Unlocking the secrets of the Elephant Man

The Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was an object of curiosity and ridicule throughout his life - studied, prodded and examined by the Victorian medical establishment. Now, 123 years after his death, scientists believe his bones contain secrets about his condition which could benefit medical science today.

Joseph Merrick began to develop abnormally from an early age, eventually being gawped at by Victorian circusgoers and examined by inquisitive doctors. The cause of his malformed head, curved spine, "lumpy" skin and overgrown right arm and hand has never been definitively explained.

Ironically, it is the medical preservation of Merrick's skeleton that is now causing the greatest problems in unlocking his body's secrets.

"The skeleton, which is well over a hundred years old now, is actually very clean," says Prof Richard Trembath, vice-principal for health at Queen Mary University of London, and the custodian of Merrick's body.

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Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

Miniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.

The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.

The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.

Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating.

The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe.

Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some of the earliest stages of the organ's development in the laboratory.

Brain bath

They used either embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells to produce the part of an embryo that develops into the brain and spinal cord - the neuroectoderm.

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New thermal imaging system helps researchers to locate large whales

Thermal imaging to help protect whales from noise

August 2013. Physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have successfully tested a thermal imaging system aboard the re-search vessel Polarstern. The system automatically detects large whales by their spouts, day or night, from distances up to five kilometres. The system detected significantly more whales than researchers using binoculars to spot the animals. The thermal imaging camera and accompanying analysis soft-ware is an effective tool for protecting these rare marine mammals from intense underwater noise. 

Noise pollution

Pile driving during construction of wind farms and the use of airguns when searching for oil and gas unavoidably result in noise pollution in the surrounding area. To ensure that marine mammals are not harmed when in the close vicinity of these activities, regulatory authorities request so-called mitigation measures for their protection. One of such measures requires airguns to be switched off or pile driving to be stopped when whales approach the respective sound source too closely. Yet is has been extremely difficult to monitor the surrounding seas for whales around the clock effectively - and that for weeks and weeks?

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Chimps Suffer Same Heart Condition That Kills Young Athletes

In chimpanzees, researchers have identified the same hidden heart disease that has been blamed for the sudden deaths of basketball players, soccer players and other young athletes on the field.

The rare, often inherited condition, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), is characterized by a buildup of fatty and fibrous scar tissue on part of the heart. It can cause irregular heart rhythms and lead to sudden cardiac arrest during strenuous physical activity in otherwise healthy people. It typically doesn't have any symptoms and disproportionately affects men.

In a first, researchers spotted signs of the disease during the autopsies of two juvenile chimpanzee half-brothers that had been living at a zoo in the United Kingdom.

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Dogfighting Bust, Three Years in the Making, Marks Transformational Change (Op-Ed)

Wayne Pacelle is the president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This Op-Ed is adapted from two posts on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's . Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

In Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas, there are now 367 dogs whose lives have turned around so fast they may have whiplash. Last Thursday night, those animals were staked to heavy chains in small hamlets and had passed another sweltering day — many without protection from the sun — with not enough food and too much fetid water available to them. Older dogs had been scarred from fights. One dog had been vomiting and then scrounging on the remains to get enough energy to stand.

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