ScienceBlog.com

People who are optimistic are more likely than others to display prudent financial behaviors, according to new research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

The next cancer drug might come straight from the grocery store, according to new research published in the November 2007 issue of The FASEB Journal. In the study, French scientists describe how high and low doses of polyphenols have different effects.

University of Utah biologists genetically manipulated nematode worms so the animals were attracted to worms of the same sex – part of a study that shows sexual orientation is wired in the creatures’ brains.

The AIDS virus entered the United States via Haiti, probably arriving in just one person in about 1969, earlier than previously believed, according to new research. After the virus, HIV-1, entered the U.S., it flourished and spread worldwide.

Smoking cigarettes is associated with an increased risk of cancers of the lung, head and neck, esophagus, bladder and many others and also affects response to anti-cancer treatments. But smoking does not result in more advanced stage diagnoses or aggressive breast cancers at the time of diagnosis.

Inventories of living and dead organisms could serve as a relatively fast, simple and inexpensive preliminary means of assessing human impact on ecosystems.

More than 40 years after beta blockers were first used clinically, scientists can finally get a close-up look at the drugs’ molecular target-the ?2-adrenergic receptor. The work is particularly exciting because it offers the first glimpse into an important, but scientifically elusive family of human proteins called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Researchers in Arizona have a new take on old memory, one that promises to boost the performance, capacity and battery life of consumer electronics from digital cameras to laptops. Best of all, it is cheap, made from common materials and compatible with just about anything currently on the market.

Gene therapy administered intravenously could be an effective agent to protect vital organs and tissues from the effects of ionizing radiation in the event of large-scale exposure from a radiological or nuclear bomb.

Geologists have uncovered evidence of when Earth may have first supported an oxygen-rich atmosphere similar to the one we breathe today.

New research could offer hope for victims of the most devastating spinal injuries – typically those caused in car crashes.

A study of former high-school American Football players has found that more than a third said they had had sexual relations with other men.

Don Margolis, the founder of the international adult stem cell company, Theravitae, has a few words to say to heart patients.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will use a new advanced technology network interface called “SpaceWire” that enables the components on the telescope to work more efficiently and more reliably with each other.

Next time you see a mole digging in tree-root-filled soil in search of supper, take a moment to ponder the mammal’s humerus bones. When seen in the lab, they are nothing like the long upper arm bones of any other mammal, says Samantha Hopkins, a paleontologist at the University of Oregon.

University of Manchester researchers are ridding diabetic patients of the superbug MRSA – by treating their foot ulcers with maggots.

University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells — and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.

Dispelling a common myth, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center say vaginal reconstruction should be a matter of preference for most teens or adult women born with a type of inter-sex condition marked by the presence of both female and male genitals.