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(PhysOrg.com) -- Used in Hollywood and the advertising industry to create exotic special effects, ferrofluids are seemingly magical materials that are both liquid and magnetic at once. In a study published today in Physical Review B, Yale electrical engineering professor Hur Koser and colleagues from the University of Georgia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrate for the first time an approach that allows ferrofluids to be pumped by magnetic fields alone. The invention could lead to new applications for this mysterious material.

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The protein encoded by the tumour-suppressor gene BRCA1 may keep breast and ovarian cancer in check by preventing transcription of repetitive DNA sequences, says a study published today in Nature . This explanation brings together many disparate theories about how the gene functions and could also shed light on how other tumour suppressors work

From Nature magazine. Our ancestors bred with other species in the Homo genus, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Compared with white American researchers, black American researchers are a third less likely to have an early-career National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funded, according to an NIH-commissioned study published August 18 in Science . It’s a thorough study, experts say, but it leaves one major question unanswered: Why? [More]

Set ambitious goals, says a study.

Need to solve a tough problem? A study published online February 11 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests you are more likely to succeed if you solve it on another person’s be

By Amanda Mascarelli of Nature magazine Three coastal-restoration projects intended to rescue Louisiana's rapidly shrinking wetlands have failed to restore marsh during the past two decades. Instead, the schemes -- which involve diverting fresh water from the Mississippi River in the hope of carrying sediment to marshes and aiding plant life -- have made these regions more vulnerable to hurricanes, according to the authors of a study published by Geophysical Research Letters . Louisiana's coastal wetlands are up against a host of natural and anthropogenic factors

As compared to rural dwellers, urbanites are more stressed and more likely to develop schizophrenia.

Autism, a developmental disorder that causes deficits in social behavior and communication, affects four times as many boys as girls.

Jellyfish blooms might be more than just a nuisance to beach-goers. These explosions of stinging swarms might also be doing some major disruption to marine food webs , according to a study published online June 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Scientists at Imperial College London have made the most accurate measurement yet of the shape of the humble electron, finding that it is almost a perfect sphere, in a study published in the journal Nature today.

Women may have a more subtle way of telling men “no” than anyone imagined. Chemical cues in their tears signal that they are not interested in romantic ac

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine A long-term study of children from Romanian orphanages suggests that the effects of childhood stress could be visible in their DNA as they grow up.

To be socially savvy, you have to learn the hierarchy. This skill is so crucial that even babies possess it, according to a study published January 28 in Science . Infants only 10 months old know that bigger beings usually get their way