Hydrogen is regarded as the green energy of the future. The automobile industry, for example, is working hard to introduce fuel cell technology starting in approximately 2010. However, a fuel cell drive system can only be environmentally friendly if researchers succeed in producing hydrogen from renewable sources.

Artificial photosynthesis, i.e. the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen with the aid of sunlight, is an elegant way of solving this problem.

Roughly a half-millimeter in size and commonly observed under microscopes in high-school biology classes, bdelloid rotifers are highly unusual in several regards: They appear to be exclusively asexual, have relatively few transposable genes, and can survive and reproduce after complete desiccation at any stage of their life cycle.

Scientists at Harvard University hypothesize that this last property explains something new about bdelloids - their apparently unique resistance to radiation.

As the planet's population continues to grow, optimal crops need to be planted and harvested in order to feed people. One concern about widespread use of 'organic' cropping is that it would raise the price of food and have lower yields. Right now only rich people can afford organic food but if lower yields were worldwide only rich people could afford food at all, say critics.

It's not a huge issue, at least for some crops, say scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and agricultural consulting firm AGSTAT. They say organic cropping systems are as productive as conventional systems for alfalfa and wheat and are almost as productive for corn and soybeans, according to research reported in Agronomy Journal.

One day soon patients may spit in a cup, instead of bracing for a needle prick, when being tested for cancer, heart disease or diabetes.

A major step in that direction is the cataloguing of the “complete” salivary proteome, a set of proteins in human ductal saliva, identified by a consortium of three research teams, according to an article published today in the Journal of Proteome Research. Replacing blood draws with saliva tests promises to make disease diagnosis, as well as the tracking of treatment efficacy, less invasive and costly.

Saliva proteomics and diagnostics is part of a nationwide effort to create the first map of every human protein and every protein interaction, as they contribute to health and disease and as they act as markers for disease states. Following instructions encoded by genes, protein “machines” make up the body’s organs and regulate its cellular processes.

AI or ANN? Designers of artificial cognitive systems have tended to adopt one of two approaches to building robots that can think for themselves: classical rule-based artificial intelligence or artificial neural networks.

Both have advantages and disadvantages, and combining the two offers the best of both worlds, say a team of European researchers who have developed a new breed of cognitive, learning robot that goes beyond the state of the art.

The researchers’ work brings together the two distinct but mutually supportive technologies that have been used to develop artificial cognitive systems (ACS) for different purposes. The classical approach to artificial intelligence (AI) relies on a rule-based system in which the designer largely supplies the knowledge and scene representations, making the robot follow a decision-making process – much like climbing through the branches of a tree – toward a predefined response.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for peri- and postmenopausal symptoms increases disease recurrence in breast cancer survivors, according to an article published online March 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Previous studies have shown that HRT increases breast cancer incidence in healthy women, but its impact on breast cancer survivors has remained obscure. Observational studies and one small randomized trial had suggested that HRT had no effect or even might reduce recurrence. However, two-year follow-up data from the randomized HABITS (Hormonal Replacement After Breast Cancer —Is It Safe?) trial indicated that survivors who took HRT were more likely to suffer disease recurrence than those who did not take HRT.