Researchers have discovered that neurons can use two different neurotransmitters that target the same receptor on a receiving neuron to shape the transmission of a nerve impulse.

Although the researchers’ experiments identified the “co-release” of the two neurotransmitters only in specific types of neurons in the brain’s auditory center, their finding may apply more broadly in the brain, they said.

Thus, the finding may represent a new way in which the brain precisely modulates the nerve impulses that travel from neuron to neuron in its circuitry.

ASHBY DE LA ZOUCH, England, February 28 /PRNewswire/ --

Siemens today underlined its commitment to creating greener railways, with the launch of a major initiative at today's RAIL 2008 conference.

It may not be for all people, but I am betting 90% of the readers of this site and 100% of the writers would buy this car; active suspension, six-wheel drive with independent steering for each wheel, no doors, no windows, no seats and the only color available is gold.

And no passenger seat. Pure off-roading heaven.

But NASA's latest concept vehicle is meant to go way off-road, as in 240,000 miles from the nearest pavement, and drive on the moon.

Children who under-achieve at school may just have poor working memory rather than low intelligence according to researchers who have produced the world's first tool to assess memory capacity in the classroom.

The researchers from Durham University, who surveyed over three thousand children, found that ten per cent of school children across all age ranges suffer from poor working memory seriously affecting their learning. Nationally, this equates to almost half a million children in primary education alone being affected.

However, the researchers identified that poor working memory is rarely identified by teachers, who often describe children with this problem as inattentive or as having lower levels of intelligence.

Boulders the size of footballs could help scientists predict the West Antarctic Ice Sheet’s (WAIS) contribution to sea-level rise according to new research published this week in Geology.

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Durham University and Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) collected boulders deposited by three glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment – a region currently the focus of intense international scientific attention because it is changing faster than anywhere else on the WAIS and it has the potential to raise sea-level by around 1.5 meters.

Analysis of the boulders has enabled the scientists to start constructing a long-term picture of glacier behavior in the region.

Taking the supplement ginkgo biloba had no clear-cut benefit on the risk of developing memory problems, according to a study published in Neurology®.

The three-year study involved 118 people age 85 and older with no memory problems. Half of the participants took ginkgo biloba extract three times a day and half took a placebo. During the study, 21 people developed mild memory problems, or questionable dementia: 14 of those took the placebo and seven took the ginkgo extract. Although there was a trend favoring ginkgo, the difference between those who took gingko versus the placebo was not statistically significant.

RALEIGH, North Carolina, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

DARA BioSciences(TM) (Nasdaq: DARA) announced today the appointment of Haywood D. Cochrane, Jr. to the Board of Directors. Mr. Cochrane was appointed to fill a Board vacancy and will serve on the Company's Audit and Compensation Committees. The appointment was effective February 21, 2008.

In making the announcement DARA's Board Chairman, Richard Franco, Sr., commented, "We are pleased that Haywood has joined us as a Director. His vast knowledge and successful experience in the healthcare industry will further strengthen DARA's already skilled Board."

LOS ANGELES, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Managed Hosting Customers to Benefit from Reliability, Performance of Next-Generation Technology

Verizon Business managed hosting customers will be among the first to benefit from the powerful new functionality of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, the next-generation server operating system launched worldwide by Microsoft Wednesday (Feb. 27).

As a member of Microsoft's early adopter initiative, known as the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP), Verizon Business has gained critical expertise that will enable it to offer Windows Server 2008 as a high-end managed hosting solution to U.S. customers this spring, with rollout to European and Asia-Pacific customers by late summer.

PARIS, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Optical Transmission With Capacity x Distance Product Record at 41.8 Petabit/s.km, and Three New Photonic Integrated Circuits

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) today announced, in four post deadline papers accepted at the OFC/NFOEC conference in San Diego, California, new optical networking milestones, including a new optical transmission record and three novel new photonic integrated circuits.

SAN DIEGO, California, February 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that Bob Tkach, director of Transmission Systems research at Bell Labs, received the 22nd John Tyndall Award, the highest recognition in the optical telecommunications community, during a ceremony at the OFC/NFOEC conference in San Diego, California. Tkach was recognized for his long and prolific body of optical networking research that includes inventing many of the fundamental technologies that are now the basis of high-capacity wave division multiplexing (WDM) systems. These include: