Researchers have developed a new concept for a microscope that would use neutrons,  subatomic particles with no electrical charge,
to create high-resolution images
instead of the more traditional beams of light or electrons.

Among other benefits, neutron-based instruments have the ability to probe inside metal objects, such as fuel cells, batteries, and engines, even when in use, and learn details of their internal structure. Neutron instruments are also uniquely sensitive to magnetic properties and lighter elements that are important in biological materials.

Consumer confidence in the safety of foods and beverages sold in the U.S. has dropped over the past five years according to survey results conducted in May/June of 2013.

Among a national sample of 2,100 adults, only one in six express a "great deal" of confidence in food safety.   By comparison, in 2008 approximately 25% of adults expressed a "great deal" of confidence.

The safety of imported foods is now the most pressing concern, followed by concerns about:

New therapeutic targets and drugs may someday benefit people with certain types of leukemia or blood cancer.

Pre-clinical and pharmacological models found that cancer cells with a mutation in the KIT receptor -- an oncogenic/cancerous form of the receptor -- in mast cell leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia can be stopped.

A new paper details how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) regulates the critical crosslinking of its cell wall in the face of beta-lactam antibiotics, the mechanistic basis for how the MRSA bacterium became such a difficult pathogen over the previous 50 years, in which time it spread rapidly across the world.

MRSA has been a difficult hospital pathogen to control and has emerged in the broader community in the past several years, especially in such places as prisons, locker rooms and nurseries. In the United States alone, the disease infects about 100,000 people and claims the lives of nearly 20,000 people annually.

The mystery of why life on Earth evolved has gotten more complicated, not less.

Scientists in a new paper say they have ruled out a theory as to why the planet was warm enough to sustain the planet's earliest life forms when the Sun's energy was roughly three-quarters the strength it is today.

Life evolved on Earth during the Archean, between 3.8 and 2.4 billion years ago, but the weak Sun should have meant the planet was too cold for life to take hold at this time; scientists have therefore been trying to find an explanation for this conundrum, what is dubbed the 'faint, young Sun paradox'.

Doctors who abuse prescription drugs often "self-medicate" for physical or emotional pain or stress relief, according to a new paper.

Based on focus groups with physicians in treatment for substance abuse, the findings lend insight into the reasons why doctors abuse prescription medications—as well as important implications for prevention and recognition. The lead author was Lisa J. Merlo, PhD, MPE, of the University of Florida, Gainesville.