'Virus-eater' discovered in Antarctic lake

First of the parasitic parasites to be discovered in a natural environment points to hidden diversity.

A genomic survey of the microbial life in an Antarctic lake has revealed a new virophage — a virus that attacks viruses. The discovery suggests that these life forms are more common, and have a larger role in the environment, than was once thought.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110328/full/news.2011.188.html

Antarctic microbes live life to the extreme..

Another strange discovery is a previously unknown Deinococcus — a group of bacteria known as the world's toughest — capable of tolerating γ-ray exposures 5,000 times greater than those survived by any other known organism, despite living 15 metres beneath the permafrost. These levels of radiation have never existed on Earth, so the source of the bacterium's resistance is a mystery.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110404/full/news.2011.207.html

New lead on deadly pancreatic cancer

Robert Vonderheide, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and his team activated immune cells that chewed holes in the protective shell, or stroma, that the pancreatic cancer builds around itself, and attacked the tumour cells.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110324/full/news.2011.186.html

Frightened birds grow longer wings...

Female birds that are exposed to predators while they are ovulating produce smaller offspring than unexposed females, researchers have found. The chicks may be smaller, but surprisingly, their wings grow faster and longer than those of chicks from unexposed mothers — an adaptation that might make them better at avoiding predators in flight.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110325/full/news.2011.187.html

Fukushima incident is out of control

The damaged No. 4 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Okumamachi, northeastern Japan, on Tuesday March 15, 2011. White smoke billows from the No. 3 unit.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110316/full/news.2011.164.html

Gene therapy offers hope for Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is characterized by tremors, slowness and cognitive problems, and is caused by the death of neurons in brain circuits that makes dopamine. The effects cascade through interconnected brain regions involved in movement, with some areas becoming overactive.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110317/full/news.2011.167.html

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