Avita Medical has won a $US1.8 million contract with the US army to apply its ReCell spray-on skin technology on wounded personnel. [ + ]

You neeed ribozymes or proteins to make nucleotides or amino acids and you need nucleotides or amino acids to make ribozymes or proteins - so like the old chicken and egg conundrum, which ones came first? Possibly neither - the first catalysts that enabled the beginnings of life could have been transition metal complexes.

A simple device measures the quantum noise of vacuum fluctuations and generates true random numbers. Researchers have constructed a device that works on the principle of true randomness. With the help of quantum physics, their machine generates random numbers that cannot be predicted in advance. The researchers exploit the fact that measurements based on quantum physics can only produce a special result with a certain degree of probability, that is, randomly.

Action gamers have augmented decision-making capabilities - their probabilistic inference skills have been honed by their gaming activities so they make accurate decisions more quickly than non gamers. These enhanced skills can help with everyday activities like multitasking, driving, reading small print, keeping track of friends in a crowd and navigating around town.

Responding to reports in ALS last Friday that his company may be on the market, Univeral Biosensors chairman and interim CEO Andy Denver said today that “we are always up for sale”. [ + ]

Almost $US80 million earmarked for human embryonic stem cell research in the US is on its way to the intended recipients after a federal appeals court suspended an earlier injunction placed on US federal funding for the controversial work until Monday next week. [ + ]

A new photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy technique may help restorers identify decades-old pigments.

The largest ever Australian study looking into the genetic causes of asthma is about to get under way. [ + ]

Research Australia will next month to unveil a major new policy framework which it hopes will lead to more investment and greater collaboration around medical research in Australia. [ + ]

Aged health specialist Broadvector has issued a prospectus as it seeks to raise around $8.5 million to fund the development of a novel prostate cancer therapy in addition to a treatment addressing the problem of ascpetic loosening of hip replacements. [ + ]

Transfection methods are widely used to study miscellaneous aspects of cell biology.

In this paper, we present three application examples demonstrating the utility of the StellARray Gene Expression System to reveal gene expression level changes in diverse biological contexts such as toxicology, cancer, and stem cell differentiation.

Reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotent iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells promises to revolutionize regenerative medicine.

Bone is a rigid, yet dynamic organ that is continuously molded, shaped, and repaired. Old bone is degraded by osteoclasts and replaced with new bone by osteoblasts, a process called remodeling or bone turnover.

A new report from the European Science Foundation examines the key scientific questions for human stem cell research in the context of the rapidly emerging field of regenerative medicine. It explores the current ethical concerns, particularly with clinical application, and analyses how the legislative landscape has altered in Europe within the previous six years.