A new study reveals that when it comes to pain control, the "placebo effect" involves evolutionarily old pain control pathways in the human brainstem, the part of the brain that is continuous with the spinal cord. The research provides fascinating mechanistic insight into how and why simply expecting that a treatment will reduce pain can act as an effective analgesic.

Even DNA is subject to attack by parasites -- so-called transposons. Transposons are mobile genetic elements that can insert into genomes at variable sites and disseminate to new locations. Researchers have discovered a mechanism that helps to repress their activity.

It can strike anyone: rheumatism occurs just as often as diabetes, arteriosclerosis and cancer combined. Approximately one percent of the population is stricken with the rheumatoid arthritis. Now scientists in Germany have developed such an early detection method.

IBM scientists have been able to image the "anatomy" -- or chemical structure -- inside a molecule with unprecedented resolution, using a complex technique known as noncontact atomic force microscopy.

Patients infected with a particular subtype of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are more likely to develop dementia than patients with other subtypes, a new study shows.

Addressing safety concerns related to potential gene therapies for Parkinson's disease, researchers at the have constructed a gene transfer therapy that can be inhibited with a common antibiotic. Experiments in rats show that the gene therapy product can be completely shut off, indicating for the first time that genes that have been irrevocably delivered to the brain to treat Parkinson's can be regulated.

The circadian system is not the only pathway involved in determining alertness at night. New research shows that red light, which does not stimulate the circadian system, is just as effective at increasing night-time alertness as blue light, which does.

Agricultural researchers have successfully manipulated a crop plant to emit a signal that attracts beneficial organisms. Genetic transformation of maize plants resulted in the release of the naturally active substance (E)-beta-caryophyllene from their roots. The substance attracts nematodes that kill larvae of the Western corn rootworm, a voracious root pest.

Researchers have demonstrated that the protein Brk plays a role in breast cancer progression and dissemination.

A handwriting lie detection tool may change the face of effective law enforcement. Researchers utilized a computerized tablet that measured the physical properties of the subject's handwriting, which are difficult to consciously control. They have found that these handwriting characteristics differ when an individual is in the process of writing deceptive sentences as opposed to truthful sentences.