New work by researchers in the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins may allow them to halt the smoking-induced cellular events that lead to 99 percent of all small cell lung cancers (SCLC). The research is reported in the March 5, 2003, issue of Nature.

The researchers found that a primitive cellular pathway, called Sonic Hedgehog (named for the cartoon character and spiky hairs it develops on fruit flies) stays turned on long after it should be turned off in some lung cancers.

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Long-time farmers’ friend shows promise against parasitic worms

Roundworms, hookworms, watch out. Scientists this week announced that a soil bacterium’s crystal proteins, long an effective weapon against many insect pests, are toxic to some nematodes, too.

The crystal proteins – created by some strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, more commonly known as Bt – thwart the development of some nematodes and kill others outright. The findings raise the possibility that thes

Information overload? It is becoming increasingly important for companies and developers to present complex coherences clearly and concisely. In order to structure the growing amount of information, new methods are being conceived at the man/machine interface. This is where GoVisual software, developed at the international caesar research center, comes into play. It automatically generates a clear layout for a number of different diagrams in a second; particularly for UML (Unified Modeling Language)

Biologists in Manchester have helped create a breakthrough in alcohol production that could save industry millions of pounds and help clean up the environment.
Many distilleries across Europe still rely on 19th century technology pioneered by Louis Pasteur, so the invention of a vastly more efficient fermenting system offers exciting possibilities.

The technology, developed at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), also allows continuous production of the chemical, an improvement from

Mutants from a lowly weed. That’s where many solutions to maladies – from salt stress in plants to HIV in humans – may lie in wait for scientists to discover.

“I look for mutants. I take a sick plant and find out what’s wrong,” said Dr. Hisashi Koiwa, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station horticulturist.

It’s the Arabidopsis plant, a common weed, that attracts Koiwa and other researchers because of its simple genetic makeup. Scientists have looked at every nook and cranny of the

Defects in a protein called alphaV beta3 ntegrin appear to contribute to the development of osteoporosis, and these effects can be reversed by enhancing a protein called macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The study appears in the first March issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is published online March 4.

“Because of our previous research with these proteins, new drugs already