Despite the fact that proton therapy has been around for years, it is still a relatively uncommon way to treat cancer.

A new launch date has been set for GOCE. The change of date is due to precautionary measures taken after the malfunction of an upper-stage section of a Russian Proton launcher. Now confirmed not to affect GOCE's Rockot launcher, the most advanced gravity mission to date is scheduled for lift-off on 10 September 2008.

Muscles usually contract when a neurotransmitter molecule is released from nerve cells onto muscle cells. But University of Utah scientists discovered that bare subatomic protons can act like larger, more complex neurotransmitters, making gut muscles contract in tiny round worms so the worms can poop.

Radioactivity, discovered more than 100 years ago and studied by physicists ever since, would seem to be a relatively closed subject in science. However, since the 1960s, the pursuit of at least one open question about how nuclei spontaneously eject various particles has continued to nag experimentalists, largely because of an inability to make precise measurements of fleeting, exotic nuclei.

Dutch researcher Paul van der Nat investigated more than three million collisions between electrons and protons. In his PhD thesis he demonstrates -for the first time– that the spin contribution of quarks to the proton can be studied by examining collisions in which two particles (hadrons) are produced.