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AUGUSTA, Ga. – It's rubbed on the skin to reduce signs of aging and consumed by athletes to improve endurance but scientists now have the first evidence of one of vitamin E's normal body functions. The powerful antioxidant found in most foods helps repair tears in the plasma membranes that protect cells from outside forces and screen what enters and exits, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Everyday activities such as eating and exercise can tear the plasma membrane and the new research shows that vitamin E is essential to repair. Without repair of muscle...

Scientists have isolated a gene in mice that works to give them "super memories" and reverses the course of several degenerative mental illnesses like Alzheimer's. And because of the similarity of mice and human brains, a powerful brain pill for humans may now not be far off. The brains of both mice and humans release a gene known as PKR, which is triggered by the onset of Alzheimer's. But the newly discovered gene can apparently block PKR's release--a development that not only can reverse the course of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, but induces a state of "super memory"...

Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge.It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument. But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson. The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire. For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified samples...

Washington, D.C. -- The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations discovered that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth's lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics and the behavior of the protective magnetic field, which shields our planet from harmful cosmic rays....

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- In a major step that could revolutionize biomedical research, scientists have discovered a way to keep normal cells as well as tumor cells taken from an individual cancer patient alive in the laboratory — which previously had not been possible. Normal cells usually die in the lab after dividing only a few times, and many common cancers will not grow, unaltered, outside of the body. This new technique, described today online in the American Journal of Pathology, could be the critical advance that ushers in a new era of personalized cancer medicine, and has potential application in regenerative...

They come out in the spring, and each year they spread further – the ticks. Thirty percent of them transmit borrelia pathogens, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis that can damage joints and organs. The disease often goes undetected. In the future, a new type of gel is intended to prevent an infection – if applied after a tick bite.For years, Mrs. S. suffered from joint pain and headaches. After an odyssey through doctors’ waiting rooms, one doctor diagnosed Lyme borreliosis – an infectious disease transmitted by ticks. With its bite, the parasite introduced bacteria that then spread throughout the...

With the share of married adults at an all-time low in the United States, new research by demographers at Cornell University and the University of Central Oklahoma unveils clues why couples don't get married – they fear divorce. Among cohabitating couples, more than two-thirds of the study's respondents admitted to concerns about dealing with the social, legal, emotional and economic consequences of a possible divorce.

Natalya Murakhver, a New York food writer and mother of an 18-month year old daughter, loved her premium brand orange juice -- the "100 percent pure" and "not from concentrate" kind that comes in the colorful carton and tastes consistently delicious. That is, until she said she learned from her first-time moms group that there's a "secret ingredient" in all premium orange juices that companies are not required to put on their labeling. Now, after writing Whole Foods, she refuses to buy her favorite, "365" juice, amid uncertainty about its contents. "One of the moms said she had read about...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Cell phone bans, such as those recently recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board, have so far proven useless when it comes to actually reducing car crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Insurance Institute is a private group financed by auto insurers. The National Transportation Safety Board recently recommended that states adopt strict rules banning all non-driving-related use of hand-held devices such as cell phones -- even hands-free -- while driving. Many states already have bans on hand-held cell phone use and on texting while driving. The Insurance Institute has studied crash...

Adding inhaled dry powder mannitol to standard therapy for cystic fibrosis produced sustained improvement in lung function for up to 52 weeks, according to a new study. Along with the treatment's efficacy and good safety profile, the convenience and ease of administration of mannitol treatment may improve adherence with therapy in these patients. In the double-blind study, which was supported by Pharmaxis Limited, 318 patients were randomized to treatment with 400 mg bid inhaled mannitol or 50 mg bid inhaled mannitol (control group) for 26 weeks, followed by an additional 26 weeks of open-label active treatment. A 50 mg dose...

Statins, traditionally known as cholesterol-lowering drugs, may reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza, according to a new study released online by the Journal of Infectious Diseases. It is the first published observational study to evaluate the relationship between statin use and mortality in hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection, according to Vanderbilt's William Schaffner, M.D., professor and chair of Preventive Medicine. "We may be able to combine statins with antiviral drugs to provide better treatment for patients seriously ill with influenza," said Schaffner, who co-authored the study led by Meredith Vandermeer, MPH, of the Oregon Public Health Division.

[b]David Cameron has said the UK is a Christian country "and we should not be afraid to say so".[/b] In a speech in Oxford on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, the prime minister called for a revival of traditional Christian values to counter Britain's "moral collapse". He said "live and let live" had too often become "do what you please". The PM said it was wrong to suggest that standing up for Christianity was "somehow doing down other faiths". Describing himself as a "committed" but only "vaguely practising" Christian, the PM admitted he was "full of doubts"...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe's financial crisis poses a threat to U.S. banks and the economy but it is up to the continent's leaders -- not the Federal Reserve -- to find a resolution, a top official at the central bank said on Friday. New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley defended the Fed's decision to lower the cost of dollar funds for overseas banks stressed by Europe's debt crisis as an important step to safeguard the U.S. economy, but he told lawmakers no further intervention was planned. "I don't anticipate, even if the crisis in Europe were to worsen,...

Louisiana's state health department has issued a warning about the dangers of improperly using nasal-irrigation devices called neti pots, responding to two recent deaths in the state that are thought to have resulted from "brain-eating amoebas" entering people's brains through their sinuses while they were using the devices. Both victims are believed to have filled their neti pots with tap water instead of manufacturer-recommended distilled or sterilized water. When they used these pots to force the water up their noses and flush out their sinus cavities — a treatment for colds and hay fever — a deadly amoeba living in...

The journal article this release is based on is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/25386 CORVALLIS, Ore. – A team of scientists from Oregon has collected microbes from ice within a lava tube in the Cascade Mountains and found that they thrive in cold, Mars-like conditions. The microbes tolerate temperatures near freezing and low levels of oxygen, and they can grow in the absence of organic food. Under these conditions their metabolism is driven by the oxidation of iron from olivine, a common volcanic mineral found in the rocks of the lava tube. These factors make the microbes capable of living in the...

The stereotype of elderly drivers preferring Lincolns and Buicks has to come from somewhere. TrueCar.com took a look at the past two years of car sales to buyers at least 65 years old and found a couple common threads. The first thing these buyers are looking for is familiarity. The nameplates and vehicle types that were popular when these buyers were younger rank high with senior buyers, kind of the same way people's musical preferences get frozen in time.

The following story recalls the experiences of Reuters photographer Shamil Zhumatov when the leaders of the newly independent post-Soviet republics gathered in his home city of Alma-Ata in 1991. Zhumatov has been a Reuters photographer in ex-Soviet Central Asia for the last 17 years and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He lived the first 20 years of his life in the Soviet Union and the second 20 years as a citizen of Kazakhstan. > The Soviet Union gave me much for which to be thankful: an education which could not be bettered today, and the well-built apartment...

Researchers at Queen’s University have identified a new mechanism that could potentially explain why the body’s immune system sometimes fails to eliminate cancer. The new findings shed light on the possible cause of immune resistance in cancer cells, and indicate that nitroglycerin, a relatively safe and low-cost drug used for more than a century to treat angina, may be effective for managing certain cancers. “This discovery may lead to new approaches for the treatment of patients with certain forms of cancer,” said Charles Graham, a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences who lead the Queen’s research team...

The research team at Lyon has developed an animal model carrying a mutation of the DCC gene. Mice carrying the mutation develop tumours, because this gene can no longer induce the death of the cancer cells. This discovery could lead to the development of a new targeted cancer treatment that aims to reactivate the dying of cancer cells. The results of this study have been published as a Letter in the 11th December 2011 issue of the journal Nature. The team led by Patrick Mehlen, Director of the DEVweCAN 'Laboratory of Excellence' at the Lyon Cancer Research Centre (CNRS/Inserm/Centre Léon...

Salk scientists develop new drug that improves memory and prevents brain damage in miceA new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer's disease, based on the findings of a study published today in PLoS one. When given to mice with Alzheimer's, the drug, known as J147, improved memory and prevented brain damage caused by the disease. The new compound, developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, could be tested for treatment of the disease in humans in the near future. "J147 enhances memory in both normal and Alzheimer's mice...