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Male Jamaican anole lizards begin and end the day with displays of reptilian strength -- push-ups, head bobs and extensions of a colorful neck flap, or dewlap -- to defend their territory, according to a new study.

A simple memory trick has helped show UC Davis researchers how an area of the brain called the perirhinal cortex can contribute to forming memories.

Researchers at UC Davis have come up with a control system that allows a robot to pick up on cues that the leader is about to turn, predict where it is going and follow it.

Researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center recently participated in a pilot study with the Montreal Neurological Institute that suggests a certain type of MRI scanning can detect when a patient is failing brain tumor treatment before symptoms appear. The results of the study pave the way for a proactive treatment approach.

Eroded gullies on the flanks of Martian craters may have been formed by snowmelt as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago and in sites once occupied by glaciers. Similar conditions can be found in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. Rather than being a dead planet, the new data are consistent with dynamic climate changes on Mars.

What happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? The findings, published this month in the Journal of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, indicate that bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings.

Shedding some genetically induced excess baggage may have helped a tiny fish thrive in freshwater and outsize its marine ancestors, according to a UBC study published today in Science Express.

Scientists based in Switzerland and South Africa have created a biophysical methodology that may help to overcome hearing deficits, and potentially remedy even substantial hearing loss. The authors propose a method of retuning functioning regions of the ear to recognize frequencies originally associated with damaged areas. Details are published Aug. 29 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Everybody loves the way eggs slide off of Teflon pans. Indeed, the carbon-fluorine bond at the heart of Teflon cookware is so helpful we also use it in products from clothing to blood substitutes. But the very strength of the C-F bond also gives it greenhouse gas effects. In Science this week, Brandeis researchers report a catalyst that breaks the C-F bond and converts it to a carbon-hydrogen bond, rendering it harmless to the environment.

Blood transfusions are a valuable treatment mechanism in modern medicine, but can come with the risk of donor disease transmission. Researchers are continually studying the biology of blood products to understand how certain diseases are transmitted in an effort to reduce this risk during blood transfusions.

Certain explosives may soon get a little greener and a little more precise. LLNL researchers added unique green solvents (ionic liquids) to an explosive called TATB (1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene) and improved the crystal quality and chemical purity of the material.

A WCS report reveals surprisingly large populations of two globally threatened primates in a protected area in Cambodia. The report counted 42,000 black-shanked douc langurs along with 2,500 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in Cambodia's Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, an estimate that represents the largest known populations for both species in the world.

A class of oral drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may make heart failure worse, according to an editorial published online in Heart Wednesday by two Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty members.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have been awarded £2.8 million by the Wellcome Trust to develop a new drug that could ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of heart disease patients who are unable to take beta-blockers.

Hundreds of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars could potentially be saved if emergency managers could make better and more timely critical decisions when faced with an approaching hurricane. Now, an MIT graduate student has developed a computer model that could help do just that.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have developed a unique technology that will allow scientists to look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system for the very first time, live as it happens.

Quicker microwave meals that use less energy may soon be possible with new ceramic microwave dishes and, according to the material scientists responsible, this same material could help with organic waste remediation.

As antiviral treatment for HIV infection allows patients to live longer, many will be confronted with additional health challenges. A new study shows for the first time that one of these may be significantly increased risk of bone fractures.

Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.

The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated solely with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, a new study from a scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has uncovered a truly eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things.

A solution to the world's worst case of ongoing mass poisoning, linked to rising cancer rates in Southern Asia, has been developed by researchers from Queen's University Belfast.

By manipulating the machinery used by our cells for quality control, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found a way to restore the function of cystic fibrosis (CF) airway cells. This could significantly reduce the sticky mucus that plugs the lungs of CF patients, which leads to antibiotic-resistant infections and untimely death. The study appears in the September 2008 print issue of the FASEB Journal.

Study suggests Research Ethics Committees provide an important independent check on clinical trials.

An ultrasound probe small enough to ride along at the tip of a catheter can provide physicians with clearer real-time images of soft tissue without the risks associated with conventional X-ray catheter guidance.

The risk of heart attack patients having repeat attacks after they are discharged from hospital is being underestimated, research has shown. An international study, led by the University of Edinburgh, raises concerns that some patients may not be receiving the optimum medical treatment and follow-up care because doctors are misjudging the risk of a further heart attack.

High impact activities such as jumping and skipping that can easily be incorporated into warm-ups before sports and physical education classes, have been shown to benefit bone health in adolescents.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in mice that the brain must create new nerve cells for either exercise or antidepressants to reduce depression-like behavior.

The Endocrine Society has released a new clinical practice guideline for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with primary aldosteronism. The guidelines appear in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, a publication of the Endocrine Society.

HIV-infected patients have a higher prevalence of fractures than non HIV-infected patients, across both genders and critical fracture sites according to a new study accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

For the first time, researchers have described hour-by-hour changes in the amount of amyloid beta, a protein that is believed to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, in the human brain. A collaborative team of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Milan report their results this week in Science.

Last week the government in England closed its consultation on the effectiveness of vascular checks for high-risk individuals aged 40-74, to be rolled out in 2009-10, but will this strategy be worthwhile? Experts debate the issue on bmj.com today.

Scientists have exploited crystals from lavas to unravel the records of volcanic eruptions.

All drugs used to treat psychosis are linked to an increased risk of stroke, and dementia sufferers are at double the risk, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

Family values and ongoing conflict within the country are dramatically affecting the health of young children in Afghanistan. A study published in the open access journal BMC Public Health suggests that poor child health can be linked to a lack of maternal education and a lack of autonomy for mothers when seeking health care for their children. In addition, mothers who were married as children tend to have offspring with poorer health.

A team from the French Food Safety Agency, Lyon, France, has identified a prion protein characteristic that is unique to some natural but unusual sheep scrapie cases. This finding, reported Aug. 29 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, may provide a novel method by which to study prion diversity and their possible changes during cross-species transmission.

Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by reporters hundreds of times about his research on the biomechanics of insect flight. One question from the press has always dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat? "Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Recent advances in cervical cancer prevention mean that controlling the disease in developing countries is becoming feasible for the first time, experts say. Developments such as highly effective vaccines against the human papilloma virus (HPV) and promising new screening tests provide an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the disease in poor countries, where pap smear screening has largely failed because it is too expensive and too complicated to implement.

A team of investigators led by scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute have found a way to identify possible suspects at crime scenes using only a small amount of DNA, even if it is mixed with hundreds of other genetic fingerprints.

People who walk on a treadmill even years after stroke damage can significantly improve their health and mobility, changes that reflect actual "rewiring" of their brains, according to research spearheaded at Johns Hopkins.

They aren't the lost cities early explorers sought fruitlessly to discover.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have discovered how the chemistry of nectar and floral scents enforces good pollinator behavior, enabling plants to optimize the production of out-crossed seeds. Field experiments with genetically modified wild tobacco plants (Nicotiana attenuata) revealed the importance of benzyl acetone as a pollinator attractant in the floral fragrance and the poison, nicotine, as a repellent in nectar that improve the plant's abilities to exchange pollen grains.

Researchers report the discovery of the first new living species of giant clam in two decades.

Ever wonder how flies are so incredibly good at zipping off to avoid that swatter? A new study using high-resolution, high-speed imaging of flies in action has identified an important part of the answer: rather than just taking off, the flies' tiny brains first calculate where the threat is coming from, allowing the insects to carefully prepare themselves to spring toward escape.

Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla have found evidence explaining why a common chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, may not always work for every cancer patient. They have shown that when a variant version of a key protein that normally causes cell death is active, patients may be resistant to the cancer-killing drug.

Intravenous magnesium sulfate supplementation before preterm delivery cuts the risk for handicapping cerebral palsy in half, according to research led by University of Alabama at Birmingham obstetrician Dwight Rouse, M.D., and published in the Aug. 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Car crashes are the No. 1 killer of US teens. While states are passing laws to help teen drivers, little thought is being given to their habits as passengers. A new study by Meharry Medical College uncovers a public health crisis and offers a solution to the problem.

Iowa State University researcher Robert Jernigan believes that his research shows proteins have controlled motions. Most biochemists traditionally believe proteins have many random, uncontrolled movements.

The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their eistence to the "Yellowstone hotspot" -- a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found.

According to a new study, words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists have found that while the pain of physical events may fade with time, the pain of social occurrences can be reinstantiated through memory retrievals.

Although many women quit smoking during pregnancy to protect their unborn children from the effects of cigarettes, half resume the habit within a few months of giving birth. By shedding light on the factors that enable the other half to put down that cigarette for good, a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill could lead to programs designed to help women quit and stay quit.

A new study in the journal Industrial Relations reveals that employee well-being is dependent upon the rank of an individual's wage within a comparison group, as opposed to the individual's absolute pay.

Campus racial diversity predicts diversity in future friendships, and it's generally higher for minorities than whites.

What does Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard?Like the ageless fitness guru, the lizards greet each new day with vigorous push-ups. That's according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength -- push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap called a dewlap -- to defend their territory at dawn and dusk.

Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.

Two new studies show that migraine headaches are very common among US military personnel, yet the condition is frequently underdiagnosed. The studies, appearing in Headache, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Headache Society, examine the incidence among soldiers within 10 days of returning from a 1-year combat tour in Iraq , as well as US Army officer trainees.

Most college students understand how they can prevent the transmission of HIV but are less knowledgeable about HIV testing, according to a new University of Georgia study.

Two UC Santa Barbara astronomers, Marusa Bradac and Tommaso Treu, are part of a team that has made a stunning discovery using the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.

A study recently published in the Journal of Social Issues illustrates how certain disadvantages experienced in adolescence, such as early pregnancy, dropping out of high school, being arrested, or going to an underprivileged school, contribute to lower voter turnout in young adulthood. In addition, the types of disadvantage vary across racial groups.

Despite investments, community goodwill and some good ideas, efforts at school reform often fail because of a lack of trust among teachers, principals and parents. Frequently, this creates dysfunction in schools which undermines support for high-quality instruction. Improved teacher-student relationships, new research shows, is often absent. Tension among members of the business community, who promote sound management and accountability, and progressive educators, who favor a student-centered agenda, also has left the promise of reform unfulfilled.

Patients discontinuing statin medication following an acute myocardial infarction increase their risk of dying over the next year, say researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Center. Their study was published in a recent issue of the European Heart Journal.

A new article reveals that parents play concerned, involved, and reflective roles in their children's identity formation.

Researchers from St. Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri report that EUS and EUS-FNA is 99.1 percent accurate in diagnosing pancreatic neoplasms (abnormal growths or tumors) in patients who were referred for endoscopic ultrasound because of CT and/or MRI reports of two common, though somewhat ambiguous findings -- enlargement of head of pancreas or dilation of the pancreatic duct. The study appears in the August issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center have found that in a given week, over 10 million Americans are taking opioids, and more than 4 million are taking them regularly (at least five days per week, for at least four weeks). These findings appear in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Pain.

Article explores framed messages in the Duke University lacrosse case.

New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene.Researchers examined the effect of freeze-dried black raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal cancer.

A powerful collision of galaxy clusters has been captured with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. Like its famous cousin, the so-called Bullet Cluster, this clash of clusters provides striking evidence for dark matter and insight into its properties.

By modifying a naturally occurring enzyme, chemists have created a molecule that could flush a cocaine overdose out of the body before it causes irreparable damage. By tweaking the enzyme, the team in the US were able to speed up the natural process by creating a molecule that could break down cocaine much faster than normal. If the enzyme works in humans, it would be the first therapy to remove the drug from a user's body.

Young men with type 2 diabetes have significantly low levels of testosterone, endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo have found -- a condition that could have a critical effect on their quality of life and on their ability to father children.

A powerful collision between galaxy clusters has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This clash of clusters provides striking evidence for dark matter and insight into its properties.

According to a study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, health risk behaviors such as smoking and obesity are associated with lower awareness of the prostate specific antigen, which could lead to a lower likelihood of undergoing actual prostate cancer screening. Although previous studies have explored predictors of PSA test awareness, this is the first research to focus on health risk behaviors.

A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilized eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and staff from the University of Calgary and the Royal TyrrellMuseum of Palaeontology are yielding new ideas on the evolution of egg-laying and reproduction in turtles and tortoises.

Cities across the US and even other countries turn to University of Cincinnati economics researcher George Vredeveld to help sort out pressing economic issues. When it wanted to gauge the latest research regarding streetcars in Cincinnati, the university did the same.

A typical characteristics of children's linguistic development are early signs of the risk of developing reading and writing disabilities, or dyslexia.

Technique developed by University of Leicester and Northamptonshire police.

Addictions to medicines and drugs are thought to develop over a relatively long period of time.

Brain development in infants who are born very prematurely is still incomplete. Factors that cause premature birth may have an impact on the development of the premature infant's brain both during pregnancy and later on after birth.

Finnish scientists have identified genes that may predispose to anxiety disorders.

Newcastle University marine scientist Nicholas Graham heads up an international team calling for urgent action to save world's coral reefs.

In the Aug. 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light on one link between stress and illness by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function.

The news about antidepressant medications over the past several years has been mixed. The bad news from large multicenter studies such as STAR*D is that current antidepressant medications are effective, but not as effective as one might hope.

Increased connections among brain cells caused by excessive drug use may represent the body's defense mechanism to combat addiction and related behaviors, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

The Carbon Disclosure Project, a collaboration of some 385 institutional investors including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and HSBC, has extended its traditional work in the private sector to the public sector where it is actively assisting government and local government organizations to assess greenhouse gas emissions through their supply chains.

A fall in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), close to that of pre-industrial times, explains the transition from a mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago to the ice-covered region we see today.

A Temple University study finds that fat in obese patients is "sick" when compared to fat from lean patients, which could more fully explain the link between obesity and higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have uncovered the first experimental evidence for why the transition temperature of high-temperature superconductors cannot simply be elevated by increasing the electrons' binding energy. The research demonstrates how, as electron-pair binding energy increases, the electrons' tendency to get caught in a quantum mechanical "traffic jam" overwhelms the interactions needed for the material to act as a superconductor -- a freely flowing fluid of electron pairs.

By analyzing light from small, faint galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, UC Irvine scientists believe they have discovered the minimum mass for galaxies in the universe -- 10 million times the mass of the sun.

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

Events of the past year in HIV vaccine research have led some to question whether an effective HIV vaccine will ever be developed. In the Aug. 28 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, officials from NIAID examine the extraordinarily challenging properties of the virus that have made a vaccine elusive and outline the scientific questions that, if answered, could lead to an effective HIV vaccine.

In a study that underscores the important role that individual genetic profiles will play in the development of new therapies for disease, a multi-institutional research team -- led by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine -- has made two important discoveries related to age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60.

Having discovered a genetic trigger for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in people over 50, researchers report that an experimental state-of-the-art therapy for treating eye disease could adversely affect the vision of some patients with the "wrong" genetic makeup.

A University of Kentucky ophthalmologist, along with a team of scientists, has discovered a genetic mutation that offers protection against a type of age-related macular degeneration, a disease of the eye that is the leading cause of blindness in adults over age 50.

Pre-term infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate -- a common treatment to delay labor -- are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are pre-term infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health research network.

Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated.

A new study has unraveled some of the mysteries of the cocaine-addicted brain and may pave the way for the design of more effective treatments for drug addiction.

A new study shows that older people's mental skills start declining years before death, even if they don't have dementia. The study is published in the Aug. 27, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Latest research into dual-purpose contraceptives and non-hormonal contraception will bepresented tomorrow at a major scientific conference in Melbourne.

An increasing number of patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms are being treated with a device called a stent graft, rather than open-chest surgery. The device is delivered with a cathether. Patients go home in a day or two. It's much less invasive than open-chest surgery.

NASA's newest observatory, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, has begun its mission of exploring the universe in high-energy gamma rays. The spacecraft and its revolutionary instruments passed their orbital checkout with flying colors.

Men interviewed in a large international study reported that being seen as honorable, self-reliant and respected was more important to their idea of masculinity than being seen as attractive, sexually active or successful with women. "To ask a large sample of men what comprises their own sense of masculinity is very useful for both the media and for research. These results suggest we should pay attention and ask rather than presume we know."

Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology.