As archaeologists in the last half century have set about reconstructing the prehistory of Southeast Asia, data from one country--centrally located Laos--was conspicuously missing. Little archaeology has occurred in Laos since before World War II, and beginning in the mid-1970s, Laos shut its doors completely to outside researchers.

An international team has opened a virtual bazaar, called PAZAR, which allows biologists to share information about gene regulation through individually managed 'boutiques' (data collections). According to research published in the online open access journal, Genome Biology, customers can access data without any charge from any boutique or extract information from the 'superstores' that aggregate...

Want to help unravel the mysteries of the universe? A new distributed computing project allows people around the world to participate in cutting-edge cosmology research by donating their unused computing cycles.

The neglected tropical diseases are a group of 13 infectious diseases, including elephantiasis, hookworm, African sleeping sickness and trachoma, which affect more than one billion people worldwide, most of whom live in extreme poverty. Treating two or more of them simultaneously for only pennies per dose can facilitate treatment of these diseases.

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiative could help avert disasters in Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina and also lead to more information about climate change.

Researchers have discovered that differences between men and women on some tasks that require spatial skills are largely eliminated after both groups play a video game for only a few hours. The research suggests that a new approach involving action video games can be used to improve spatial skills that are essential for everyday activities such as reading a map, driving a car, assembling a...

The genes that make a fruit fly's eyes red also produce red wing patterns in the Heliconius butterfly found in South and Central America, finds entomologists.

Blocks of carbon nanotubes can be used to create effective and powerful pressure sensors, according to a new study. Taking advantage of the material's unique electrical and mechanical properties, researchers repeatedly squeezed a 3-millimeter nanotube block and discovered it was highly suitable for potential applications as a pressure sensor. No matter how many times or how hard they squeezed the...

Thousands of high school students are currently deliberating over which university to attend next year. But which are the best? A new study warns against using international rankings of universities to answer this question. They are misleading and should be abandoned, the study concludes.

Patients with hepatitis C treated with combination therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin had better outcomes when taking a weight-based dosage of ribavirin compared to a flat dosage.

The coal tit is among the top ten two-timers worldwide. That is what research by biologists shows. Older coal tit males were particularly successful at cheating on their partner. They produced significantly more 'cuckoo kids' than younger males.

Taxonomists, ecologists and philosophers explored the world's southernmost forest and tundra ecosystems to estimate the diversity of the dominant vegetation, namely tiny bryophytes and lichens. Much of today's conservation strategies focus on "charismatic mega fauna" such as pandas, tigers, and whales; or on vascular plants such as giant redwoods and orchids.

Could some of the natural chemicals found in plants be powerful enough to improve cardiovascular health? Researchers are conducting a clinical study to evaluate the potential cardiovascular health effects of Nature's pearl muscadine grape seed supplement.

Seismologists in recent years have recast their understanding of the inner workings of Earth from a relatively benign homogeneous environment to one that is highly dynamic and chemically diverse. This new view of Earth's inner workings depicts the planet as a living organism where events that happen deep inside can affect what happens at its surface, like the rub and slip of tectonic plates and...

French clay that kills several kinds of disease-causing bacteria is at the forefront of new research into age-old, nearly forgotten, but surprisingly potent cures. Among the malevolent bacteria that a French clay has been shown to fight is a 'flesh-eating' bug on the rise in Africa and the germ called MRSA, which was blamed for the recent deaths of two children in Virginia and Mississippi.

As housing developments sprout across the United States, smart growth proponents have urged communities to cluster developments in concentrated pockets, instead of the more standard and familiar "sprawl." Now a new study finds that while cluster development is indeed much easier on the surrounding environment, the location of housing developments is key.

Lasers are at the cutting edge of surgery. However, there is still a lot that scientists do not know about the ways in which laser light interacts with living tissue. Now, some of these basic questions have been answered in the first investigation of how ultraviolet lasers -- similar to those used in LASIK eye surgery -- cut living tissues.

Proteins in the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease work together to survive. The bacteria that causes the disease -- Legionella pneumophila -- replicates inside macrophage, which are cells that are part of the immune system and "eat" cellular debris and toxins.

When a study in her lab showed that mate tea drinkers saw a significant increase in the activity of an enzyme that raises HDL cholesterol while lowering LDL cholesterol, the scientist headed for Argentina where mate tea has been used medicinally for centuries.

PiRNAs, a recently discovered class of tiny RNAs, play an important role in controlling gene function. Derived mostly from so-called "junk DNA," piRNAs had escaped the attention of generations of geneticists and molecular biologists until last year when Yale scientists discovered them in mammalian reproductive cells, and named them.

Researchers report positive results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a novel anti-cancer drug which offers two modes of action. In 26 patients with advanced solid tumors, treatment with ECO-4601 is safe and well tolerated. A first-in-class, targeted investigational therapy specifically designed to inhibit a single protein that functions only during cell division shows potent activity in a broad...

Postmenopausal women are at an age when the incidence and exacerbation of the chronic health conditions associated with obesity become more prevalent. Obesity can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, osteoarthritis and mental health problems, all of which can be significantly reduced by weight loss.

For those who suffer with the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Deep Brain Stimulation offers relief from the tremors and rigidity that can't be controlled by medicine. A particularly troublesome downside, though, is that these patients often exhibit compulsive behaviors that healthy people, and even those taking medication for Parkinson's, can easily manage.

New research examined the effectiveness of ICS in preventing asthma and other respiratory illness due to inhalation exposures experienced by NYC firefighters after the World Trade Center collapse. Two years post-collapse, those firefighters treated with ICS reported positive feedback.