Plants know their kin
Some plants recognise and cooperate with close relatives, and compete with 鈥渟trangers鈥�, say Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. They report that the Great Lakes sea rocket (Cakile edentula) 鈥渃ompeted鈥� by putting out extra roots when grown in trays alongside 鈥渟tranger鈥� plants (Biology Letters, DOI: 10:1098/rsbl.2007.0232).
Ghost of Titan鈥檚 ocean
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An enigmatic radio signal detected by the European Space Agency鈥檚 Huygens probe as it descended to Saturn鈥檚 moon Titan could turn out to come from an ice-covered ocean. Fernando Simoes of the Centre for the Study of Terrestrial and Planetary Environments in Saint Maur, France, says an echo in the radio signal could have reflected from the boundary between the ice and water.
Pig plague fear
African swine fever, a devastating pig virus rare outside Africa, has stunned animal health experts by invading the Caucasus. A south-east African strain has already spread across Georgia and may have reached neighbouring countries. An as yet unidentified disease ravaging Chinese pigs may also be ASF.
Worms in space
A colony of nematodes will return home on 19 June from a six-month stay on the International Space Station, where they have bred for 25 generations. Researchers from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, hope that studying the mutations the worms have accumulated will help us understand and mitigate the effects of lengthy exposure to radiation in space.
Cancer patients left in pain
More than half of European cancer patients questioned suffer moderate to severe pain, yet 1 in 5 of those are not being treated for it. The European Pain in Cancer survey, covering 4824 patients, is the largest ever study into the prevalence, impact and treatment of cancer-related pain.