Just as cells inherit genes, they also inherit a set of instructions that tell genes when to become active, in which tissues and to what extent. Now, researchers have built a device that, by allowing scientists to turn genes on and off in actively multiplying budding yeast cells, will help them figure out more precisely than before how genes and proteins interact with one another and how these interactions drive cellular functions.

  Low-fat diets are more effective in preserving and promoting a healthy cardiovascular system than low-carbohydrate, Atkins'-like diets, according to a new study.

  Scientists have discovered how roots find their way past obstacles to grow through soil. The discovery, described in Science, also explains how germinating seedlings penetrate the soil without pushing themselves out as they burrow.

  Doubt has been cast over the current practice of administering intensive insulin therapy to all critically ill patients, according to a new study. In certain groups of patients it could even be harmful.

  Cars are becoming more complex, with a range of advanced features we could hardly have imagined a few years ago made possible by sophisticated software-driven electronics. The downside is, with more to go wrong, more is going wrong, but European researchers have developed an antidote: a new computer language. The average new car coming off the production line today has the same amount of electronic systems as a commercial airliner did two decades ago. Hard to accept perhaps, but true if auto-makers are to be believed.

  The majority of patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy experience a number of symptoms of eating disorders, with an irresistible craving for food and binge eating as the most prominent features.

  Sharks and other marine animals find food using a similar search pattern to the way people may shop, according to one of the largest analysis of foraging behavior attempted so far -- and the first such analysis of marine predators. The animals' behavior seems to have evolved as a general 'rule' to search for sparsely distributed prey in the vast expanse of the ocean. This rule involves a special pattern of random movement known as a Levy Walk, where the predators use a series of small motions interspersed with large jumps to new foraging locations. This increases the chance of finding food, however widely scattered it might be.

  Smoking plays a role in lung cancer development and now scientists have shown that smoking also affects the way genes are expressed, leading to alterations in cell division and regulation of immune response. Notably, some of the changes in gene expression persisted in people who had quit smoking many years earlier.

  For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that microscopic "two-faced" spheres whose halves are physically or chemically different -- so-called Janus particles -- will move like stealthy submarines when an alternating electrical field is applied to liquid surrounding the particles.

  Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a gene in Asian monkeys that may have evolved as a defense against lentiviruses, the group of viruses that includes HIV. The study suggests that AIDS is not a new epidemic.

  A powerful air sterilization technology has killed every biological agent with which it has been challenged, including airborne spores, viruses and bacteria in independent tests conducted for the U.S. Department of Defense.

  Loud snoring with breathing pauses is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and increased health-care utilization. Loud snorers had 40 percent greater odds of having hypertension, 34 percent greater odds of having a heart attack and 67 percent greater odds of having a stroke, compared with people who do not snore, after statistical adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, diabetes, level of education, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Quiet snoring was associated only with an increased risk for hypertension in women. Loud snoring was also associated with increased use of health care resources (emergency visits and hospitalization).

  Reassortment of the influenza A virus occurs frequently throughout its evolutionary history, according to a new study in PLoS Pathogens. The researchers found that the severe influenza epidemics of 1947 and 1951 were caused by genetic reassortment events in which two human influenza viruses of the same H1N1 strain exchanged genetic material, producing a new hybrid virus in both cases.

  Vitamin supplements do not protect against lung cancer, according to a study of more than 77,000 vitamin users. In fact, some supplements may even increase the risk of developing it. These findings have broad public health implications, given the large population of current and former smokers and the widespread use of vitamin supplements.