Life Sciences and Chemistry

Scientists thrilled by first confirmed sighting in almost a decade

The Cozumel Thrasher (Toxostoma guttatum), a bird not seen or recorded by scientists for close to a decade and thought by some to have gone extinct, was sighted last month by a team of field biologists, American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International announced today. Its rediscovery immediately makes it the single most threatened bird in Mexico.

The Cozumel Thrasher, an endemic bird found only on t

Organisms ranging from bacteria to humans navigate environments that can contain dangerously too little or too much oxygen. Yet, scientists know little about how animals sense oxygen levels around them.

Researchers from the Berkeley and San Francisco campuses of the University of California have now discovered how the nematode C. elegans senses oxygen levels in order to steer clear of surrounding areas that are too low or too high in oxygen.

In the process, the researchers also di

Metastasis of cancer may cause as many, if not more, deaths than cancer itself. Amongst other reasons, this is because it is very difficult to know where the new tumour is going to develop. Moreover, the mechanisms of metastasis are still not well understood, although a lot of research into it is taking place and advances are being made. Dominion Pharmakine is a company located at the Bizkaia Technological Park where they are studying metastasis.

At times, a cell in our body may suffer a mu

A groundbreaking European project launched next week and led by the University of Plymouth will help to combat major diseases such as cancer and brain diseases. The four-year project, which involves 31 institutions across Europe, will be launched in Milan on Friday 9 July, when the first workshop takes place.

The projects’ key aim is to tackle and reduce fragmentation in the new field of biopattern and profile analysis. (A biopattern is the basic information ie pattern that prov

A new material which is set to revolutionise the way we protect our bodies from impact and injury is being launched by specialist technology company d3o Lab. d3o Lab were granted a government SMART award in 2001 and following a significant breakthrough they secured a second award in 2003 for the development which is now nearing commercialisation.

Since 2000 Richard Palmer and Dr. Phil Green have been working out of the University of Hertfordshire’s research and development centre, and a des

A new technique for examining DNA is giving scientists a more detailed picture of which genes have the propensity for activation, offering a new tool for understanding how genes function and possibly for diagnosing disease.

The technology, called a chromatin array, was developed by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and is described in the July issue of the journal Genome Research.

DNA, which contains the genetic instructions needed to make a human or any ot