According to a new study by geologists at the University of Toronto and the University of Maryland, the wealth of some minerals that lie in the rock beneath the Earth`s surface may be extraterrestrial in origin. "The extreme temperature at which the Earth`s core formed more than four billion years ago would have completely stripped any precious metals from the rocky crust and deposited them i...

Scientists in China have discovered that roots of a plant used a century ago during the great Spanish influenza pandemic contains substances with powerful effects in laboratory experiments in killing the H1N1 swine flu virus that now threatens the world. The plant has a pleasant onion-like taste when cooked, but when raw it has sap so foul-smelling that some call it the "Dung of the Devil&quo...

Neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine are the cerebral cells that most commonly die-off in Parkinson’s disease. The cells in the so-called substantia nigra, which contain the dark pigment neuromelanin, are affected. It is also known that the iron content of these cells increases during the course of Parkinson’s disease. A team of researchers from the University of Bochum w...

Shell beads newly unearthed from four sites in Morocco confirm early humans were consistently wearing and potentially trading symbolic jewelry as early as 80,000 years ago. These beads add significantly to similar finds dating back as far as 110,000 in Algeria, Morocco, Israel and South Africa, confirming these as the oldest form of personal ornaments. This crucial step towards modern culture is r...

New insight into how human cells reproduce, published by cancer researchers at Michigan State University and the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, could help scientists move closer to finding an “off switch” for cancer. Cancer cells divide uncontrollably and can move from one part of the body to another. They undergo dramatic shifts in shape when they do so, said Aaron DeWa...

Ice ages are the greatest natural climate changes in recent geological times. Their rise and fall are caused by slight changes in the Earth`s orbit around the Sun due to the influence of the other planets. But we do not know the exact relationship between the changes in the Earth`s orbit and the changes in climate. New research from the Niels Bohr Institute indicates that there can be changes in t...

Scientists studying how marine bacteria move have discovered that a sharp variation in water current segregates right-handed bacteria from their left-handed brethren, impelling the microbes in opposite directions. This finding and the possibility of quickly and cheaply implementing the segregation of two-handed objects in the laboratory could have a big impact on industries like the pharmaceutical...

Red jasper cored from layers 3.46 billion years old suggests that not only did the oceans contain abundant oxygen then, but that the atmosphere was as oxygen rich as it is today, according to geologists. This jasper or hematite-rich chert formed in ways similar to the way this rock forms around hydrothermal vents in the deep oceans today. "Many people have assumed that the hematite in ancient...

An enzyme that lives in MRSA and helps the dangerous bacterium to grow and spread infection through the human body has been visualised for the first time, according to a new study. Now, armed with detailed information about the structure of this enzyme, researchers hope to design new drugs that will seek it out and disable it, providing a new way of combating MRSA and other bacterial infections. T...

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have explained how certain key mutations occur in human lymphomas—a process that has, until now, remained a mystery. The findings of the study will have a significant impact on future study of how human lymphoma occurs. Chromosomal translocations, in which segments of DNA are moved around the genome, ar...