Researchers have identified a common ancestral gene that enabled the evolution of advanced life over a billion years ago. The gene, found in all complex organisms, including plants and animals, encodes for a large group of enzymes known as protein kinases that enabled cells to be larger and to rapidly transfer information from one part to another. 

Plants, animals, mushrooms and more all exist because they are made up of eukaryotic cells that are larger and far more complex than bacteria. Inside of these eukaryotic cells are hundreds of organelles that perform diverse functions to keep them living, just as different organs do for the human body.

Formaldehyde is back in the news because a company called Lumber Liquidators has been found to have exposure levels higher than previously believed. While three times effectively zero is still zero, fundraising groups like Natural Resources Defense Council have pounced on the opportunity to promote fear and doubt and talk about EPA regulations they have conspired with lobbyists to create.

Happy events can trigger a heart condition known as takotsubo syndrome, according to research published today (Thursday) in the European Heart Journal [1].

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is known as "broken heart syndrome" and is characterised by a sudden temporary weakening of the heart muscles that causes the left ventricle of the heart to balloon out at the bottom while the neck remains narrow, creating a shape resembling a Japanese octopus trap, from which it gets its name. Since this relatively rare condition was first described in 1990, evidence has suggested that it is typically triggered by episodes of severe emotional distress, such as grief, anger or fear, with patients developing chest pains and breathlessness. It can lead to heart attacks and death.

CHICAGO --- For women suffering from stage-4 breast cancer, there is a new treatment plan that, according to a recent Northwestern Medicine clinical trial, is highly effective and has minimal toxicity. The treatment includes a drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The study combined palbociclib and fulvestrant to treat women with recurrent metastatic (advanced) breast cancer who are resistant to standard endocrine therapy. Patients who were treated with the two drugs experienced significantly longer periods of progression-free survival than those who received a placebo-plus-fulvestrant treatment.

A combination of two drugs delays progression of advanced, aggressive breast cancer by an average of nine months - working in all subsets of the most common type of breast cancer.

The combination - of a first-in-class targeted drug called palbociclib, and the hormone drug fulvestrant - slowed cancer growth in around two thirds of women with advanced forms of the most common type of breast cancer.

The combination allowed many women with metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative cancer to delay the start of chemotherapy, which is the traditional treatment option in these patients once hormone drugs have stopped working.

UCLA researchers have found that doctors can use a specific antibiotic in addition to surgically draining an abscess to give people a better chance of recovery. The discovery turns on its head the long-held notion that surgical drainage alone is sufficient for treating abscesses.

The findings are particularly important because of the emergence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which since 2000 has become the most common cause of skin infections -- initially in the U.S. and now in many other parts of the world.

The UCLA study will be published March 3 by the New England Journal of Medicine.

If you buy a hybrid SUV rather than a conventional SUV of equal size, you naturally think you have chosen the "green" option. But that hybrid vehicle is not greener than a conventional compact car that gets poorer mileage than the hybrid.

In another scenario, a consumer might purchase a new, non-essential, energy-efficient electronic device - possibly because of advertising that suggests the "greenness" of the product - instead of not purchasing any device at all. While the gadget may be greener than a similar but less-energy-efficient competitor, it is not a greener choice than purchasing no device at all.

HANOVER, N.H. - March 2, 2016 - When it comes to addressing disease, many industry observers and public health advocates believe that pharmaceutical companies prefer to invest in drugs rather than vaccines, as preventives are perceived to be inherently less profitable.

Theoretical chemists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences have found how to synthesize the first binary compound of krypton and oxygen: a krypton oxide. It turns out that this exotic substance can be produced under extremely high pressure, and its production is quite within the capabilities of today's laboratories.

For what may be the first time, NOAA and partner scientists eavesdropped on the deepest part of the world's ocean and instead of finding a sea of silence, discovered a cacophony of sounds both natural and caused by humans.

For three weeks, a titanium-encased hydrophone recorded ambient noise from the ocean floor at a depth of more than 36,000 feet, or 7 miles, in the Challenger Deep trough in the Mariana Trench near Micronesia. Researchers from NOAA, Oregon State University, and the U.S. Coast Guard were surprised by how much they heard.