Leeds scientists are to investigate the birthplace of life – sea water billions of years old – with new high-tech laser equipment, the first of its kind in the UK.

The ancient sea water is found trapped in tiny pockets – called fluid inclusions – within crystals such as emerald and quartz. The oldest known examples are found in the rock 3.8 billion years old – the oldest land on the planet. Although liquid water is believed to have existed on earth over 4 billion years ago, obtaining samples

The lack of a special protein crucial to cell growth and development may help cancer cells proliferate, new research suggests.

Cells without this protein – E2F3 – are usually rendered genetically unstable. In most cases, such instability would either kill a cell or keep it from growing. Yet sometimes mutations alter cells in such a way that they are able to thrive and multiply, creating tumors.

“In cancer, the absence or loss of E2F3 may be a double-edged sword,” said Gustav

Vessels are important parts of our body. Their function is critical to our well-being. For years, doctors have tried various tools to take pictures of arteries that would help them in diagnosing or preventing diseases. This has not been an easy task, however, and sometimes they have to use imaging methods that may have some harmful side effects. It has always been a challenge to take clear pictures of vessel without the negative side effects. Here, we suggest a new way that may help us to achieve th

Finding is a significant step toward new insights for designing combination chemotherapy

Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered numerous genes that alter their level of activity in characteristic patterns in response to specific chemotherapy treatments. The genes were identified in the leukemia cells of children undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The researchers say this finding is a significant step in the emergin

New digital tools

To survive and thrive in this century, business leaders need to hardwire new technologies into their playbooks to create enduring enterprises.

Many factors, from the need to export beyond national borders to the inexorable shift to intellectual capital, are driving change, but none is more important than the rise of the Internet and digital technologies. Like the steam engine or the assembly line, the Net and digital technologies have already become an adva

Scientists report for the first time that “baby” teeth, the temporary teeth that children begin losing around their sixth birthday, contain a rich supply of stem cells in their dental pulp. The researchers say this unexpected discovery could have important implications because the stem cells remain alive inside the tooth for a short time after it falls out of a child’s mouth, suggesting the cells could be readily harvested for research.

According to the scientists, who published their