After 40 years of searching for the photoreceptor that controls multiple vital processes in fungi, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered the protein that triggers this phenomenon.

Light regulates several physiological processes in fungi, including their ability to produce spores and the synchronization of their internal biological clocks, but their photoreceptors – receptors that are sensitive to light and are essential for most ongoing processes – were not

The fate of Beagle 2 remains uncertain this morning after the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, UK, failed in its first attempt to detect any signal from the spacecraft.

Scientists were hopeful that the 250 ft (76 m) Lovell Telescope, recently fitted with a highly sensitive receiver, would be able to pick up the outgoing call from the Mars lander between 19.00 GMT and midnight last night. An attempt to listen out for Beagle’s call home by the Westerbork telescope array in th

Meta-analysis of 27 studies showed caregiver reports may be unreliable; visuospatial tests were the best predictors of driving skill

When cognitive skills start fading, how do we know when it’s time to stop driving? Although there is some consensus that individuals with moderate to severe dementia should not drive, it has been much harder to screen people with mild dementia, the earliest stage of the mental deterioration typical of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in Washing

An international group of astronomers led by Dr Jean-Philippe Beaulieu (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris) and Dr Martin Dominik (University of St Andrews) are about to continue their hunt for extrasolar planets with an enhanced world-wide telescope network in May this year. They are hoping to secure the firm evidence for the existence of Earth-mass planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, which has so far eluded astronomers. Dr Dominik will describe the project, known as PLANET (Probing Lensi

A dedicated team of scientists is spending the next four weeks in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. They are studying the scarce life that exists there and, in the process, helping NASA learn more about how primitive life forms could exist on Mars.

The NASA-funded researchers are studying the Atacama Desert, described as the most arid region on Earth, to understand the desert as a habitat that represents one of the limits of life on Earth. The project, part of NASA’s Astrobiology

Scientists determine how ’trump card’ protein blocks DNA replication

New research at Rice University is allowing biochemists to understand a key hierarchy of protein interactions that occurs in DNA replication, showing for the first time how a key protein “trumps” its rivals and shuts down cell division while DNA repairs take place.
The work, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, appears in the Dec. 8 issue of the journal Structure. It could aid drug makers in d

The single-celled organisms of the world’s oceans are immensely diverse. For the ‘International Census of Marine Microbes’ scientists are going to track down knowledge on the diversity and distribution of these micro-organisms and their viruses. The budget? 900,000 dollars of the Sloan Foundation in New York to start with. On February 7 and 8, the steering committee from America and the Netherlands will gather for the first time.

Goal of the International Census of Marine Microb

A new reference standard from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may help genetics labs develop improved methods of searching for a mutant needle in a DNA haystack.

A single DNA molecule carrying part of a person’s genetic code is a chain of basic chemical units called nucleotides. The number of nucleotides can range from about 16,500 in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to several million in nuclear DNA. A key mutation in a DNA strand may involve only a singl

Duke University theoreticians said their predictions helped guide the efforts of experimenters using Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) atom smasher to create an almost perfectly flowing fluid of hot, dense matter.

Duke physics professor Berndt Mueller and assistant physics professor Steffen A. Bass said that some of the experimental evidence would also support the idea that these collisions have recreated a state of matter — a quark-glu

Study shows illusive ’hemifusion’ state can precede membrane merger

Every living cell is surrounded by a membrane, a thin barrier that separates the genetic machinery of life from the non-living world outside. Though barriers, membranes are not impervious. Cells use a complex hierarchy of proteins that work in concert to allow cell membranes to fuse – with other cells or with membrane-encased packages of proteins and other chemicals that the cell needs to take in or

The detection of a super massive black hole without a massive host galaxy is the surprising result from a large Hubble and VLT study of quasars. This is the first convincing discovery of such an object. One intriguing explanation is that the host galaxy may be made almost exclusively of dark matter.

A team of European astronomers has used two of the most powerful astronomical facilities available, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro

FameLab – a national competition to discover the new faces of UK science launched today in London (Tuesday 8 November 2005). The competition -dubbed the science world’s equivalent of Pop Idol – is the brainchild of the Cheltenham Science Festival and NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and supported by Pfizer, The Daily Telegraph, Research Councils UK and Channel 4.

Now in its second year, FameLab encourages scientists to inspire and excite public

Mathematical research at Delft University of Technology is making it easier to look for oil. Yogi Ahmad Erlangga, who receives his doctorate on Thursday 22 December, has developed a method of calculation which enables computers to solve a crucial equation much faster. In the past, this stumped oil company computers.

Funded by Shell and SenterNovem, Erlangga’s research is pure mathematics. It all centres on the so-called Helmholtz equation. Solving this is important in interpreting the

Scientists from across the world came together in London on 12-13 January to review the scientific and technical status of the LISA mission, the world’s first gravitational wave observatory, at a meeting organised by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Institute of Physics.

Scheduled for launch in 2016, LISA will be the largest scientific instrument ever constructed, consisting of three spacecraft, each separated by 5 million kilometres (3 million miles). Its task will

“If there is a supernova in our vicinity during the next couple of months, our chances of detecting and measuring the resulting gravitational waves are good….

Bio-Nector is an exclusively Internet and e-mail-based service relying on a simple principle: as a matchmaking service, it brokers contacts between companies…

Until now, there have only been theories to answer this question. One of the fundamental steps leading to living organisms is the development of molecules that…

Included in the image is new coverage of the crater H2O which was considered by the Beagle 2 team as unique in the area that had been searched for evidence of…

But scientists seeking clues to life on extrasolar planets are studying various biosignatures found in the light spectrum leaking out to Earth to speculate on…

‘Extra-solar’ planets are those outside our Solar System and more than 200 have been discovered orbiting stars close to our own Sun. The planet with water in…