Record-high gasoline prices, the slowdown in the economy, and increasing environmental sensitivity are leading more people to bike to work or for play. But an adequate infrastructure may not be in place to protect cyclists from serious injury according to surgeons who recently presented a new study on the issue.

In the quest for smaller, faster computer chips, researchers are increasingly turning to quantum mechanics -- the exotic physics of the small. The problem: the manufacturing techniques required to make quantum devices have been equally exotic. That is, until now.

The "vegetable lamb" plant -- once believed to bear fruit that ripened into a living baby sheep -- produces substances that show promise in laboratory experiments as new treatments for osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease.

Standing out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status.

A gene has been associated with human kidney aging, according to researchers. Their approach, which combines sequential transcriptional profiling and eQTL mapping, can be applied to any phenotype of interest to help find other genetic associations.

Learning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain, a new study has shown. ‘We tend to think of the brain as being static, or even beginning to degenerate, once we reach adulthood,’ says the researcher who led the work. ‘In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change. We’ve shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently.’

Phoning while driving and texting behind the wheel are in the news. This is the highway safety issue of the moment, the subject of cartoons and, on a more serious side, the focus of legislation. A key question is whether such laws succeed in changing patterns of driver cellphone use.

Peat has been used in container plant production since the 1960s. Highly porous and able to hold water, peat makes an ideal rooting and growing medium. But harvesting peat (and draining valuable peatlands in the process) releases carbon stored in peat into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Researchers have worked for years to find alternative organic materials that can be used as partial or complete substitutes for peat and are now testing composted dairy manure.

Physical therapists studying persons with multiple sclerosis found that excessive force often used for gripping can be eased by gently touching the hand or arm in use, raising the possibility of new therapy approaches.

Prosthetic hand devices used by wounded soldiers have limited motor control and no sensory feedback. But a bioengineered interface, made of muscle cells and a nano-sized polymer, could go a long way in creating prostheses that move like a normal hand. Animal studies show the interface may possibly restore a sense of touch.