who will present her research on Tuesday 4th April at the Society for Experimental Biology’s A

In a paper being presented in two American Physiological Society sessions at Experimental Biology 2006, a joint Estonian-French team demonstrated “for the first time that mitochondria are able to induce nuclear deformation, suggesting that mitochondria may mechanically regulate nuclear function.”

The team, which has been collaborating for over 10 years, reported that it recently “found a very interesting and unexpected phenomenon: various substances which increase mitochondrial s

Scientists from all over the world tackle the global threat of Malaria at the second annual BioMalPar conference

Today the network of excellence for Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite (BioMalPar), will bring together the world’s elite in the field of Malaria research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. At the second annual BioMalPar conference, organised jointly by Institut Pasteur Paris (France), Leiden University Medical Centre (The Nether

Forensic fingerprinting of plant DNA is being investigated as a way to identify offending poisonous plants – a major cause of death in livestock in countries such as Ghana. Dr Domozoro will describe how he uses plant DNA from the animal’s stomach for forensic fingerprinting on Thursday 6th April at the Society for Experimental Biology’s Annual Main Meeting, Canterbury [session P6]. “Knowing the offending plants will help us to manage the poisoning outbreak by targeting specific treatment rout

Varied gene signatures in multiple myeloma cells predict different outcomes, provide treatment targets

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.

A new computational tool based on an algorithm designed to recognize human faces plucked the fou

Yesterday, at the end of a 153-day and 400-million km cruise into the inner Solar System beginning with its launch on 9 November 2005, ESA’s Venus Express space probe fired its main engine at 09:17 CEST for a 50-minute burn, which brought it into orbit around Venus.

With this firing, the probe reduced its relative velocity toward the planet from 29,000 to about 25,000 km/h and was captured by its gravity field. This orbit insertion manoeuvre was a complete success.

Du

Scientists of the CDF collaboration at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced today (April 11, 2006) the precision measurement of extremely rapid transitions between matter and antimatter. As amazing as it may seem, it has been known for 50 years that very special species of subatomic particles can make spontaneous transitions between matter and antimatter. In this exciting new result, CDF physicists measured the rate of the matter-antimatter transitions f

A team of Control Engineering researchers at the Public University of Navarra has successfully finalised their work on QFT Multivariable Robust Control of Darwin-type Satellites with large flexible structures, undertaken for the European Space Agency (ESA).

The scientists have designed a new automatic control system capable of governing the Darwin Project satellite telescopes.

The Darwin Project

The European Space Agency is currently developing what is known as the Darw

The prototype of a revolutionary new type of vehicle only one metre wide specially designed for cities has been developed by a team of European scientists. The vehicle combines the safety of a micro-car and the manoeuvrability of a motorbike, while being more fuel-efficient and less polluting than other vehicles.

The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a £1.5 million collaborative project which has involved nine European partners from industry and research,

Will scientists ever find the elusive Higgs particle, the last of the fundamental particles predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics and postulated to play a major role in how fundamental particles get their masses? Are there undiscovered particles “beyond” those described by the Standard Model? Experiments expected to begin next year at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle accelerator at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), will take up the search and explore

Although the odds that DNA evidence found at a crime scene will match by chance the DNA of a person who was not there are infinitesimal, controversy continues about DNA identification and its use in criminal investigations, says Carnegie Mellon University Statistics Professor Kathryn Roeder. Roeder will present a historical overview of the use of DNA identification on Tuesday, April 25, during the Annual Symposia of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Almost 28,000 cases na

The European starling – long known as a virtuoso songbird and as an expert mimic too – may also soon gain a reputation as something of a “grammar-marm.” This three-ounce bird, new research shows, can learn syntactic patterns formerly thought to be the exclusive province of humans.

Led by Timothy Q. Gentner, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, a study published in the April 27 issue of Nature demonstrates that starlings have the capaci