BBC NEWS | Health | Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'

BBC NEWS | Health | Curry spice 'kills cancer cells': "The chemical - curcumin - has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia.

Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab."

Good day in the fight against cancer.

Scientists Discover Gene that 'Cancer-Proofs' Rodent's Cells : University of Rochester News

Scientists Discover Gene that 'Cancer-Proofs' Rodent's Cells : University of Rochester News: "Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind—and now biologists at the University of Rochester think they know why.

The findings, presented in today's issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat's cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells 'claustrophobic,' stopping the cells' proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells' growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous."

If it proves to be the key to defeating cancer, this may one day win the Nobel prize.

Human Evolution: Are Humans Still Evolving? - Yahoo! News

Human Evolution: Are Humans Still Evolving? - Yahoo! News: "A team of scientists led by Yale University evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns suggests that if the natural selection of fitter traits is no longer driven by survival, perhaps it owes to differences in women's fertility. 'Variations in reproductive success still exist among humans, and therefore some traits related to fertility continue to be shaped by natural selection,' Stearns says. That is, women who have more children are more likely to pass on certain traits to their progeny. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2008.)"

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Lowly females pick mediocre mates

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Lowly females pick mediocre mates: ".

'It also raises the intriguing possibility that the environment in which individuals are reared strongly influences their mating preferences as adults.'"

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com: "Now a study suggests that, paradoxically, this same sensation may prime the brain to sense patterns it would otherwise miss — in mathematical equations, in language, in the world at large."