Fundamental biocomputing devices are on the horizon now that synthetic gene networks can give bacteria the ability to count.

Meta-analysis of surveys questioning scientists about their misbehaviours indicate that fraudulent research is more common than expected, especially in the medical and pharmaceutical fields.

It was only 10 years ago that the first high content screening instrument rolled off the production line, and less than three since they started to appear in basic research laboratories. [ + ]

An Australian team has been able to re-grow skeletal muscle in a mouse model using a combination of chemo-ablation and chemo-resistant stem cells. [ + ]

Australian researchers have developed a highly specific PCR-based technique to distinguish between species of intestinal and liver flukes, which should help in epidemiological surveys of these widespread and often dangerous parasites. [ + ]

Soon after scientists first isolated influenza A type viruses from pigs in 1931 and humans in 1933, they watched it break evolutionary barriers with alarming ease — infecting not only humans, but also aquatic birds, poultry, pigs, horses, dogs and other species. Now, with an intensifying outbreak driven by the emergence of a new strain of influenza A(H1N1), scientists once again have a unique opportunity to study viral evolution in action.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.

Current patent data processing technologies are not up to present and future challenges with large bottlenecks holding up thousands of patent applications all over the world. In Europe, the PATExpert project is offering some solutions.

Sydney scientists are treating the arthritic joints of aged canines with adult stem cells [ + ]

Two Sydney diagnostics company to form Novus Diagnostics [ + ]

Nocturnal mammals have an inverted nuclear structure in retinal cells [ + ]

US researchers use microRNAs instead of cMyc to induce pluripotent stem cells [ + ]

A new technique devised by CSIRO may one day allow researchers to better understand membrane proteins in the lab. [ + ]

Last year, Australian biotech Genetic Technologies announced it would enforce its rights to testing for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 cancer mutations, and all hell broke loose. [ + ]

Saving biotech, growing muscle, finding flukes and Merv Jacobson speaks, all in the March/April 2009 issue of Australian Life Scientist, out now [ + ]