Scientists have identified two Zika proteins that might be responsible for microcephaly, making a small step toward preventing Zika-infected mothers from birthing babies with abnormally small heads. "Our study reported microcephaly-related Zika proteins for the first time, providing target for future research on prevention and treatment," corresponding co-author Zhen Zhao, assistant professor of the University of Southern California, told Xinhua.Read more

China has published information on military equipment research projects on an official weapon procurement website for the first time, to encourage compitition in the formerly closed sector, the PLA Daily reported. The procurement bureau of the equipment development department under the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the armament departments of the Army and Navy have released over 800 projects thatRead more

Half-sized humans who lived 700,000 years ago were almost certainly the ancestors of enigmatic "hobbits" whose fossils were found on the same Indonesian isle in 2013, scientists stunned by their own discovery reported Wednesday. Two studies, published in Nature, fill a huge gap in our understanding of these diminutive people, whose tortuous evolutionary saga hit a dead-end some 50,000 yearsRead more

The World Anti-Doping Agency has again suspended the accreditation of the Madrid testing laboratory, saying Monday the move was a "direct result" of the March decision to declare Spain non-compliant with the world anti-doping code. The decision takes effect immediately and bars the Laboratorio de Control de Dopaje in Madrid from carrying out any WADA-related anti-doping activities, including analyses ofRead more

A team of US researchers has tracked traits with genetic cues, such as height, and shown that while Americans are increasingly choosing those with similar traits in deciding whom to marry, this does not seem to be driving changes in the gene pool. "We're asking how spouses are alike, how this is affecting the number of children they have, andRead more

A study has shown that T cell receptors are able to switch their conformation from an inactive to an active state spontaneously without any antigens present, biologists from the University Freiburg announced on Friday. Previously, however, researchers tend to believe that an antigen like a pathogen must bind to a T cell receptor, which is an important part of theRead more

The Dutch government on Friday announced it wants to allow growing human embryos "under strict and limited conditions" for scientific research, thereby giving hope to parents struggling to conceive. Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers "wants to allow the creation of embryos for scientific research -- and under very strict conditions to give people the possibility of (healthy) children," the healthRead more

The Antarctic Ocean's ecology could soon be changed forever, after Australian-led research revealed the ever-warming Antarctic waters could soon sustain marine life previously only found in warmer climates. Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) on Tuesday said the previously inhospitable and chilly waters of the Antarctic had long prevented warm water species from living and breeding, but a numberRead more

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley, released on Sunday the Japanese-language version of a smartphone application, or app, to crowdsource ground-shaking information. The app, known as MyShake, initially unveiled on February 12 this year at the university on the U.S. west coast, was designed to detect earthquakes and eventually warn users of impending jolts from nearby quakes. MyShake runs inRead more

Aside from the pain of accidentally standing on the occasional discarded block, parents around the world have grown to appreciate LEGO as an innocent distraction for generations of children. However, the small plastic blocks are not as innocent as they used to be, according to New Zealand research out Monday -- in fact, they're increasingly violent. Researchers at the UniversityRead more