'Rotten eggs' in the blood
Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a gas most commonly associated with the smell of stink bombs, sewage and rotten eggs, but a team of researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England and King's College London have now identified a role for this gas in regulating blood pressure, according to research published today in the leading science journal "Circulation".

Too much technology may be killing beneficial bacteria
Too much of a good thing could be harmful to the environment. For years, scientists have known about silver's ability to kill harmful bacteria and, recently, have used this knowledge to create consumer products containing silver nanoparticles.

Artificial intelligence boosts science from Mars
Artificial intelligence (AI) being used at the European Space Operations Centre is giving a powerful boost to ESA's Mars Express as it searches for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.

UCLA stem cell researchers create heart and blood cells from reprogrammed skin cells
Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells.

Climate change threats to HIV rates
Social factors, including economic pressures caused by climate change, could lead to an increase in HIV infection rates world-wide, warns a leading researcher from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Butter-flavored popcorn ingredient suspected cause of lung disease
An unusually high incidence of lung disease has been diagnosed in workers at popcorn factories. Researchers are focusing on diacetyl, the ingredient which is largely responsible for the odor and flavor of the butter in popcorn, according to an article published by SAGE in the current issue of Toxicologic Pathology.

Compact galaxies in early Universe pack a big punch
Using the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer onboard of the Hubble NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have made observations of young, surprisingly compact galaxies, each only 5,000 light-years across, but weighing 200 billion times the mass of the Sun.

Scientists head to warming Alaska on ice core expedition
The state of Alaska has the dubious distinction of leading the lower 48 in the effects of a warming climate. Small villages are slipping into the sea due to coastal erosion, soggy permafrost is cracking buildings and trapping trucks.

Safe water? Lessons from Kazakhstan
Despite significant efforts to improve access to safe water and sanitation, a new report co-authored by an expert at The University of Nottingham, argues that much more needs to be done.

New Whale Detection Buoys Will Help Ships Take the Right Way through Marine Habitat
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have teamed up with an international energy company and federal regulators to listen for and help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales in New England waters.

USC School of Dentistry researchers uncover link between osteoporosis drugs and jaw infection
A group of University of Southern California School of Dentistry researchers says it has identified the slimy culprits killing the jawbones of some people taking drugs that treat osteoporosis.

Bison can thrive again, study says
Bison can repopulate large areas from Alaska to Mexico over the next 100 years provided a series of conservation and restoration measures are taken, according to continental assessment of this iconic species by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups.

Report raises C. diff concerns; yeast-based probiotic shown to help significantly reduce recurrence
C. diff-associated disease (CDAD), otherwise known as severe intestinal disease brought on by the Clostridium difficile (C. diff) pathogen, has been the subject of heightened concern in the medical community.

Absinthe uncorked: The 'Green Fairy' was boozy -- but not psychedelic
A new study may end the century-old controversy over what ingredient in absinthe caused the exotic green aperitif's supposed mind-altering effects and toxic side-effects when consumed to excess.

Scientists discover the double life of proteins
Scientists at The Australian National University are a step closer to understanding the rare Hartnup disorder after discovering a surprising link between blood pressure regulation and nutrition that could also help to shed light on intestinal and kidney function.

Gastric juice for diagnosis of H. pylori infection in patients on proton pump inhibitors
This study determined the efficiency of a gastric juice PCR test for the detection of H. pylori infection in patients receiving PPI therapy and compared it with histology and gastric biopsy PCR.

Immune system kick-started in moist nasal lining in sinusitis, asthma and colds
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have outlined a new path for potential therapies to combat inflammation associated with sinusitis and asthma based on a new understanding of the body's earliest immune response in the nose and sinus cavities.

New Surgery Improves Head & Neck Cancer Treatment
A new surgical procedure for head and neck cancer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham offers improved accuracy for surgeons and reduced post-operative pain for patients.

Body image program reduces onset of obesity and eating disorders
In their research on eating disorders, Oregon Research Institute (ORI) scientists help young women reduce the influence of the "thin ideal," which is described as associating success and happiness with being thin.

Sunflower debate ends in Mexico, researchers say
Ancient farmers were growing sunflowers in Mexico more than 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived, according to a team of researchers that includes Florida State University anthropologist Mary D. Pohl.

New treatment could reduce chronic lung disease in premature babies
A less traumatic way of delivering surfactant, a lung lubricant that premature babies need to help them breathe, could reduce the incidence of respiratory problems they'll have later, Medical College of Georgia physicians say.

Making a good impression: Nanoimprint lithography tests at NIST
In what should be good news for integrated circuit manufacturers, recent studies by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have helped resolve two important questions about an emerging microcircuit manufacturing technology called nanoimprint lithography-yes, it can accurately stamp delicate insulating structures on advanced microchips, and, no, it doesn't damage them, in fact it makes them better.

Scientists Determine Drug Target for the Most Potent Botulinum Neurotoxin
Botulinum neurotoxin -- responsible for the deadly food poisoning disease botulism and for the beneficial effects of smoothing out facial wrinkles - can also be used as a dreaded biological weapon.

Preoperative assessment of cancer patients enables early diagnosis, treatment of lymphedema
The preoperative assessment of breast cancer patients for subclinical lymphedema enables clinicians to establish a baseline, which serves to enable the early diagnosis and successful treatment of the debilitating condition.

Genotyping takes us closer to an osteoporosis fingerprint
For the first time ever, an extensive genome-wide search has been undertaken to find the genes linked to osteoporosis and fracture. Five regions of interest have been identified that appear to warrant further scientific investigation.

Cholesterol modulates sorting of CEA -- implications for inflammatory bowel disease
In polarized Caco-2 cells, cholesterol was depleted by a combination of synthesis inhibition and plasma membrane extraction with complexing agents.

Researchers discover molecular basis of a form of muscular dystrophy
A team of French and German researchers report in the May 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) that people with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy are missing a protein called c-FLIP, which the body uses to prevent the loss of muscle tissue.

U of M study: Online intervention paramount for reducing HIV in high-risk population
Young Internet-using men who have sex with men AND who meet their sexual partners both online and offline have greater numbers of partners, appear more likely to contract HIV, and report higher substance use rates than those who meet their partners exclusively online or offline, according to new research at the University of Minnesota.

Promising early evidence of the superior benefits of drug therapy for diabetic eye disease
A JDRF collaboration between Johns Hopkins researchers and Genentech has shown that a drug for the treatment of diabetic eye disease has performed better in clinical trials than the current standard treatment using laser surgery.

Moral philosopher questions memory manipulation
Is medicated memory manipulation ethically sound? And perhaps more importantly, who should be charged with the decision to deliver such a treatment: patient or physician? Elisa Hurley, a philosophy professor, is seeking answers to these questions in her research currently underway at The University of Western Ontario.

Synergistic growth inhibitory effect of herbal extracts against HCC and lung cancer cells
Several herbs with diversified pharmacological properties are known to be rich sources of chemical constituents that may have potential for the treatment of several human cancers. Data from the Department of Preclinical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, demonstrates that the growth inhibitory activity of doxorubicin or cisplatin, as single agents, may be modified in combination with emblic myrobalan or belleric myrobalan extracts and may be synergistically enhanced in some cases.

New 3-D test method for biomaterials 'flat out' faster
A novel, three-dimensional (3-D) screening method for analyzing interactions between cells and new biomaterials could cut initial search times by more than half, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Rutgers University report in the new issue of Advanced Materials.

High rate of complicated idiopathic gallstone disease in pediatric patients
The prevalence of gallstones in adults of industrialized countries is approximately 10% and is showing a tendency to rise. Data for pediatric patients is scarce.

Atomic force microscopy reveals liquids adjust viscosity when confined, shaken
Getting ketchup out of the bottle isn't always easy. However, shaking the bottle before trying to pour allows the thick, gooey ketchup to flow more freely because it becomes more fluid when agitated. The opposite is not typically true - a liquid such as water does not become a gel when shaken.

New Research Shows Consistency in Synaesthetic Experiences
A quirky psychological phenomenon known as "grapheme-color synaesthesia" describes individuals who experience vivid colors whenever they see, hear, or think of ordinary letters and digits.

Anti-HBe may play a role in the progression of the disease of hepatitis B
Genotype D is found to be the only detected type in different clinical forms of HBV infections, including cirrhosis, among residents of southwestern Iran. A significant association between the presence of anti-HBe antibody and increasing ALT levels among either HBeAg-negative or HBeAg-positive individuals was also determined.

High circulating D-dimers are associated with presence of ascites
The liver is the production site of most of the proteins which favour and inhibit the process of coagulation and fibrinolysis.

Regulatory T cells in patients treated with Adacolumn granulocytapheresis
An increased expression of FoxP3 mRNA and a higher frequency of CD25+ regulatory cells were found in all patients who responded to cytapheresis but this was not found in a nonresponder patient.