Advances in computerized modeling and prediction of group behavior, together with improvements in video game graphics, are making possible virtual worlds in which defense analysts can explore and predict results of possible military and policy actions, say computer science researchers.

Darwin suggested that the action of natural selection can produce new species, but 150 years after the publication of "On the Origin of Species" debate continues on the mechanisms of speciation. New research finds sexual selection to greatly enlarge the scope for adaptive speciation by triggering a positive feedback between mate choice and ecological diversification that can eventually eliminate gene flow between species.

Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate to trigger an innate immune response, scientists have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice.

Years of scientific debate over the extinction of ancient species in North America have yielded many theories. However, new findings reveal that a mass extinction occurred in a geological instant.

In the next 25 years, the number of Americans living with diabetes will double and spending on diabetes will triple, rising from $113 billion to $336 billion. This will add to the existing strains on an overburdened health care system, according to a new study.

Two recent studies investigating the use of human umbilical cord blood stem cell (UCB) transplants for lung and heart disorders in animal models found beneficial results. When human UCB-derived mensenchymal cells were transplanted into newborn laboratory rats with induced oxygen-deprived injury, the effects of the injury lessened. A second study found that UCB mononuclear cells transplanted into sheep with a right ventricular malfunction beneficially altered the malfunction and enhanced diastolic function.

A survey carried out in eight European countries has shown that closing schools in the event of an infectious disease pandemic could have a significant role in reducing illness transmission. Researchers compared opportunities for infection on school days and weekends/holidays, finding that they were reduced when schools are shut.

A new spam campaign using false e-mails made to look like messages from the Social Security Administration is capable of stealing Social Security numbers and downloading malware onto victims' home computers, says a computer forensics expert.

The copper sequestering drug tetrathiomolybdate (TM) has been shown in studies to be effective in the treatment of Wilson disease, a disease caused by an overload of copper, and certain metastatic cancers. That much is known. Very little, however, is known about how the drug works at the molecular level. A new study now has provided an invaluable clue: the three-dimensional structure of TM bound to copper-loaded metallochaperones.

Researchers have developed technology that turns flat medical scans into vibrant 3-D images that can be shifted, adjusted, zoomed and replayed at will.