A healthy lifestyle during the early elderly years—including weight management, exercising regularly and not smoking—may be associated with a greater probability of living to age 90 in men, as well as good health and physical function, according to a report in the February 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A second article in the same issue finds that although some individuals survive to 100 years or beyond by avoiding chronic diseases, other centenarians live with such conditions for many years without becoming disabled.

Studies of twins have found that about one-fourth of the variation in human life span can be attributed to genetics, according to background information in the article. That leaves about 75 percent that could be attributed to modifiable risk factors.

Detailed images from Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) reveal an infant galaxy, dubbed A1689-zD1, undergoing a firestorm of star birth as it comes out of the dark ages, a time shortly after the Big Bang, but before the first stars completed the reheating of the cold, dark Universe. Images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope’s Infrared Array Camera provided strong additional evidence that it was a young star-forming galaxy in the dark ages.

“We certainly were surprised to find such a bright young galaxy 13 billion years in the past”, said astronomer Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA and a member of the research team.

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation has expanded dramatically in recent decades and is frequently cited as a major threat to tropical biodiversity. This is because oil palm is grown in lowland tropical regions and so impacts on the most biodiverse terrestrial habitats: tropical rainforests.

Analysis of the published literature by scientists led by Edgar Turner at the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge has revealed significant changes in the focus of oil palm research over the last 30 years.

According to the Chinese proverb, a bird sings because it has a song, not because it has an answer. A team of French and Brazilian researchers, however, may have the answer as to how the song of Brazilian white-browed warbler has become so well-adapted to the acoustic properties of the rainforest environment.

Understanding the evolution of acoustic communication systems in animals is a hot topic in evolutionary biology and one of the main challenges is to understand how environmental pressures drive this evolution.

The human journey from Asia to the New World was interrupted by a 20,000-year layover in Beringia, a once-habitable region that today lies submerged under the icy waters of the Bering Strait.

Furthermore, the New World was colonized by approximately 1,000 to 5,000 people — a substantially higher number than the 100 or fewer individuals of previous estimates.

The developments, reported by University of Florida Genetics Institute scientists, help shape understanding of how the Americas came to be populated — not through a single expansion event that is put forth in most theories, but in three distinct stages separated by thousands of generations.

Night-time noise from aircraft or traffic can increase a person’s blood pressure even if it does not wake them, according to a new study published today in the European Heart Journal.

Scientists from Imperial College London and other European institutions monitored 140 sleeping volunteers in their homes near London Heathrow and three other major European airports.

The researchers measured the volunteers’ blood pressure remotely at 15-minute intervals and then analysed how this related to the noise recorded in the volunteers’ bedrooms.

RALEIGH, North Carolina and WELLESLEY HILLS, Massachusetts, February 12 /PRNewswire/ --

DARA BioSciences, Inc. ("DARA") and Point Therapeutics, Inc. ("Point") (Nasdaq: POTP) announced the consummation of their merger transaction, effective as of the close of business on February 12, 2008.

LONDON, February 12 /PRNewswire/ -- NHS Choices (http://www.nhs.uk), the online 'front door' to the NHS, launches a new interactive tool aimed to help people better understand the difference between food allergies and intolerances.

Based on NHS accredited information, the food allergy symptom checker (http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/FoodTool.aspx) enables users to find out in seconds whether they have either a food allergy or intolerance, and provides them with clinically approved guidance to help them improve their health. This interactive tool is the latest addition to the NHS Choices' extensive tool library.

RICHARDSON, Texas, February 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Red Knight Learning Systems, based in Dallas, Texas, has been selected as a strategic partner in the design and development of a unique new interactive learning project for kids. "Chuggington" is an entertainment property being developed by London-based Ludorum, plc that follows the adventures of three young train engines, their human caretakers, and their fellow train friends. Chuggington is specially designed for three to six year olds, and will be rolled out in television, books, toys, and an engaging interactive virtual world in early 2009.

RICHARDSON, Texas, February 12 /PRNewswire/ --

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