CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Over the past decade, studies have found that obesity and eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet are significant risk factors for many types of cancer. Now, a new study from MIT reveals how a high-fat diet makes the cells of the intestinal lining more likely to become cancerous.

The study of mice suggests that a high-fat diet drives a population boom of intestinal stem cells and also generates a pool of other cells that behave like stem cells -- that is, they can reproduce themselves indefinitely and differentiate into other cell types. These stem cells and "stem-like" cells are more likely to give rise to intestinal tumors, says Omer Yilmaz, an MIT assistant professor of biology and leader of the research team.

A new study reports that current rising temperatures already noticeably load the 'climate dice', with growing practical impacts. As a bottom line, lead author D. James Hansen argues in Environmental Research Letters that a carbon fee is needed to spur replacement of carbon fuels with clean energy. Why won't this make anti-science groups like Greenpeace and Union of Concerned Scientists happy? Hansen believes nuclear energy is part of the broad solution to less fossil fuels, which flies in the face of modern environmentalism, which dislikes nuclear and natural gas.

Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy, as recommended for all women under UK guidelines, has no significant effect on the bone density of babies, according to the first randomised controlled trial of its kind, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. However, the findings suggest vitamin D supplements may be beneficial for babies born in winter months, potentially counteracting the seasonal drop in vitamin D levels caused by a lack of sunlight.

WOMEN from ethnic minorities in the UK are more likely to believe that cancer is incurable and is down to fate than their white counterparts, according to a Cancer Research UK study published in the British Journal of Cancer today (Tuesday)*.

The researchers - from the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, based at University College London (UCL) - believe that this may explain why women from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to attend cancer screening or see their doctor about cancer symptoms.

They surveyed 720 White British, Caribbean, African, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi women.

Nearly a quarter of Caribbean women (23 per cent), and at least half of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women (50 per cent, 52 per cent, and 63 per cent res

Most aquatic species sense sound via particle motion, yet few studies on underwater acoustic ecology have included measurements of particle motion.

In response, researchers from the Universities of Exeter, Bristol and Leiden and CEFAS have developed a user-friendly introduction to particle motion, explaining how and when it ought to be measured, and provide open-access analytical tools to maximise its uptake.

A growing number of studies on the behaviour of aquatic animals are revealing the importance of underwater sound, yet these studies typically overlook the component of sound sensed by most species: particle motion.

Large areas of medically important genes fall within troublesome regions of the human genome, where it is currently difficult to obtain accurate sequence information, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Medicine. On average, one fifth of each of these medically important genes is challenging for today's gene sequencing methods to decipher, and the information in these gene regions may be key to a patient's diagnosis or treatment plan.

To optimize medical care, an accurate account of each patient's genetic code is needed to predict risk for disease and to select appropriate medication. The study by researchers from Stanford University highlights the medical consequences of sequencing errors.