Pleasure and desire are essential to all human behavior, says Oxford University neuroscientist Morten Kringelbach , and he challenges us to trust our animal instincts in pursuit of those.

Pleasure and our sense of reward are produced by the interaction of many different brain regions, processed consciously or unconsciously.  In the day-to-day routine of life, we may feel we are continually fighting our desires for what we really want.   But doing so, he argues, is irrational and a huge waste of energy and resources, for it is pleasure and desire that underlie all our decisions and actions, and, therefore, our experiences.

A new species of Antarctic fish, Gosztonyia antarctica, has been discovered at a depth of 650 meters in the Bellingshausen Sea in the Antarctic Ocean, an area which had not been studied since 1904 and where the fauna is "completely" unknown. Jesús Matallanas, the Spanish researcher responsible for the find, collected four specimens of the new species during Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) campaigns in the southern hemisphere summers of 2003 and 2006.

Gamers caught an early glimpse of the future of serious games aimed at the health sector during the PlayMancer project’s demos at the latest Vienna Science Fair.   The European PlayMancer project is working hard to improve the technology for serious game engines and tools for 3-D networked gaming.

The platform is being tested and validated  physical rehabilitation and behavioral and addictive disorders with the inclusion of innovative multimodal I/O devices.

“We want to build actual games, serious games, around serious health-related problems like bulimia and chronic pain,” PlayMancer’s project manager Elias Kalapanidas tells ICT Results. “Using gaming in this way is really breaking new ground.”

Revered in India as "holy powder", the marigold-colored spice known as turmeric has been used for centuries to treat wounds, infections and other health problems. In recent years, research into the healing powers of turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin, has increased as scientists have examined claims of antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral and other properties, though little has been learned about exactly how curcumin works inside the body.

University of Michigan researchers led by Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy now say that curcumin acts as a disciplinarian, inserting itself into cell membranes and making them more orderly, a move that improves cells' resistance to infection and malignancy. 

SANTA CLARA, California, March 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Finesse Solutions, LLC, Santa Clara, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for life sciences process applications, announced the technical demonstration of TruFluor(TM) pH, a single use optical pH measurement system, at Interphex in New York on March 17, 2009.

The TruFluor pH and temperature sensor is a single-use solution consisting of a disposable sheath, an optical reader, and a transmitter. The single-use sheath can be pre-inserted in a disposable bioreactor bag port, and irradiated with the bag, in order to both preserve and guarantee the sterile barrier. All wetted materials of the sheath are USP class VI compliant.

SANTA CLARA, California, March 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Finesse Solutions, LLC, Santa Clara, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for bioprocess applications, and Nova Biomedical, Waltham, MA, a world leader in biotechnology process monitoring announced the release of a TruBio(TM) plug-in for OPC connectivity between TruBio control software and Nova FLEX(R) analyzers. OPC is the de facto standard for data exchange between process control systems and different hardware platforms.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada, March 6 /PRNewswire/ --

- Company Receives Allowance of Patent Claims in the U.S. and in India -

- InNexus Biotechnology CEO Highlighted in Nature Biotechnology -

InNexus Biotechnology Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: IXSBF; TSX VENTURE: IXS; http://www.ixsbio.com), a drug development company commercializing the next generation of monoclonal antibodies based on its Dynamic Cross Linking (DXL(TM)) technology, announces that it has received a notice of allowance on patent claims in the United States (Serial No. 11/119,404) and a patent grant in India (National Phase Application No. 2424/CHENP/2005) further expanding its protection of InNexus' DXL(TM) technology.

LONDON, March 6 /PRNewswire/ --

- During the Most Popular Month for Employee Performance Appraisals, SumTotal Offers Free Consultation and Resources to Help Organizations Improve the Process and ROI

DALLAS, March 6 /PRNewswire/ --

BancTec, a global provider of advanced, high-volume, document and payment processing services and solutions, announced today that French services provider Flandre Ateliers has selected BancTec's CenterVision(TM) content management solution and IntelliScan(R) XDS high-volume production scanner for its service operation in Tourcoing, France.

LONDON, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- A delegation from the Cambridge University Press (CUP) workforce threatened with redundancy is putting their case directly to the Syndicate - CUP's governing body - on Friday, 13 March.

More than 150 jobs at CUP are under threat, despite the world-famous institution making a profit. Alarm at the job losses has been expressed by Cambridge City Council.

The delegation from CUP's threatened printing division and the publishing education group will address the Syndicate in Cambridge.

Unite/GPMU National Officer, Ann Field said: 'The delegation will be making the case that CUP is still a profitable organisation with a hard-working and dedicated work force - and that jobs should not be axed unnecessarily during a recession.'