The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Key Thought Leaders Explore Critical Next Steps for AIDS Vaccine Research at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

Today, they write, AIDS vaccine research is at a pivotal moment. Just ten months ago, the second AIDS vaccine candidate to reach late-stage testing failed. In the wake of this disappointment, some skeptics have argued that an AIDS vaccine may not be possible and that resources dedicated to its development should be directed instead towards treating HIV-infected individuals.

Almost every metropolitan area in America has a "dead man's curve", a road notorious for fatalities. If you've moved to a new location, you may not know of it. Using the interactive maps on www.saferoadmaps.org developed by University of Minnesota researchers, you can learn which roads near your home or work are considered dangerous simply typing in your address.

Researchers in the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS) have mapped out every fatality in the nation with details on each death.

A scientist at the University of Liverpool has found that hypnosis can slow down the impacts of dementia and improve quality of life for those living with the condition.

Forensic psychologist, Dr Simon Duff, investigated the effects of hypnosis on people living with dementia and compared the treatment to mainstream health-care methods. He also looked at how hypnosis compared to a type of group therapy in which participants were encouraged to discuss news and current affairs.

Scientists hope a vaccine is on the horizon for tularemia, a fatal disease caused by the pathogen Francisella tularensis, an organism of concern as a potential biological warfare agent. Until recently we knew very little about this bacterium. However, according to the August issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology, research on the bacterium has been reinvigorated and rapid progress has been made in understanding how it causes disease.

Infection with F. tularensis can result in a variety of symptoms, depending on the route of infection. For example, infection via an insect bite can lead to a swollen ulcer or fever, chills, malaise, headaches and a sore throat. When infection occurs by eating
contaminated food, symptoms can range from mild diarrhoea to an acute fatal disease.

Bacteria living on opposite sides of a canyon have evolved to cope with different temperatures by altering the make-up of their 'skin', or cell membranes, write scientists who have found that bacteria change these complex and important structures to adapt to different temperatures by looking at the appearance of the bacteria as well as their genes. The researchers hope their study, published in the August issue of Microbiology, will start a new trend in research.

The cell membrane is one of the most important and complex parts of a cell. Membranes contain different fatty acid molecules; the branching type can change depending on temperature to keep the cell alive. The researchers found significant differences in the fatty acids of several ecotypes that live on different slopes in Evolution Canyon.

'Evolution Canyons' I and II are in Israel. They are similar, each with a hot south-facing slope and a cooler north-facing slope. The sun-exposed 'African' south-facing slopes get eight times more solar radiation than the shady, green, lush 'European' north-facing slopes. Scientists studied 131 strains of Bacillus simplex and found that bacteria on different slopes have evolved differently, forming different 'ecotypes' of the same species.

Typhoid fever kills 10–30% of untreated people. One of the best-known cases was that of Mary Mallon, a healthy carrier of typhoid, who worked for many years in the food industry in New York and is thought to have infected almost 50 people. She was eventually forcibly quarantined by authorities and named Typhoid Mary.

There are 17 million cases of Typhoid fever each year - although the World Health Organization cautions that this is a 'very conservative' estimate. Young people are most at risk: in Indonesia, nine out of ten cases occur in 3–19-year-olds.

It has been controlled by vaccination and use of antibiotics but antibiotic resistance is an emerging problem, especially in south-east Asia.