Craig Ogden will bring his virtuoso guitar skills to Pembrokeshire's Torch Theatre this summer. The Australian-born musician is due to perform at the Milford Haven venue on Tuesday June 21st, when his repertoire will include works by Albeniz, Barrios and Fernando Sor. Ogden, whose album The Guitarist was widely acclaimed by classical music critics last year, has been studying the instrument since the age of seven. In 2004, he was honoured with a fellowship in recognition of his achievements from the Royal Northern College of Music, becoming the youngest performer ...

Efforts to engineer new metabolic pathways into microbes for the inexpensive production of valuable chemical products, such as biofuels or therapeutic drugs, should get a significant boost in a new development from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Researchers there have successfully demonstrated a technique they call "targeted proteomics" that speeds up and improves the ability to identify and quantify specific proteins within a cell or microorganism. "Metabolic engineers and synthetic biologists can use our directed proteomic technique ...

The DMY International Design Festival returns to Berlin with a fresh line-up of exhibitions, workshops and other special events this summer. Running from Wednesday June 1st to Sunday June 5th at the city's Tempelhof Airport site, the annual extravaganza will showcase the latest in contemporary design trends and innovative products. The festival's central exhibition is set to occupy an area of 14,000 sq m in the spacious aircraft hangars of Tempelhof, which ceased operating as a commercial airport in 2008. Now used to host major public events and music festivals, ...

ATLANTA – A study conducted by Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist in Emory's Department of Neurology, and cognitive psychologist Alicia MacKay, PhD, found that older individuals who spent a significant amount of time throughout life playing a musical instrument perform better on some cognitive tests than individuals who did not play an instrument. The findings were published in the April journal Neuropsychology. While much research has been done to determine the cognitive benefits of musical activity by children, this is the first study to examine ...

Los Angeles, CA (APRIL XX, 2011) Economists have been pointing to the growth in entrepreneurship and small business hiring as two ways the US economy can speed the recovery process. In his first ever Facebook town hall meeting, President Obama expanded upon this search for economic solutions as part of the White House's "Startup America" initiative. Recent articles show that researchers not only support these notions, but also break them down for the nation and the world. Current entrepreneurial scholarship offers studies that provide avenues for future research and ...

Country music legend Emmylou Harris is due to make a rare appearance in Munich this summer. The 12-time Grammy winner will play at the German city's Philharmonie venue on Sunday June 5th, giving fans a chance to hear songs from her 40-year career in the music industry. Harris is due to release Hard Bargain, her latest studio LP, via Nonesuch Records on April 26th. The album features a new composition called The Road, which recalls the time the songwriter spent playing and recording with her mentor Gram Parsons during the early 1970s. On her official website, ...

The most elaborate heterotrimeric G-protein network known to date in the plant kingdom has been identified by Dr. Sona Pandey, principal investigator at the Danforth Plant Science Center. The results of this research are published in the recent article, "An elaborate heterotirmeric G-protein family from soybean expands the diversity of G-protein networks," in the New Phytologist. G-proteins are signaling proteins that direct a plant's response to various environmental signals including abiotic and biotic stresses such as drought and disease resistance. Prior to Dr. ...

Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California's (USC) Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute shows for the first time that the human placenta plays an active role in synthesizing serotonin, paving the way to new treatment strategies that could mitigate health impacts such as cardiovascular disease and mental illness. The groundbreaking findings, conducted with researchers from Vanderbilt University as part of a Silvio Conte Center of Excellence grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, offer conclusive evidence that the placenta provides ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Mayo Clinic have published promising results of a clinical study using an experimental anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory drug called pirfenidone to treat patients with diabetic nephropathy. Their study will be published in the April 21 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Diabetic nephropathy remains the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in the United States. It is a common complication of diabetes, ...

It has been more than a decade since Barcelona's Real Club de Golf El Prat hosted the Open de Espana. The competition will make its triumphant return to the Catalan course on May 5th, with many of the top golfing professionals from the European Tour expected to star. As well as the chance to boost their rankings, players are also competing for a prize pot of EUR2 million (GBP1.7 million). The Open de Espana has previously been won by illustrious names such as Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie and Seve Ballesteros. It is one of the oldest tournaments ...

New research identifies a distinctive population of immune cells that may play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. The research, published by Cell Press and available online in the April 21st issue of Immunity, sheds new light on the pathogenesis of diabetes and may lead to the development of new more selective therapeutic strategies for diabetes and other autoimmune diseases of the accessory organs of the digestive system. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease that develops when the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. ...

Patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) typically have a higher early survival rate than patients on hemodialysis (HD). New data suggest that this difference may be explained by a higher risk of early deaths among patients undergoing HD with central venous catheters, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). In a study that included more than 38,500 Canadian patients starting dialysis between 2001 and 2008, 63 percent started hemodialysis using a central catheter placed into one of the large veins. Seventeen ...

Madrid's Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia is showing a collection of pictures from the worker-photography movement between 1926 and 1939. A Hard Merciless Light will be on display until August 22nd 2011, displaying some fascinating examples of images used during that era in the press. The installation explores how the partnership of photography and the leftist worker movement became intertwined and spread from humble beginnings in the Soviet Union to several other countries including the US and Spain. In a statement, the organisers remarked: "The exhibition ...

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, April 22, 2011—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have developed a way to avoid the use of expensive platinum in hydrogen fuel cells, the environmentally friendly devices that might replace current power sources in everything from personal data devices to automobiles. In a paper published today in Science, Los Alamos researchers Gang Wu, Christina Johnston, and Piotr Zelenay, joined by researcher Karren More of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, describe the use of a platinum-free catalyst in the cathode of a hydrogen fuel cell. Eliminating ...

LA JOLLA, CA—In stark contrast to normal cells, which only divide a finite number of times before they enter into a permanent state of growth arrest or simply die, cancer cells never cease to proliferate. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered an important clue to one of the mechanisms underlying cancer cell immortality. Their findings, published in the April 22, 2011 issue of Molecular Cell, reveal an unanticipated structure at chromosome ends, which could be a key ingredient in the biological "elixir of life," potentially making ...

A major new exhibition called Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus opened at Paris's Louvre art space on Thursday (April 21st). The installation will be on show until July 18th 2011 and sees world-famous masterpiece The Pilgrims at Emmaus take centre stage. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - best known by his first name - painted it in the 17th century. The picture will form the centrepiece for an installation that explores the way Jesus was represented in his art, as well as in the paintings of his students. Tickets for the exhibition cost EUR11 (GBP9.75), or visitors ...

New research reveals a strategy for disrupting the ability of bacteria to communicate and coordinate the expression of virulence factors. The study, published by Cell Press in the April 22nd issue of the journal Molecular Cell, may lead to the development of new antibacterial therapeutics. Bacteria use a process called "quorum sensing" to synchronize group behaviors that promote pathogenesis. During the process of quorum sensing, bacteria communicate with one another via chemical signals called autoinducers. As the population increases, so do autoinducer concentrations. ...

Like You've Never Been Away is a heart-warming project for which a photographer has tracked down the people who appeared in his photographs of Granby and Everton in 1975. Paul Trevor was sent to the areas to record inner city deprivation and produced a collection of images showing the defiant nature with which the communities faced their problems. In a statement, he described how he found everyone to be full of humour and energy at the time and decided to revisit the project and update the public on what the participants had done with themselves after he left. Mr ...

In a study to be published in the April 21st issue of Science magazine, researchers at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science report their findings that the ozone hole, which is located over the South Pole, has affected the entire circulation of the Southern Hemisphere all the way to the equator. While previous work has shown that the ozone hole is changing the atmospheric flow in the high latitudes, the Columbia Engineering paper, "Impact of Polar Ozone Depletion on Subtropical Precipitation," demonstrates that the ozone hole is able to influence ...

'Rewilding with taxon substitutes', the intentional introduction of exotic species to fulfil key functions in ecosystems following the loss of recently extinct species, is highly controversial, partly due to a lack of rigorous scientific studies. In a paper published today in Current Biology, Christine Griffiths of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and colleagues present the first empirical evidence that rewilding can work. Exotic giant Aldabra tortoises, Aldabrachelys gigantea, were introduced to Ile aux Aigrettes, a 25-hectare island off Mauritius, in 2000 to ...

An unusual exhibition of artwork from a tiny village in Loiret is being displayed at the Musee de la Poste in Paris. Facteurs Factices shows off the many and varied post boxes in Saint-Martin-d'Abbat, which has become something of a traveller's curiosity due to the elaborate designs of the items. One of them is made to look like a petrol pump, while another celebrates breakfast-time. According to the organisers of the display, there are only 1,600 residents in the village, yet there are 220 unique post boxes. Visitors to the Musee de la Poste can see pictures ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — With seedlings and shoots still poking their leafy tops out of the soil, it's hard to read the newly published research of Brown University biologist Alison DeLong without musing that it provides a deeper understanding of what puts the spring in spring. DeLong's paper, published in advance online April 21 in PLoS Genetics, reveals fertile new insights into the intricate network of proteins that controls plant growth and development, particularly at the seedling stage. But the research also runs deeper than the roots of any of the ...

Boston, MA -- Using a pair of powerful genome-search techniques, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Harvard University, and the Broad Institute have identified several genes that may be implicated in the malaria parasite's notorious ability to rapidly evade drug treatments. Further testing revealed that one of the genes, when inserted into drug-sensitive parasites, rendered them less vulnerable to three antimalarial drugs. The successful experiments suggest that the genomic methods are useful tools for probing the genetic mechanisms underlying ...

PASADENA, Calif.—The human gut is filled with 100 trillion symbiotic bacteria—ten times more microbial cells than our own cells—representing close to one thousand different species. "And yet, if you were to eat a piece of chicken with just a few Salmonella, your immune system would mount a potent inflammatory response," says Sarkis K. Mazmanian, assistant professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Salmonella and its pathogenic bacterial kin don't look that much different from the legion of bacteria in our gut that we blissfully ignore, ...

Protein shakes can help you to get that physique that you've always wanted and it's getting to that time of year again, when everybody is becoming worried about how they're going to look whilst they're on the beach during summer. Gyms are receiving an influx of new members, all enthusiastic and determined to get those abs they have always dreamed of. However, how many people are taking their diets seriously? It is said that your diet accounts for 90% of your workout. What you eat can make the difference between those six pack abs or that flabby beer belly. Giving proper ...