An ocean model can account for the trajectory and fragmentation of the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Authors: Igor Mezić, S. Loire, Vladimir A. Fonoberov, P. Hogan

A gene cluster encodes a four-enzyme pathway that uses an unusual mechanism to synthesize small-molecule sunscreens.

Authors: Emily P. Balskus, Christopher T. Walsh

Cation channel genes encode for a transducer molecule that converts mechanical stimuli into cell signaling.

Authors: Bertrand Coste, Jayanti Mathur, Manuela Schmidt, Taryn J. Earley, Sanjeev Ranade, Matt J. Petrus, Adrienne E. Dubin, Ardem Patapoutian

Images of the remnants of a stellar explosion reveal details of fast astrophysical shock waves.

Authors: Kevin France, Richard McCray, Kevin Heng, Robert P. Kirshner, Peter Challis, Patrice Bouchet, Arlin Crotts, Eli Dwek, Claes Fransson, Peter M. Garnavich, Josefin Larsson, Stephen S. Lawrence, Peter Lundqvist, Nino Panagia, Chun S. J. Pun, Nathan Smith, Jesper Sollerman, George Sonneborn, John T. Stocke, Lifan Wang, J. Craig Wheeler

Cigarette smoke promotes lung inflammation by hindering an enzyme that degrades an immune cell chemoattractant.

Authors: Robert J. Snelgrove, Patricia L. Jackson, Matthew T. Hardison, Brett D. Noerager, Andrew Kinloch, Amit Gaggar, Suresh Shastry, Steven M. Rowe, Yun M. Shim, Tracy Hussell, J. Edwin Blalock

The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis disclosed its $18.5 billion bid for the American biotechnology firm Genzyme.

Martha Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general, said Stryker “promoted uses of its products that were not shown to be safe or effective.”

A genetically engineered version of the canola plant is flourishing in the form of roadside weeds, a new study says.

A deal would bolster Sanofi’s drug pipeline and significantly increase its presence in biopharmaceuticals.

Dozens of bioengineering laboratories are trying to create superalgae that can be used to make diesel or jet fuel.

Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has launched a clinical trial* to test an experimental drug in patients with advanced (Stage IV) pancreatic cancer - one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Around 60 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer will be recruited for the first Phase I/IIclinical trial of a drug called MK-0752** in this disease...

Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan, President & CEO: Haruo Naito, "Eisai") announced today the start of the first patient enrolled clinical study with BAN2401, a novel monoclonal antibody that is being developed as a potential next-generation therapeutic treatment for Alzheimer's disease...

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Refuse to File letter for accelerated approval for the company's trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1) Biologics License Application (BLA). As planned Roche will continue with its ongoing Phase III EMILIA registration study...

ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative treatments for eye disease, vascular disease and cancer announces that its second Phase III trial evaluating microplasmin for the non-surgical treatment of vitreomacular adhesion (VMA) has met its primary endpoint...

ReVision Therapeutics Inc. announced that data from a Phase 2b trial show that fenretinide (RT-101) reduced the incidence of choroidal neovascularization (CNV, wet age related macular degeneration) by about 50 percent in patients with geographic atrophy (GA), the most advanced form of dry age related macular degeneration (AMD). The data, presented Monday by Alexander M. Eaton, M.D...

There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, the physicist and mathematician Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

A rare Chinese tree has flowered for the first time in 23 years at Kew's country estate in West Sussex.

Dr Andy Harland of Loughborough University analyses what new free-kick trajectory findings mean for footballers.

An island off Peru is making money from selling bird poo to use as organic fertiliser.

Fishermen from Suffolk and Essex have welcomed a new quota agreement which allows smaller boats to start catching sole again.

The US National Nanotechnology Initiative has spent billions of dollars on submicroscopic science in its first 10 years. Corie Lok finds out where the money went and what the initiative plans to do next.

Automated synthesizers can make complex carbohydrates on demand.

Isolation of BRCA2 could help understanding of cancer risk and aid drug screening.

Decoy protein helps to fight cancer in mice by stopping muscle breakdown.

An ancient Chinese medicine might ease side effects of cancer treatments.