Washington, Feb 23 : Researchers from University of California, Irvine, have suggested a new approach that may offer a safer and more convenient treatment for patients whose breast cancer spread to their spines.

The team led by orthopaedic researcher Joyce Keyak has found that injecting radioactive bone cement into the vertebral body may help thwart cancer metastases to spine.

"With further development, this technology may yield a clinically feasible procedure that would eliminate the need for 10 radiation therapy sessions, making it more convenient for the patient," said Dr. Keyak.

Washington, Feb 23 : Researchers from Duke University Medical Centre have found certain vital clues to healing arthritis caused by traumatic injury.

They have identified a strain in laboratory mice that has "superhealing" powers, which can help resist inflammation after a knee injury, and avoid developing arthritis at the injury site in the long term.

Washington, Feb 23 : Kids who watch R-rated movies are much more likely to believe it''s easy to get a cigarette than those who don't watch such films, according to a new study.

"We don''t know why this is so. It may have to do with a parenting style that is permissive of activities that are not age-appropriate. Or it may be an outcome of all the smoking scenes in R-rated movies," said lead author of the study Chyke Doubeni, PhD, with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Washington, February 23: A potential new flu vaccine to cure almost all kinds of the disease, including bird flue, may be available in just two years because scientists have identified 10 antibodies that target an "Achilles heel" in most forms of influenza.

The researchers have revealed that the antibodies they have discovered target the weak spot in the "neck" of the virus, just below its peanut-shaped "head" which stops it shape-changing and infecting cells.

London, Feb 23 : In a study on the need for sleep in animals, scientists at North Carolina State University have identified almost 1,700 genes associated with the variability of sleep in fruit flies.

Led by Dr. Trudy Mackay, the study has shown that the fruit fly is genetically wired to sleep, although the sleep comes in widely variable amounts and patterns.

The researcher believes that understanding the genetics of sleep in model animals could lead to advances in understanding human sleep, and how sleep loss affects the human condition.

London, February 23: Scientists at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany say that they may have unravelled the mystery as to how some people can eat and never put on weight, while others struggle to shed a single ounce may have finally been solved by scientists.

Research leader Dr. Ulrich Ruther says that a gene called FTO appears to be behind these differences.