european science

(European Science Foundation) Microorganisms in rivers and streams play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle that has not previously been considered.

Freshwater ecologist Dr. Tom Battin, of the University of Vienna, told a COST ESF Frontiers of Science conference in October that our understanding of how rivers and streams deal with organic carbon has changed radically.

(European Science Foundation) The oceans are our climate regulators, cover the sites of fundamental geodynamic, geochemical and biological processes and have high-resolution records of the Earth's history in store for us.

Scientific marine drilling and coring is crucial to cast light on both the deep and shallow seafloors to advance our knowledge in the Earth and environmental sciences.

(European Science Foundation) Europe's shape is in a constant change: The Mediterranean basin is shrinking, the Alps are rising and pushing North, and Scandinavia is still rebounding after having been crushed by the weight of a thick and huge ice sheet in the ice ages.

(European Science Foundation) Cardiovascular conditions leading to heart attacks and strokes are treated quite separately from common cancers of the prostate, breast or lung, but now turn out to involve some of the same critical mechanisms at the molecular level.

(European Science Foundation) Increased use of computers to create predictive models of human disease is likely following a workshop organized by the European Science Foundation, which urged for a collaborative effort between specialists in the field.

Human disease research produces an enormous amount of data from different sources such as animal models, high throughput genetic screening of human tissue, and in vitro laboratory experiments.

(European Science Foundation) Researchers are on the verge of unleashing the power of the element boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies, as decades of research begins to bear fruit.

Boron has to date far been one of biology's best kept secrets, but is now attracting fast growing research interest and investment from the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel drugs to tackle cancer and infectious diseases, potentially overcoming limitations and side effects of current products.

(European Science Foundation) Researchers in Sweden are compiling a remarkable "atlas" that pinpoints the location of thousands of individual proteins in the body's tissues and cells which will give scientists important insights into the function of different proteins and how changes in the distribution of proteins could be reflected in diseases such as cancer.

Professor Mathias Uhlén of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who is leading the project, said, "We are trying to map the building blocks of life."

(European Science Foundation) For centuries man has had a uniquely close relationship with dogs -- as a working animal, for security and, perhaps most importantly, for companionship.

Now, dogs are taking on a new role -- they are helping in the hunt for genetic mutations that lead to diseases in humans.

(European Science Foundation) The mysteries of the human genome are slowly being revealed -- but the more we uncover the more complicated the picture becomes.

This was one key message to emerge from the European Science Foundation's 3rd Functional Genomics Conference held in Innsbruck, Austria, on Oct. 1-4.

Ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus poses an increasing threat to patients with compromised immune systems. The European Science Foundation has launched a new Research Networking Programme, FUMINOMICS, to study the basic genetic and molecular mechanisms employed by the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus when infecting host cells.