Scientists from Imperial College London have successfully directed mouse stem cells to turn into the type of cells needed for gas exchange in lungs, bringing the prospect of being able to regenerate damaged lung tissue, and even the creation of artificially grown lungs one step closer.

Dr Anne Bishop, from Imperial College Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Centre at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, comments: “This research will make it possible eventually to repair lungs that hav

Two studies in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how a new class of synthetic antithrombotic drug could be more effective than conventional therapy in reducing the risk of potentially fatal blood clots associated with hip-replacement surgery.

Between 16 and 30% of patients who undergo Hip-replacement surgery have a risk of developing deep-vein thrombosis (DVT)-even when anti-clotting agents such as heparin and warfarin are used. DVT from hip surgery can occasionally result in deat

People with liver cancer that cannot be treated with surgical resection or transplantation could have an increased two-year survival if they are given chemoembolisation-a procedure in which blood supply to the tumour combined with the effect of chemotherapy inhibits cancer growth.

There is no standard treatment for liver cancer when surgery, transplantation, or percutaneous treatment is not possible, which applies to around three-quarters of all liver cancer cases. Arterial embolisation-the

An academic at the University of Edinburgh is attempting to solve the riddle of how jokes work — and to set up a way of analyzing the language used in jokes — as part of wider research into humour. Dr Graeme Ritchie is not investigating how funny particular jokes are, as opinions about that vary widely. Instead, he is looking at whether something is or is not a joke, about which there is more agreement. He plans to experiment, to see how much agreement there is amongst people as to what actually cons

The SUMER instrument on the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft has measured amazing wind speeds during its observations of the Sun. It sets a new record in its examination of two loops of gas arching in the solar atmosphere, where NASA`s TRACE satellite spotted bright blobs of gas. Shifts in the wavelength of ultraviolet light from highly ionized neon atoms, seen by SUMER, revealed steady wind speeds of up to 320 000 kilometres per hour. That`s fast enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than a minute.

Over the coming weeks an international team, led by Professor Ulrich Heber of the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany, will use over fifteen different telescopes around the world to make over one hundred nights of observations of just one star to learn about its internal structure.

The constellation of the “Serpent” contains a variable star, called V338 Ser, which vibrates with several periods of about ten minutes. It is a very old and nearly burnt out star which has lost most of its o