Science Headlines for November 5, 2008

Light Weight Hydrogen 'Tank' Could Fuel Hydrogen Economy

Researchers have shown that an alloy of the metals magnesium, titanium and nickel is excellent at absorbing hydrogen. This light alloy brings us a step closer to the everyday use of hydrogen as a source of fuel for powering vehicles. A hydrogen ‘tank’ using this alloy would have a relative weight that is sixty percent less than a battery pack.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Is ADHD More Likely To Affect Movement In Boys Or Girls?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder appears to affect movement in boys more than it does in girls, according to a new study. ADHD is one of the most common mental disorders found in children. Symptoms include impulsiveness, hyperactivity, such as not being able to sit still, and inattention or constant daydreaming. Few studies have been done that compare ADHD and movement in both boys and girls.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Chronic Headaches? 'Medication Overuse Headaches' Surprisingly Common

There is a critical need to review current treatment strategies for the increasingly common problem of medication overuse headaches (MOH), according to a new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Drug Mimics Low-cal Diet To Ward Off Weight Gain, Boost Running Endurance

A drug designed to specifically hit a protein linked to the life-extending benefits of a meager diet can essentially trick the body into believing food is scarce even when it isn't, suggests a new report in Cell Metabolism.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

New Spaceship Force Field Makes Mars Trip Possible

According to the international space agencies, "space weather" is the single greatest threat to deep space travel. New research in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion shows how knowledge gained from the pursuit of nuclear fusion research may reduce the threat to acceptable levels, making humanity's first mission to Mars a much greater possibility.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

New Device Controls, Measures Dynamics Of Chemicals In Live Tissue

The "chemistrode," a droplet-base microfluidic device, provides new exciting opportunities to study stimulus-response dynamics in chemistry and biology. It will help researchers study any surface that responds to chemical stimulation (cells, tissue, biofilms, catalytic surfaces, etc.). It may also help neurologists, cardiologists, and endocrinologists study and diagnose diseases. Researchers have already used it to measure how a single murine islet responds to glucose. They have applied for a patent on the device.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Frog Embryos Actively Seek Oxygen

Red-eyed treefrog embryos behaviorally rotate inside their eggs to position gills where oxygen levels are highest.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:43 pm

Your Odor: Unique as Fingerprint (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Your body has a signature odor, just as your fingers have unique prints. And that "eau d'you" remains even if you change what you eat, a new study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:34 pm

Why We Wait 77 Days for Obama's Inauguration

The electoral college process still takes time.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:18 pm

Your Odor: Unique as Fingerprint

Mammals have genetically-determined unique odor that doesn't change with diet.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:14 pm

Trigger for Stem Cell Differentiation Detailed (HealthDay)

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- New details about a key trigger of embryonic stem cell differentiation have been uncovered by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:02 pm

Space Communications Patent Spans Solar System (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - WASHINGTON - When Mobile Satellite Ventures was issued the first-ever U.S. Federal Communications Commission license in 2003 for its concept of creating hybrid satellite and ground-based communications systems, the company already had been working on a slew of related inventions it planned to capitalize on.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:01 pm

Christmas Island Rats Wiped Out by Disease

Rats on Christmas Island are the first-known case of extinction caused entirely by disease.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:01 pm

Folic Acid, B Vitamins Do Not Appear To Affect Cancer Risk

A daily supplementation combination that included folic acid and vitamin B6 and B12 had no significant effect on the overall risk of cancer, including breast cancer, among women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, according to new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm

'Junk' DNA Proves Functional; Helps Explain Human Differences From Other Species

In a new study, scientists in Singapore report that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm

Steroid Therapies Following Transplant Can Be Eliminated, Study Suggests

Using modern immunosuppressive drugs eliminates the need for steroid therapy as early as seven days following a transplant surgery while still maintaining kidney function, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm

Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels 'Will Hit Coral Reefs Harder'

Rising carbon dioxide levels in the world's oceans could deliver a disastrous blow to the ability of coral reefs to withstand climate change. A major new investigation by Australian scientists has revealed that acidification of the oceans from human carbon dioxide emissions has the potential to worsen the impact of the bleaching and death of reef-building organisms expected to occur under global warming.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm

China commissions huge telescope near Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is commissioning a strangely shaped telescope in the forested hills northeast of Beijing that Chinese scientists said will be the world's most efficient tool for mapping the galaxy in three dimensions.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:34 pm

Oil prices slump before US stockpiles data (AFP)

AFP - Oil prices tumbled two dollars on Wednesday as traders awaited the latest weekly snapshot of crude inventories in the United States, the world's biggest energy consuming nation.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:27 pm

Rain stops in Vietnam but flood toll rises to 92 (AP)

AP - Pumps ran nonstop in the Vietnamese capital Wednesday to clear water following the city's worst rainfall in 35 years, in storms that sparked flooding across large sections of the country and left 92 people dead.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:06 pm

Reef rescue

Acidifying oceans threaten coral - but all is not lost
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Nov 2008 | 10:58 am

Ice-Age rhinoceros remains found

The bones of a woolly rhinoceros are found at a water park near Gloucester.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Nov 2008 | 9:50 am

Safety fears over nanocosmetics

Cosmetics containing tiny "nano" particles are being used widely despite unresolved safety concerns, a watchdog warns.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:07 am

Past Presidential Elections Far Nastier

The 2008 campaign for president was the most vicious in U.S. history, some pundits have said. Yeah, right.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Nov 2008 | 3:28 am

Closing Windows

After 18 years of service Windows 3.x is retired
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:49 am

Use of nanoparticles in cosmetics questioned

Cosmetics companies are taking insufficient steps to ensure face creams and other products that contain nanoparticles are safe, according to a report by a leading consumer association.

The Which? report, which drew on advice from nanotechnology experts, warns that untested particles, which can be 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, are being used in products without sufficient safety testing.

Nanoparticles are used in sun screens to block ultraviolet radiation, in emulsions to contain vitamins in face creams, and in other moisturisers to kill off bacteria. But of 67 firms approached by Which? only eight submitted information on the use of nanotechnology in their products.

Nanotechnology, the science of manipulating matter on the molecular level, generally raises no new safety issues, but the tiny particles can behave in unusual ways, in some instances becoming toxic. Existing safety rules do not take into account materials posing risks at the nano scale.

A common use of nanotechnology is in the addition of titanium dioxide or zinc oxide particles to sun screens, and European experts have demanded more safety tests to investigate the effects of these lotions on damaged skin.

The consumer body's report, Small wonder? Nanotechnology and cosmetics, is published today. But safety concerns over nanoparticles in cosmetics were raised by the Royal Society in a report in 2004, which called for independent safety assessments on all products containing nanoparticles. The society also urged firms to declare the safety tests they did.

Ann Dowling, who chaired a Royal Society working group on nanotechnology, said: "We are disappointed at the continuing lack of transparency in this area."

The society's recommendations were not acted upon, the Which? report says. "The cosmetics industry needs to stop burying its head in the sand and come clean about how it is using nanotechnology," said Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at Which? "Many of the applications could lead to exciting, revolutionary developments ... but until all the necessary safety tests are carried out, the simple fact is we just don't know enough. The government must introduce a compulsory reporting scheme for manufactured nanomaterials ... and only those that are independently assessed as safe should be allowed to be used in cosmetics."

In May researchers at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, asked the government to restrict use of carbon nanotubes - in car panels, tennis rackets and bike frames - claiming they posed a cancer risk similar to that of asbestos.

In 2006 the government launched a voluntary reporting scheme to find out what kinds of nanomaterials were available on the market. The scheme, which was due to guide the development of new regulations, received only 12 responses from industry in two years.

How likely is mammoth cloning?

There's a child-like glee in knowing that off the back of recent experiments, scientists may try to "resurrect" long dead Woolly Mammoths that keeled over in the Siberian permafrost 11,000 years ago.

The flurry of excitement follows an announcement from Japanese researchers who created healthy mouse pups by cloning cells from adult mice that had been languishing in the deep freeze for more than a year.

It wouldn't be the first time scientists have tried to use cloning to bring back an extinct species. In 2001, Bessie the cow gave birth to Noah, an endangered wild ox that had been cloned by scientists in America. The animal died two days later, but the scientists are not giving up. At Oxford's Museum of Natural History, the left foot of a dodo is a perennial temptation.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's one thing to recreate a recently deceased species, another completely to bring back an animal that hasn't walked the Earth for thousands of years.

"You have to think about why you would do it and where you would put it," says Bill Holt, head of reproductive biology at the Zoological Society of London. "Let's suppose we create a mammoth and put it in a zoo. Then what. Do we want a herd?"

There are other practical obstacles. The Woolly Mammoth carcasses from Siberia have been frozen for 11,000 years, so may be far more degraded than a mouse that is flash frozen for 16 months. And species preserved in other ways usually have suffered such major fragmentation of their DNA that scientists don't even know how to piece their genome back together. Australian scientists are trying to bring back the extinct Tasmanian Tiger by stitching together tiny pieces of DNA, but the difficulty in doing so is formidable. An elephant could act as surrogate mother for a mammoth; others on the wishlist - the sabre-toothed tiger, even Neanderthal man - might prove more tricky.

There is reason to be hopeful though. The ZSL's Frozen Ark project stores cells from extinct and endangered animals, including the western lowland gorilla, the Sumatran tiger and Socorro dove, primarily for evolutionary work, but in 100 years time, these could become a lifeline for species that will go extinct in our lifetimes.

Vitamin pill that may slow Alzheimer's goes on trial

A vitamin pill that could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease is to enter human trials after scientists found it protected animals from memory loss associated with the condition.

High doses of vitamin B3 will be given to 70 people who have recently been diagnosed with the disease as part of the trial due to begin in the new year, which is open to volunteers over the age of 50.

If the six-month trial is a success it could have a dramatic impact on the treatment of an estimated 417,000 people in Britain who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's or any other type of dementia.

Delaying the onset of the disease by five years would halve the number of deaths from the condition, saving 30,000 lives a year, according to the Alzheimer's Society. Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, gave high doses of a form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide to mice which had been genetically modified to develop Alzheimer's disease. The researchers, led by Dr Kim Green, tested the animals' memories over the four month study by seeing how well they remembered the location of a submerged platform in a large water tank.

At the end of the trial the mice with Alzheimer's performed as well in the memory test as healthy mice, suggesting the vitamin had protected their brains from memory loss. Healthy mice who were fed the vitamins outperformed mice on a normal diet. "The vitamin completely prevented cognitive decline associated with the disease, bringing them back to the level they'd be at if they didn't have the pathology," said Green. "It actually improved behaviour in non-demented animals too."

"This suggests that not only is it good for Alzheimer's disease, but if normal people take it, some aspects of their memory might improve," said Frank LaFerla, a co-author on the study.

The results, which are published in the Journal of Neuroscience, encouraged the scientists to draw up plans for a human trial that will be run from the university.

"At the moment we're talking about a disease for which there is no sort of treatment and this is likely to be far safer than any of the upcoming drugs. Nicotinamide is just vitamin B3, it's really cheap, it's safe and easy to get hold of," said Green.

Research so far suggests that over-the-counter vitamin supplements will contain too little vitamin B3 to have an effect. Volunteers taking part in the trial will be given 2g of the vitamin a day. Previously scientists have only seen serious side effects in doses of 10g or more, which were found to cause liver damage.

The vitamin is believed to prevent the build-up of "tau" proteins along tracks inside neurons. In the early stages of the disease these protein clumps are thought to make nerve cells work less efficiently, but ultimately they can stop the nerves working completely and kill them off.

Brain scans of Alzheimer's patients reveal they also experience clumps of a second type of protein outside the nerve cells. Many scientists believe these amyloid plaques also drive the progression of the disease. Green said that as nicotinamide only appears to reduce the build-up of the proteins in the brain, more effective treatments may combine drugs that attack both types.

Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "This research is interesting as it points towards new ways of treating Alzheimer's disease. The best evidence around reducing your risk of dementia is to eat a healthy balanced diet, take regular exercise, don't smoke and check your blood pressure and cholesterol."

New book reveals what it's really like to be a pathologist

Despite their image in TV fiction, the work of pathologists isn't just about solving murders. Sue Armstrong relates their powerful stories that deal more with the living than the dead
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:11 am

Spacewatch: ISS crosses Britain during November

The ISS (International Space Station) crosses Britain during the night for the rest of this month but remains largely unseen in the Earth's shadow. Until the weekend, though, it has a handful of visible morning passes and from the 22nd we see it again in our evening sky.

The Shuttle Endeavour is due to launch at 00:55 GMT on the 15th on the ISS's next resupply mission. Meanwhile, the partial failure of the Hubble Space Telescope's control electronics has forced the servicing mission by Atlantis to be pushed back to May or later. Although the HST is functioning again under its backup control, the replacement system has been mothballed on the ground for the past 17 years and needs a thorough test before it is delivered in what has turned into a mammoth repair job for the astronauts on Atlantis.

In other news, India's Chandrayaan 1 lunar probe remains on course for entry into orbit around the Moon on Saturday. Eventually, it will settle into a low circular orbit from which it will map the 3-D and mineral composition of the surface with the help of an international suite of instruments, including one built at the UK's Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory.

Finally, it seems that the cold and diminishing light of the Martian arctic has got to Nasa's Phoenix lander. Power levels have fallen dramatically and its demise appears imminent, albeit after surviving for two months longer than initially expected.

Report: Space Shuttle Retirement Date in Jeopardy

NASA's plan to retire its shuttle fleet by 2010 faces big challengs, a new report finds.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:26 pm

Astronauts in Space Encourage Americans to Vote

U.S. astronauts aboard the space station encourage Americans to vote today.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:26 pm

Mars Lander Still Phoning Home as Power Dips

Phoenix lander still communicating with Earth but power decreasing each day.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:26 pm

Next-Generation Longevity Drug Works Mouse Wonders

A potential longevity-enhancing drug has passed its final animal testing challenge, pushing closer to reality the dream of all-purpose drugs against diseases of aging.

Mice given the new drug, called SRT1720, gorged on high-fat food for four months without gaining weight or developing diabetes, and ran twice as far on a treadmill as their control-group counterparts. Similar drugs are expected to follow down the pipeline.

"If you look at all the things that have fundamentally changed medicine in the last 150 years, washing hands would be one, and antibiotics another. This could be the third," said study co-author Philip Lambert, a pharmacologist at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, the drug's developer. "If you could keep your health for another 10 or 15 years, that would be amazing."

SRT1720 activates one of several enzymes that regulate the function of mitochondria — cellular power generators that convert glucose into chemical energy. The wearing down of these generators has been linked to heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cancer and other age-related afflictions.

That same enzyme is also targeted by resveratrol, a naturally occurring compound that reduces age-related diseases in lab animals and is already used by longevity enthusiasts. Researchers at Sirtris showed last year that synthetic drugs that activate the enzyme produced the same cell-level changes as resveratrol, but the tests only lasted for two weeks. The latest study lasted four months, suggesting that SRT1720 — and perhaps the class of enzyme activators expected to follow — are for real.

"This shows you can make drugs that work even better than resveratrol," said David Sinclair, co-founder of Sirtris, who compared the finding to the synthesis of antibiotics inspired by early fungal components. "Now we've got human-designed synthetic molecules. We're not talking about plant extracts anymore."

Rafael de Cabo, a National Institute on Aging gerontologist who is researching SRT1720 but was not involved in the study, published today in Cell Metabolism, agreed with Sinclair's assessment, though he cautioned against premature celebration.

"From rodents to humans is a long, long process," he said. "We've demonstrated this in cells, and in mice. Now we need to move to the next level — primates or humans."

Resveratrol is currently in clinical trials as a diabetes drug, and could be joined next year by SRT1720, said Lambert.

The drug's side effects aren't yet apparent, but resveratrol has proven safe in animals and — anecdotally, at least — in humans. Since SRT1720 works at doses 1000 times lower than resveratrol, said Lambert, it should prove even safer if effective.

He noted that the blood sugar-lowering effects from SRT1720 observed in the study were present in mice on a high-fat diet, but not in mice on standard fare. This suggests that SRT1720 won't produce hypoglycemia, a dangerous dip in blood sugar that is a common side effect of diabetes treatments.

If SRT1720 and resveratrol are approved for diabetes, they will likely be used off-label to treat other diseases, from cancer to Parkinson's, that become more common with age and may involve age-related mitochondrial degeneration and the resulting metabolic disarray of key tissues and organs.

That model of disease is not yet the consensus in the medical community, which views those diseases as having multiple causes rather than a common root, and has generally ignored mitochondrial factors in its search for cures.

"The study again indicates that it's metabolic function that regulates diabetes and obesity, rather than changes in the activity of structural genes," said University of California, Irvine mitochondrial therapy pioneer Douglas Wallace, referring to genes that code for non-mitochondrial functions. "You have to look at tissue metabolism to understand the disease biology. The traditional mechanism of looking at a few nuclear gene processes is not going to be productive."

As for longevity-enhancing drugs, said Wallace, "there will be others."

Speciﬁc SIRT1 Activation Mimics Low Energy Levels and Protects against Diet-Induced Metabolic Disorders by Enhancing Fat Oxidation [Cell Metabolism]

Image: Liver tissue from mice fed high-fat diets and, from left to right, no dose, a low dose or a high dose of SRT1720; white patches correspond to fat / Cell Metabolism

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 10:51 pm

Fountain of Youth: Drug Restores Muscles

A new medication that increases muscle mass in old people might be an anti-frailty drug.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 10:33 pm

Golf secret not all in the wrists

The key to a long drive is building up power quickly in the swing but not putting it all in from the start, according to a new report.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:59 pm

This year's Antarctic zone hole is 5th biggest (AP)

AP - This year's ozone hole over Antarctica was the fifth biggest on record, reaching a maximum area of 10.5 million square miles in September, NASA says. That's considered "moderately large," NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said in a statement.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:22 pm

Solving the World's Hardest Problems

It isn't easy, but math helps.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:01 pm

Mystery Wave Strikes Maine Harbor

Large, unexpected tsunami-like waves as high as 12 feet struck Boothbay Harbor on Oct. 28.
Source: Livescience.com | 4 Nov 2008 | 8:09 pm

EU launches Alpine flora and fauna protection plan (AFP)

AFP - The European Union has launched a cross-border programme to protect the 30,000 animal species and 13,000 types of plant in the Alps, it was announced Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Nov 2008 | 7:20 pm

Nanobama: World's Tiniest Candidate Portrait

The presidential candidates have been under a microscope for the last year, but today, the focus on Sen. Barack Obama's face reached the nanoscale.

Sculpted using nanolithography by University of Michigan mechanical engineer, John Hart, each Obama face is composed of 150 million carbon nanotubes and measures half a millimeter across.

"We can make pretty much any 2-D pattern by this technique," Hart said.

But in honor of the election, Hart's lab applied their technique to the now-ubiquitous image of Obama's face created by Shepherd Ferry.

The only overtly political text that accompanies the images on nanobama.com is the tagline, "vote for science."

When he and the rest of the nation don't have election fever, the focus of Hart's more serious research is finding ways to use nanomaterials to build useful electronics.

"The nanotubes themselves are perhaps the strongest molecule known to man, and also have fantastic electrical and thermal properties," Hart said. "However, effective methods of organizing large numbers of nanotubes are needed to realize many unique commercial applications."

Hart has created a flickr set with 20 more images of Obama's face for your liberal, nanoartistic pleasure.

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 6:44 pm

S Asia is 'worst for snake bites'

A new study says that South Asia has the highest number of casualties from snake bites in the world.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 5:19 pm

DR Congo chaos

Anxious wait for missing gorilla rangers' return
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 5:08 pm

Moon probe set for lunar arrival

India's Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft moves itself into a position ready to enter into orbit around the Moon.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 4:50 pm

Big Reduction of Snowmobiles in Yellowstone Proposed

A new plan would cut snowmobile use by 40 percent in Yellowstone.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm

Robodoc: surgeon of the future in theaters now

LONDON (Reuters) - A mechanical snake that can enter the body through natural orifices -- not an incision -- to perform operations is just one futuristic device researchers believe will transform traditional surgical techniques.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 4 Nov 2008 | 4:16 pm

DNA breakthrough on 1946 murder

Scientists working on the case of a 12-year-old girl raped and shot dead 62 years ago obtain a family DNA profile of her killer.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 4:06 pm

Tropical farms 'aid biodiversity'

Long established, low-impact farming methods can help sustain the biodiversity of tropical forests, a study shows.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Nov 2008 | 3:56 pm

Autism linked with rainfall in study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children who live in the U.S. Northwest's wettest counties are more likely to have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 4 Nov 2008 | 3:30 pm

Earliest known shaman grave site found: study

LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient grave unearthed in modern-day Israel containing 50 tortoise shells, a human foot and body parts from numerous animals is likely one of the earliest known shaman burial sites, researchers said on Monday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 4 Nov 2008 | 3:29 pm

'Bubble' Could Protect Astronauts

Scientists say a "bubble" around a Mars-bound spaceship could protect astronauts.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm

Mouse Cloned From Long-Frozen Cell

Researchers create a mouse from a long-frozen cell. Will the mammoth be next?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 2:48 pm

Mice Cloned After 16-Year Freeze; Mammoths Next?

Cells taken from mice frozen 16 years ago have grown into healthy clones, raising the possibility of reproducing long-dead animals and even resurrecting extinct species.

The feat, accomplished in the laboratory of Japanese geneticist Teruhiko Wakayama, represents a large step forward in animal cloning. Earlier clones have required tissues taken from living animals or carefully preserved cells, rather than an entire frozen animal.

Scientists thought that freezing — of the sort experienced by Wakayama's mice and, for example, a woolly mammoth locked in the Siberian tundra — would damage cells beyond repair. But Wakayama's team salvaged intact nuclei from the neurons of their mice. These were inserted into living mice eggs, forming an embryo that developed until embryonic stem cells could be harvested. The stem cells were then used to make healthy mouse pups.

The previous record for cloning frozen cells, set this summer by Chinese biologist Jinsong Li, was 350 days.

The new technique, wrote Wakayama's team in a paper published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might someday be used to clone "extinct animals frozen in permafrost, or specimens collected opportunistically from endangered species in the field without access to sophisticated laboratory facilities."

Production of healthy cloned mice from bodies frozen at -20C for 16 years [PNAS]

Images: PNAS

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 2:43 pm

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