Fat is not only a much-discussed food substance. Fat can also function as a signal substance in the body and activate a special receptor in the cells of important organs like the heart and liver. This opens opportunities for new ways of explaining the genesis of diabetes, a disease that is strongly associated with obesity.

This new role for fat was discovered by a team of researchers headed by Professor Christer Owman and Associate Professor Björn Old of the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center at

Solar Physicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London (MSSL-UCL) have discovered new clues to understanding explosions on the Sun.

Coronal mass ejections are violent explosions that can fling electrified gas [plasma] with a mass greater than Mount Everest towards the Earth with destructive consequences for satellites. They can originate from active regions on the Sun, long known to consist of forests of loops filled with plasma. These active loops are roughly 5

What goes on inside the heart of a star? Astronomers have been developing theories about stars’ inner workings for decades, but evidence to confirm the details of those theories has been sparse.

In research supported by NSF, University of Arizona astronomer Elizabeth Green and colleagues have found a new subset of “nearly-naked” stars that dim and brighten due to pulses in their cores. The stars, which may help unlock secrets of advanced stages of stellar evolution, are described in th

n high-risk postmenopausal women, at one year

Newly published data show that treatment with 5 mg Actonel® (risedronate sodium tablets) daily reduced the risk of spinal fracture in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients at higher risk of fracture because of age or low bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip. In these patients, fracture risk was reduced by 62 percent and 60 percent, respectively, at one year with Actonel compared with placebo. The analysis of combined data from two studies

Genetically modified (GM) pest-resistant cotton may provide yields up to 80 per cent higher than traditional types. This has been observed by scientists from the University of Bonn and the University of California at Berkeley in field trials in India. Their conclusion: peasants in the tropics and sub-tropics can benefit substantially from GM plants. These findings are surprising, since it has hitherto only been possible to detect very minor increases in yield, if any, in similar studies in temperate

French authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describe the preliminary success of transplanting muscle stem-cells from the thigh to the heart to restore damaged cardiac tissue after heart attack.

The procedure was done in a 72-year-old man and resulted in improved left-ventricular and overall heart function. After the man’s death 18 months later, the grafted post-infarction scar showed that the undifferentiated stem cells transplanted from his leg had evolved into we