Latest research news

Big hopes for breast cancer drug
Scientists have launched a major study to see if a new drug can protect women from breast cancer. Researchers at Cancer Research UK will test Anastrozole on 10,000 women across the world over the next 10 years.
(BBC)

Red tape 'stifling drug production'
Burgeoning bureaucracy will make patients wait longer than ever for new drugs, and in some cases, they may be deprived of them altogether, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
(Daily Telegraph)

Cancer warning over sun creams
Sunscreen manufacturers yesterday insisted their products were safe, but said they would continue to develop and reformulate lotions after research found sunscreens did not prevent skin cancer.
(Guardian)

Breakfast fuels girls' success
Girls need a bigger breakfast to perform their best in the classroom, according to a study by the University of Ulster, while boys do better if slightly hungry. Barbara Stewart, of the Northern Ireland Centre for Diet and Health, said that although the link between breakfast and school performance was known, the latest research suggested girls needed a more satisfying first meal of the day than boys.
(Guardian)

King crabs march towards the Pole
A shellfish released in the Arctic waters of the Barents sea in 1961 has taken a huge step to expand its range. The species is the king crab, which was brought to western Russia in a bizarre experiment to provide a new catch for the Soviet fishing fleet. Now, to the dismay of scientists, the crab has reached the Svalbard archipelago, an island group almost half-way to the North Pole.
(BBC)

World's eels on slippery slope
The world's eels are disappearing fast and need protection before it's too late, fisheries scientists announced last week. Tomorrow the European Commission releases its 'Eel Action Plan' urging the European parliament to safeguard the region's threatened fish.
(Nature)

Fish tank weed threatens to ruin rivers
An aquatic weed used in home aquariums is threatening fish stocks and wetland habitats across Britain. Conservationists are demanding a ban on the sale of the highly invasive floating pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides), a native of North America which can grow 5in a day in the wild.
(Times)

There's chaos on the buses
You wait half an hour for an airport shuttle bus, then two show up at once. It's not bad planning, it's chaos, says Japanese researcher Takashi Nagatani of Shizuoka University. The unpredictability of shuttle-bus services may be inherent in the shuttling process, says Nagatani. He demonstrates that chaos emerges even in a very simple set up of two buses picking up regularly arriving passengers and taking them at constant speed to one destination.
(Nature)