Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Many membrane proteins serve as gateways in and out of the cell. Because they act as “traffic control” for infectious agents and disease-fighting drugs, they are the targets of more than 60 percent of all drugs on the market. Yet of the estimated 30,000 membrane proteins in the human body, scientists understand the detailed structures of only 18.

“Game over” for climate change . So opines NASA climatologist Jim Hansen when it comes to the development of the Canadian tar sands.

Poaching of elephants and the illegal trade in their tusks and related ivory products were out of control in 2011, with more than 2,500 animals confirmed killed and thousands of kilograms of tusks seized by customs officials around the world. This was the worst year on record since the international ivory trade ban was established in 1989, according to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

DURBAN, South Africa--Former entomologist Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of the World Health Organization worries about nosebleeds more than the average person. That's because he's one of the estimated 12 million people worldwide afflicted with leishmaniasis --a potentially fatal parasitic disease characterized most often by lesions on the skin and/or mucus membranes--caused by the bite of a sandfly. [More]

The price of gold affects more than global finances; it also drives the world's most toxic pollution problem, according to new research from the Blacksmith Institute , an environmental health group based in New York City. Miners in countries from across Africa and Southeast Asia use mercury to separate the precious metal from the surrounding rock and silt