Researchers have found the first ever genetic risk factor associated with common types of migraine. The team found that patients with the DNA variant have a significantly greater risk for developing migraine and suggest that an accumulation of a chemical known as glutamate in nerve cell junctions in the brain may play a key role in the initiation of migraine attacks. The research opens the door for new studies into migraine in humans.

An international team of scientists from Italy, France, New Zealand, Belgium and the US have published a draft sequence of the domestic apple genome in the current issue of Nature Genetics. The sequence will allow scientists to more rapidly identify which genes provide desirable characteristics to the fruit and which genes and gene variants provide disease or drought resistance to the plant. This information can be used to rapidly improve the plants through more informed selective breeding.

Scientists have identified a genetic basis for determining the severity of allergic asthma in experimental models of the disease. The study may help in the search for future therapeutic strategies to fight a growing medical problem that currently lacks effective treatments, researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report in the Aug. 29 Nature Immunology.

Five years ago, New Orleans was hit by one of the worst natural disasters in US history. Three years later, it survived another with barely a scratch. What made the outcome so different? LSU's Climate Center, part of the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, which partners LSU with the University of Oklahoma, released "Beyond Katrina: Lessons Learned," to evaluate the progress made since Katrina.

Chemists at Indiana University Bloomington have designed a molecule that binds chloride ions -- but can be conveniently compelled to release the ions in the presence of ultraviolet light. Reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society today, IU Bloomington chemist Amar Flood and Ph.D. student Yuran Hua explain how they designed the molecule, how it works and, just as importantly, how they know it works.

Against a backdrop of some of the world's most sophisticated biological research labs, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) this morning issued a challenge to his colleagues in Congress: immediately upon their return from summer recess, he urged, they should pass legislation that would reverse a recent Federal court decision that has brought embryonic stem cell research in the US to a screeching halt. He was seconded in his plea by Dr. Bruce Stillman, CSHL president.

Technology developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory that extends the life of light-emitting diode lamps has been licensed to LED North America.

Fertilizer chemicals may pose a bigger hazard to the environment -- specifically to creatures that live in water -- than originally foreseen, according to new research from North Carolina State University toxicologists. In a study published in the Aug. 27 edition of PLoS One, the NC State researchers show that water fleas take up nitrates and nitrites -- common chemicals used primarily in agriculture as fertilizers -- and convert those chemicals into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide can be toxic to many organisms.

A hunt throughout the human genome for variants associated with common, late-onset Parkinson's disease has revealed a new genetic link that implicates the immune system and offers new targets for drug development.

Researchers have tracked a cell-to-cell pathway that designates the future location of the ear's sensory organs in embryonic mice. The scientists succeeded in activating this signal more widely across the embronic tissue that forms the inner ear. Patches of sensory structures began growing in spots where they don't normally appear. The results suggest an avenue for further investigation in restoring hearing loss and correcting balance problems from nerve damage in the inner ear.

A University of Colorado researcher recently discovered an eye cancer treatment that may prevent blindness.

Researchers at New York University have developed an innovative way to look at the development of osteoarthritis in the knee joint -- one that relies on the examination of sodium ions in cartilage.

Controlling juniper trees by cutting them down and burning them where they fall keeps invasive cheatgrass at bay and allows native perennials to become re-established, according to findings by US Department of Agriculture scientists.

While some teenagers may puff on cigarettes to "self-medicate" against the blues, scientists at the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal have found that smoking may actually increase depressive symptoms in some adolescents. Published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, the findings are part of the long-term Nicotine Dependence in Teens study based at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre.

A study of a subset of women in the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study, suggests that as BMI increases, so do platelet reactivity and thrombogenic microvesicles and activated protein C in the blood -- all of which contribute to the formation of atherothrombosis and associated cardiovascular events.

One of the most spectacular migrations on Earth is that of the Christmas Island red crab. Acknowledged as one of the wonders of the natural world, every year millions of the crabs simultaneously embark on a five-kilometer breeding migration. Now, scientists have discovered the key to their remarkable athletic feat.

Orcus Patera is an enigmatic elliptical depression near Mars's equator, in the eastern hemisphere of the planet. Located between the volcanoes of Elysium Mons and Olympus Mons, its formation remains a mystery.

In a country where good news is scarce, a pioneering agroforestry project in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is restoring heavily degraded landscapes and providing much-needed food for communities living on the sloping lands.

Millions of dollars worth of income could be unlocked for poor farmers in developing countries by changing existing policies that reduce investment in agroforestry. An Agroforestry Policy Initiative, involving a wide range of partners, would make agroforestry a key contributor to ensuring food security, reducing poverty and combating climate change.

The number of children admitted to English hospitals with bacterial pneumonia decreased by a fifth in the two years following the introduction of a vaccine to combat the disease, according to a new study published today in the journal Thorax.