According to a new study published in Cell Metabolism, mice who spent their free time on a running wheel were better able to shrink tumors (a 50 percent reduction in tumor size) compared to their less active counterparts. Researchers found that the surge of adrenaline ( epinephrine) that comes with a high-intensity workout helped to move cancer-killing immune (NK) cells toward lung, liver, or skin tumors implanted into the mice.

While the research is hopeful for patients looking for inexpensive ways to manage their cancer, more needs to be learned about the effects of exercise on metastasis and longevity, as well as if the observations hold true in humans. Scientists also wants to explore the combined impact of anti-cancer treatments and ex ...

Listeria bacteria has been enlisted by researchers to selectively infect metastatic pancreatic cancer cells and deliver radioisotopes into them. The experimental treatment dramatically decreased the number of metastases (cancers that have spread to other parts of the body) in a mouse model of highly aggressive pancreatic cancer without harming healthy tissue. Mice livers are shown above. The saline control liver on the left presents a large number of metastases compared to the liver on the right which was subject to the radioactive Listeria treatment. ...

Engineers are building special drones that will deliver food to your table – or home. Besides the iTray, which brings customers sushi at a Japanese restaurant in London (above), researchers have developed a 'tacocopter' and 'pizzacopter' that can traverse six kilometers in ten minutes. But don’t get your hopes up yet, there are plenty of technological barriers to overcome before drones deliver pizzas to our homes.

Overhunting is one reason for wildlife population decline, but do these animals even know what we’re doing to them? New research suggests that they do. Woolly monkeys in the Amazon were observed to react differently to people in their territory, depending on the behavior of the human.

In areas where hunting is heavy, humans gathering food or performing research do not elicit much of a response from the monkeys. Hunters, however, result in the monkeys becoming very quiet and motionless. In quieter areas where human contact is less frequent, the monkeys are more wary of the researchers and gatherers. This indicates that the monkeys are behaving based on experience.

The long term advantage of this behavior is uncertain. Woolly monkeys are highl ...

A federal judge has passed down a ruling on the largest accidental marine oil spill (the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) in history, calling major players British Petroleum (BP) "reckless", and Transocean and Halliburton "negligent". BP is ordered to pay 17.6 billion for the damages it caused in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Let's just hope they don't end up spending that money on their military instead.

When a person dies from cancer, the culprit isn't usually the original tumor - it's metastasis, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body. Now, researchers have managed to package a drug in nanoparticles (a microscopic particle with at least one dimension less than 100 nm) so that it can target these cancer cells without, crucially, interfering with normal cells - and report that they've stopped cancer cells from spreading in mice. Nanoparticle research is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields.

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/01/nanoparticle-drug-stops-cancer-s-spread-mice ...

A new robotic 'smart suit' has been developed by FastCompany to give anyone from soldiers and fire-fighters to hiking enthusiasts and the elderly a bit of superhuman strength. It's lightweight, flexible, and can be worn under clothes.

According to its makers, "the suit works by mimicking the action of the leg muscles and tendons when a person walks, with an actuator system giving small, carefully timed assistance at the ankle and hip joints without restricting the wearer’s movement. The breakthrough is in the 'structured functional textiles' that transmit those applied forces all over the body during natural movement. Wearable, flexible sensors integrate into the fabric to gauge the body’s movement and provide support at the right moment." ...

Barely half an hour after being jolted by a major earthquake on Tuesday, people of the Pakistani coastal town of Gwadar had another shock when they saw a new island emerge in the sea, just over a kilometre from the shore.


It has a rough surface, much of which is muddy and some parts are mostly made up of fine- to coarse-grained sand. ...