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Obesity linked to poor colon cancer prognosisObese patients with colon cancer are at greater risk for death or recurrent disease compared to those who are within a normal weight range, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Mysterious cosmic 'dark flow' tracked deeper into universeDistant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study tracks this collective motion -- dubbed the "dark flow" -- to twice the distance originally reported.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Students' perceptions of Earth's age influence acceptance of human evolutionHigh school and college students who understand the geological age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) are much more likely to understand and accept human evolution, according to a new study. A 2009 Gallup poll reported that 16 percent of biology teachers believe God created humans in their present form at some time during the last 10,000 years.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Temporary hearing deprivation can lead to 'lazy ear'Scientists have gained new insight into why a relatively short-term hearing deprivation during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits, long after hearing is restored to normal. The research reveals that, much like the visual cortex, development of the auditory cortex is quite vulnerable if it does not receive appropriate stimulation at just the right time.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Conquering the chaos in modern, multiprocessor computersA group of computer scientists have found a way to tame multiprocessor computers, which behave in wildly unpredictable ways even as the systems become widespread in the industry.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Brain mechanism may explain alcohol cravings that drive relapseNew research provides exciting insight into the molecular mechanisms associated with addiction and relapse. The study uncovers a crucial mechanism that facilitates motivation for alcohol after extended abstinence and opens new avenues for potential therapeutic intervention.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Development of more muscular trout could boost commercial aquacultureA 10-year effort by a scientist to develop transgenic rainbow trout with enhanced muscle growth has yielded fish with what have been described as six-pack abs and muscular shoulders that could provide a boost to the commercial aquaculture industry.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Experimental drug that mimics thryoid hormone safely lowers 'bad' cholesterolPeople whose "bad" cholesterol and risk of future heart disease stay too high despite cholesterol-lowering statin therapy can safely lower it by adding a drug that mimics the action of thyroid hormone.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Boost for technology: Huge step toward mass production of coveted form of carbonScientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human hair with unique electronic properties.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Study finds elevated levels of cobalt and chromium in offspring of patients with metal-on-metal hip implantsHip replacement patients with metal-on-metal implants (both the socket and hip ball are metal) pass metal ions to their infants during pregnancy, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am BP to pay Devon $7 billion for oil fields (Reuters)Reuters - London-based oil major BP has agreed to buy Brazilian, Azeri and Gulf of Mexico assets from Devon Energy for $7 billion, as the U.S. producer refocuses on onshore U.S. fields.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 3:09 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - Unsettling weather activity was forecast to continue to develop throughout the Mid- and Eastern U.S. on Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 2:54 am In pictures: Bear powerThe European brown bear's love of electricity and telegraph poles is helping scientists gain new insights into its behaviour.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Mar 2010 | 2:53 am BP to pay £4.7 bln for Devon Energy assets (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 2:23 am 48 Hawaii-only species given endangered listing (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 1:32 am Tom Tew of Natural England on audit showing wildlife species becoming extinctTom Tew of Natural England talks about an audit showing wildlife species becoming extinct at rate of two a year Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2010 | 1:21 am Spike in Prius complaints may not be all it seems (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:25 am In pictures: The UK's lost wildlifeA new report from Natural England documents about 500 types of flora and fauna that have been lost completely from England. Here are some examples of those species, plus some that are threatened – and a few success stories, too Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Deforestation conference to turn plans to action (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Mar 2010 | 11:14 pm Homes damaged, 4 injured, in Arkansas tornadoes (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Mar 2010 | 10:58 pm Endangered listing eyed for US loggerhead turtles (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Mar 2010 | 10:29 pm Genomes for the whole familySequencing of families' genomes offers insights into rare genetic diseases.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/EVEPPsn-Kmo" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:01 pm Ear Infections Could Cause Long-Term ‘Lazy Ear’
Some folks who don’t seem to listen may just have a lazy ear. A new study in rats shows that short-term hearing impairments at any stage of life can lead to rewiring in the part of the brain that processes sounds, making the ear seem as if it is loafing on its duty to make sense from noise.
An analogous problem in which the brain has trouble processing visual signals from a perfectly functional eye is often called “lazy eye.” A lazy eye can often be retrained through practice in children up to about 8 years old. Likewise, the new study shows that the brain’s auditory cortex remains flexible enough that it can partially rewire itself even into adulthood. This gives hope that at least some ear “laziness” problems can be corrected in adults, say study coauthors Daniel Polley, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, and Maria Popescu of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Polley and Popescu’s experiments with rats show that the brain has a number of critical windows for rewiring itself. The researchers surgically tied off the ear canal in one ear of infant, juvenile and adult rats to mimic the sound-deadening effects of fluid in the ear. After 60 days, the team measured activity of the rats’ auditory cortex cells in response to sounds of various frequencies. Blocking sound to one ear produced different changes in the rats’ brains, depending on the age when hearing was impaired, the team found. In 2-week-old rats with blocked ears, more cells in the auditory cortex responded to low-frequency sounds and fewer cells responded to high-frequency sounds compared with rats with no ear blockage, suggesting a diminished range. The infant rats also had a strengthened response to sound signals from the open ear and a weakened response to signals from the closed ear — meaning that one side of the brain loses out in the competition to process sounds. Such losses in people could lead to subtle speech defects or other learning problems, says Takao Hensch, a neuroscientist at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard University. Juvenile rats whose ear canals were tied off at age 4 weeks didn’t have more low-frequency–sensitive cells in their auditory cortex, indicating that the critical window for determining the low- and high-frequency range had already closed. But like the infant rats, the juvenile rats still showed a shift in which ear responded most to sound signals. If the ear canal wasn’t tied off until the rats were adults, the brain cells had a weakened response to the blocked ear but didn’t strengthen the open ear’s input. That result shows that as animals age, they lose the ability to boost signals from the open ear. The new study “opens up quite a rich system to study brain plasticity,” Hensch says. Researchers still don’t yet know how long each of the critical rewiring periods last in rats or, assuming the system is similar in humans, in people. Also unclear is exactly what effect the brain rewiring would have on hearing in people. While there’s been little to no work done on how common lazy ear is in humans, the researchers think the new study could have important implications in medicine, especially for choosing how aggressively to treat childhood ear infections. Since adults still retain some ability to rewire sound-processing centers, the researchers hope that just as a lazy eye can be retrained, lazy ears might also learn new work habits. Image: maessive/Flickr See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Mar 2010 | 7:32 pm 'Doomsday' Seed Vault Stores 500,000 CropsA global seed vault dug out of an arctic mountainside has just reached its half-million mark of seed varieties.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 6:00 pm Just One Hitch in Choosing China's First Women Astronauts (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - China has selected two military air transport pilots as its first female astronauts, the country's state media reported Wednesday. The only hitch? The women had to be hitched as in married to make the cut.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Mar 2010 | 5:15 pm Personal look at genes locates disease causes (AP)AP - Children inherit about 30 mutated genes from each parent, fewer than had been thought, but enough in at least one case to pass on inherited illnesses, according to a first detailed look at the blueprint for human life in a family.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Mar 2010 | 5:12 pm More than two species lost every yearThe biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, nearly all in last two centuries More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals. Natural England, the government's agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen in the last two centuries. The losses recorded compare with a natural rate of about one extinction every 20 years before humans dominated the planet, but are almost certainly an underestimate because of poor records of any but the "biggest, scariest" creatures before the 1800s. The high rate at which species are being lost is set to continue. Almost 1,000 other species face "severe" threats from the same problems that drove their relatives extinct – hunting, pollution, development, poor land management, invasive species and, more recently, climate change – says the report, Lost life: England's lost and threatened species. This represents about a quarter of all species in the best-studied groups, including every reptile, dolphin and whale species, two-thirds of amphibians and one-third of butterflies and bumblebees. In total, the report records 55,000 known species in England. "Each species has a role and, like the rivets in an aeroplane, the overall structure of our environment is weakened each time a single species is lost," said Helen Phillips, the agency's chief executive. "We seem to have endless capacity to get engaged about rainforests but this reminds us conservation begins at home." Tom Tew, Natural England's chief scientist, called for a "step change" in conservation, including more "targeted" schemes to protect individual species, better safeguarding of protected areas and better management of land outside the protected areas, especially farmland. "This report is not all doom and gloom, but we're losing species at an alarming rate and many of our species are seriously threatened," he said. "These species could the tip of the iceberg unless we take action." Matt Shardlow, head of Buglife, said: "The report [confirms] we are in the midst of an extinction crisis and it is happening here in England under our very noses." Dozens of scientists trawled records going back to the first century AD from official lists and books. They identified 492 species recorded in England that could no longer be found, all but 12 of which disappeared after 1800. A further 943 species are listed under the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as plants and animals under threat. These include a number of species now extinct in many counties or regions of England. One statistic that shocked the experts was a study of nearly half of English counties, which showed one plant species going locally extinct every two years. So widespread are the problems that some once prolific species are under threat, including the common toad, common frog, common skate and the corncrake. "They are not common any more," said Tew. "Our ancestors used to lie awake at night unable to sleep because of the noise of the corncrake." Four of the species extinct in England also became extinct globally: the penguin-like great auk; Mitten's beardless moss; York groundsel, a weed only discovered in the 1970s; and the Ivell's sea anemone, last seen in a lagoon near Chichester. Many more English animals and plants are also on the threatened list, including the whitebeam, a tree with young leaves like "white candles", said Tew: "That signals the start of spring; it can be found nowhere else in the world and has disappeared from much of England." The remaining extinct and threatened species exist in other countries, though the agency warned that reintroducing species was not reliable because the threats still remained, and national or regional extinctions led to the loss of genetic diversity. Last year Natural England also published a report highlighting the economic cost of not protecting natural ecosystem services such as clean air, clean water, productive soils for crops, carbon storage, flood defence and natural resilience to climate change. Other benefits were beyond value, said Tew: "Lots of you, like me, feel the worse for not hearing the corncrake in the country, or the flash of a red squirrel. When we lose wildlife we lose something priceless, and that effects our quality of life." The report calls for better conservation, especially following successful schemes to reintroduce or bolster populations such as the red kite and large blue butterfly. Of the hundreds of species on the BAP list in the 1990s, seven have since become extinct but 45% are now stable or recovering. The government has also ordered a review of protected areas. "Species loss is not inevitable; we can do something about it," added Tew. "But we need to think ambitiously if we're to meet the needs of this and future generations." This week, Simon Stuart, who oversees the team of experts that declare species globally threatened and extinct, said humans were causing extinctions faster than new species could evolve for the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared. Winners and losersGOING: Species facing "severe" threats in England RECOVERING: Recent conservation success stories guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 5:05 pm Lifelock Shows Identity Theft Services Not FoolproofLifelock has agreed to a $12 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:33 pm Einstein passes cosmic testGeneral relativity fits survey observations but there's still room for its rivals.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:01 pm Nuclear weapons physics: Welcome to the Atomic Weapons EstablishmentWith the launch of a powerful laser facility, Britain's most secretive lab is opening up to academics. Geoff Brumfiel secures a preview.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm Outcry over scientists' dismissalFollowing years of acrimony, two high-profile researchers in Mexico have been expelled from their institute.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm Blame it on the B cellsImmune cells seem to spark recurrent prostate cancer in mice.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm Chicken's split sex identity revealedHalf-male, half-female fowl explain sex determination.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm Bioengineering: What to make with DNA origamiChemists looking to create complex self-assembling nanostructures are turning to DNA. Katharine Sanderson looks at the science beneath the fold.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm Studying Snail Shells to Build Better Body ArmorShells of unusual snails could lead to development of new types of protective materials.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 3:40 pm Cyberbullying Rampant for Lesbian and Gay TeensChildren and teens are being cyberbullied through the Internet in chat rooms, on social networking websites, via email and even through cell phones.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 3:08 pm Scientists to review climate bodyThe UN secretary general asks the world's leading science academies to review the UN's climate science body.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 3:06 pm Genomes of an entire family sequencedSequencing the genomes of every family member gives researchers a powerful new tool for tracking down the defective genes that cause inherited diseases An American family has become the first to have the entire genome of each member mapped to identify the causes of rare diseases that affect the children. The family of four is unusual because the parents are healthy but both son and daughter have two rare inherited medical conditions that cause facial and limb malformations and lung problems. Mutations in "recessive" genes are responsible for these conditions, meaning that in each case the children must have inherited a defective copy from both their mother and their father to get the disease. One of the conditions, Miller's syndrome, causes facial and limb abnormalities and affects only around one in a million people. Only a few families in the world have been formally diagnosed with the condition. The second disease, called primary ciliary dyskinesia, makes the hair-like structures that sweep mucus from the lungs and airways stop working, and affects around one in 10,000 people globally. The chances of one person having both conditions are less than one in a billion. Scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle sequenced the entire genomes of all four family members and used the information to pinpoint four genes that might be responsible for the diseases. Mutations in two of the genes were later confirmed to be the cause of the diseases. The breakthrough, reported in the journal Science, gives researchers a powerful new tool to track down quickly the defective genes behind almost any disease that is caused to a significant extent by genetic glitches. "It remains to be seen how far we can push it, but I really don't see any limitation to this. If we look at more and larger families we should be able to home in on the key genes linked to far more complex conditions, such as neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmune diseases," said David Galas, professor of genetics and a senior author on the study. With many diseases, identifying the defective gene can help doctors make a diagnosis and arrange for appropriate counselling for the patient and other family members. "The big impact is going to be helping us understand diseases at the molecular level, but that is a longer play," Galas added. The researchers also report the first measurement of how many new, spontaneous mutations parents pass on to their children. They identified 30 from each parent, meaning that each child inherited 60 new mutations in total. Estimates based on comparisons between human and chimp genomes have previous led scientists to think the figure was higher, at around 75. Writing in the journal, the scientists explain that in future, everyone is likely to have a full genome sequence in their medical records, making such familial genetic comparisons easier. Many patients who are referred to a clinical geneticist by their doctor are not diagnosed because scientists only know the genes involved in a fraction of the medical conditions they see. "What this group has shown is that with one family, you can get almost directly to the important mutation itself. It's a big deal, because if we can collect families affected by a condition, we might be able to get much more rapidly towards understanding their genetic causes," said Matthew Hurles, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK. In a separate study, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, helped discover genetic mutations that cause his own rare medical condition. James Lupski inherited Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, a rare disorder that leads to a loss of sensitivity and muscle in the hands and feet. Neither of his parents have the disease, but three of his siblings do. Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lupski and his colleagues describe how they compared his genome with those of his other family members and identified two mutant genes that cause the syndrome. "This is the first time we have tried to identify a disease gene in this way," said Lupski. "We can [now] start to use this technology to interpret the clinical information in the context of the sequence, of the hand of cards you have been dealt." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm What is the LHC Trying to Accomplish?As the Internet goes crazy about the LHC shutdown in 2011 (a shutdown that is actually in the LHC schedule rather than anything sudden), what's the plan for the world's largest particle accelerator?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 2:23 pm Top scientists to review IPCC report on Himalayan glaciersMoves aims to restore public confidence in science of global warming after mistake over melting rates of glaciers The UN called in the world's top scientists today to review a report by its climate body, four months after public confidence in the science of global warming was shaken by the discovery of a mistake about the melting rates of Himalayan glaciers. In an announcement at the UN in New York Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, and Rajendra Pachauri, the much-criticised head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the InterAcademy Council, which represents 15 national academies of science, would conduct the independent review. The announcement follows months of controversy which, while not altering the scientific consensus on climate change, has given fresh ammunition to opponents of action on global warming. Pachauri has faced calls for his resignation, a controversy he acknowledged obliquely today. "We have received some criticism. We are receptive and sensitive to that and we are doing something about it," he said. The review, which is to complete its work by August, will not undertake a dissection of the 2007 report, which has been pored over by climate sceptics, or re-examine the scientific consensus that human activity is causing climate change, said Robert Dijksgraaf, the head of the InterAcademy Council. "It will definitely not go over vast amounts of data," he told reporters. "Our goal will be to assure nations around the world that they will receive sound scientific advice on climate science." Instead, he said it would focus on putting in place better quality control procedures for the next report, which is due in 2014. These would include guidelines for dealing with material that has not undergone peer review such as the item on Himalayan glaciers. One focus of the review would be the role played by Pachauri who has been criticised for his handling of the error when it first came to light. Djiksgraaf also said the panel, likely to be made up of 10 experts, would also look at procedures for making corrections in a timely and transparent manner. The report has been pored over by climate sceptics for errors since last November when it emerged that the IPCC had stated, wrongly, that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035. As Pachauri and Ban noted today, the solid body of the 3,000 page report remained unchallenged. The discovery of the error goes to the core of criticism of Pachauri whose first response to questions about the accuracy of the IPCC's prediction on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers was to dismiss it as "voodoo science". Pachauri had also rankled critics by refusing to apologise for the mistakes. But a spokesman for Pachauri today said the IPCC had initiated the independent review, and had pressed the UN to call in the scientists. In his brief comments, Pachauri said the work of the IPCC, which shared a Nobel prize with Al Gore in 2007, remained the gold standard of climate science. "We believe the conclusions of that report are really beyond any reasonable doubt," Pachauri said. Environmental and science organisations supported the UN's decision. "This is the right move," said Peter Frumhoff, the science director for the Union of Concerned Scientist and a lead author on the IPCC report. "If this independent review is carried out with rigour and transparency, it will help strengthen the IPCC's commitment to robust scientific assessments and restore public confidence that has been shaken by an aggressive campaign to sow confusion about climate science." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 2:13 pm EU to back bluefin tuna trade banEU nations decide to support a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna until stocks recover.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 1:57 pm Ancient Tribal Meeting Ground Found in AustraliaThe 40,000-year-old site may hold the world's southernmost traces of early human life.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 1:15 pm China Eyes Combustible Ice for EnergyCombustible ice sounds like it belongs in Star Trek--and from the photos it looks that way, too. While the reality isn't that extreme, this energy source does involve high-seas adventure, phase changes, and environmental quandaries. Recently I saw a Xinhua ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 1:14 pm Ultraviolet Light Uncovers Real GiottoThe original Giotto painting (L) and the same artwork under ultra-violet rays (R). Art restorers working in Florence’s Santa Croce church have shed new (ultraviolet) light on Giotto’s faded paintings, discovering lush details and tridimensional scenes that have been hidden ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 1:01 pm Heat-Sensitive Material Remembers Four ShapesA new polymer can "remember" up to four different shapes, and revert to each one at different temperatures.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 12:21 pm Brain Scans Depict Gulf War Syndrome Damage
SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images — various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements — that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome.
Or syndromes. Because Robert Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and the research team he heads have identified three discrete subtypes. Each is characterized by a different suite of symptoms. And the new imaging linked each illness with a distinct — and different — series of abnormalities in the brain. Men with the same symptoms exhibited similar brain changes, features starkly different from healthy vets their age who had served in the same battalions. (That said, a few vets’ symptoms seemed to encompass more than one syndrome. And in such instances, imaging confirmed their brains showed impairments that extended beyond those associated with a single syndrome.) Since the early 1990s, some 175,000 U.S. troops have returned from service in the first Gulf War reporting a host of vague complaints, notes Richard Briggs, a physical chemist at UT Southwestern involved in the new imaging. Their symptoms ranged from mental confusion, difficulty concentrating, attacks of sudden vertigo and intense uncontrollable mood swings to extreme fatigue and sometimes numbness — or the opposite, constant body pain. With funding from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Haley has assembled a team of roughly 140 researchers. Many work with patients. Others are developing new animal, biochemical and genetic studies to identify the biological perturbations underlying Gulf War Illness. But the vast majority — two-thirds of these scientists — are now involved in brain imaging. As a result of these studies, Briggs says, “In the last two years we have learned more about Gulf War Illness than we did in the previous 15.”
What’s emerged is evidence to suggest “that there are three major syndromes responsible for Gulf War Illness,” he says. They appear loosely linked to at least three different types of agents to which many troops were exposed: sarin nerve gas, a nerve gas antidote (pyridostigmine bromide) that presented its own risks and military-grade pesticides to prevent illness from sand flies and other noxious pests. But Briggs acknowledges that no one knows for sure which combination of agents or environmental conditions might have conspired to trigger Gulf War illness. What is clear, he says, is that “our data now clearly show, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there are brain abnormalities — physiological differences — between ill veterans and normal ones.” And from the new scans, “we can tell the ill veterans from the well veterans. And we can distinguish syndromes one, two and three from each other.” The new neuroimaging on a subset of 57 Gulf War vets was completed eight months ago. Yesterday’s presentations represent an unveiling of the complex statistical analyses of data gleaned from those functional MRI scans (or fMRIs), brain-wave recordings and other magnetic resonance tools. Some testing employed old-style technologies. For instance, about a dozen years ago, Haley’s team performed magnetic resonance spectroscopy, also known as MRS, to study the chemical composition of various regions in the brains of Gulf War vets. And these tests uncovered the first solid indicators that there were physiological abnormalities in men complaining of Gulf War Illness. Such as a perturbation in the ratio of two chemicals active in the brain’s basal ganglia: n-acetyl aspartate (or NAA) and creatine. Don’t know what that means? I didn’t either. So Briggs explained. “The basal ganglia is sort of the switching system of the brain. It’s where a lot of communication between the left and right hemispheres occurs.” Because it crosses the midbrain region, he says, “it’s heavily involved in a lot of these decisionmaking and attention/inhibition networks” – processing centers that, if messed up, could explain many symptoms reported by sick vets. NAA is a biomarker of healthy nerve cells. So any decrease is a bad sign. The concentration of creatine, which comprises the fuel for brain activities, tends to remain constant, Briggs says, so “it’s often used as an internal standard” against which to compare things like NAA. The Gulf War syndromes are each associated with a roughly 10 percent lower than normal NAA-to-creatine ratio in the left and right basal ganglia, Briggs says — “an indicator of either sick or dead neurons.” After Haley’s team initially published evidence in the late ’90s of the diminished NAA-to-creatine ratio in sick vets, two other labs confirmed this characteristic MRS feature in sick Gulf War veterans, Briggs notes. More recently, when one of those labs failed to reconfirm those changes during a followup study, the UT Southwestern team began to wonder whether it had erred the first time it had conducted the pioneering tests. Or whether the sick vets had simply gotten well over the past 10 years. “Our new follow-up [MRS] tests now show our initial findings were right,” Haley says, “and that the soldiers haven’t gotten better with time.” Many of scans that his team unveiled here at SOT rely on a technology (fMRI) that was not available in the late ’90s. So it provides new evidence of what sets sick vets apart. This technology allows researchers to identify which areas are active as the brain works. Haley’s multicenter team designed a series of fMRI tests that required subjects to look at threatening pictures of a battlefield, or imagine the theme behind two words to come up with a third (”desert” and “humps” might be the clues given to suggest “camel”), or to learn words and recall faces. In healthy veterans, appropriate parts of the brain lit up as they thought, reasoned, viewed — even experienced extremes of temperature. But in men suffering from Gulf War Illness, Haley says, “a different part would often light up as their brain attempted to work around its damage.” Affected areas of the brain in each test varied. The thalamus, for example, is involved in attention and inhibition, Briggs explains. “It is activated differently in syndrome two versus controls,” he notes. Not surprisingly, people with that particular syndrome have problems with those traits. The researchers also correlated what combinations of areas in the brain respond in concert during particular tasks. And sometimes, the collection of brain locales that lit up in sick vets differed markedly from those in healthy vets (see images above). The background volume of blood flowing through the brain also varied substantially in sick vets, Haley notes, “which suggests decreased [brain] function.” But even more importantly, blood flow varied in unpredictable ways when the sick Gulf War veterans were administered a drug meant to stimulate parts of the brain susceptible to chemical damage, such as nerve-gas-type agents. In healthy vets and those suffering from syndrome one, blood flow to affected regions of the brain diminished, although not comparably; the drop in syndrome-one vets was about five times that in the healthy men. But among individuals suffering from Gulf War syndromes two and three, blood flow inappropriately spiked after administration of the drug. Other tests probed for faults in the integrity of the circuitry connecting deep gray matter — where the brain performs unconscious calculations and processing — with the layer of white matter that performs conscious reasoning. In vets with syndrome two, the most seriously ill of the groups, a special form of scans showed signs that the insulating sheath covering the “wires” connecting the gray and white-matter regions was seriously impaired. Concludes Briggs: “This tells us very clearly that in the syndrome twos — unlike either of the other syndromes, or the controls — their wiring is flawed.” The panoply of quantitative changes being revealed by brain imaging “is demystifying Gulf War Syndrome,” says Haley. Indeed, before long, he predicts, “we’re going to come up with tests whereby doctors can diagnose affected vets.” And one day, he hopes, the information emerging from these images may actually point toward treatments. Image: Healthy brain (left) shows response to pain from heat on the forearm. Different regions (right) respond to that heat in vets with Gulf War syndrome.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Mar 2010 | 12:17 pm Mystery of Half-Male Chickens SolvedSex cells in chickens make some individuals look half male and half female.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 12:01 pm Half-Cocked? Hermaphrochickens Challenge Gender Determination
Chicken sex doesn’t work like ours. No, not that sex — but the process by which an embryo becomes a recognizably male or female animal. Unlike mammals, it’s not hormones that dictate a chicken’s sex. It’s a fundamental property of the cells themselves. But this only became apparent when biologists investigated several odd chickens that were half male and half female, as if a line were drawn down the center of their bodies. “We assumed this was caused by one side of the body having some kind of sex chromosome anomaly,” said Michael Clinton, a University of Edinburgh developmental biologist and co-author of the study, described March 10 in Nature. “But when we looked at them closely, they were composed of entirely normal cells. We realized that birds don’t follow the mammalian model.”
There are a few oddball species such as the duck-billed platypus which has a whopping 10 sex chromosomes, making males XYXYXYXYXY. But the mammalian system was thought to represent a general rule among vertebrate species. And though birds have Z and W chromosomes rather than X and Y, and ZZ is male rather than female, they were thought to follow this rule, too. That’s why Clinton, along with fellow Edinburgh biologists Debiao Zhao and Derek McBrid, expected to find chromosomal malfunction in their half-female, half-male chickens, known as gynandromorphs. But the cells were perfectly normal. They just happened to be organized according to sex: cells with ZZ chromosomes on the male side, and cells with ZW chromosomes on the female side. As cells on both sides of the body were exposed to the same hormones, it wasn’t hormones that mattered to gender, as with mammals. Gender was a fundamental property of the cells. “These funky chickens, oddities of nature that they are, will provide new perspectives on questions of sexual identity long thought to have been resolved,” wrote Duke University cell biologists Lindsey Barske and Blanche Capel in a Nature commentary accompanying the findings. About one in 10,000 birds is gynandromorphic, but biologists assumed the mammal model applied to all vertebrates, said Clinton. To test the proposition, the researchers transplanted male cells into a female embryo, and female cells into a male embryo. In both cases, the cells continued to express their sex-specific hormones. Their fate was already set. The findings expand on earlier research by University of California, Los Angeles biologist Arthur Arnold, who has studied the brains of gynandromorphic zebra finches. They also fit with long-established observations that heavy hormone doses can only change the sex of chicken embryos, but only as long as the dose is maintained. Take the hormones away, and the chickens revert to their intended form. The big question is whether this kind of cell-based sexual identity will turn out to be a common sex-determining system in other vertebrates, write Barske and Capel. Clinton suspects it will. “We believe now that certainly all birds, and possibly lower vertebrates, will have a cellular identity,” he said. “Remnants of this cellular system may still exist in mammals, but it’s overridden by the effects of hormones.” Images: 1) Gyandromorph chicken reflected in mirror; male side white, female side brown./Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh. 2) Gyandromorph chicken./Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh. Thanks to Ed Yong for “half-cocked.” See Also:
Citations: “Somatic sex identity is cell autonomous in the chicken.” By D. Zhao, D. McBride, S. Nandi, H. A. McQueen, M. J. McGrew, P. M. Hocking, P. D. Lewis, H. M. Sang & M. Clinton. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7285, March 11, 2010. “An avian sexual revolution.” By Lindsey A. Barske and Blanche Capel. Nature, Vol. 464 No. 7285, March 11, 2010. Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Mar 2010 | 11:54 am Minority Births Set to Eclipse Whites in U.S.2010 could be the "tipping point" where the number of babies born to minorities outnumber white babies.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 11:30 am Ancient Norse Settlements Hit Cold SpellA long cooling period may have led to famine in Greenland and Iceland more than 1,000 years ago.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 10:30 am Crocodile Ate Our Human AncestorsNew evidence suggests that our human ancestors 2 million years ago were eaten by a large crocodile that lurked at the water's edge before closing its jaws on victims and drawing them under to their death. (Early hominids, possibly belonging ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 9:47 am Starling flock 'falls from sky'Mystery surrounds the deaths of 75 starlings which fell from the sky on to the driveway of a Somerset house.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 9:44 am Ancient eggshell yields its DNAThe eggshells of long-dead and extinct species are a particularly good source to find preserved DNA, researchers say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 9:38 am God Helps with Personal Decisions, Most Americans SayGod is involved in our everyday lives, most Americans believe.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 9:21 am International Space Station in New LightNo, this is not a new model Jedi TIE Fighter -- it's the very real International Space Station passing across the field-of-view of a German Earth-watching satellite known as TerraSar-X . This radar image, taken last March, shows how smooth ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:43 am Real-Life 'Hurt Locker' Bomb SuitI saw the movie, Hurt Locker, and wondered how that bomb suit could protect someone from death. Dvice has a great piece up that explains just that. The so-called explosive ordinance disposal suit has two layers, one rigid, one soft ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:25 am Harrabin's NotesEnvironmentalists and the EU lock horns over biofuelsSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:20 am Big Generation Gaps in Work Attitudes RevealedYoung workers called GenMe are more likely than their elders to value leisure over work and to place a premium on rewards such as higher salaries and status.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:20 am LHC gears up for world record energiesScientists in Geneva expect to generate beams of particles with three times more energy than previously achieved The giant machine designed to recreate conditions that existed moments after the big bang will attempt to run with enough energy to break a world record next week. The Large Hadron Collider, at the European nuclear research organisation (Cern) on the outskirts of Geneva, is expected to generate beams of particles with three times more energy than has ever been achieved before. The machine, which occupies a 17 mile (27km) circular tunnel 100m beneath the French-Swiss border, is expected to bring the speeding particles together within the next few weeks and continue operating until the end of 2011. In January Cern managers told staff the machine will close for a year in 2012 for essential maintenance and to install failsafe systems designed to protect the machine when it runs at full power from 2013. The £6bn collider was built to slam sub-atomic particles together at a maximum energy of 14 trillion electron volts (TeV), but the machine exploded soon after being switched on in September 2008. That incident shut the collider down for more than a year, while engineers attended to repairs that cost an estimated £24m. In January Cern officials decided to operate the machine at half-power from later this month until the end of 2011. The standard procedure of closing down briefly over the winter has been scratched for 2010-11. The explosion that closed the machine was caused by a short circuit that caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into the collider's tunnel. During the year-long shutdown scheduled for 2012, engineers will inspect 10,000 wires that connect giant superconducting magnets inside the machine. "It's likely that most of those wires will be modified in some way," said James Gillies, Cern's spokesman. Extra safety valves designed to vent liquid helium in an emergency will also be fitted. Inside the machine two counter-rotating beams of sub-atomic particles called protons will be accelerated around a circular racetrack to almost the speed of light. At four points around the ring the beams will cross over, slamming the protons into each other in head-on collisions. These orchestrated acts of violence release fleeting bursts of energy that recreate in microcosm the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the big bang. Last November Cern's collider became the most powerful in the world after crashing particles together at an energy of 2.36 trillion electronvolts. The previous record holder, the US Tevatron collider near Chicago, reached 1.96TeV. Scientists hope the machine will discover the elusive Higgs boson, which imbues other particles with mass; that it will find evidence for "supersymmetry", which postulates an invisible twin for every kind of particle in the universe; and that it will even expose the nature of dark matter, an invisible material that stretches across the cosmos and collects around galaxies. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 8:19 am Electronic Shirt Analyzes Pitcher's ThrowJust in time for Spring training. This electronic shirt analyzes a baseball pitcher's throw. That could keep the athletes in good form and reduce injuries, which cost the MLB organization $54 million a year in salary losses. The shirt was ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Mar 2010 | 7:58 am Effort to Map Human Brain Faces Complex ChallengesNeuroscientists hope to harness computing power to help map millions of miles of "wiring" that connects brain cells.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Mar 2010 | 7:12 am Science 'is a key election issue'The science spokesmen of the three main political parties cross swords on the issue of UK research funding.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 5:58 am An Olympic honour for Alan Turing?The 2012 Olympics offer the perfect chance to mark the anniversary of a great mathematician – and marathon runner Last year I led a campaign to obtain an apology for the mistreatment of the British mathematician Alan Turing. Turing's prosecution for homosexuality led to the death of a true genius at the age of only 41 in 1954. On 10 September last year, Gordon Brown issued an apology that recognised Turing's stature as one of the greatest Britons. But Britain has a final opportunity to unapologetically recognise Alan Turing in two years' time, at the 2012 Olympics. It's now well known that Turing laid down the foundations of computer science in the 1930s, helped shorten the second world war by breaking Nazi codes at Bletchley Park and investigated artificial intelligence. He went on to design early computers during the late 1940s and just before he died he was untangling the process of morphogenesis to understand why and how living beings take the shape they do. Only today are scientists appreciating the work he did in his last years, and every computer user can be thankful for his theoretical Turing machine, which captured the essence of the machines we all use. What is less known is that Turing was also an accomplished physical athlete. He was an excellent marathon runner, with a best time of 2 hours 46 minutes. He ran for a local club in Walton, Surrey while working at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. He is also said to have run between London and Bletchley Park for meetings during the second world war, and at age 14 he cycled 60 miles from Southampton to school at Sherborne during the general strike of 1926. The last time Britain hosted the Olympics, in 1948, Turing tried out for the British Olympic marathon team. He came fifth in the trials. He ended up attending the games as a spectator taking along two of his young nieces as guests. That year Britain took a silver in the marathon when Thomas Richards ran for 2 hours 35 minutes. Alan Turing was only 11 minutes slower. 2012 has great significance: it's the centenary of his birth on 23 June. To celebrate "Alan Turing Year", mathematicians and scientists across Britain and around the world are arranging events throughout the year. Celebrations of Turing's work will be held in Manchester (where he was living and working when he died) and at Bletchley Park. There's even a suggestion that Unesco should designate 2012 the year of computer science. Turing's life also deserves celebration far from the places he's most associated with. As Britons, we live in a world Turing helped create: computers have permeated our lives and his work at Bletchley Park with thousands of others helped bring the war with Nazi Germany to an end. As London shows off what's great about Britain through the Olympic games, let's show off a great Briton of whom we should be proud. What better way to honour Turing than by naming the 2012 marathon the "Turing marathon" and inviting his surviving nieces to witness the event? One of them could even be invited to fire the starting pistol that will set the runners off. Those little girls are elderly now, but their memories of Uncle Alan are bright. Inviting them would be a fitting tribute. Of course, detractors may be concerned about sullying the games by associating an individual with an event. But such concerns didn't stop Greece in 2004 from naming their entire Olympic stadium after Spiridon Louis (who won the marathon event in 1896). Honouring the life of a man would be a welcome antidote to the heavy commercialisation surrounding the games. Others may worry about raking over the embers of the dark days of anti-homosexuality laws. But there's little need to be concerned: celebrating Turing doesn't mean focusing on just that one aspect of his life; it means recognising a mental and physical athlete, a mathematician and marathon runner, and a man to whom we owe so much. It's rare that events coincide to give us one moment in time when a man like Turing can be celebrated in all his complexity. Let's not miss the chance in 2012. • This article was commissioned after the author contacted us via a You Tell Us thread guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 5:00 am Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to public, according to psychiatric studyEvaluation of Venables before his release in 2001 concluded the likelihood of the killer re-offending was minor A psychiatric evaluation of Jon Venables carried out before his release from prison concluded that he posed a "trivial" risk to the public and that the likelihood of him re-offending was "so negligible as to not amount to a serious consideration". The document, which was prepared by a leading psychiatrist in 2000 and is excerpted in today's Times, also noted that Venables had made "exceptional psychological progress" and come to terms with his part in the murder of James Bulger in 1993. "The Jon Venables of today is a very different person to the Jon Venables aged 10," the report noted. "It has been a very important part of his rehabilitation so far that he has come to terms in a wholly realistic way with the awfulness of his behaviour." It emerged last week that Venables, who was given a new identity and released on licence in 2001, has been recalled to prison following "extremely serious allegations". Media reports over the weekend suggested that Venables, now 27, had been returned to prison in connection with child pornography offences. It has also been suggested in the press that Venables has become mentally fragile, has been known to drink heavily and use drugs, and has revealed his true identity to others. Although the psychiatric report estimated that the chances of Venables being rehabilitated were "exceptionally high", it stressed that his progress depended on him being able to maintain his anonymity and continuing to receive the "appropriate support and guidance". It also recommended that he be released from juvenile custody rather than placed in the prison system, where exposure to drug taking and criminals would prove a "very major setback". The justice secretary, Jack Straw, has refused to bow to pressure to disclose the reasons for Venables's recall to prison, and has been supported by the judge who granted the former prisoner anonymity. Lady Butler-Sloss, the former president of the high court's family division, reiterated "the enormous importance of protecting his anonymity now and if he is released, because those who wanted to kill him in 2001 are likely to be out there now". She said: "This young man may or may not be tried. He may or may not have committed offences. There is, of course, at least the possibility that he has committed no offence. "And consequently, he may therefore be allowed again to be out (of jail) on licence." James Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, has accused the government of treating the issue like a political football and of closing doors in her face. She told ITV's This Morning that the days following the revelation of Venables' recall had been "a massive rollercoaster". Fergus confirmed she found out about Venables's recall when officials visited her home in Kirkby, Merseyside. "Any question I have asked them, I have had no answers and it's about time now I got some answers," she said. "I am sick of them closing doors in my face. It's about time they started telling me what I think I should know. As James's mother I have a right to know." However, Straw, who is due to meet Fergus later this week, said releasing further information was "not in the interests of justice" as it could threaten the fairness of any future trial. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 3:46 am Save the planet. But maybe not right nowDoomsaying precludes the possibility of ingenious solutions – and indicates a morbid vanity that we must be the saviours Isn't it welcome to have Ian McEwan as an advocate for a little optimism in the climate change debate? His hope, expressed in his new novel Solar, that humanity will prove ingenious enough to solve the problem through the skill of coming generations is a welcome change from those who portray our descendants as helpless victims of our "excess". Their injunctions to "save the world for our children and grandchildren" fly in the face of history, which repeatedly shows how progress – from the wheel to the internet – transforms the world picture as time marches on. The doom brigade has its moments, such as the collapse of the classical world in Europe, the Black Death and the first world war, but they are exceptions to learn from. And we have learned. Not to the extent of mastering clairvoyancy, however. Like miserabilism, a constant in human behaviour is the inability of Today to successfully imagine Tomorrow. The archive of prophecy and science fiction contains some good guesses, but in general the seers get it wrong. Which of my grandparents, addressing me in the 1950s, could possibly have foreseen today's IT? Which of my grandparents' grandparents had a notion of the bicycle or national parks? This is true of scientists as much as of the more general type of wise person. Science is too often mistakenly treated in the way that history was by those 19th-century Germans who thought that one day the whole truth could be set down. Certainty is not absolute. Scientists are ambushed by novelty – see Galileo, Pasteur, Darwin, Einstein – as often as the rest of us. None of this is to argue against the risks of global warming or prudence in facing them. It is to warn against vanity, in the form of the exaggerated belief that it is all down to our generation: here, now, hurry, rush. It's also an appeal against pessimism, because of the limitations glumness places on the very potential which, odds-on, will prove the planet's salvation. A writer in the Economist's most recent green supplement made this point neatly by questioning assumptions (rather reminiscent of Catholic dogma in Galileo's day) that spending the world's limited resources on Tomorrow rather than Today is necessarily morally right. The Economist's writer said: "Since future generations will probably be much richer than we are, it makes no more sense for us to sacrifice our wellbeing for them than it would to expect 18th-century peasants to go without gruel so we can buy more computers." That is the sort of sally that deserves a wide hearing. If we stall Today's wonderful spread of international knowledge, travel and general prosperity, we risk a future like Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, where unknown Miltons remain mute and inglorious and village Darwins never get further than their shacks. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Mar 2010 | 2:30 am World's largest meat-eating plant prefers to eat... small animal pooThe largest meat-eating plant in the world is designed not to eat small animals, but small animal poo, scientists discover.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Mar 2010 | 2:29 am
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