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Carnivorous plants supplement the meager diet available from the nutrient-poor soils in which they grow by trapping and digesting insects and other small arthropods. [click link for full article]

Magnetic nanoparticles detect and remove harmful bacteriaResearchers in Ohio report the development of magnetic nanoparticles that show promise for quickly detecting and eliminating E. coli, anthrax, and other harmful bacteria. In laboratory studies, the nanoparticles helped detect a strain of E. coli within five minutes and removed 88 percent of the target bacteria, the scientists say. [click link ...

Adding another layer of competition to the mating game, scientists are reporting possible biochemical proof that the reproductive system of female mammals can "sense" the presence of sperm and react to it by changing the uterine environment. This may be the molecular mechanism behind post-copulatory sexual selection, in which females that have mated with several partners play a role in determining ...

Bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered a technique that for the first time enables the detection of biomolecules' dynamic reactions in a single living cell. [click link for full article]

A rapid production of therapeutic human drugs using modified mushrooms may help mount a quicker response to various public health problems, according to plant pathologists who have received a federal grant to perfect their technique.C. Peter Romaine, professor of plant pathology at Penn State and holder of the John B. Swayne Chair in Spawn Science, said, "We are looking to address several public health ...

To increase depth and breadth of coverage, applicability and usefulness of the biodiversity data it mediates, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has set a goal of making one billion (1,000,000,000) high quality data records available via its data portal by December 2008. [click link for full article]

A collaboration between researchers in Switzerland, the UK and France has led to the solution of the first crystal structure of a member of the Rhesus protein family and thereby shed new light on a group of proteins of great importance in human transfusion medicine. The UK group was led by Professor Mike Merrick in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre. [click link for full ...

Although still rare, the incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing. In this longitudinal study over 12 years from a large cancer registry, Kent and colleagues used the Ontario Cancer Registry to identify 7422 cases of differentiated thyroid cancer from 1990 to 2001. Their results show the jump in the incidence rate of this type of thyroid cancer was 146% over the 12-year period, or an annual increase ...

The van der Waals force, a weak attractive force, is solely responsible for binding certain organic molecules to metallic surfaces. In a model for organic devices, it is this force alone that binds an organic film to a metallic substrate. This data, recently published in Physical Review Letters, represents the latest findings from a National Research Network (NRN) supported by the Austrian ...

A Queensland scientist has been elected as a member of one of the world's most respected scientific organizations, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Professor John Mattick, from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at The University of Queensland, was one of only eight scientists to be offered Associate Membership of EMBO in 2007. [click link for full article]

MIT researchers have identified a family of proteins key to the formation of the communication networks critical for normal brain function. Their research could lead to new treatments for brain injury and disease.The team, led by MIT biology professor Frank Gertler, found that a certain family of proteins is necessary to direct the formation of axons and dendrites, the cellular extensions that facilitate ...

Sexy dads produce sexy sons, in the insect world at least. While scientists already knew that specific attractive traits, from cricket choruses to peacocks' tails, are passed on to their offspring, the heritability of attractiveness as a whole is more contentious. Now, new research by the University of Exeter, published today (20 November) in Current Biology, shows that attractiveness is hereditary. ...

Human embryos that get too much or too little retinoic acid, a derivative of Vitamin A, can develop into babies with birth defects. [click link for full article]

How are genomes, and the chromosomes that comprise them, organized in the eukaryotic nucleus? This long-standing question in cell biology has gained renewed interest due to observations that gene regulation is correlated with the nonrandom distribution of gene loci linearly along chromosomes and spatially within the nucleus. [click link for full article]

It's well known that the body's energy levels cycle on a 24-hour, or circadian, schedule, and that this metabolic process is fueled by oxygen. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that a protein called Rev-erb coordinates the daily cycles of oxygen-carrying heme molecules to maintain the body's correct metabolism.The research appears online this week in Science ...

As the U.S. [click link for full article]

Rapid advances in biofuel research and development are being driven by concerns about the environment and the need for renewable fuels, according to top industry and government officials from China, Canada, the United States and Hawaii attending the second annual Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy. [click link for full article]

The University of Queensland has welcomed the signing of a $50 million funding agreement from the Queensland Government for the University's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB). Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, AC said the University was delighted that the Queensland Government was continuing its support for the Institute with funding over five years to begin in 2009-10. [click link for full ...

"The International Symposium on Cancer Biology" (ISCB), being organised by the National Institute of Immunology (NII) New Delhi in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast was inaugurated at NII. The 3-day Symposium, which ends on November 16, is a part of the University's endeavour to strengthen the links with India in the field of biotechnology. The Symposium brings together world renowned investigators, ...

MIT researchers have devised a novel way to create tiny colonies of living human liver cells that model the full-sized organ. The work could allow better screening of new drugs that are potentially harmful to the liver and reduce the costs associated with their development. Liver toxicity is one of the main reasons pharmaceutical companies pull drugs off the market. These dangerous drugs slip through ...