With fewer than 300 northern right whales remaining, the seriously endangered species may face yet another obstacle to recovery. The right whale is regularly exposed to the neurotoxins responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) through feeding on contaminated zooplankton. These toxins could affect respiratory capabilities, feeding behavior, and ultimately the reproduction condition of the whale population.

In the current issue of the journal Harmful Algae, a team of scientists, led

Researchers at the University of Rochester have uncovered how giant magnetic fields up to a billion, billion miles across, such as the one that envelopes our galaxy, are able to take shape despite a mystery that suggested they should collapse almost before they’d begun to form. Astrophysicists have long believed that as these large magnetic fields grow, opposing small-scale fields should grow more quickly, thwarting the evolution of any giant magnetic field. The team discovered instead that the

In an unusual disease known as Bloom syndrome, patients exhibit an extremely high incidence of cancers in many tissues. In fact, some experts consider Bloom syndrome to be among the most cancer-prone hereditary diseases known.

Although the illness is rare, it fascinates scientists since it can teach them more about how cancers arise and how the body normally suppresses them. Information gleaned from studies of the syndrome should provide insights into other forms of cancer, they say.

Incidents of heart attack and stroke, some fatal, in a small number of men taking the drug Viagra have remained a puzzle. After all, Viagra, commonly prescribed for erectile dysfunction, was originally developed to prevent these conditions — not only by dilating blood vessels but also by stopping platelets in the blood from clumping.

In fact, the drug does just the opposite, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. They found that Viagra, by el

Details published in Jan. 10 issue of the journal Science

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a series of novel techniques in nanotechnology that hold promise for applications ranging from highly targeted pharmaceutical therapies, to development of nutrition-enhanced foods known as “nutraceuticals,” to nanoscopic sensors that might one day advance medical imaging and diagnostics. The research, published in the Jan. 10 issue of Science, was funded by

Local fisheries part of bigger cycle affecting entire Pacific Ocean

In the late 1930’s, California’s sardines supported the biggest fishery in the western hemisphere, with more than half a million tons of fish caught each year. By the mid-1950s, the sardines had virtually disappeared. Although fishing pressure may have played a part in this process, new research published in the current issue of Science indicates that the sardines’ demise was part of a 50-year cycle tha