Astrobiologist Charles Lineweaver on the implications on cancer research of his recent paper suggesting cancer cells are like early multicellular life. [ + ]

Dr Uta Wille bridges the gap between chemistry and biology and is bringing her unique insight to bear on the role played by free radicals in damaging DNA. [ + ]

The eagle-eyed among us rally to red and the Mr Magoos are wooed by blue.

The Excellence in Research for Australia 2010 report shows that Australian researchers produce world class output in immunology, quantum physics and history, but fall behind in other areas. [ + ]

Professor Steve Wilton presented the results of a recently completed clinical trial on a promising new genetic therapy for patients with muscular dystrophy at the AH&MR Congress. [ + ]

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have revealed a cunning mechanism employed by viruses that interferes with the function of dendritic cells. [ + ]

Susan Clark’s team at the Garvan Institute is revealing the complex epigenetic mechanisms that allow various cancers to stifle cellular defences. [ + ]

Transmembrane proteins are key determinants of the pharmacokinetics of drugs and their characterisation is of increasing importance for the pharmaceutical industry.

Developments in technologies for building spectroscopes and spectrometers have advanced in leaps and bounds since the first commercial infrared spectroscope was developed in the 1940s and the first FT-IR spectrometer came on the market in 1969. Today, spectrometry is moving out of the lab and into the field and the process plant.

A Delft University of Technology researcher, Jean-Paul Meijnen, has ‘trained’ bacteria to convert all the main sugars in vegetable, fruit and garden waste efficiently into high-quality environmentally friendly products such as bioplastics.

Of course even the most disappointing research student understands that the key to successfully conducting placebo-based studies is keeping your subjects in the dark. [ + ]

Australian biotech stocks slipped into the red for the first week in seven today while the wider market managed to sneak into the black. [ + ]

Cancer specialists Novogen announced today that it has finalised the sale of its portfolio of isoflavone compounds to its 71 percent owned US subsidiary Marshal Edwards. [ + ]

The incompatibility between quantum theory and consciousness may be overcome if we jettison the heliocentric model of the universe and adopt a theory proposed by South Korean scientist Dr Daegene Song. Dr Song suggests that the universe may not be objectively 'real', in the sense that it may not exist if there is no-one to observe it.

In only five years, genome-wide association studies have made a tremendous impact on our understanding of disease and health. But despite great hopes, there are also great challenges ahead for the GWAS. [ + ]