Leprosy, attributable to infection with Mycobacterium leprae, was once endemic over much of the world. Though now often considered a “tropical disease,” cases occurred north of the Arctic Circle just 100 years ago. The disease has gradually disappeared from higher latitudes in recent centuries. The last case of leprosy attributable to continued transmission in the British Isles had onset around 1800 (1) and in Norway the last case had onset around 1950 (2). Mycobacterium leprae was carried repeatedly across the Atlantic from both Europe and Africa in the last few hundred years, becoming endemic throughout the Americas with the exception of Chile, Canada and the northern United States (cases still occur in Louisiana and Texas). The disease is found throughout Africa and Asia.

One of my pet peeves is the common description in the media of bacteria "learning" to "outsmart" antibiotics. As anyone with a basic comprehension of evolution knows, learning has nothing to do with it. Learning is what happens during the lifetime of an individual, and it occurs in direct response to some information that the individual encounters. When bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it is not by learning. The individual bacteria do not sense the antibiotic and change to become resistant. Rather, individual bacteria in a population that happen to be resistant because of some genetic difference (or in whom a mutation conferring resistance arises by chance or through gene transfer from another population) will survive and reproduce more effectively than individuals lacking the genetic characteristic that confers resistance. Over many generations of this process, the gene providing resistance to the antibiotic will be found in the majority of bacteria -- not because it "spreads" and not because individual bacteria develop  resistance, but because the bacteria that are the most abundant in the population after many generations are obviously the descendants of the ancestors that left the most offspring, namely those who survived the antibiotics.

Skin piercings might be the rage among teens, but researchers from Tel Aviv University have found good reasons to think twice about piercing one's tongue or lip.

Dr. Liran Levin, a dentist from the Department of Oral Rehabilitation, School of Dental Medicine at Tel Aviv University has found that about 15 to 20 percent of teens with oral piercings are at high risk for both tooth fractures and gum disease. Resulting tooth fractures as well as periodontal problems, he says, can lead to anterior (front) tooth loss later in life.

High rates of fractures due to piercings are not found in other age groups, and cases of severe periodontal damage in teens without oral piercings are similarly rare, says Dr. Levin, who conducted the study with partners Dr. Yehuda Zadik and Dr. Tal Becker, both dentists in the Israeli Army.

Researchers have found that female red squirrels showed high levels of multimale mating and would even mate with males that had similar genetic relatedness, basically mating with their relatives.

Researchers from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England, United Kingdom studied a population of red squirrels over a period of three years near Kluane National Park in southwest Yukon.

While males mating with multiple females is quite common in the animal kingdom, females that multi-mate is much harder to explain.

A new discovery by University of Western Ontario scientist Graham Thompson claims to be conclusive evidence that the 'selfish gene', introduced conceptually in 1976 by British biologist Richard Dawkins, isn't just accepted as a natural extension to the works of Charles Darwin, but is now confirmed.

In studying genomes, the word 'selfish' does not refer to the human-describing adjective of self-centered behavior but rather to the blind tendency of genes wanting to continue their existence into the next generation. Ironically, this 'selfish' tendency can appear anything but selfish when the gene does move ahead for selfless and even self-sacrificing reasons.

For instance, in the honey bee colony, a complex social breeding system described as a 'super-organism,' the female worker bees are sterile. The adult queen bee, selected and developed by the worker bees, is left to mate with the male drones.

If you watch popular shows like “Undress the Nation” or Gok Wan’s “How to Look Good Naked” - what, you don't watch them? That's because that guy behind American Idol hasn't brought them here yet, and in these times of strife we need shows about women in underwear - but if you live in England and watch them you may have noticed something a researcher also noticed; when women wear the right underwear, they are more confident about their bodies and about their overall appearance which, to men, is the same thing.



Who knew underwear was so important? Not me. All I know is there is 'dating' underwear - bras and panties match - and then 'dating a long time' underwear. You do the math.

Dr. Ira Sharlip, President of the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) detailed a new definition of premature ejaculation. He addressed the audience of the American Urological Association during the ‘late breaking science forum’, a session designed by AUA to premier newsworthy developments in clinical urology.

The ISSM convened a panel of world experts who met in Amsterdam in the fall of 2007. Each of the 21 members of the panel was selected through a peer review process for their expertise in ejaculatory physiology, pharmacology and dysfunction. The panelists were tasked with creating a new definition of premature ejaculation (PE) based on currently available clinical evidence. Definitions of PE have previously been based on group consensus and not meeting new standards for evidence-based medicine. These definitions of PE include the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, 2002) and the AUA definition of (2005).

The knock on publicly traded companies is that they only think short term, quarter to quarter, which reduces or delays investments in risky, long term innovation projects in order to boost the firm’s stock price.

Entrepreneurs always talk about innovation while larger companies hesitate to take chances that could hurt short term profits. But do investments in innovations hurt stock prices?

Not according to Gerard J. Tellis, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and Ashish Sood, an assistant professor at the of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. They have devised a new metric for evaluating the total stock market returns to an innovation project. “We’re assessing whether markets respond negatively to investments in innovation and whether they enforce a shorter orientation,” explains Tellis. “The key questions are: how does the stock market react to announcements about innovation and what is the total return to the innovation project?”

Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called "Dodo-Goldilocks" when Phoenix's Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.

Researchers have determined that there are hundreds of biological differences between the sexes when it comes to gene expression in the cerebral cortex of humans and other primates. These findings indicate that some of these differences arose a very long time ago and have been preserved through evolution. These conserved differences constitute a signature of sex differences in the brain.

Many more obvious gender differences have been preserved throughout primate evolution; examples include average body size and weight, and genitalia design. This study, believed to be the first of its kind, focuses on gene expression within the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is involved in many of the more complex functions in both humans and other primates, including memory, attentiveness, thought processes and language.