Researchers have developed geographic risk models, which indicate that as many as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. Using Geographic Information Systems, the researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population of Burma (also known as Myanmar) and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm's effects.

Neuroscientists have discovered a fundamental component of the process that regulates memory formation. The discovery explains, for the first time, how new nerve cells form in an area of the brain associated with learning and memory -- which is known to deteriorate in people with stroke and dementia.

Move over "Longface", "Spooktacular" and "Trickster" -- there's a new face in the pumpkin patch. Researchers recently introduced "Orange Bulldog," a new variety of the familiar fall fruit that may soon be available to consumers and wholesale pumpkin growers.

Using mathematics and a computer model of brain activity, scientists have shown a direct link between activity in the cortex and the microscopic structure of this neuronal network. Building on the existing body of research, the new work indicates that the spontaneous activity of small neuronal networks in the cortex consists of highly structured patterns rather than random "noise," shedding light on previous speculations.

Knowing that soils are a potential climate change time-bomb is nothing new -- but now, for the first time, a group of international scientists have found a way to distinguish just how much of these ancient carbon stores are being lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This means that in the future they may be able to accurately forecast how loss of soil carbon will impact on climate change. Globally, soils contain over 300 times the amount of carbon released each year due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this carbon has until now, been safely locked up below ground.

While 30 to 50 percent of people with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome are also affected with obsessive compulsive disorder, both illnesses might have a distinct neurocognitive profile, according to a new study in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

Exposure during development either in the womb or during infancy to chemicals used to make products such as baby bottles, the lining of food tins and some plastic food wraps and containers, may contribute to the development of obesity, according to new research presented at the European Congress on Obesity. One of the chemicals under scrutiny is Bisphenol A. While eating too much and exercising too little are still considered the major cause of obesity, scientists have recently started investigating whether chemicals known as endocrine disruptors, which mimic or alter the effects of hormones in the body, could also play a role in making people fat.

European researchers say their study of self-sustaining solitary light wave packets could result in a new generation of computers and optical telecommunications networks. Using light rather than electronic or magnetic devices to store and move data is quicker, more energy efficient and cost-effective, and cavity solitons could be the key to unlocking this technology.

Rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones. Dehydration has been linked to stone disease, particularly in warmer climates, and global warming will exacerbate this effect. As a result, the prevalence of stone disease may increase, along with the costs of treating the condition.

Doctors have fine-tuned the dosage and timing for administering clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator to patients with strokes caused by bleeding within the brain. The treatment dramatically increases survival for the deadly condition.

It’s a paradox that has confounded evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin: Since parasites depend on their hosts for survival, why do they harm them? A new study of monarch butterflies and the microscopic parasites that hitch a ride on them finds that the parasites strike a middle ground between the benefits gained by reproducing rapidly and the costs to their hosts.

Fruit flies are dramatically different from humans not in their number of genes, but in the number of protein interactions in their bodies, according to scientists who have developed a new way of estimating the total number of interactions between proteins in any organism.

The mouse is a stalwart stand-in for humans in medical research, thanks to genomes that are 85 percent identical. But identical genes may behave differently in mouse and man, a study by evolutionary biologists reveals.

An antibiotic commonly used to treat acne can prevent tissue damage caused by lung diseases such as emphysema, researchers have found. It appears to boost the body's ability to protect against damage to the lungs.

Pointed wings, together with carrying less weight per wing area and avoidance of high winds and atmospheric turbulence, save a bird lots of energy during migration. This is shown for the first time in free-flying wild birds. Researchers state that climate change might have a critical impact on small migrants' energy budgets if it causes higher winds and atmospheric instability as predicted.

A statin drug used to lower cholesterol has been found to stop hepatitis C, especially in patients resistant to standard treatment. The drug, Fluvastatin, has been approved since 1993 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of elevated cholesterol in adults. Millions of patients have taken Fluvastatin for cholesterol without difficulty.

Exactly how airborne particulates harm our lungs still puzzles epidemiologists, physicians, environmental scientists, and policy makers. Now California Institute of Technology researchers have found that they act by impairing the lungs' natural defenses against ozone.

Does playing violent video games make players aggressive? It is a question that has taxed researchers, sociologists, and regulators ever since the first console was plugged into a TV and the first shots fired in a shoot 'em up game. Now researchers suggest that there is scant scientific evidence that video games are anything but harmless, and that they do not lead to real world aggression. Moreover, new research shows that previous work is biased towards the opposite conclusion.

Researchers have discovered the first conclusive evidence of Alzheimer's-like neurofibrillary brain tangles in an aged nonhuman primate. They also discovered deposits of beta-amyloid protein in plaques and blood vessels of the chimp's brain tissue, although these changes were infrequent compared to Alzheimer's in humans. The finding could move the scientific community closer to understanding why age-related neurodegenerative diseases are uniquely human and seem to never fully manifest in other species, including our closest evolutionary relative, the chimpanzee.

Cell division is essential to life, but the mechanism by which emerging daughter cells organize and divvy up their genetic endowments is little understood. Researchers report on how a key motor protein orchestrates chromosome movements at a critical stage of cell division.