Altruism is alive and well in bacterial populations, according to new linkurl:research;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7311/full/nature09354.html in __Nature__, which found that a few altruistic bacteria help their neighbors withstand the assaults of antibiotics, even at a cost to themselves. Image:flickr/celerity59Researchers from Boston University found that a minority of resistant bacteria help their susceptible neighbors survive by producing and sharing high amounts of the signali

World-renowned architect Frank Gehry talks about designing the Cleveland Clinic's new Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which opened in recently in Las Vegas.

In Sin City, where the Eiffel Tower is a stone's throw away from Venice, New York, and Camelot, stands a haven for doctors and researchers hard at work combating neurodegenerative diseases. A far cry from your average, blocky clinical facility, the linkurl:Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health;http://my.clevelandclinic.org/brain_health/default.aspx has a distinct flare and style that seems appropriate for Las Vegas.Frank GehryImage:flickr/SmakuAnd the man behind the building's unorth

The enemy of my enemy is my friend is an adage that holds true for plants, suggests a linkurl:study;http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/329/5995/1075 that found that plants rely on chemicals in the saliva of leaf-eating insects to attract predators of those insects.Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology/Danny KesslerGeocoris approaches Manduca eggs and hatchling Reporting in Science, researchers linkurl:Ian Baldwin;http://www.ice.mpg.de/usrpers/iaba2016/web/main_en.htm and linku

After a weeks-long delay, a linkurl:paper;http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/08/16/1006901107.abstract reporting a strong association between the retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and chronic fatigue syndrome was published this week in the __Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences__ (PNAS). The study, carried out by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, found gene sequences pertaining to a closely relat

When linkurl:Song Zhang,;http://www.me.iastate.edu/who-we-are/people-and-offices/faculty-directory/zhang-song.html a mechanical engineer at Iowa State University, was approached by U2's people last spring asking if the band could use his novel 3D imaging technology for a concert performance, he immediately sent an email to his lab asking: "Does anyone know who U2 is and whether or not we should spend time on them?" Zhang had a similarly hard time two years ago deciding if collaborating with alt

In at least one species of caterpillar, the gut appears to slide freely back and forth, untethered to the surrounding tissue - an unusual mechanism that might help the insect digest food while it crawls up stems in search of its leafy meals.__Manduca sexta__ is a tobacco plant predator and amodel organism in neurophysiologyImage:Salzbrot via Wikimedia Commons"What they're describing here, as far as I know, has never been described in any other animal," said zoologist linkurl:Michael LaBarbera,;h

Genes from cold-loving bacteria may one day be used to create live bacterial vaccines for common pathogens such as __Salmonella__ and the tuberculosis bacterium, according to a linkurl:study;http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/24/1004119107.abstract published yesterday (July 12) in the __Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences__.Image:flickr/DrShapero By swapping genes that are essential for survival in pathogenic bacteria with those of their counterparts in cold-adapted bacteria

#1 Complex I enzyme revealed The solved structure of a bacterial complex I enzyme -- first in line in the energy-producing respiratory chain -- reveals important mechanics of this ubiquitous protein. Specifically, the structure shows how it hustles electrons and protons across membranes. R.G. Efremov et al. "The architecture of respiratory complex I," Nature, 465(7297):441-5. 2010. linkurl:Eval;http://f1000biology.com/article/id/3375956 by Nathan Nelson, Tel Aviv University; Andrea Mattevi, U

One of the most detailed studies to date of how the interaction between genes and environment results in disease has demonstrated that an inflammatory bowel disease resembling human Crohn's needs a specific mutation, virus, and injury to develop in mice.Cross section of colon tissue from apatient with Crohn's diseaseImage:Nephron via Wikimedia Commons "Environmental genomic issues are tough to crack," said linkurl:John Mordes,;http://www.umassmed.edu/igp/faculty/mordes.cfm professor of endocrin

New insight into how sharks sniff out prey may help explain the evolution of widely spaced nostrils, such as those of hammerheads. According to a linkurl:study;http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2810%2900591-9 published in the latest issue of Current Biology, sharks navigate through odor trails by sensing time delays in the arrival of odor signals from one nostril to another. Presumably, sharks with more widely spaced nostrils can sense more subtle changes in the direction