The fusion of sperm and egg succeeds in mammals because the sperm cells hyperactivate as they swim into the increasingly alkaline female reproductive tract. One fast-moving sperm drives on through the egg's fertilization barrier. Mammals have sperm with a tail that reacts when calcium ions enter a microscopic channel in the tail and make the sperm go into overdrive.

Merck Serono's Erbitux® is one of the finalists for the prestigious International Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical development and innovation due to its role in transforming the treatment of head and neck cancer. Erbitux is the first and only targeted therapy approved for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and works in a completely different way to conventional chemotherapies.

Over half of breast cancers occur in women aged 65 and over and so in a bid to improve treatments and outcomes for women in this age-group, researchers at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) have joined a national research trial which will provide fresh hope for millions of women diagnosed with breast cancer. The multi-centre trial will study the effectiveness of surgery versus 'anti-hormone medications as treatment of early breast cancer in women over 75.