Shore crabs catch their food at food-rich spots and subsequently eat it elsewhere. With this take-out strategy the crabs maximize their food uptake and keep competing crabs at a distance, according to a young Dutch researcher.

By better understanding how antimicrobials bind and thereby get inactivated in the mucus of air passages, researchers may have found a way to help cystic fibrosis patients fight off deadly infections. Long-term bacterial infections are the primary cause of death in cystic fibrosis.

After a separation or divorce the chances of marrying or cohabiting again decrease. In particular, a previous marriage or children from a previous relationship reduce the chances of a new relationship. Moreover, the prospects are slimmer for women compared to men. A possible explanation for this negative impact of previous experiences might be that people are more cautious following a divorce.

Understanding whether inbreeding accounts for early mortality is a long-standing concern in demographic research. Analyzing Bedouin villages in Bekaa, Lebanon, in which the marriage rate among first cousins is more than twice the national average, a new study finds that the greatest single determinant of infant mortality is not closely related parents -- though this does present a significant risk...

In scientific research, there is great satisfaction when theoretical work is eventually supported by experimentation. Such was the case for a team of Italian and US scientists when they received preliminary confirmation of a 10-year-old theory from a fluid science experiment that is currently orbiting the Earth on the Foton-M3 spacecraft.

The biochemical mechanism behind the adhesive protein that give rise to particularly serious malaria in children has been identified. The knowledge of how the malaria parasite makes blood vessels become sticky paves the way for a future vaccine for the disease, which currently kills some 2 million people every year.

Scientists have discovered how the zebrafish (Danio rerio) develops one of its four stripes. Their findings add to the growing list of tasks carried out by an important molecule that is involved in the arrangement of everything from nerve cells to reproductive cells in the developing embryo.

A new method accurately predicts which patients with colon cancer are most likely to have their disease recur after surgery and who would, therefore, be likely to benefit from additional chemotherapy.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging can aid radiologists in diagnosing breast cancer while reducing the number of false-positive results and invasive biopsies, according to a study focusing on nonmass-enhancing breast lesions.

Researchers have discovered that a specific mutation of the COX2 gene seems to play a role in the onset of ovarian cancer, increasing women's susceptibility to developing the disease. The discovery raises the possibility that it might be possible to use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, which are used already for other conditions, to prevent ovarian cancer...

In a breakthrough that will likely accelerate research aimed at cures for hearing loss, tinnitus and balance problems, scientists have perfected a laboratory culturing technique that provides a reliable new source of cells critical to understanding certain inner-ear disorders.

Researchers have found that a chemotherapy regimen of irinotecan and cisplatin produced rapid clinical responses in childhood brain stem glioma, and shrank the tumors by more than 20 percent in all six children enrolled in a clinical trial.

By placing quantum dots on a specially designed photonic crystal, researchers have demonstrated enhanced fluorescence intensity by a factor of up to 108. Potential applications include high-brightness light-emitting diodes, optical switches and personalized, high-sensitivity biosensors.

For more than a decade, Steve Stice has dedicated his research using embryonic stem cells to improving the lives of people with degenerative diseases and debilitating injuries. His most recent discovery, which produces billions of neural cells from a few stem cells, could now aid in national security. In collaboration with the US Naval Research Laboratory, Stice hopes to use his recently developed...

For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, wild animals generally represented either a food source or a potential danger. Detecting an animal's immediate presence and then monitoring its movements was vital to the physical safety, nutrition, and well-being of stone-age families. Now scientists have identified a nonconscious attention system, which still exists in the human brain, that maintains awareness...

Researchers are participating in developing a medicine that is worth sneezing about: a treatment for influenza that forms a jelly when sprayed into the nose.

Computer scientists have developed an interactive, online game featuring a little fish named Phil that can teach people how to better recognize and avoid email 'phishing' and other Internet scams. The game is available for public use.

High levels of nutrients used in farming and ranching activities fuel parasite infections that have caused highly publicized frog deformities in ponds and lakes across North America, according to a new study. The study showed increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause sharp hikes in the abundance and reproduction of a snail species that hosts microscopic parasites known as trematodes. The...

Sperm cells from the more promiscuous chimpanzee and rhesus macaque species swim much faster and with much greater force than those of humans and gorillas, species where individual females mate primarily with only one male during a reproductive cycle.

National survey findings just released indicate that Americans' awareness of nanotechnology remains low. Popular awareness is nearly as small as the tiny nanoscale materials and nano-enabled devices and products now flowing onto the market from this rapidly progressing technology that experts believe will usher in a new industrial revolution.

Although anorexia nervosa is categorized as an eating disorder, it is not known whether there are alterations of the portions of the brain that regulates appetite. Now, a new study finds that women with anorexia have distinct differences in the insulta -- the specific part of the brain that is important for recognizing taste.

In a study published in the American Naturalist a German-Sri Lankan research team has now undertaken thousands of spatial pattern analyses to paint an overall picture of the association between tree species in one of these plots in Sri Lanka.

Paying close attention to how a canary learns a new song has helped scientists open a new avenue of research against Huntington's disease -- a fatal disorder for which there is currently no cure or even a treatment to slow the disease. Scientists used gene therapy to guide the development of endogenous stem cells in the brains of mice affected by a form of Huntington's, generating new medium spiny...

A smart introduction of a variable toll charge, with different rates at different departure times, reduces traffic jams. Even small toll charges can exert a large effect on the total travel time, concludes a young Dutch researcher.