Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in their understanding of how the fungus Aspergillus terreus - the cause of serious illness in humans - can move around the body, rather than remaining in the lungs as with similar fungal infections.

The study, led by researchers at The University of Nottingham and published in the academic journal Cell Chemical Biology, has discovered that infections from A.terreus could hitch a ride on immune cells in order to transport themselves and cause systemic infection.

The Rök Runestone, erected in the late 800s in the Swedish province of Östergötland, is the world's most well-known runestone. Its long inscription has seemed impossible to understand, despite the fact that it is relatively easy to read. A new interpretation of the inscription has now been presented - an interpretation that breaks completely with a century-old interpretative tradition. What has previously been understood as references to heroic feats, kings and wars in fact seems to refer to the monument itself.

Using an ultra fast-scanning atomic force microscope, a team of researchers from the University of Basel has filmed "living" nuclear pore complexes at work for the first time. Nuclear pores are molecular machines that control the traffic entering or exiting the cell nucleus. In their article published in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers explain how the passage of unwanted molecules is prevented by rapidly moving molecular "tentacles" inside the pore.

Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator David Reich at Harvard Medical School.

The new genetic data, published May 2, 2016 in Nature, reveal two big changes in prehistoric human populations that are closely linked to the end of the last Ice Age around 19,000 years ago. As the ice sheet retreated, Europe was repopulated by prehistoric humans from southwest Europe (e.g., Spain). Then, in a second event about 14,000 years ago, populations from the southeast (e.g., Turkey, Greece) spread into Europe, displacing the first group of humans.

The largest-ever study to sequence the whole genomes of breast cancers has uncovered five new genes associated with the disease and 13 new mutational signatures that influence tumour development. The results of two papers published in Nature and Nature Communications also reveal what genetic variations exist in breast cancers and where they occur in the genome.

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute led analysis of 560 breast cancer genomes; 556 from women and four from men. This international collaboration included breast cancer patients from around the world, including the USA, Europe and Asia.

The results reveal more about the causes of breast tumours and provide evidence that breast cancer genomes are highly individual.

An international team of astronomers composed of UC San Diego astrophysicists has discovered three Earth-sized planets orbiting near the "habitable zone" of an ultracool dwarf star, the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star.

The discovery is detailed in a paper published this week in the journal Nature. The planets are so close to Earth -- only 40 light years away--that astronomers should eventually be able to study in greater detail the composition of each of the planets and their atmospheres as well as look for chemical signals of life.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Even behind bars it can be a hard question to raise, but new research suggests that asking female inmates whether they have a history of exchanging sex for money or drugs can help identify whether they are at heightened risk for serious health consequences.

Groundwater extraction and other land water contribute about three times less to sea level rise than previous estimates, according to a new study. Sea level has risen an estimated average 1.7 mm per year over the 20th and the early 21st century, and concerns are that will increase uif climate change further warms the planet.

Researchers have the rising seas to a combination of factors including melting ice caps and glaciers, thermal expansion (water expands as it gets warmer), and the extraction of groundwater for human use. Land water contributions are small in comparison to the contribution of ice melt and thermal expansion, yet they have been increasing, leading to concerns that this could exacerbate the problem of sea level rise caused by climate change.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The lady salamander that shuns male companionship may reap important benefits.

For instance, when a predator snaps off her tail.

New research from The Ohio State University compared an all-female population of mole salamanders to a related heterosexual species and found they grew their tails back 36 percent faster. The unisexual salamanders (part of the Ambystoma genus) contain DNA of up to five species and reproduce primarily by cloning themselves.

More than 500 million people live in the Middle East and North Africa, which has always been hot in summer. And it's getting hotter, says Jos Lelieveld, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Professor at the Cyprus Institute. The number of extremely hot days has doubled since 1970, he says, and "the very existence of its inhabitants is in jeopardy."