Biology News

Start 'em young - cigarette with your morning breast milk?

US researchers have found altered sleep patterns amongst breastfed infants of mothers who smoke. Julie Mennella from the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia recruited 15 ...

Any advance on HIV Vaccine?

Scientists have taken a step forward in working out what's required to make a vaccine to tackle the world's worst pandemic - AIDS. Dennis Burton and Anne Hessell, from the Scripps ...

Origin of Armageddon Asteroid Uncovered

Scientists in the US and the Czech Republic have discovered the origins of the meteorite that helped to bring about the demise of the dinosaurs. Bill Bottke from the Southwest Rese...

Chimaeric human / animal hybrid embryos – what’s going on?

On Wednesday 5th September, the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) announced their decision that British scientists can press ahead with research to generate ...

Plants can hear - so it might make sense to talk to them after all

Korean researchers claim to have discovered two sound-sensitive genes in rice plants. Mi-Jeong Jeong and colleagues from the National Institute of Agricul...

World's smallest thermometer - a single molecule

Researchers have found that a green-glowing chemical from a jellyfish can be used as a molecular thermometer. Known as GFP - green fluorescent protein - t...

Diet foods make children fat

US researchers have found that giving young animals diet foods can trigger obesity by encouraging overeating behaviours, suggesting that the same thing could happen to young childr...

Key gene in lung cancer cocktail

Lung cancer has a very poor survival rate, which is often due to the fact that the disease isn’t diagnosed until it has spread around the body, making treatment difficult. Now a te...

Friend, or "Foe-zone"?

Researchers have found that ozone, the chemical we can't live without, could also be the death of us, or at least a potent trigger for global warming. Stephen Sitch, from the UK's ...

Lab on a chip for IVF

Japanese researchers are developing a "lab-on-a-chip" to improve the success rates of IVF techniques. Researchers think that manipulating eggs and sperm, and the unphysio...