Researchers have discovered a peptide in scorpion venom that may hold the key to understanding and controlling cystic fibrosis and other secretory diseases. The novel peptide, called GaTx1, can control the movement of ions and water out of cells by interacting with a crucial chloride channel that is commonly mutated in patients with cystic fibrosis. Chloride channels are crucial for secretion in many epithelial tissues, but little has been known about their structures and mechanisms. Researchers do know that chloride channels open to allow millions of chloride ions to travel through them and out of epithelial cells. This movement creates an osmotic gradient that allows water to flow.
If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam. The pulsed laser beam lasts just 30 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. Such intense beams could help scientists develop better proton and electron beams for radiation treatment of cancer, among other applications.
Discoveries about how muscles tell arteries that they need more blood to perform could lead to a new treatment for poor circulation in aging patients, which causes amputation in the worst cases and quadruples the risk of heart attack or stroke. A related mechanism controls blood flow to chronic wounds, and the same discoveries could lead to a pro-growth ointment that speeds healing.
Publicly funded science in America is accountable to the people and their government representatives. However, this arrangement raises questions regarding the effect such oversight has on science. It is a problem of particular relevance as the nation prepares for the end of the Bush administration, which has taken divisive stances on a number of issues, including stem cell research and global warming. Striking a balance is an essential question.
Researchers now have a clearer understanding of how a key protein controls gene activity and how mutations in the protein may cause disease. The work could provide new avenues to design drugs aimed at cancer, diabetes, HIV, and heart disease.
Constructal theory of flows governs social phenomena like rankings. A Duke University researcher says that his physics theory, which has been applied to everything from global climate to traffic patterns, can also explain another trend: why university rankings tend not to change very much from year to year. Like branching river channels across the earth's surface, universities are part of a relatively rigid network that is predictable based on "constructal theory," which describes the shapes of flows in nature, argues one professor of mechanical engineering.
The Earth's orbital behaviors are responsible for more than just presenting us with a leap year every four years. According to one professor of earth and planetary sciences, parameters such as planetary gravitational attractions, the Earth's elliptical orbit around the sun and the degree of tilt of our planet's axis with respect to its path around the sun, have implications for climate change and the advent of ice ages.
The numbers of many large shark species have declined by more than half due to increased demand for shark fins and meat, recreational shark fisheries, as well as tuna and swordfish fisheries, where millions of sharks are taken as bycatch each year. Now, the global status of large sharks has been assessed by the World Conservation Union.
Interlocks, breath-testing devices that prevent a vehicle's ignition from starting if the driver is above a preset blood alcohol limit, can dramatically reduce driving-while-impaired offenses among first-time offenders, a new study shows.
The Wildlife Conservation Society and the Panthera Foundation announced plans to establish a 5,000 mile-long "genetic corridor" from Bhutan to Burma that would allow tiger populations to roam freely across landscapes. Rabinowitz said corridors did not have to be pristine parkland but could in fact include agricultural areas, ranches, and other multi-use landscapes -- just as long as tigers could use them to travel between wilderness areas.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 3-year-old Indonesian boy from South Jakarta has died from bird flu, taking the country's death toll from the virus to 105, a health ministry official said on Monday.
Oceanographer Julie Baum speaks to the Guardian's Alok Jha at the American Association for the Advancement of Science about the sharks on the endangered species list Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 18 Feb 2008 | 12:45 pm
Larry Susskind, Professor of Urban Studies and Environmental Studies at MIT, speaks to James Randerson at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 18 Feb 2008 | 12:26 pm
The Atlantis shuttle detaches from the International Space Station in preparation to return to Earth. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 18 Feb 2008 | 12:22 pm
John Holdren, Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School, Harvard, speaks to the Guardian's James Randerson Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 18 Feb 2008 | 11:55 am
Heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland, a study suggests. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 18 Feb 2008 | 11:52 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis sailed away from the International Space Station on Monday, leaving behind a new crew member and Europe's first permanent orbital laboratory.
The effects on health and the environment of mixing GM and non-GM will be much more serious with new varieties that produce drugs and industrial chemicals Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 18 Feb 2008 | 10:46 am
UK scientists hope to mend shattered bones and damaged cartilage using a patient's own stem cells. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 18 Feb 2008 | 12:03 am
Earth-like planets with conditions suitable for life may be more common in our galaxy than previously thought, a study finds. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 17 Feb 2008 | 9:51 pm
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what "preventative measures" to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A rocket Iran launched into orbit this month to prepare for putting a domestically made research satellite into space has successfully sent scientific data back to Earth, state media reported on Sunday.
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh despite massive culling by authorities to control the outbreak, officials said on Sunday, bringing the number of affected districts to 43 out of 64.
