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Science News

Scientists say Indian curry compound (turmeric) kills cancer cells
Oct. 20,09

A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday. Researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Center in Ireland treated esophageal cancer cells with curcumin -- a chemical found in the spice turmeric, which gives curries a distinctive yellow color -- and found it started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2009
Oct. 5,09

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three American scientists who solved a problem of cell biology with deep relevance to cancer and aging.
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2009
Oct. 6,09

Three americans win 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for their poineer work that helped develop fiber-optic cable and invented the "eye" in digital cameras – technology that has given rise to film-free photography and high-speed Internet service, revolutionized communications and science, and utterly transformed the way we live, work and amuse ourselves
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2009
Oct. 6,09

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for creating detailed blueprints of the protein-making machinery within cells, research that is being used to develop new antibiotics
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,2008
Oct. 9,08

Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien (all U.S.) for the discovery of a glowing jellyfish protein that makes cells, tissues, and organs light up
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine,2008
Oct. 6,08

French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won Monday the Nobel Medicine Prize
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Winners of the Nobel Prize in physics,2008
Oct. 7,08

Two Japanese citizens and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics
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Science policy of Obama and McCain 2008
Sept. 17,08

Presidential answers to the top 14 science questions facing America
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New clue to Alzheimer's found
Aug. 20,08

Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein. But there long has been a question whether this is a cause of the disease or a side effect. Also involved are tangles of a protein called tau; some scientists suspect this is the cause.
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Computer model knows what you're thinking
May 30, 08

A computer model has been developed that can predict what word you are thinking of. The model may help to resolve questions about how the brain processes words and language, and might even lead to techniques for decoding people’s thoughts.
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New Map Reveals Dynamic Variation in Human Genome
May 20, 08

A team of researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Evan E. Eichler at the University of Washington has produced the first high-resolution map showing the structural variation that exists in the human genome. With the map, researchers can now begin to see how the underlying structure of one person's genome differs from that of another.
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Disclosing drug makers payments to docs gets boost
May 13, 08

Legislation that would require prescription drug makers to disclose payments to doctors got a boost Tuesday when Eli Lilly and Co. broke ranks with the industry and endorsed the bill. Lawmakers gained Eli Lilly's support after they agreed to raise the payment limit requiring disclosure from $25 to $500. The lawmakers also agreed to apply the legislation to all drug and medical device makers. Previously, the proposed disclosures would have applied only to companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue.
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For a Sharp Brain, Stimulation
May 13, 08

Later this month, researchers will gather at the Institut Pasteur in Paris to mark the quarter century since human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was discovered as the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Since then, over 60 million people have been infected with the virus and over 25 million people have died. These numbers make the results of two "proof of concept" vaccine efficacy trials--the STEP and Phambili trials--extremely disappointing. Indeed, these results have raised questions about whether investments in HIV vaccine research are misplaced and whether a vaccine is even achievable. Those views are misguided.
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AIDS and the Next 25 Years
Alan Bernstein (May 9, 08)

Molecular Action May Help Keep Birds on Course

Four decades after scientists showed that migratory birds use Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves during their seasonal journeys, researchers have at last found a molecular mechanism that may explain how they do it.
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Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness
Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton

Although much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of one's income on others predicted greater happiness both...
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Protein Structure Initiative: Phase 3 or Phase Out

In the early 1990s when structural biologist Andrzej Joachimiak was working in the labs of Paul Sigler and Arthur Horwich at Yale University, he and six colleagues worked together for more than 2 years to solve the x-ray crystal structure of a protein known as GroEL. To obtain such structures, researchers must arrange copies of a protein into the regular pattern of a crystal and...
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Researchers Hone Their Homology Tools
Robert F. Service

The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) is churning out new protein structures at a pace never seen before. But even the hundreds of structures the initiative unveils each year don't make much of a dent in the millions of proteins and multiprotein complexes thought to be out there. One hope for PSI, however, is that the proteins it has solved will give researchers insights into the structures and functions of some of those whose shapes are unknown.
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Two Papers From Korean Lab Found to Lack 'Scientific Truth'
Jennifer Couzin and Dennis Normile

An investigation by a prominent South Korean university has revealed that two papers by its researchers "do not contain any scientific truth." Both will likely be retracted by the journals in which they appeared, Science and Nature Chemical Biology. The papers describe a new way to identify drug targets by tracking protein movements in living cells. Their well-known senior author, Tae Kook Kim, studied in the United States and founded a company...
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