Data storage that will last a billion years

Scientists have used nanotechnology to solve a serious problem of the digital age - data degradation. Although we think of digital storage as a way to preserve photos and other data in pristine condition, the lifetime of modern storage media is as little as 20-30 years.  This is in stark cont...

Down's do better in cancer stakes

Individuals with Down's syndrome have a significantly lower likelihood of developing cancer (with the exception of a form of leukaemia) compared with the general population but no one knew why.  Now a study in the journal Nature has revealed the answer. Harvard researcher Sandra Ryeom and her ...

Dragons with toxic bite

They seem like the stuff of fairytales or maybe nightmares, but Komodo dragons are the closest things we have to real, man-eating dragons. At three metres long, these lizards that live on the Indonesian island of Komodo and are fearsome enough, and now scientists have discovered that they have a tox...

Brain structure makes a people-person

Do you consider yourself to be a people-person? Do you crave the company of others, are you warm and sentimental? Well, if you are, then it could come down to the structure of your brain. Graham Murray led a team of researchers from Cambridge University and Oulu University in Finland who have disco...

Biological Link between Cancer and Depression

Biological Link between Cancer and Depression

This Week in Science History - Proof of General Relativity

This Week in Science History saw in 1919, the solar eclipse that proved Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity to be correct...