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Young children tend to think that other kids with glasses look smarter than kids who don't wear glasses, according to a new study. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 who were surveyed for the study also thought that kids wearing glasses looked more honest than children who don't wear glasses.

T cells, the body's master immune regulators, do not use simple on/off switches to govern the cellular machinery that regulates their development and function. Immune cells adjust their function like a radio dial; a discovery that hints at how autoimmune disease may develop late in life.

Forms of early-onset Alzheimer's disease are known to be hereditary, caused by single point mutations. Now, using sophisticated computer simulations, a team of physical chemists have shown precisely how the substitution of one amino acid for one that is very similar causes a subtle change in the shape of a peptide and tips a very delicate chemical balance, creating build-up of the toxic by-products and finally resulting in catastrophic disease.

Medical researchers have discovered a key step in the mechanism by which cells destroy themselves. In this process, called "apoptosis," certain proteins cause the cell to self-destruct by puncturing its "power plant." How the proteins do this has now been clarified. The discovery is an important step towards the identification of targets for drugs designed to regulate cell death.

A mutated gene has been discovered as the key behind epilepsy and mental retardation specific to women. The new discovery, published in Nature Genetics, shows that although men carry the 'bad' gene, only women are affected.

Hospital cleaners should watch out because the toilet police are patrolling with their new secret weapon: invisible markers. A team of Canadian scientists using a lotion which glows under ultraviolet light have shown that up to a third of patient toilets are not properly cleaned. Their findings, also show that spores from the nasty bacteria Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) linger in the loo even when it has been thoroughly wiped down.

The search for genes associated with alcohol dependence has recently been extended to the tachykinin receptor 3 gene, located within a broad region on chromosome 4q. Researchers have found that seven of the nine single nucleotide polymorphisms -- DNA sequence variations -- in the 3' region of TACR3 have a significant association with AD as well as cocaine dependence.

At first, fruit flies eat like horses. Hatching inside over-ripe fruit where they were laid, they feed wildly in the sugar-rich environment until nature sends them an offer they can't refuse. To survive, they must leave the fruit, wander off and burrow into the earth where they avoid food as if it were poison. Only then can the larvae grow and hatch into flies that will take wing to lay their own eggs.

The COMT gene -- known already for its role in schizophrenia -- has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in Nature. The study further suggests that a steroid molecule, 2-ME, may serve as both a diagnostic marker and therapeutic supplement for the treatment of this dangerous pregnancy disorder.

A new method of magnetic resonance imaging, much faster, more selective -- able to distinguish even among different target molecular species -- and many thousands of times more sensitive, has just been developed. The new technique has the capacity to choose among targets by slight adjustments in temperature.