Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and biotech company Micap have recently produced a new treatment that has the potential to kill the bacterial "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). If successful, this treatment could save the lives of over 5,000 patients a year and prevent serious infection in thousands more all over the world.

The largest manufacturers of cigarettes in America are focusing their marketing on undereducated and low-income women of the unskilled working class, according to a study released last month. Citing numerous internal documents, a Tufts University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) research group concluded that tobacco companies view this segment of the population as a rare opportunity for growth. In research published last month in the journal Tobacco Control, the Massachusetts researchers express hope that this insight into the plans of the tobacco industry will be helpful in guiding future anti-tobacco legislation and awareness efforts.

Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have found a link between social stress and the risk of uterine cancer. The study, which also reports the effects of moderate alcohol intake on cancer risks in postmenopausal women, was reported in the June issue of Menopause.

Just one week after Cassini-Huygens became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, mission scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have released stunning images of the ringed planet and announced some exciting results.

A Mexican bird thought to be extinct for the past 10 years was sighted last month by a team of biologists, according to a report by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and US-based Conservation International (CI).

Adelphi Technology has reported a new neutron microscope prototype in Applied Physics Letters. With a 0.5 millimeter resolution--about half the thickness of a dime--and a 10x magnification capability, the microscope still needs tinkering, but eventually, Adelphi may achieve better image resolution with the neutrons’ single nanometer (nm) wavelength than with visible light, which has wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today an $11 million project funded by Japan that will restore Iraq's endangered Mesopotamian Marshlands for the benefit of people and wildlife. The UNEP has been anxious to find funding for the project since 2001, when it first reported damming and drainage operations were causing serious damage.

A new connection between the fat-blocking hormone leptin and a potent metabolism-boosting peptide, aMSH, may lead to a novel target for obesity drugs, according to research published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.