The familiar pencil-lead form of carbon, graphite, consists of layers of carbon atoms tightly bonded in the plane but only loosely bonded between planes; because the layers move easily over one another, graphite is a good lubricant. In fact these graphite layers are graphene.

Graphene is the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon: a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons, like a sheet of chicken wire with an atom at each nexus. As free-standing objects, such two-dimensional crystals were believed impossible to create -- even to exist -- until physicists at the University of Manchester actually made graphene in 2004.

Due to the material's unexpected electronic properties, it could have novel practical applications like tunable optical modulators for communications and other nanoscale electronics.

One of the great scientific challenges is to understand the design principles and origins of the human brain. New research has shed light on the evolutionary origins of the brain and how it evolved into the remarkably complex structure found in humans.

The research suggests that it is not size alone that gives more brain power, but that, during evolution, increasingly sophisticated molecular processing of nerve impulses allowed development of animals with more complex behaviors.

The study shows that two waves of increased sophistication in the structure of nerve junctions could have been the force that allowed complex brains - including our own - to evolve. The big building blocks evolved before big brains.

Maternal diet influences the chances of having male or female offspring, according to research in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. The study says that ewes fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated fats for one month prior to conception have a significantly higher chance of giving birth to male offspring.

Polyunsaturated fats are essential nutrients. It is believed that the dietary ratio between omega-3 and omega-6 fats has important biological effects, especially in terms of inflammation, immunity and central nervous system signalling. The omega-6 fats used in this study were protected from digestion by naturally occurring rumen bacteria to ensure that they would be absorbed through the intestines of the sheep.

Segregation or choice? That's always the concern when one gender is over-represented in one occupation, like psychology and education, and under-represented in others, like physics.

But one other aspect must be considered. At the cutting edge of science, things are competitive and women who combine raising children with research are going to have a tougher time, according to new figures presented in the latest Woman and Science report which shows that over 60% of researchers (six out of ten men and seven out of ten women) consider combining scientific activity with looking after children very difficult.

It's unlikely any society can ever have true balance in every field but if women are only highly represented in certain fields, like biology and medicine, there will be a search for reasons.

A chronic issue with fuel cells is that, in order to deliver a high enough power output, a lot of them have to be connected in series. Traditionally that has meant stacking the fuel cells – creating a structure consisting of several metal plates, each containing one channel for air and one for hydrogen - but this makes the fuel cell stack quite heavy.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, together with colleagues at the Technical University of Berlin, have developed a fuel cell that weighs only 30 grams yet has an output of 12 watts.

The high power density of 400 watts per kilogram has so far only been achieved in considerably larger systems weighing several hundred grams. The fuel cell is light enough to power a twenty-centimeter helicopter. It is being developed by the participants in an EU project, and will be used in future for missions such as locating victims trapped in fallen buildings, monitoring traffic or investigating tracts of land that have been contaminated by chemical accidents.

The ruya, an inspirational night dream, is a fundamental part of the militant jihadist movement among Muslims, according to a study by Dr. Iain Edgar, a social anthropologist at Durham University.

The problem? He used the reported dreams of al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who are, after all, in the business of inspiring terrorism. It may be that militant leaders do touchy-feely things like report their dreams accurately, but unlikely.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival on the cultural significance of sleeping and dreaming, Edgar said: "Islam is probably the largest night dream culture in the world today. The night dream is thought to offer a way to metaphysical and divinatory knowledge, to be a practical alternative and accessible source of inspiration and guidance, to offer clarity concerning action in this world."

A new study in Neuroscience Letters says that short-wavelength light, including natural light from a blue sky, is highly effective at stimulating the circadian system while exposure to other wavelengths — and thus colors — of light may necessitate longer exposure times or require higher exposure levels to be as effective at stimulating our biological clocks.

In some instances, exposure to multiple wavelengths (colors) of light simultaneously can result in less total stimulation to the circadian system than would result if either color were viewed separately, a phenomenon known as "spectral opponency." The LRC scientists have shown that the circadian system shares neurons in the retina — which exhibit spectral opponency and form the foundation for our perception of color — with the visual system. Thus, in principle, the circadian system may be able to distinguish between lights of different colors.

More than meets the eye To demonstrate that the circadian system exhibited spectral opponency formed in the retina, the researchers exposed 10 subjects to three experimental conditions: one unit of blue light to the left eye plus one unit of green light to the right eye; one unit of blue light to the right eye plus one unit of green light to the left eye; and half a unit of blue light plus half a unit of green light to both eyes and then measured each individual's melatonin levels, a natural indicator of the circadian clock.

TORONTO, Canada, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Archimed, the woundcare division of Insense Ltd., today announced it has received approval from Health Canada for the use of its revolutionary Oxyzyme product in the treatment of difficult and chronic wounds. Oxyzyme was first trialed in Toronto by Dr. Gary Sibbald, one of the world's leading wound care specialists, in 2004 by his team at the Toronto Wound Healing Centres. The announcement was made at the 3rd Congress of the World Union of Wound Healing Societies taking place from June 4-8, 2008 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.