What's 34 centimeters (13.39 inches) long, likes the cold and has an interorbital pit with two openings? The answer is Cryothenia amphitreta, a newly discovered Antarctic fish discovered by a member of a research team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The new species of nototheniid fish, Cryothenia amphitreta, is detailed in the December issue of the quarterly journal Copeia. Paul A. Cziko, a research specialist who had graduated with bachelor's degrees in animal biology and biochemistry from Illinois six months earlier, and research diver Kevin Hoefling, discovered it in McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica in November 2004. Read more…

Despite the explosive growth in size and complexity of the human brain, the pace of evolutionary change among the thousands of genes expressed in brain tissue has actually slowed since the split, millions of years ago, between human and chimpanzee. Read more…

New results about the temperatures of rock deep below the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the central United States shed light on the puzzling questions of why large earthquakes happened there in 1811 and 1812 and when they may happen again. A research team including a Northwestern University geologist found that thermally New Madrid is surprisingly similar to other areas of the eastern United States. New Madrid appears to be cold and dying, they report. Read more…

Methamphetamine use may be associated with increased risks of major neck artery tears and stroke, according to an article published in the December 26, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Read more…

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have pinpointed a key regulatory protein that translates blood flow into gene expression. The investigators showed that in a model of mouse embryonic development a transcription factor called Klf2, which resides in cells that line blood vessels, is activated by rapid, pulsed blood flow. Understanding Klf2's role in blood vessel and muscle biology could help with fighting atherosclerosis. Read more…

Solving a 100-year-old genetic puzzle, researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have determined that the same genetic mechanism that drives tumor growth can also act as a tumor suppressor. Their findings could lead to new drug targets for cancer therapies. Read more…

At any given time within just a single brain cell of sea slug known as Aplysia, more than 10,000 genes are active, according to scientists writing in Cell. Researchers also analyzed 146 human genes implicated in 168 neurological disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and genes controlling aging and stem-cell differentiation. They found 104 counterpart genes in Aplysia, suggesting it will be a valuable tool for developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Read more…

The ISS crew spent a busy week unpacking, inventorying and stowing more than two tons of equipment and supplies. Read more…

AFP - Talks between Belarus and Russia over the future price of the gas Moscow will supply to Minsk are to continue after the two sides failed to reach agreement, an official said. Read more…

AP - President Bush and first lady Laura Bush were moved to an armored vehicle on their ranch Friday when a tornado warning was issued in central Texas, the White House said. Read more…

AP - Bald eagle watchers will have to keep their eyes on inland areas as well as rivers to catch soaring displays of the majestic bird. Read more…

AP - Global warming could spell the end of the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, transforming the Amazon into a grassy savanna before end of the century, researchers said Friday. Read more…

PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Friday, December 29, 2006 Source: EUTELSAT Eutelsat Selects Alcatel Alenia Space for W7 Satellite to Boost 36 Degrees East Neighbourhood Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Alcatel Alenia Space announced that the two companies have signed a contract under... Read more…

PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Friday, December 29, 2006 Source: Lockheed Martin Corporation Lockheed Martin-Built GPS Satellite Declared Operational for Users Worldwide The newest modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:... Read more…

A unique Mayo Clinic collaboration has revived the healing wisdom of Pacific Island cultures by testing a therapeutic plant extract described in a 17th century Dutch herbal text for its anti-bacterial properties. Read more…

Mobile DNA, which inserts foreign genes into target cells, is a powerful force in the march of evolution and the spread of disease. Working with the lambda virus and E. coli bacteria, Brown University biologists have solved the structure of a six-protein complex critical to performing this gene-grafting surgery. The technique they developed could be used to reveal the structure of other critical protein complexes, landing the work on the cover of Molecular Cell. Read more…

The "resistance movement" founded by bacteria to combat antibiotics may be losing ground. By combining key properties of two different types of weapons used by the innate defense systems of organisms, a team of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science has managed to design a more powerful weapon, hoping that this will provide a basis for novel and more effective antibiotics. Read more…

Microtubules constantly grow and shrink, but during cellular transport they need to be kept stable. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory have discovered for the first time that a protein stabilises microtubules by binding to their weakest part, the so-called lattice seam. The study, which appears in this week's issue of the journal Cell, also suggests that the protein creates a special surface along the seam that offers an alternative track for transportation. Read more…

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disorder marked by early skin lesions and the progressive tissue fibrosis. More than skin deep, this thickening and hardening of connective tissue affects the blood capillaries, the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs, and the heart. In SSc patients, fibrosis frequently leads to organ dysfunction, serious illness, and death. Researchers have yet to determine the underlying cause of this disfiguring, debilitating condition or find an effective anti-fibrotic remedy. Read more…

A tiny implant now being developed at MIT could one day help doctors rapidly monitor the growth of tumors and the progress of chemotherapy in cancer patients. The implant contains nanoparticles that can be designed to test for different substances, including metabolites such as glucose and oxygen that are associated with tumor growth. Read more…

More than half of the dust needed for fertilizing the Brazilian rainforest is supplied by a valley in northern Chad, according to an international research team headed by Dr. Ilan Koren of the Institute's Environmental Sciences and Energy Research Department. In a study published recently in Environmental Research Letters, the scientists have explained how the Bod?l? valley's unique features might be responsible for making it such a major dust provider. Read more…

Recent studies show promise for significantly reducing vascular aging by inactivating TNF?, which has been linked to blood vessel dysfunction and cell death. The related report by Csiszar et al., "Vasculoprotective effects of anti-TNF? treatment in aging," appears in the January issue of The American Journal of Pathology. Read more…

Scientists have discovered what appears to be a new kind of cosmic explosion -- a "hybrid gamma-ray burst" -- which will be the subject of four articles to be published in the journal Nature on 21 December 2006. The scientists include four astrophysicists at Penn State University as well as others around the globe. The nature of the explosion is a puzzle in "virtually uncharted territory" for space scientists. Read more…

New research reveals that while cholesterol-lowering drugs do increase the risk of painful inflammation of the pancreas, the side effect is relatively rare, according to Sonal Singh, M.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and colleagues. Read more…

A hormone implicated in the onset of human puberty also appears to control reproductive activity in seasonally breeding rodents, report Indiana University Bloomington and University of California at Berkeley scientists in the March 2007 issue of Endocrinology. The researchers present evidence that kisspeptin, a recently discovered neuropeptide encoded by the KiSS-1 gene, mediates the decline of male Siberian hamsters' libido and reproduction as winter approaches and daylight hours wane. Read more…