By revealing the mechanisms that allow the bacteria to rapidly clog up medical devices, a group of researchershas moved a step closer to preventing infections of the common hospital pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus.

The researchers have shown that the bacteria colonizes into large groups, called biofilms, using a biological glue, and form thin, slimy, thread-like structures called streamers. The streamers adhere to a surface and are able to trap passing cells as they flow through medical devices such as stents and catheters, becoming more rigid and eventually clogging up the whole device.

New immigration research from Rice University, the University of North Carolina and the Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies suggests the U.S. should re-evaluate its definition of skilled workers to include informal skills of migrant workers.

The study, "Identifying and Measuring the Lifelong Human Capital of 'Unskilled' Migrants in the Mexico-U.S. Migrator Circuit," draws on a binational multistage research project that involved interviews with 320 Mexican migrants and return migrants in North Carolina and Guanajuato, Mexico. The study identifies lifelong human capital – knowledge and technical and social skills – acquired and transferred throughout these migrants' careers.

Promiscuity means different things in different cultures, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely fits anyone, which is why western protesters do so poorly telling Africans how they need to change their behavioral ways. 

And in western society, female promiscuity is frowned on more than the male kind. Even in different countries it has different perceptions. The British show "Coupling" was hilarious to both Americans and British people but when a US network made an American version, it was a huge flop, even though it was taken almost verbatim from the British. The reason is because American audiences thought promiscuous British women were funny, but not American ones.

In rodent models, a drug that blocks the action of the enzyme Cdk5 could substantially reduce brain damage if administered shortly after a stroke, according to a new paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, because aberrant Cdk5 activity causes nerve cell death during stroke.

The land known as Israel today was once pretty bleak. Mark Twain spoke of the barren landscape and lack of people when it was owned by colonial European powers. Nothing much was there.

But then Jews began buying it up. They planted crops and modernized irrigation. After World War II, the United Nations made it a country and now the land is considered so valuable the Arab states insist they should own it instead.

Old World monkeys have undergone a remarkable evolution in facial appearance as a way of avoiding interbreeding with closely related and geographically proximate species, according to a new paper which provides best evidence to-date for the role of visual cues as a barrier to breeding across species.

The researchers studied guenons—a group of more than two dozen species of monkeys indigenous to the forests of Central and West Africa. Many different species of guenons are often sympatric—they live in close proximity to each other, with multiple species often traveling, feeding, and sleeping side-by-side. Therefore interbreeding, which could result in afflicted infertile offspring, remains an unwelcome possibility. 

A blood testcould help predict the likelihood of a woman developing breast cancer, even in the absence of a high-risk BRCA1 gene mutation, according to researchers from University College London who identified an epigenetic signature in the blood of women predisposed for breast cancer owing to an inherited genetic mutation of the BRCA1 gene.

Epigenetic alterations are thought to be key molecular switches that are involved in the development of cancer. Strikingly, the same signature was discovered in the blood of women without a BRCA1 mutation but who went on to develop breast cancer, making it a potential early marker of women's cancer in the general population. 

What is believed to be the smallest force ever measured, 42 yoctonewtons, has been detected by at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A yoctonewton is one septillionth of a newton and there are approximately 3 x 10²³ yoctonewtons in one ounce of force.
 That's tiny. Using a combination of lasers and a unique optical trapping system that provides a cloud of ultracold atoms, the researchers detected the minute force.

Antibodies and their derivatives can protect plants and humans against viruses but members of this class of drugs are usually highly specific against components of a particular virus, and mutations in the virus that change these components can make them ineffective.

But a mini-antibody called 3D8 scFv can chew up viral DNA and RNA regardless of specific sequences and protect mammalian cells and genetically manipulated mice against different viruses.

Sukchan Lee, from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, and colleagues had previously discovered that 3D8 has both DNase and RNase activity (that is, it can degrade both), and that it can inhibit viruses under certain circumstances. In this study, they genetically manipulated cells and mice to produce 3D8.

PHILADELPHIA (June 26, 2014)— In the first pilot study asking adults on the autism spectrum about their experiences with driving, researchers at Drexel University found significant differences in self-reported driving behaviors and perceptions of driving ability in comparison to non-autistic adults. As the population of adults with autism continues growing rapidly, the survey provides a first step toward identifying whether this population has unmet needs for educational supports to empower safe driving – a key element of independent functioning in many people's lives.