Twenty-two years of dedicated research has finally resulted in success, reports a British team headed by Steven V. Ley at the University of Cambridge. They have created the first synthesis of azadirachtin, a natural compound that stops predatory insects from feeding.

Plants have a variety of defense mechanisms to deter insect attack. One such compound is azadirachtin, which was first isolated from the neem tree (also known as the Indian lilac) in 1968. The name of this natural product is derived from the botanical name of the plant, Azadiracta indica. Azadirachtin is a highly active substance that inhibits the development of the larvae of a broad spectrum of destructive insects but is harmless to mammals and beneficial insects, such as bees and ladybugs.

Hydrogen is an interesting idea for a clean, renewable fuel but storage and refueling issues present challenges. A new and attractive storage medium being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists may provide the “power of pellets” to fuel future transportation needs.

The Department of Energy’s Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence is investigating a hydrogen storage medium that holds promise in meeting long-term targets for transportation use. As part of the center, PNNL scientists are using solid ammonia borane, or AB, compressed into small pellets to serve as a hydrogen storage material. Each milliliter of AB weighs about three-quarters of a gram and harbors up to 1.8 liters of hydrogen.

Four-Agents Decoction ( Si Wu Tang) is composed of dry roots of four plants native to China: prepared Radix Rehmanniae praeparata (Soe Dee Huang), Radix Paeoniae Alba (Bai Sau), Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Dang Guay), and Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong (Tsuan Chyong).

This formula is originally listed in the Prescriptions of People’s Welfare Pharmacy (in Chinese) as a remedy for nourishing the blood and has been used as a basic formula in traditional Chinese medicine for treating women’s illnesses since the Song dynasty (twelfth century).

The first comprehensive, nationally representative survey on the prevalence of sexual activity among older Americans is in - and they are having a lot of sex.

Americans ages 57 to 85 are sexually active and view intimacy as an important part of life, despite a high rate of “bothersome” sexual problems, according to a new report in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Stacy Tessler Lindau, M.D., who conducted the study with Linda Waite, Ph.D., and others at the University of Chicago, expects the study to help open a dialogue between older patients and their doctors as older Americans were very receptive to the survey and its questions. This openness suggests that, when asked, many older people want to talk about this part of their lives.

Originating in Central Africa, Peters' elephantnose fish (Gnathonemus petersii), finds its bearings by means of weak electrical fields. Scientists from the University of Bonn have now been able to show how well this works. In complete darkness the animals can even distinguish the material of objects at a distance or dead organisms from living ones. The results have now been published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The fish, which is as long as a cigar, hovers with its head inclined, close to the gravel-covered bed. While it swims forward slowly, its trunk-like elongated chin sweeps steadily from right to left, always at a distance of a few millimetres from the bottom.

Chemists and food scientists at Rutgers employed natural antimicrobial agents derived from sources such as cloves, oregano, thyme and paprika to create novel biodegradable polymers or plastics to potentially block the formation of bacterial biofilms on food surfaces and packaging.

Typically, a variety of bacteria will congregate on a surface to form a bacterial community that exists as a slime-like matrix referred to as a biofilm. This kind of bacterial community is often described as being polymicrobial; it harbors multiple versions of infectious, disease-causing bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli.