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• Water practically flies off 'near perfect' hydrophobic surface that refuses to get wet
• Low levels of vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people
• Graphene hybrid: One-atom-thick sheet offers new microelectronic possibilities
• Hot road to new drugs: Efficient identification of drug candidates
• Genetically engineered tobacco plant cleans up environmental toxin
• New generation of rapid-acting antidepressants?
• Hormone study gives scientists a sense of how animals bond
• Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily linked to diabetes
• From carnivorous plants to the medicine cabinet? Anti-fungal agents in pitcher plants investigated
• Deficits in brain's 'executive' skills common with TIA, minor stroke
• Molecular imaging technique uses ultrasound and microscopic bubbles to target cancer cells
• Infants do not appear to learn words from educational DVDs
• Giant panda genome reveals new insights into the bear's bamboo diet
• 'Death messenger' molecule causes inflammation after spinal cord injury, prevents healing
• Biogenic insecticides decoded
• Researchers find oncogene is important in pancreatic cancer growth and spread
• Mosses, deep-frozen
• Critical brain chemical shown to play role in severe depression

Water practically flies off 'near perfect' hydrophobic surface that refuses to get wet Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice.

Low levels of vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST A ground-breaking study found an astonishing 59 percent of study subjects had too little vitamin D in their blood. Nearly a quarter of the group had serious deficiencies of this important vitamin. Since vitamin D insufficiency is linked to increased body fat, decreased muscle strength and a range of disorders, this is a serious health issue.

Graphene hybrid: One-atom-thick sheet offers new microelectronic possibilities Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST Researchers have found a way to stitch graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) into a two-dimensional quilt that offers new paths of exploration for materials scientists.

Hot road to new drugs: Efficient identification of drug candidates Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST The quest for new drugs is generally a lengthy and costly undertaking. Researchers in Germany have now come up with a simpler and more efficient way of going about it. Not only pharmaceutical research but also medical diagnostics and the environment stand to benefit from the new work.

Genetically engineered tobacco plant cleans up environmental toxin Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST Tobacco might become as well known for keeping us healthy as it is for causing illness thanks to researchers from the UK. In a new study, scientists explain how they developed a genetically modified strain of tobacco that helps temper the damaging effects of toxic pond scum, scientifically known as microcystin-LR which makes water unsafe for drinking, swimming or fishing.

New generation of rapid-acting antidepressants? Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 PM PST Conventional antidepressant treatments generally require three to four weeks to become effective, thus the discovery of treatments with a more rapid onset is a major goal of biological psychiatry. The first drug found to produce rapid improvement in mood was the NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist, ketamine. Researchers report that another medication, scopolamine, also appears to produce replicable rapid improvement in mood.

Hormone study gives scientists a sense of how animals bond Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST Scientists have pinpointed how a key hormone helps animals to recognize others by their smell. Researchers have shown that the hormone vasopressin helps the brain differentiate between familiar and new scents.

Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily linked to diabetes Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST More Americans now drink sugar-sweetened sodas, sport drinks and fruit drinks daily, and this increase in consumption has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade, researchers report.

From carnivorous plants to the medicine cabinet? Anti-fungal agents in pitcher plants investigated Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST Unusual components from carnivorous plants' pitchers were found effective as anti-fungal drugs against human fungal infections, which are widespread in hospitals.

Deficits in brain's 'executive' skills common with TIA, minor stroke Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST Cognitive impairment is common in transient ischemic attack and minor ischemic stroke patients. Cognitive impairment in these patients can be detected with tests that evaluate the brain's "executive functions" -- but not with another commonly used screening designed to test for Alzheimer's dementia.

Molecular imaging technique uses ultrasound and microscopic bubbles to target cancer cells Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST An imaging technique combining ultrasound and specially modified contrast agents may allow researchers to noninvasively detect cancer and show its progression. The technique enables researchers to visualize tumor activity at the molecular level.

Infants do not appear to learn words from educational DVDs Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST Among 12- to 24-month old children who view educational baby videos, there does not appear to be evidence that overall general language learning improves or that words featured in the programming are learned, according to a new study.

Giant panda genome reveals new insights into the bear's bamboo diet Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST Biologists have shed new light on some of the giant panda's unusual biological traits, including its famously restricted diet.

'Death messenger' molecule causes inflammation after spinal cord injury, prevents healing Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST The signaling molecule CD95L, known as "death messenger," causes an inflammatory process in injured tissue after spinal cord injuries and prevents its healing, according to a new study by scientists in Germany. In mice, the researchers found out that if they switch off CD95L, the injured spinal cord heals and the animals regain better ability to move. Therefore, substances which block the death messenger might offer a new approach in the treatment of severe inflammatory diseases.

Biogenic insecticides decoded Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST Researchers have discovered a new mode of action of insecticidal toxins from Photorhabdus luminescens, a bacterium which lives in a symbiotic relationship with nematodes. The tiny worms enter insect larvae through natural openings, where they proceed to "cough up" the bacteria. Bacterial toxins produced by the light-emitting bacteria kill the insect larvae, thus creating a larger reservoir of nourishment for the proliferation of nematodes and bacteria. For this reason, the worms and their bacteria are often used as biogenic insecticides.

Researchers find oncogene is important in pancreatic cancer growth and spread Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST Researchers have found that PKC-iota (PKC-i), an oncogene important in colon and lung cancers, is over-produced in pancreatic cancer and is linked to poor patient survival. They also found that genetically inhibiting PKC-i in laboratory animals led to a significant decrease in pancreatic tumor growth and spread.

Mosses, deep-frozen Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST The University of Freiburg in Germany has launched international resource center for research with mosses.

Critical brain chemical shown to play role in severe depression Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PST The next advance in treating major depression may relate to a group of brain chemicals that are involved in virtually all our brain activity, according to a new study. This study shows that compared to healthy individuals, people who have major depressive disorder have altered functions of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid).

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