At first glance, Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has little in common with Earth. Titan's surface temperature dips tp nearly 300 F below zero, its seas slosh with liquid methane, and its sky is a murky shade of creamsicle.

It's not a bad idea to think about water. Though Earth is literally overrun with water only 2% is usable and current energy and technology limitations make it impractical to bring it to the areas that need it most, so management is important.

Water is the limiting factor for many plants and trees and climate models project hotter and drier summers for much of the globe. An international research team is studying which factors govern the resistance of tropical trees to periods of drought and fins that stored carbohydrates play a key role in the resilience of the individual plant. 

Residents of England claim their health care is the best in the world - and some in America agree. While America clearly leads the world in medical treatment, everyone with the money from almost every country quickly abandons their health care for US shores, it is only burden-free for the rich and the poor. In between, many might not go to the doctor.

But in England plenty of people want to go to a doctor because it is free. They just can't get an appointment so they go to an emergency room which costs far more, which makes the burden on taxpayers even greater.

WASHINGTON — For a rare form of cancer called thymoma, researchers have discovered a single gene defining the difference between a fast-growing tumor requiring aggressive treatment and a slow-growing tumor that doesn't require extensive therapy.

Thymoma is a cancer derived from the epithelial cells of the thymus, an organ critical to the lymphatic system where T-cells, or so-called "killer cells," mature. Very little is known about the role of the gene mutation GTF2l in human tumors, but scientists from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute say almost all indolent (slow growing and non-aggressive) forms of thymoma they tested have the mutation. They report their finding in the ?? issue of Nature Genetics.

Optogenetics is a technology that allows scientists to control brain activity by shining light on light-sensitive proteins that can suppress or stimulate electrical signals within cells.  In the last 15 years,  optogenetics has become a common laboratory tool for shutting off or stimulating specific types of neurons in the brain, allowing neuroscientists to learn much more about their functions. 

Chlorinated chemicals perform a host of societally useful functions, but they're not perfect. Once their use life has ended, they can become environmental contaminants and even resistant to bioremediation.

In a series of new studies, Anca Delgado, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, examines unique groups of microorganisms, capable of converting hazardous chlorinated chemicals like trichloroetheene (TCE) into ethene, a benign end product of microbial biodegradation. The new studies explore the metabolic activities of a group of microbes known as Dehalococcoides, and propose strategies to improve their effectiveness for environmental cleanup projects involving chlorinated chemicals.

Girls and boys learn to use language differently, according to a new study which found that girls were more likely to remember words while boys were more likely to create words and sentences in ‘real-time’.

Language scholars believe language uses both a mental dictionary and a mental grammar. The mental ‘dictionary’ stores sounds, words and common phrases, while mental ‘grammar’ involves the real-time composition of longer words and sentences. For example, making a longer word ‘walked’ from a smaller one ‘walk’. Most research into understanding how these processes work has been carried out with adults.

A new study in mice shows that even short-term consumption of a Western diet rich in saturated fats and fructose is more damaging for healthy liver development than following a high fat diet alone, which provides new insight into the effects of adding fructose to a Western diet high in fat. 

Dr. Susanna Iossa, who led the study at the University of Naples, Italy, said, “This result points to the harmful effect of adding fructose to the usual western, high-fat diet and, together with other related findings, should stimulate the discussion on the use of fructose and fructose-containing sweeteners in beverages and packaged foods.

The gene Metadherin - MTDH - which is implicated in promoting the spread of breast cancer tumors, only stimulates tumor growth when the protein made by the gene interacts with a second protein known as SND1, according to a paper in Cancer Cell.

Invasive breast cancer strikes 1 in 8 women and causes roughly 40,000 deaths each year in the United States. About 20 percent of women with breast cancer go on to develop tumors that spread throughout body, are resistant to chemotherapy, and are often fatal.

In quantum physics, you can't precisely measure momentum and position simultaneously. They are an example of conjugate variables, connected by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. There are workarounds, such as "weak measurement," to measure both at the same time but a new study says that a technique called compressive sensing also offers a way to measure both variables at the same time, without violating the Uncertainty Principle.