Women see ‘masculine’ men as unsuitable long-term partners, new research suggests. Conversely, the psychologists from Durham and St Andrews Universities found that men with feminine facial features are seen as more committed and less likely to cheat on their partners.

The study, published in the current edition of Personality and Individual Differences, asked over 400 British men and women to judge digitally altered pictures of male faces made to look more masculine or feminine. The participants were asked to predict personality traits including sexual behaviour and parenting skills based on what they saw.

People suffering from a severe retinal disease will sooner or later lose their eyesight considerably or even become completely blind.

Coordinated by the geneticist Ronald Roepman from Nijemegen, an international team has identified a further gene for the inherited retinal disease Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) and discovered evidence how it functions. This represents new opportunities for gene therapy, a very promising approach for LCA since the disease is caused by a single mutation.

LCA causes blindness very early on – often shortly after or within a few months of birth. The disease can be caused through a single mutation in different genes; with the newly discovered LCA5 gene, ten disease-causing genes had been identified so far which are responsible for approx.

The DNA of ancient microorganisms, long frozen in glaciers, may return to life as the glaciers melt, according to a paper published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Rutgers and Boston University.

The finding is significant, said Kay Bidle, assistant professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers, because scientists didn’t know until now whether such ancient, frozen organisms and their DNA could be revived at all or for how long cells are viable after they’ve been frozen.

When it comes to generating neurons, researchers have found that not all embryonic stem (ES) cell lines are equal. In comparing neurons generated from two NIH-approved embryonic stem cell lines, scientists have uncovered significant differences in the mature, functioning neurons generated from each line. The discovery implies that culture conditions during ES cell generation -- which have yet to be identified -- can influence the developmental properties of human ES cells.

The report also describes a new technique for producing functioning neurons from stem cells that will be important for creating models of human neurodegenerative diseases.

Green tea could hold promise as a new treatment for skin disorders such as psoriasis and dandruff, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

Researchers studied an animal model for inflammatory skin diseases, which are often characterized by patches of dry, red, flaky skin caused by the inflammation and overproduction of skin cells. Those treated with green tea showed slower growth of skin cells and the presence of a gene that regulates the cells’ life cycles.

“Psoriasis, an autoimmune disease, causes the skin to become thicker because the growth of skin cells is out of control,” says Dr. Stephen Hsu, an oral biologist in the MCG School of Dentistry and lead investigator on the study.

Caffeine may help older women protect their thinking skills, according to a new study.

The study found that women age 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee (or the equivalent in tea) per day had less decline over time on tests of memory than women who drank one cup or less of coffee or tea per day. The results held up even after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect memory abilities, such as age, education, disability, depression, high blood pressure, medications, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses.