London, Nov 20 : Scientists from Institute for Cancer Research have discovered an enzyme that plays a critical role in turning breast tissue into tumours.

The enzyme called lysyl oxidase (LOX) has been found to stiffen collagen, a major component of the supportive tissue in the breast.

It causes the collagen to change in a process known as cross-linking, which makes the tissue more fibrous.

The team showed that blocking the enzyme significantly reduced size and frequency of tumours in mice.

Washington, Nov 19 : The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US has entered an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to use data from the Indian satellite Oceansat-II.

The agreement will pave the way for NASA to use data from Oceansat-II for its research, education, weather forecasting, and other activities aimed at the public good.

Washington, Nov 19 : Scientists have found that patients with recent-onset schizophrenia have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their brains.

According to the researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet, the study's findings offer hope of being able to treat schizophrenia with drugs that affect the immune system.

The causes of schizophrenia are largely unknown, and this hinders the development of effective treatments.

Washington, Nov 19 - US space shuttle Atlantis has docked at the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday after nearly two days of journey.

Commander Charles Hobaugh steered the shuttle to a docking with the station at 1651 GMT, Xinhua reported quoting US space agency NASA.

Before the docking, Hobaugh maneuvered Atlantis through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station flight engineers and photographers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott.

London, Nov 18 : Scientists at Oregon State University have discovered that empathy can be inherited.

They say that carriers of certain genes are better able to read people’s feelings than others.

The genes are linked to the way in which the body processes oxytocin, otherwise known as the ‘cuddle hormone’ in the brain.

The hormone, naturally released in the body, is believed to be one of the reasons why humans develop emotional bonds with one another.

Washington, November 18 : In a new research, a scientist has suggested that at least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe under Jupiter’s moon Europa’s global ocean.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the scientist in question is Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Below its icy crust, Europa is believed to host a global ocean up to a hundred miles (160 kilometers) deep, with no land to speak of at the surface.

The extraterrestrial ocean is currently being fed more than a hundred times more oxygen than previous models had suggested, according to provocative new research.

Washington, Nov 18 - Transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina lessens pain and improves walking ability.

These findings are the result of the largest national stem cell study for heart disease. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells.

Washington, Nov 18 : A new study has shown that sea stars a. k. a starfish absorb cold seawater into their bodies to endure rapid changes in temperature during high and low tides.

The study published in The American Naturalist showed that sea stars soak up cold water into their bodies during high tide as buffer against potentially damaging temperatures brought about by direct sunlight at low tide.

"Sea stars were assumed to be at the mercy of the sun during low tide," said the study''s lead author, Sylvain Pincebourde of François Rabelais University in Tours, France.

Washington, November 18 : An engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen from water by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters.

The engineer in question is Andy Hong, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Utah, US.

“We are not trying to treat the entire hydrocarbon (oil) content in the water – to turn it into carbon dioxide and water – but we are converting it into a form that can be retained by sand filtration, which is a conventional and economical process,” said Hong.

Washington, Nov 18 : An entomologist at University of Montreal are trying to find out how a type of wasps lay their eggs on the ladybug''s body, a common practice in the insect world, without even killing their host.

Jacques Brodeur, focussed his study on wasps—Dinocampus coccinellae— present in Quebec that forces ladybugs—Coccinella maculata—to carry their larvae.

Nairobi - G20 governments see climate change as the greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world, according to a survey released Tuesday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The IFRC hired a research group to poll the G20 - a powerful grouping representing both developed and developing nations - and found that many members expect to see increasing humanitarian needs driven by climate-change related disasters, poverty and hunger.

London, November 17 : An analysis of the mysterious ‘dark flow’ seen in outer space has suggested that something big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe, which may be a sign of a neighboring universe.

Last year, Sasha Kashlinsky of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues identified an unusual pattern in the motion of around 800 galaxy clusters.

Washington, November 17 : A new study has determined that some plants can recognize their ''relatives'' from ''strangers'', in order to shift resources for growth.

Ph. D. candidate Guillermo Murphy and Dr. Susan Dudley took the case of the Impatiens pallida, commonly known as yellow jewelweed plant, for their study.

Yellow jewelweed individuals are often found growing in close proximity to related individuals and are known to respond strongly to aboveground competition, making this species a likely candidate for kin recognition.

Washington, November 17 : NASA’s MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite has detected Cyclone Anja, the first tropical cyclone of the southern Hemisphere cyclone season, in the southern Indian Ocean.

When Anja formed on November 14, in the Southern Indian Ocean, about 330 miles south-southwest of Diego Garcia, it was designated Tropical Cyclone 01S.

By November 15, 01S had strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Anja.

Washington - The US space agency NASA began sending signals late Monday to the Spirit Mars rover in an effort to back the robotic device out of a patch of sandy soil where it has been stuck on the Red Planet.

NASA ground controllers were attempting to steer Spirit backward in the direction from which it came, moving it just centimetres at a time. The task could last until at least February, when an annual review of the programme is scheduled.

Cape Canaveral, Florida  - The shuttle Atlantis stood ready for its scheduled Monday afternoon launch as a massive support structure separated from the gleaming white orbiter ahead of a fiery blastoff to the International Space Station.

As the sun set Sunday over the central Florida coast, NASA slowly rolled back the structure to fully expose the shuttle and its massive fuel tanks, illuminated by floodlights. A nearby banner read "Go Atlantis!"

London, November 14 : Researchers are working on the idea of projecting images into the eye from a contact lens.

Scientists at the University of Washington are labouring on a contact lens that is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.

The proposal was the brainchild of Babak Parviz, at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Washington, November 14 : Reports indicate that cyclone Phyan broke a 43 year record when it made landfall north of the city of Mumbai, India, during the evening hours on November 11.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured Phyan’s landfall with one instrument, and a day later, another of Aqua’s instruments show the storm’s remnants raining Tibet as Phyan continues to dissipate.

Phyan is the first tropical cyclone to make an appearance in November in the Konkan region of India since 1996.

Washington, November 14 : Preliminary data from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, has indicated that the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater.

The LCROSS spacecraft and a companion rocket stage made twin impacts in the Cabeus crater on October 9 that created a plume of material from the bottom of a crater that has not seen sunlight in billions of years.

Washington  - Significant amounts of water were found in a crater on the moon in an experiment that crashed a rocket into the lunar surface last month, NASA scientists say.

Scientists have long suspected that measurements of hydrogen around the moon indicated trace amounts of ice. Data from other spacecraft last month also showed small amounts of water across the moon's surface.