The blood of the Vikings is still coursing through the veins of men living in the Northwest of England -- according to a new study which has been just published. The population in parts of northwest England carries up to 50 per cent male Norse origins.

  Prion infection of neurons increases the free cholesterol content in cell membranes. A new study suggests that disturbances in membrane cholesterol may be the mechanism by which prions cause neurodegeneration and could point to a role for cholesterol in other neurodegenerative diseases.

  Among the gliding animals, the colugo or "flying" lemur of Southeast Asia is the champ. It's able to glide the length of two football fields with its doormat-sized skin flaps. Researchers are strapping small backpacks to these animals to find out how they do it without injuring themselves. The devices in the backpacks, which measure acceleration, have motion-detecting technology similar to that in Wii remote controllers, which allow electronic game players to simulate the swing of a golf club or baseball bat.

  A new study documents malformations seen in an infant born to a kidney transplant recipient who had taken mycophenolate mofetil, a widely used immunosuppressant available commercially as Cellcept. The use of immunosuppressant drugs is a required, life-long treatment for solid organ transplant recipients.

  Move over, compact discs, DVDs, and hard drives. Researchers in Japan report progress toward developing a new protein-based memory device that could provide an alternative to conventional magnetic and optical storage systems, which are quickly approaching their memory storage capacities. Just as nature chose proteins as the memory storage medium of the brain, scientists have spent years exploring the possibility of similarly using proteins and other biological materials to build memory-based devices with the potential for processing information faster and providing greater storage capacity than existing materials.

  The number of acute coronary events such as heart attack in adults dropped significantly after a smoking ban in public places in Italy. Researchers in Rome compared acute coronary events in the city for five years preceding a public smoking ban with those occurring one year after the ban. They found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events in persons 35 to 64 years and a 7.9 percent reduction in those ages 65 to 74.

  'Junk DNA' could hold the secret of the evolutionary origin of complex animals, according to new research. Vertebrates - animals such as humans that possess a backbone - are the most anatomically and genetically complex of all organisms, but explaining how they achieved this complexity has vexed scientists since the conception of evolutionary theory. Now researchers have traced the beginnings of complex life, i.e. vertebrates, to microRNA.

  Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were treated with a gene therapy protocol began making antibodies that reacted against their own leukemia cells. Researchers inserted a gene with the potential to activate an immune response into six patients with CLL, the most common form of adult leukemia. Several of the patients started making antibodies that reacted against their own leukemia cells. When tested in the lab, the antibodies also reacted with the leukemia cells of other patients with the disease.

  New research shows that an interaction between fetal brain cells and maternal antibodies could be linked with the repetitive behavior -- also called stereotypes -- that is characteristic of autism. While additional studies are needed to confirm the outcome, this result leads investigators to suspect that brain-directed antibodies during the prenatal period could be a causal factor for the disorder.

  Researchers working to prevent Alzheimer's disease have looked for ideas in some unusual places, and found a gene in moss that is also structurally conserved in Alzheimer's disease. "We were amazed to realize that genes from moss and humans were not only structurally conserved but also shared similar functions," the professor of molecular biology and pharmacology said.

  Natural variability in the Earth's atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global warming in the North Atlantic Ocean. Scientists have previously found that surface temperatures around the globe have risen over the last 30 years in accord with global warming. New data, however, shows that heat stored in the North Atlantic Ocean has a more complex pattern than initially expected, suggesting that natural changes in the atmosphere also play a role.

  The disease familial combined hyperlipidemia is a common cause of disturbed metabolism of fat and early heart attacks. Swedish scientists have now developed a pioneering method and can show for the first time what genes are regulated by the gene USF1, which is known to cause the disease.

  In the science world, media and our daily lives, the debate continues over how carbon in the atmosphere is affecting global climate change. In a study of how organic carbon is processed in rivers, a research team including an engineer, ecologists and microbiologists has determined that carbon processing in rivers is a bigger component of global carbon cycling than previously thought. In rivers, carbon is both transformed and consumed. Microorganisms like algae take carbon out of the atmosphere and incorporate it into their own cells, while bacteria eat dead organic matter and then release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

  A new plan to further reduce, refine and replace the use of animals in research and regulatory testing commonly referred to as the 3Rs was unveiled February 5. A cornerstone of the federal government's five-year plan is the formation of partnerships with industry and other national and international stakeholders to achieve measurable progress.