On-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more can now be performed on smartphones. [ + ]

Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) has announced plans to cut 30% of its workforce and consolidate its manufacturing facilities, and seek partners for much of its Bronchitol commercialisation efforts. [ + ]

Over a century ago, the HMS Challenger set out on the world’s first global scientific survey of life beneath the ocean surface. Now, researchers at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) have used this data to attribute the ocean’s rising temperature to human-produced global warming. [ + ]

People with high IQ scores aren’t just more intelligent - they also process sensory information differently. [ + ]

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health report they have discovered in mouse studies that a small molecule released in the spinal cord triggers a process that is later experienced in the brain as the sensation of itch. [ + ]

Twelve-month, follow-up data from the first eight patients enrolled in a trial of REVA Medical’s (ASX:RVA) bioresorbable coronary stent supports the safety of the product. [ + ]

NASA is looking for ideas that it can use to transform future aerospace missions, enable new capabilities or significantly alter current approaches to launching, building and operating aerospace systems - and it is offering $500,000 over two years to further analyse and develop the innovative concepts. [ + ]

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) has announced a collaborative trial of HA-Irinotecan with Merck Serono’s Erbitux and blamed seasonal factors for falling quarterly fondaparinux sales. [ + ]

Associate Professor Andrew Lonie outlines the importance of bioinformatics to today’s research labs and showcases one researcher who talks about how it has changed the way she works. [ + ]

Academic researchers have found that breathing motor vehicle emissions triggers a change in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, altering its cardiovascular protective qualities so that it actually contributes to clogged arteries. [ + ]

The brain acts as a timekeeper for each cell’s 24-hour body clock, keeping this clock in sync with the world so that it can govern our appetites, sleep, moods and more. But new research shows that the clock may be broken in the brain cells of people with depression, meaning they operate out of sync with the usual ingrained daily cycle. [ + ]

The 2013 Federal Budget has come down with cuts and pardons spread across the board for science, research, industry and education. [ + ]

Geneticist Dan Koboldt from the Genome Institute at Washington University in St Louis gives his decalogue on next-generation sequencing. [ + ]

Phosphagenics (ASX:POH) and a US Department of Agriculture research agency will jointly formulate and test products aimed at fighting the bacterial infection mastitis in dairy cows. [ + ]

AusBiotech is pleased to announce that the 11th Annual World Congress of the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) will be held in Australia for the first time in March 2014. [ + ]