For many years, so called 'junk RNA' was thought to be nothing more than cellular trash. Recent research, however, has called this view into question as scientists have discovered the importance of some small RNAs that generally contain more than 20 molecular units called nucleotides.

The Naval Research Laboratory's Ion Tiger has set an unofficial record for flight endurance by a hydrogen-powered fuel cell unmanned air vehicle, staying out for 23 hours and 17 minutes. The test flight took place on October 9th through 10th at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The Ion Tiger fuel cell development system team is led by NRL and includes Protonex Technology Corporation, the University of Hawaii, and HyperComp Engineering.

The electric fuel cell propulsion system onboard the Ion Tiger has the low noise and signature of a battery-powered UAV, while taking advantage of hydrogen, a high-energy fuel. Fuel cells create an electrical current when they convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, with only water and heat as byproducts.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg say they have discovered a new cancer gene related to adenoid cystic carcinoma,  a slow-growing but deadly form of cancer. The research group can now show that the gene is found in 100% of these tumors, which means that a genetic test can easily be used to make a correct diagnosis.

The newly discovered cancer gene is what is known as a fusion gene, created when two healthy genes join together as a result of a chromosome change.

Parts of our genetic programs that determine programmed cell death in plants and animals are actually evolutionarily related and function in a similar way, according to an article in Nature Cell Biology.

Research has previously believed that animals and plants developed different genetic programs for cell death. 

Children in english-speaking, letter-driven languages are diagnosed with dyslexia more commonly than those in Asia so is it a function of our alphabet?

English dyslexia consists of a 'phonological disorder',  meaning that people with the condition have trouble detecting or manipulating the sound structure of oral language, which in turn leads to problems in mapping speech sounds onto letters

Chinese-speaking children get a form of dyslexia but the disorder is distinctly different, and perhaps more complicated and severe, than that of English speakers. Those differences can even be seen in the brain and in the performance of Chinese children on visual and oral language tasks, according to a report in Current Biology.

40,000 or so spiders have been described, all of which have been thought to be strict predators that feed on insects or other animals, trapping their prey in elaborate webs or hunting them down directly. But researchers have now found one exception to this rule, a neotropical jumping spider known as Bagheera kiplingi and the first instance known to science of a spider that dines primarily on vegetarian fare, according to a report published in Current Biology.

The spiders' veggie option of choice is so-called Beltian bodies, specialized leaf-tip structures produced by acacia shrubs. The Beltian bodies normally serve as a food reward for ants that live in hollow spines of the acacia and act as the plants' "bodyguards."