In studying antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, researchers from Boston University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard have discovered that charitable behavior exists in one of the most microscopic forms of life.

In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the United Arab Emirates. Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from around the world. One even fights “Iraqibacter,” the bacterium responsible for drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.

Michael Conlon, Ph.D., who reported on the research, noted that the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which have the ability to shrug off conventional antibiotics, is a growing problem worldwide. As a result, patients need new types of antibiotics to replace drugs that no longer work.

Choroidal melanoma of the eye, or uveal cancer, is the most common and dangerous form of a disease that inflicts over 2,000 people each year. The cancer can occur in people of any age, and can quickly spread to the liver and lungs - often proving fatal.

A team of researchers from the UK and Finland has discovered why people who stay in education longer have a lower risk of developing dementia – a question that has puzzled scientists for the past decade.

At the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome today, Dr. Noriko Kagawa, of the Kato Ladies' Clinic in Tokyo, reported that transplanting the ovaries of young mice into aging female mice not only made the old mice fertile again - but also rejuvenated their behavior, and increased their lifespan by more than 40%!

MIT Media Lab researchers have created a quick, simple, and inexpensive way to use mobile phones to measure refractive errors of the eye, including nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and age-related vision loss. Until now, these measurements have only been possible using specialized equipment operated by a trained professional.

Researchers from George Washington University Medical Center have discovered a way to detect a specific autism spectrum disorder by using blood samples. Additionally the researchers discovered that drugs which affect the methylation state of genes may reverse some of autism's effects.

Dr. Young Ho Kim, of the Chungnam National University in Daejeon, Korea, and colleagues reported in the Journal of Natural Products that compounds isolated from the plant known as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, inhibit the formation of osteoclasts.

On March 29, 2010, US District Judge Robert Sweet of New York ruled the patents held by Myriad Genetics, covering how to detect inherited breast cancer, invalid - citing they "are directed to a law of nature and were therefore improperly granted." Judge Sweet sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented groups including the Association for Molecular Pathology, the American Soci

A March 24, 2010 press release from Johns Hopkins details a research team that screened hundreds of thousands of small chemical compounds, and identified a class of compounds that - at least in a test tube - blocks tuberculosis growth. The scientists screened 175,000 small chemical compounds and identified a potent class of compounds that selectively slows down this protein’s activity.