Dynamic duo helps to heal irradiated mice

An antibiotic and a protein can work together to fight radiation-induced infections better than either can manage alone. Doctors already use antibiotics to treat radiation sickness. But the addition of a protein from the immune …

Spanish institute faces cash crisis

A flagship biomedical research facility in Valencia, built during the heady days of the last economic boom, is now going bust. It is a casualty of Spain’s deep spending cuts and, some say, of poor …

Miniature Art Masters

I had a Random Sample about using microbes to restore artwork in Science Magazine: [html] or [pdf] and below…
Microbiologist Rosa María Montes Estellés once infected a church mural with bacteria. But it was for a …

When being colourful doesn’t pay

Nuclear accidents can have devastating consequences for the people and animals living in the vicinity of the damaged power plants, but they also give researchers a unique opportunity to study the effects of …

Big science at the table

José Ordovas sips a mint tea in a languid café in Madrid, Spain. His eyes scan two mobile phones as he confirms his next appointments. In conversation, he switches effortlessly between Spanish and English to find the right expressions.

Ordovas embodies the hustle and bustle of the ‘big science’ approach that has changed nutrition research in the past decade. This field, once confined to small groups of researchers studying the effects of single nutrients — such as particular vitamins or proteins — on a few dozen volunteers, is now adopting the heavy-lifting tools developed for genetics and pharmaceutical research. It also has a catchy name: nutrigenomics.

When Chickens Attack

Robotics engineer Stephen Roberts was taking his lunch at Somerville College at the University of Oxford, in England, when the conversation turned to chicken. It wasn’t the food, though. His dining companion was …

Marmots fatten up on climate change

In the Upper East River Valley of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventis) are thriving thanks to climate change. The rodents’ startling population boom — their numbers have tripled in ten …

Fruitfly larvae smell the light

Researchers in Germany have genetically modified fruitfly larvae so that they can smell light. The team, led by Klemens Störtkuhl of Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, managed to change the larvae’s odour …

Genes for Speed

Thoroughbred horse owners now have a new tool to predict how their nags will perform on the track. Last week at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Expo in County Kildare, a new company called Equinome …

Superbug family tree sketched out

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have families, too, according to a study that uses the detailed genetic relationships of bacterial strains to map out how certain infections spread within hospitals and countries. The genomic-sequencing technology that made the study possible could one day enable hospital administrators to track infections back to the individuals and objects that transmit them, say the study authors.