The "Rhesus" blood group is well-known from the public for its importance in the field of transfusion medicine. New observations have implications in human medicine. They suggest that in man, mutations affecting the RHCG gene could cause some forms of renal pathologies and/or a loss of male fertility.

It's a leading cause of death, but no one knows for sure how and why it happens. It's a major source of health care costs, adding days or weeks to the hospital stays of millions of people. But no one fully understands how best to fight it. Now, new research is tackling the problem at its most basic level, in hopes of finding new and more effective ways to treat bacteremia and sepsis.

Using a novel technique developed at the Marine Biological Laboratory to identify different types of bacteria, scientists have completed the most precise survey to date of how microbial communities in the human gut respond to antibiotic treatment.

An ingenious social behavior that mobilizes yeast cells to cooperate in protecting each other from stress, antibiotics and other dangers is driven by the activity of a single gene, scientists report in the journal Cell. The cooperating cells use the same gene, dubbed FLO1, as a marker for detecting "cheaters:" cells that try to profit from the group's protection without investing in the group's welfare.

Biomedical researchers used a series of genetic clues to uncover how certain antibiotics kill bacteria. They focused on finding the precise trigger that caused over-production of hydroxyl radical molecules and how misfolded proteins get delivered to the cell membrane, which with other steps contributes to cell death.

Identifying the sun-protection practices and risk profiles of beachgoers may help determine those who would benefit from targeted interventions intended to reduce the risk of skin cancer, according to a study in the November issue of Archives of Dermatology.

Heston Blumenthal demonstrates how to cook up a meal using sherry in all three courses.

Heston Blumenthal demonstrates how to cook up a meal using sherry in all three courses.

Heston Blumenthal demonstrates how to cook up a meal using sherry in all three courses.

Researchers have wondered if the brains of the elderly with still laser sharp memory were different than everyone else's. So, they took a novel approach and investigated what goes right in an aging brain that stays nimble. Scientists examined the brains of deceased people called "super aged" because they had high performance on memory tests when they were over 80. They found their brains had many fewer fiber-like tangles than the brains of elderly, non-demented individuals.

An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean may force scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems. Researchers characterized the new microbe by analyzing its genetic material and said it appears to be an atypical member of the cyanobacteria that fixes nitrogen but lacks the genes for photosynthesis.

A modified method of producing biobutanol could make the fuel more competitive with ethanol as a clean-burning alternative to gasoline.

Scientists may have overcome a major hurdle to calculating how much carbon dioxide is absorbed and released by plants, vital information for determining the amount of carbon that can be safely emitted by human activities. The problem is that ecosystems simultaneously take up and release CO2. The key finding is that the compound carbonyl sulfide, which plants consume in tandem with CO2, can be used to quantify gas flow into the plants during photosynthesis.

The scents of Christmas are wafting through the kitchen