Category Archives: News & Archives

Successful Ebola vaccine provides 100% protection in trial

An experimental Ebola vaccine seems to confer total protection against infection in patients at high risk of contracting the virus, according to preliminary results of a trial in Guinea that were announced today and published in The Lancet. They are the first evidence of any kind that a vaccine protects humans from Ebola infection. “We believe…

NASA finds ‘Earth’s bigger, older cousin’

NASA said Thursday that its Kepler spacecraft has spotted "Earth's bigger, older cousin": the first nearly Earth-size planet to be found in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own. Though NASA can't say for sure whether the planet is rocky like ours or has water and air, it's the closest match yet…

Chimpanzees can quickly identify the faces of other chimps, as well as those of human adults and babies. These new findings could shed light on human and chimp evolution, scientists say. Faces are key to human social lives, conveying key data about how one feels. As such, humans are wired to pay special attention to…

Scientists find mechanism for altered pattern of brain growth in autism spectrum disorder

As early as 1943, when autism was first described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner, reports were made that some, but not all, children with autism spectrum disorder have relatively enlarged heads. But even today, more than half a century later, the exact cause of this early abnormal growth of the head and brain has remained unclear.…

Bizarre fish species, ancient volcanoes discovered off Australia

Not only did an Australian government research team discover a cluster of 50 million-year-old volcanoes — an amazing find by itself — it discovered a new scary-looking fish species that features terrifying jaws and teeth, relative to their size. The bizarre scale-less blackfish that was found was about the size of a fingertip, and had…

Extra DNA acts as a ‘spare tire’ for our genomes

Carrying around a spare tire is a good thing -- you never know when you'll get a flat. Turns out we're all carrying around "spare tires" in our genomes, too. Today, in ACS Central Science, researchers report that an extra set of guanines (or "G"s) in our DNA may function just like a "spare" to…

Do micro-organisms explain features on comets?

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, studied in detail by the European Space Agency Rosetta and Philae spacecraft since September 2014, is a body with distinct and unexpected features. Now two astronomers have a radical explanation for its properties -- micro-organisms that shape cometary activity. Dr Max Wallis of the University of Cardiff set out their ideas today (Monday…

Lonely flatworms inject sperm into their own heads

All you single people: If you think dating is a headache, consider the lengths that some hermaphroditic flatworms will go to in the name of reproduction. In the absence of mating opportunities, hermaphroditic flatworms such asMacrostomum hystrix self-fertilize by stabbing themselves in the head with their penile appendage and injecting sperm, report biologists from the…

Cuba first to eliminate mother-to-baby HIV transmission

Cuba has become the first country to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to baby, the World Health Organisation has announced. The WHO’s director general, Margaret Chan, said it was “one of the greatest public health achievements possible” and an important step towards an Aids-free generation. Over the past five years, Caribbean…

Nonphotosynthetic pigments could be biosignatures of life on other worlds

To find life in the universe, it helps to know what it might look like. If there are organisms on other planets that do not rely wholly on photosynthesis -- as some on Earth do not -- how might those worlds appear from light-years away? That's among the questions University of Washington doctoral student Edward…