Virus Linked To Cause Of Skin Cancer

Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center are developing studies on a virus that is linked to the second most deadliest form of skin cancer. The researchers looked at tissue from 58 that have "squamous cell carcinoma" which is a form of skin cancer that is expected to hit more than 200,000 Americans in this year.

The virus was found in 15 percent of these tissues tested. Researches believe the virus develops a mutation as it is in the immune system and that causes a strong role in development in cancer. More studies are being preformed everyday in order to get a answer on how to stop this from happening.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/07/30/study_links_virus_to_some_cases_of_common_skin_cancer.html

New Cancer Gene Is Discovered

The researches in the Sahlgrenska Academy, which is located in the University of Gothenburg, Sweden have discovered a new cancer gene. This gene forms glandular cancer that occurs in the head and neck in women. "Adenoid cystic carcinom" is the name of the new cancer gland. Researches have discovered that it is a very slow growing gene but it is also very deadly at the same time. A genetic test can be used to correct any diagnosis.

This new cancer gene is known as a "fusion gene." That is when two normal healthy genes connect together as one. Researches are still doing testing on this gene to find out more reasons of what causes this to happen and to study treatments.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/13/new_cancer_gene_discovered.html

Major Flu Outbreak, Unique Way To Study The Virus Behavior

U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine Epidemiology Consult Service care are studying the outbreak of the swine flu. They are studying the patterns of the virus along with the behavior of it. This virus can still exist inside a person's body even when the person feels 100% percent better and continues their daily life activities.

The seasonal flu lasts for normally seven days. However, there is not study that proved that H1N1 will end in seven days such as the normal flu would. College outbreaks of swine flu are expected to continue to occur more throughout the winter. Researches are looking for more preventable things people can due in order to avoid this virus.

I think it is going to take a while for researches to develop a way to avoid someone from getting H1N1. People still are not prevented from getting the seasonal flu and that has been around much longer than swine flu.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/20/major_swine_flu_outbreak_at_us_air_force_academy_unique_opportunity_to_study_virus_behavior.html

Antioxidents and the H1N1 Influenza...

With H1N1 and other similar flu cases emerging everyday everyone is running to their doctors to get the flu vaccination and children have been giving the vaccination during school hours. The shortage of the vaccine for the H1N1 Influenza got a team of Alabama researchers thinking. The article explains that these researchers believe they have found an "Achilles Heel" for all types of the flu; including H1N1 Influenza. The team of researchers in Alabama believe that ANTIOXIDANTS- a plant-based food, will prevent the H1N1 from weakening our lungs. The H1N1 influenza damages our lungs through its "M2 protein" which, attacks the known as the epithelial cells that line the inner surface of our lungs. The M2 protein disrupts the epithelial cells' from removing liquid from inside our lungs, causing a high risk for pneumonia and other lung problems. These scientists conducted three different types of experiments with the M2 protein and the lung protein they damage.

The first experiment they injected frog eggs with the lung protein to measure its function. Next, they injected the frog eggs with both the M2 protein and the lung protein. Which, resulted in the decrease of the lung protein. Scientists then isolated the segment of the M2 protein that as responsible for the damage to the lung protein. Therefore, the protein can no longer damage the lungs. Since these scientists isolated the damaging segment of the protein they were able to re-inject the other proteins along with drugs that fight off oxidants. This also kept the M2 proteins from causing the lung damage. These scientists then replaced the frog eggs with human lungs and the results were still proving that antioxidants could prevent the M2 proteins from causing lung damage.

I found this article very interesting because my sister was recently infected with the H1N1 or flu virus she has been complaining about her lungs hurting. I explained to her about the M2 proteins attack the lungs and that antioxidants help fight and prevent lung damage.

Scientists Discover Influenza's Achilles Heel: Antioxidants. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 30, 2009 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091029125538.htm

Did the Earth once produce natural nuclear reactors?

A group of researchers have come to believe that Earth once produced oxygen that contained tiny nuclear reactors. The scientists came to this assumption because of missing radioactive mineral from geographical records. The radioactive oxygen could possibly have played an important role in the evolution of early life. Scientists have linked that oxygen produced over 2.5 billion years ago was mixed with a photosynthetic bacteria that the gas became a waste product in Earth's seas. Around, the same time uraninite a volcanically produced mineral started to disappear. Scientists believe that the oxygenated water dissolved the uraninite. The researchers developed their hypothesis further believing that when the oxygenated water dissolved the uraninite that grains of radioactive uranium was released and traveled to water banks and shorelines. When enough uranium is accumulated a fission reaction beginnings releasing the neutron radiation. Scientists are comparing this with the only known area in the world where fission naturally has taken place Oklo, showing chemical evidence that concentration of uranium reactors once burned. Scientists are further testing this hypothesis in hopes to prove that natural nuclear reactors were present in ancient Earth. If proven, this will change the way scientist's look at nuclear energy, radioactive waste disposal and health issues with humans coming in contact with the low levels of radiation.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1029/1

Ocean Acidity and the Decline of Oceanic Ecosystems

Small increases in many of the world's oceans' acidity are occurring because of the enormous amounts of carbon dioxide released by the environment; basically, this may be evidence for the theory of global warming. While this may seem like only a small change in pH, it has a disastrous effect on the development and survival of shellfish like hard clams, bay scallops, and Eastern oysters. Researchers at Stony Brook University performed experiments proving that the larval stages of the above shellfish are very sensitive towards larger levels of carbon dioxide in seawater, explaining their developmental decline.
Two instructors from the university performed lab experiments where larvae from three species of ecologically valuable shellfish were raised in containers with different amounts of carbon dioxide (this followed a pattern of what is projected for the future). In the containers with the amount of carbon dioxide expected to equal that of the ocean within the century, the clam and scallop larvae displayed a more than fifty percent decline in survival. The larvae that survived the conditions were smaller than normal and took much longer to develop into their juvenile stages. The survival ratings of oysters did not diminish under these conditions, but they did develop considerably slower; they are expected to experience a decline in survival during the next century's carbon dioxide levels. The university hopes to promote awareness and shellfish restoration projects through these experiments.


Source: Science Daily Magazine

'Death can tell us a lot about living,' mummy expert says

When you hear the word "mummy," you might think of the ancient Egyptians who preserved their rulers by drying out their bodies and wrapping them in bandages treated with special chemicals. They mummified bodies to protect them against decay. And, although we usually think of a mummy as a human being, animals -- and even plants -- can be mummified. Today, many scientists are using these mummies to learn how our bodies work. "You can see anatomy, you can see pathology, you can see if there has been surgery, like a bypass," says Wade

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/26/mummy.specialist/index.html

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 Satellite Launched Successfully

DigitalGlobe’s newest commercial imaging satellite was successfully launched into a 770-kilometer polar orbit Oct. 8 aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. WorldView-2, DigitalGlobe’s most capable satellite to date, is designed to collect black-and-white at half-meter resolution — sharp enough to discern ground objects of that size and larger — and multispectral imagery in eight bands at 1.8-meter resolution. With an ability to collect 975,000 square kilometers of imagery per day, the satellite will double Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe’s overall collection capacity.

http://www.spacenews.com/earth_observation/digitalglobes-worldview-2-satellite-launched-successfully.html

A Pet In Your Life Keeps The Doctor Away

he University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) stated that by have a "four footed furry animal" in your house can keep blood pressure lower, encourages exercise along with improves psychological health. Pets are believed to show unconditional love and may be part of answers to societal problems, such as inactivity and obesity.

For example, the older people who have dogs that need to get walked on a daily basis have improved their walking ability by 28% and the older people who only walked with humans only improved their walking capabilities by 4%. Humans walking with other humans tend to think of excuses as why not to go outside and walk, such as it's too hot or it's too windy, etc. Those who had a dog to walk, have to go outside for a walk regardless of the weather, their pet acts as that extra push some people need to go exercise.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/09/29/a_pet_in_your_life_keeps_the_doctor_away.html

One Shot Of Gene Therapy Allows Children With Congenital Blindness To See

The study of Gene Therapy allowing blind children to see was conducted in the University of Philadelphia School of Medicine. There is a story about a nine year old boy who would have to sit in the back of his school classroom with teacher aids showing his electronic large print screens. But now, he sits in the front of his classroom and needs no teacher aids to help him see anymore. This is because this child went through gene therapy to cure his problem. This same therapy was also used to help 5 other children along with 7 adults to help them to be able to see. Although they do not have the most perfect vision, they are not longer considered to be legally blind. I think this is a good therapy for people to gain eyesight. It's pretty interesting that researches can give someone sight just by gene therapy.


http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/25/1_shot_of_gene_therapy_and_children_with_congenital_blindness_can_now_see.html

I read an interesting article at Biology News Net www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/01/natural_killer_cells_keep_immune_system_in_balance.html concerning research into Natural Killer, or NK cells which play a vital role in our innate immune system. A healthy body produces NK cells to respond early during infection. They are activated and kill cells infected with a virus. Researchers from Brown and McGill Universities have found that NK cells are more important to the body then previously thought and also help T cells from becoming to numerous and activated to cause harm. This discovery could someday be used to help treat patients with compromised immune systems such as HIV patents or transplant patients. Patients with compromised immune systems may not be able to sustain NK cells on their own. The possibility to make NK cells proliferate is an important milestone to help sustain them in the body when needed according to Christine Biron, Professor of medical science at Brown University. The discovery is published in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

New Discovery of 32 Exoplanets

An international team announced Monday the discovery of thirty-two planets outside Earth's solar system. The exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), were detected by a highly efficient Chilean telescope. The device used detects slight movements of stars responding to different tugs and pulls of exoplanet's gravity. This radial velocity method "has been the most prolific method in the search for exoplanets," stated by the European Southern Observatory.

The number of exoplanets found is now at 75, out of a possible 400 known, and they spread over 30 planetary systems.

Gene Therapy Experiment

Gene therapy helped improve the sight in 12 patients who suffered from a rare disease known as Leber congenital amaurosis, which can make those affected blind by the age of 40.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091025/hl_nm/us_blindness_genetherapy

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre59l4sv-us-aids-vaccine-electricity/

Scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota show in a research report published online in the FASEB Journal that gene therapy may be used to improve an ailing heart's ability to contract properly. "We hope that our study will lead some day to the development of new genetic-based therapies for heart failure patients," said Todd J. Herron, Ph.D..

To make this advance, Herron and colleagues treated heart muscle cells from the failing hearts of rabbits and humans with a virus (adenovirus) modified to carry a gene which produces a protein that enables heart cells to contract normally (fast molecular motor) or a gene that becomes active in failing hearts, which is believed to be part of the body's way of coping with its perilous situation (slow molecular motor). Heart cells treated with the gene to express the fast molecular motor contracted better, while those treated with the gene to express the slow molecular motor were unaffected.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart failure is a condition where the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to meet the needs of other body organs. Approximately 5 million people in the United States have heart failure, about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and more than 287,000 people in the United States die each year of heart failure. The most common causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease, hypertension or high blood pressure, and diabetes. Current treatments usually involve three to four medicines: ACE inhibitors, diuretics, digoxin, and beta blockers.

Results from this study show that calcium-independent treatments could have implications for heart diseases associated with depressed heart function, due to the effectiveness of fast molecular motor gene transfer on the improved contractions of human heart muscle cells.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091005102649.htm

Brief shocks may deliver AIDS vaccines better

Brief electric shocks may help the body better respond to certain kinds of experimental AIDS vaccines. Sandhya Vasan of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York said the technique, called electroporation, may be particularly useful in delivering DNA vaccines, which use an infectious agent's own genetic material to elicit an immune response.

The brief shock temporarily opens up the cell membrane and allows a lot more of the DNA to get inside. When the vaccine was given by injection alone, only 25 percent of participants developed any immune response. But in its latest trial in 2007-2009 when the same vaccine was delivered using electroporation, the immune response appeared far stronger, Vasan told a meeting of AIDS vaccine researchers in Paris.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre59l4sv-us-aids-vaccine-electricity/

Synthetic Cells Shed Biological Insights While Delivering Battery Power

Researchers at Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describes a highly simplified model cell that not only sheds light on the way certain real cells generate electric voltages, but also acts as a tiny battery that could offer a practical alternative to conventional solid-state energy-generating devices. Each of these cells has a droplet of a water-based solution containing a salt, potassium and chloride ions, enclosed within a wall made of a lipid, a molecule with one end that is attracted to water molecules while the other end repels them. When two of these "cells" come into contact with each other, the water-repelling lipid ends that form their outsides touch, creating a stable double bilayer that separates the two cells' interiors, just as actual cell membranes do.

The researchers also inserted the cell a modified form of a protein, alpha-hemolysin, made by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. These embedded proteins create pores that act as channels for ions, mimicking the pores in a biological cell. "This preferentially allows either positive or negative ions to pass through the bilayer and creates a voltage across it," LaVan says. "We can harness this voltage to generate electric current."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091022141402.htm

Cocaine Exposure During Pregnancy Leads To Impulsivity In Male, Not Female, Monkeys

In a recent study done at Wake Forest University School of Medicine adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys.
For the study, researchers compared adult monkeys, both male and female, prenatally exposed to cocaine more than 15 years ago, to monkeys who were raised under similar conditions, but not exposed to cocaine during gestation. To determine if the animals differed in impulse control, they performed four tests. For one of the tests, the researchers gave the animals the choice between pushing a lever that delivered a single banana pellet reward immediately or a lever that delivered several banana pellets, but required the animals to wait up to five minutes before the reward was delivered.

"That's where we saw very large differences between the groups," Hamilton said. "The males who were exposed to cocaine in-utero had no patience or impulse control whatsoever."
Those monkeys were less willing to wait for a larger food reward and preferred the immediately available, though much smaller, reward, indicating they were more impulsive than the adult male monkeys who had never been exposed to cocaine. There was, however, no difference in the preference of female monkeys prenatally exposed to cocaine and those never exposed to the drug.

After all of the impulsivity tests were administered, the researchers ranked each monkey from least to most impulsive and compared their average impulsivity score across the four tests. The researcher found that the male, but not female, monkeys prenatally exposed to cocaine were more impulsive overall compared to control monkeys who weren't exposed.

Time-keeping Brain Neurons Discovered

Keeping track of time is one of the brain's most important tasks. As the brain processes the flood of sights and sounds it encounters, it must also remember when each event occurred. Neuroscientisits have theorized that the brain "time stamps" events as they happen. This allowes us to keep track of where and when an event took place. They could not find that this "time stamp" really existed until now. A team of researcher lead by Professor Ann Graybiel found groups of neurons in the primate brain that code time with extreme precision. "All you do is time stamp everything, and then recalling events is easy: you go back and look through your time stamps until you see which ones are correlated with the event," she says. Knowing the timing could lead to new treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, where the ability to control the timing of movements is impaired.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019162921.htm

Surgery for sleep?

'Uvopalatopharyngoplasty' is a type of surgery that has been shown to help certain patients who suffer from the sleeping disorder, sleep apnea. Basically, sleep apnea is when you stop breathing for a short moment when you're asleep and it causes you to wake up to make yourself breathe again, thus causing a very restless night's sleep for most people. "The procedure involves a tonsillectomy along with additional surgery to the palate and uvula. This is done to diminish the constriction of the throat tissues during sleep." I guess if you are desperate enough for a good night's sleep, surgery is an option for you.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091008152244.htm

Skin Cells and Brian Functions

Örebro University in Sweden have done studies on bipolar disorders and the like to see what causes them. Up until now, they have been a hard thing to study because no one really understands where they come from or how they occur. They studied a certain type of skin cells and noted that they behave much the same as certain brain cells. This new found information can help with coming up with new treatments and drugs for such brain disorders.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090603091133.htm

A cure for alcoholism???

A pill called 'Topiramate' has been found to be effective when treating alcoholism. It is meant to be a "therapeutic medication for decreasing heavy drinking and diminishing the physical and psychosocial harm caused by alcohol dependence." The article goes on to explain that this drug works by blocking how much 'feel good effects' are felt by the person. By making drinking a less enjoyable experience than it used to be for the person. I found this interesting because I have never heard of this drug, even though this article was published almost a year ago. I had heard about cigarette pills that can help to stop people from smoking, but not one for alcohol. What most people don't realize is that alcohol is, in fact a drug. A lot of people my age just go out and 'party' with out having a second thought about the negatives of drinking so heavily.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/1110-pill_to_fight_alcoholism.htm

Alcohol....and Flies?

The article explains how they (North Carolina State University) have done research showing that flies can adapt to alcohol exposure. The researchers studied how much time it took the flies to stagger from the intake of alcohol. What I found interesting was that they're testing this on FLIES. When, in reality, flies aren't the ones who suffer from alcohol addiction, at least not to my knowledge. I don't agree with this study at all. I know it would be inhumane to test this same experiment on human beings, but come on, FLIES?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021115157.htm

The Missing Link

This article was found in yesterdays NY Post on page 25. When IDA was originally found, she was thought to be the link that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. A new analysis of this skeletal remains does not support this finding. The fact is, IDA is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be. So says experts at Stony Brook University on Long Island. Professors there compared specific anatomical features of the 117 living and extinct primate species to draw a family tree. IDA represented a previously unknown primate species called Darwinius. While scientist said they weren't claiming Darwinius was a direct ancestor to monkeys, apes and humans, they did argue that it belongs in the same evolutionary grouping and that is showed what an actual ancestor of that era would look like. The new analysis suggests Darwinius does NOT belong in the same primate category as monkeys, apes and humans, but instead falls into another major grouping which includes lemurs. So as it turns out, the only thing missing from the original story were the facts. The story had more hot air then the balloon boy. Of course a book and TV documentary had already been produced about “Ida”, the so-called link. Now all they have to do is publish a book and do a documentary correcting the whole damn story. Don’t hold your breath.

New Structure Discovered in Butterfly Ears

Hearing On The Wing: New Structure Discovered In Butterfly Ears

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2009) — A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the University of Bristol.

The team believes that the remarkable structure may be associated with the detection of predators, in particular birds. The Blue Morpho butterflies (Morpho peleides), native to Central and South America, are more famous for their amazing wing colouration and now turn out to have ears on their wings.

The simple ear sits at the base of the wing and looks like a sheet of stretched rubber. This oval-shaped tympanal membrane, with an unusual dome in the middle, is attached directly to sensory organs and is responsible for converting sound waves into signals that can be picked up by nerve cells.

Using a tiny laser beam, lead researcher Katie Lucas scanned the surface of the membrane while it was in action, and found that lower pitch sounds cause vibrations only in a part of the outer membrane while higher pitch sounds caused the entire membrane to vibrate.

The unusual structure and properties of the membrane mean that this butterfly ear may be able to distinguish between low and high pitch sounds, and measurements of nerve recordings suggested the butterfly is more sensitive to lower pitches. Butterfly hearing is unusually sensitive to low pitch sounds compared to other insects with similar ears.

The structure of the membrane could mean the butterfly can hear a greater range of pitches, which as Katie Lucas and her colleagues postulate, may enhance the abilities of these butterflies to listen for birds. The team suggest that sensitivity to lower pitch sounds may detect the beating of birds' wings, while higher pitches may tune into birdsong.

The research was carried out by scientists working at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, University of Strathclyde and Carleton University, Ontario, Canada.

It was funded by a Journal of Experimental Biology Travelling Fellowship to Katie Lucas, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Innovation Trust, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK.

Grapes Can Squeeze Out Diabetes!!!

A naturally produced molecule called resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, has been shown to lower insulin levels in mice when injected directly into the brain. This even worked while eating a high fat diet resveratrol helped to prevent diabetes.

When acting directly on certain proteins in the brain, resveratrol may offer some protection against diabetes.

Insulin levels in the mice given resveratrol, actually started to drop and were halfway to normal by the end of the five-week study period, even though the animals remained on a high-fat diet.

By knowing that the central nervous system is involved, pharmaceutical companies can begin to focus on developing drugs that sirtuins the brain.

Cows That Gain More Weight, By Eating Less

Missouri is the third largest beef producer in the country and with the rise on cost of food, farmers are now struggling to feed their cows. Cows distribute more than one billion dollars to Missouri's economy.

Monty Kerley, professor of animal nutrition in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is studying how cows can gain more weight by eating less. Which can save farmers up to 40 percent on their cost of feed for their cows. Missouri University researchers are studying which biological process could make cows eat efficiently.

They examined the basic compound that cells use for energy, commonly known as ATP, using previous research that demonstrated how DNA influences weight gain in cows. Some animals can sythesis ATP faster than other animals, which helps them to use energy more efficiently.

"We would love to go to the rancher and say, 'you can reduce your feed cost 40 percent with the same weight gain,'" Kerley said.

It's pretty cool that this guy has figured out how to save farmers money and have cows eat less, but still gain the same amount of weight as they were when they were eating a lot of food. To learn more about this, just go to science daily.com

HIV NO MORE?

A trial of an HIV vaccine was done and Thailand was and proven to show signs of a protective effect.

Scientists said that the vaccines gave a 31% level of protection in trials among 16,000 heterosexuals aged 18-30.

This is no break through just yet. The scientists now believe that after 26 years of trying to find a vaccine, they are able to travel down the path with confidence.

Most people are arguing that their research was not eveluated properly and must be looked at again. There are many chances where people might not have taken their medication ect. Some of the research done came back in a differnent way. About 74 people who had the placebos became infected with the virus.

The vaccine is not ready to hit the stores just yet and will take some time to figure out what needs to be improved but science is a lot closer than they expected.

Quick Test for Airplane Liquids

Scientists have claimed that they have found a fast way to detect explosive liquids on an airplane. They call this process Hilbert spectroscopy.

All materials reflect light in a unique way and this devise will help to identify certain liquids based on their light reflection. This in turn provides a chemical "fingerprint" of the item being analysed.

Further developments are necessary to refine the approach. But the researchers are confident the technique can be applied to security screening.

However, the overall process of the screening is either too expensive or too time consuming to be done to every piece of luggage.

I like the idea behind this article because I hate buying a beverage in the air terminal and then being asked to disguard it upon boarding the plane. Airlines really find all way to take your money. I feel that this would stop that problem most people have and they would be able to identify normal liquids and liquids that could be dangerous.

Genetic Study For Southern Hemisphere Humpbacks

After 15 years of research, the Wildlife Conservation Society, unveiled the largest genetic study of humpback whale populations ever conducted in the Southern Hemisphere.

DNA samples of more than 1,500 whales were analyzed and are now able to get population dynamics. "Humpback whales are perhaps the most studied species of great whale in the Northern Hemisphere, but many of the interactions among Southern Hemisphere populations are still poorly understood," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program and lead author of the study. "This research illustrates the vast potential of genetic analyses to uncover the mysteries of how humpbacks travel and form populations in the southern ocean basins."

Scientists collected samples from living whales with biopsy darts fired from crossbows, which didn't harm the mammels, just skimmed there skin as they came up for air.

Some of the things they discovered: The highest rate of gene flow between populations is between the whales that breed on either side of the African continent. There is a lower rate of gene flow between humpbacks breeding on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

To find out more of the things they discovered and more about the experiment, just go to science daily.com

Stem Cell of Adults

U.S. scientists have found a way to produce stem cells from adults rather than embryos. It is hoped that stem cells could one day be used to repair damaged tissue. However, there had always been an ethical discussion about the harvesting of the stem cells. It was originally tested on cells in mice but then later tried it on humans.

"It was done by using viruses to insert four genes into the cells which prompt the switching on and off of other genes and cause the cells to revert to stem cells." (bbc.com)

But they have now discovered that by adding thiazovivin they doubled that to get 200 times the number of cells.

Absent Pheromones Turn Male Flies Into Lusty Lotharios

Professor Joel Levine's team genetically tweaked fruit flies so that they didn't produce certain pheromones, they triggered a sexual tsunami.

They produced bugs so irresistible that normal male fruit flies attempted to mate with pheromone-free males and even females from a different species-generally a no-no in the fruit fly dating scene.

"This is important not only from the point of view of understanding social dynamics, but it's also fundamental biology, because these pheromones provide recognition cues that facilitate reproductive behaviour," says Levine, an assistant professor of biology. "Lacking these chemical signals (pheromones) eliminated barriers to mating. It turned out that males of other species were attracted to females who didn't have these signals, so that seemed to eliminate the species barrier."

Researches then treated females bred without the hydrocarbons with a female aphrodisiac, this restored the barrier of preventing sex between species.

It's weird that if you just switched on this in a species, you could change the entire way that animal lived their life. To read more go to, science daily.com

Electric Promise

China has a new car company called BYD, which stands for build your dreams, which has produced a an E6 electric car due out before the end of the year will do 250 miles on a single charge. Unforunately the car has little room for anything in the car other than the battery. The battery is tucked under the back seat and leaves room for five passengers.

It will take 7-8 hours on a normal outlit to charge but as you can see to the left BYD has created charging points while has a plug the size of a fire hose and will charge your car in one hour.

If the goverment allows them to fufill their dreams. The E6 car will be the leading electric car. The E6 will sell for £30,000.

I would certainly buy one of these cars!

Arctic Lake Sediments Show Warming

Sediment cores at a remote Arctic Lake, show that biological and chemical changes have been occurring for the past 200,000 years and the main cause is humans. The University of Colorado is going to find out exactly what is going on with our world.

Most scientists believed that the causes were natural and just occurring because of the wobbles in the Earth's orbit. But, recently scientists have found that the changes on Earth are caused by human activity, like the greenhouse emissions.

Basically, this article is informing people that our world is melting because of the things we want and need everyday. To read more about this article, go to science daily.com

Liver Cells vs. Ethnic Groups

Scientists have produced liver cells from different ethnic groups to help personalize drug treatments. In each ethnic group, the liver processed drugs differently.

They have created the liver cells from skin cells in Caucasians and Native Americans. They manipulated the skin cells to resemble embryonic cells.

The scientists are hoping to create a cell library to make drug development more efficient. The library would help scientists to interfere with chemical compounds at an early stage to effect the reaction.

This seems like a very good idea to do so that people feel more comfortable with the drugs they are given. They know it was personalized for them and should help them more efficiently.

Folic Acid in Bread

The Food Standard Agency has claimed that adding folic acid to bread should be mandatory. By adding the folic acid in bread it could stop dozens of babies from developing spina bifida.

Pregnant woman are supposed to take suppliments of folic acid during their pregnancy but some take it too late and others do not take it at all. Putting it in bread would be a better way for woman to get the acid they need without the process of pills.

Experts say that between 700 and 900 pregnancies are effected by spina bifida every year. The folication could reduce that number up to 18%.

However, the overall population who take folate-rich foods can be at risk for cancer. The body can not store folic acid and must be digested daily.

I would think that this would be a positive breakthrough for science however after reading the article from bbc.com I am not sure if this would be a great idea or not.

Scientists Watch Evolution Unfold

At Michigan State University, there has been a 21 year experiment going on that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks. Charles Darwin wrote the Origin of Species about 150 years ago and this was the first lead to there being an evolution.

MSU professor Richard Lenskidocument the process in their analysis of 40,000 generations of bacteria. He started out by growing cultures of fast-reproducing, single-celled E. coli bacteria in 1988.

"It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations," Lenski said.

Researchers have discovered 45 mutations of surviving cells. According to Darwin's theory, those mutations should have conferred some advantage, and that's exactly what the researchers found.

To read more on this story and find out what researchers hope to learn from these experiments, go t0 science daily.com

New Type of Flying Reptile Discovered

Basically during prehistoric times there were long-tailed flying reptiles known as pterodactyls that dominated the skyline. These beasts were believed to have been replaced by a shorter-tailed version, one that was much more advanced than the other. However, there was no evolutionary link between the two prehistoric animals until now.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/13/new_type_of_flying_reptile_discovered.html

Smoking During Pregnancy=Psychotic Children?

Many studies have shown that smoking throughout your pregnancy can be harmful to the baby, but this study shows that smoking may cause your child to develope psychotic symptoms in their teenage years. Four British Universities interviewed 6,356 12 year old kids in search for these psychotic symptoms. 19% of the kid's who showed "some" symptoms had mothers who smoked during the pregnancy. 11% (734 of the total group) had definite symptoms of psychosis, and had a mother who smoked often throughout her pregnancy. Alcohol also has the same affect on the child. The reason for the link is not completely known but they suspect that exposure to tobacco (and alcohol) in the womb has great affect on the child's brain function like impulsivity, attention, or cognition.

Strange Dinosaur Behavior Discovered

Geologists from Brigham Young University in Utah have recently discovered literally thousands of bones in the city of Moab. A total of 4,200 bones were collected, accounting for 8 species of dinosaurs; however, almost all of the bones were fractured. Subsequent tests proved that the bones were pulverized shortly after becoming present, as a "greenstick" fracture in a bone indicates that its presence is fresh. It has been hypothesized that herbivorous sauropods and iguanodontids stomped over the carcasses of smaller dinosaurs while trying to reach a shrinking lake; this also indicates that the extinction of dinosaurs in this particular area was due to a massive drought. It has been assumed that the bones were crushed during the Early Cretaceous Period of prehistoric history.


Source: Brigham Young University

Scientists have a fist look at live cell to cell communication!!!

The basis of a human body's cells' ability to communicate with one another is the vesicle. That little ball packed with biological material is the medium through which all of our billions of cells coordinate with each other to keep our conscious stable and our bodies responsive. However, despite that importance, high resolution live imagery of cell and vesicle interaction has remained elusive.
Now, scientists from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded producing the first hi-res live recording of the interaction. In the nearer term, this development could greatly assist the study of diseases, like schizophrenia and Huntington's, that result from vesicle-cell interaction failure.
To record the union of cell and vesicle, the researchers created vesicles and cell membranes with half of a fluorescent compound. When the two fused together, the fluorescent compound became complete, emitting light. Sensors detected the light, and a computer analyzed the qualities of the light to determine the shape of the vesicle during fusion.
Currently, the technology only works in the lab. However, the same process applied in a living, working organism would let sensors move beyond the crude measurement of electrical signals and record the the brain and body own, biochemical, language in real time hi-res. Something tells me the Singularity folks are going to be pretty happy about that.

http://www.popsci.com/node/39546

Pregnant Woman Gets Pregnant AGAIN!!!

A woman in Arkansas who is already weeks pregnant with one baby was impregnated again. Therefor there are two fetuses, that are NOT twins. Julia Grovenburg was already two weeks pregnant with one baby when she conceived her second baby, when she went for a checkup the doctors were shocked when they heard a second heart beat. This condition is called "Superfetation", and it is very rare. The difference in the two fetuses ages is so small that there shouldn't be any developmental problems if the first one is carried to term. This is the weirdest thing i have ever heard of! creepy!!

http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/09/25/pregnant-woman-amazingly-impregnated-again/

New Cancer Gene

Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden has divcovered a new cancer gene. The gene causes an insidious form of glandular cancer usually in the head and neck and in women also in the breast. This is a slow-growning cancer, but deadly. In the researach they found that this gene can be found in 100% of all tumours. This means that a genetics test can be used to correct the diagnosis.

The newly discovered cancer gene is what is known as a fusion gene, created when two healthy genes join together as a result of a chromosome change. Before this researchers thought that they fusion gene was only really caused leukaemia. They found that this gene is most common in glandular.

One of the two genes that form the fusion gene is known as MYB. This gene controls cell growth and makes sure that the body gets rid of cells that are no longer needed. It has long been known to be a highly potent cancer gene in animals, but for a long time there was no evidence of the gene being involved in the development of tumours in humans.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/13/new_cancer_gene_discovered.html

Alligator Blood Used For New Medicines

In Louisiana Chemists just discovered that alligator blood can be used to create new antibiotics. These antibiotics can be used against HIV. It is reported that alligator blood can get rid of 23 lines of harmful bacteria. There is still more research getting done, but scientists now know that alligator's blood helps the animal reject harmful infections and is working to get the same effect for humans. This was kind of a strange article. I'm not really sure if I would use medicine that had alligator blood in it...what do you think?

Waretown Man wins Nobel Prize in Physics

While reading October 8^th’s Beacon I was surprised by a story about a Waretown resident that won the Noble Prize for physics. Not so much that the man, George Smith had won, but what he had won for and the date of the invention. Mr. Smith and a former colleague of his invented the CCD, or Charged Coupled Device, which is what makes digital photography possible. This is something I hear about in my household all the time since I have been married to a professional news photographer for the past 26 years. He is always cleaning the CCD in his cameras, and complaining about the particles he cannot remove from the CCD. I had thought this was an invention that had come about in the past 1o years, since my husband’s newspaper had only made the transformation to digital about 10 years ago. As it turns out the digital photograph has been around for quite sometime, it’s just the quality of the final product that has evolved, according to my husband.

soy reduces Diabetes Risk

Nutrition scientists (led byYoung-Cheul Kim, University of Massachusetts Amherst) say the molecular pathway that lets "foods rich in soy bioactive compounds" called isoflavones, lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Soy is a common source of isoflavines, it's able to lower cholesterol, decrease blood glucose levels and improve glucose tolerance in people with diabetes. Kim says "We found that daidzen and equol enhanced adipocyte formation of fat cells,through the activation of a key transcription regulator, the same receptor that mediates the insulin sensitizing effects of anti-diabetes drugs. They seem to work in a similar manner as anti-diabetic drugs on the market." The downstream responses increased three proteins, and enhanced glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity.The new findings help them understand the cellular mechanisms and fill a gap in their observations and clinical studies on the anti-diabetic benefits of soy.

Progress in technology helps blind people to see

There is hope for blind people to see, although it starts only with images of a certain objects. I thought that this article (posted in New York Times) was pretty amazing mainly because it can really change people's lives! The patients, who are participating in this project, have electrodes surgically implanted in the eye, a camera on the bridge of their nose, and a video processor strapped to their waist. This three-year research project, involving patients in the United States, Mexico and Europe, has already provided some great results. For example, a patient who was blind can now detect burners on a stove, a mirror frame, and where the computer monitor is. Of course, every project takes time and this one is no different. Some people have mixed feelings about it and some think it is great. I think it is great, especially if somebody cannot see anything and then, with a little help from technology, can get some level of vision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/health/research/27eye.html?

Solar Power for Everything.

Neal R. Armstrong and his research group Placenia, are in the running for creating a thin and flexible (and portable) organic solar cell that can power many things. He walks around with one on his backpack and charges his laptop , cell phone, and ipod with it. He thought about how much energy goes into charging these items up and says "You start to do the math and thinking about the number of consumer electronic devices that you and I have added to our lives in the last decade, that I charge up typically once every night- my laptop and my cell phone etc. Then you start thinking about, 'What if I do buy an electric car, and I come home at night and plug that sucker in,' and you do the same thing. We'll shut this grid down in no time." He displays a sample in his office, a 1-inch square of glass with a thin film of indium tin oxide, a conducting transparents oxide, then a thin film of organic dyes and lastly a layer of aluminum electrodes. The thickness is about 400 nanometers (one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair), but shine some light on it and you have electricity...pretty amazing! Erin Ratcliff is involved and she said "We're right at the magic moment, We're right there. It's exciting to read the literature and hope that, yes, we will take off. It will be so exciting to say 'I was there for that!'" The things people can come up with anymore..

Green Racing?

This car on the left is the world's first sustainable racing car that will be racing on October 17th, 2009 in the Formula 3 at Brands Hatch. The part that makes it interesting is that it runs on chocolate and animal fats and is lubricated with plant oils. The car is made up of woven flax, recycled carbon fiber,resin and carrot pulp. It's top speed is 135 and goes 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. Dr. Kerry Kirwan (University of Warwick, a funded researcher) says "People's perception of motorsport is that it's wasteful, this project aims to show ways for the future, for people to race and be green."
http://www.impactworld.org.uk/ video.

Tetris: Strengthening the Brain

It has often been argued that video games rot or even modify the brains of humans in ways that cause extreme violence and even death. A recent scientific test completed by the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico confirmed the exact opposite for the classic game many people know and love, Tetris.
After gathering a group of twenty-six female adolescent players, it was noted that those who practiced the game often during a three-month period had a higher level of brain efficiency, a generally thicker cortex, and a substantial increase in total gray matter. Those who did not practice the game very often obviously did not have the same levels of brain efficiency, indicating that the classic game is responsible for making people "smarter" in regards to memory, processing speed, and spatial reasoning. MRIs were used to diagnose the advancement in the brains of the test subjects.


Source: Biology News Net

More Lung Cancer with the New Change in Cigarettes

New research shows the changes in cigarette designs bring even more risk for cancer of the lungs. Everyone knows smoking itself can do this to you, but the study says a smoker's risk of getting cancer is now higher. Smoker's usually get lung cancer in large air tubes called "squamous cell carcinoma", once the lower tar filtered cigarettes came out it introduced "adenocarcinoma", which grows really deep down in the lungs. This happens when the smoker inhales more deeply to get the full effect of nicotine, pushing the smoke deeper into the lungs. Since the change squamous cell carcinoma has stayed the same yet, adenocarcinoma rose about 65%. Just because the cigarette has lower nitrosamine levels doesn't mean they are any better for you. Dr. Neal Benowitz (University of California, tobacco expert) says "Lung cancer is only one of tobacco's many risks- it causes heart disease and other killer diseases, too. If you reduce someone's lung cancer risk by 10%, thats not really meaningful for the individual, the goal is to stop them."

Swine Flu Vaccination

Parents are concerned about their children and the H1N1 virus. There now is a swine flu vaccination out, the Food and Drug Administration gives it a thumbs up saying "It's made the same way as regular seasonal flu vaccines, with minor side effects, and there has been no safety issues in the several thousand people studied." The Center for Disease Control added "the effectiveness of this vaccine varies on the age and condition of health the individual is in." Parents are divided with this. 41% would get their child seasonally vaccinated for the flu, 22% would not. For the Swine Flu 35% would get their child vaccinated while 14% said definitely not, and half said it would depend. 57% of these parents are concerned about their children getting the swine flu, but 65% are very concerned with the newness of this vaccine. 1,502 interviews were done to complete this survey. The Swine Flu vaccination's are currently out.

NASA telescope discovers giant ring around Saturn

NASA has discovered a never before seen ring around Saturn. This discovery may be able to answer some questions about Saturn's many moon's that orbit with in it's parameters. The Spitzer Space Telescope, which launched in 2003, was what discovered this ring and is currently 66 million miles from Earth in orbit around the sun.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091007/ap_on_sc/us_saturn_giant_ring

Carcinogen Found in KFC’s New Grilled Chicken

KFC calls its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken “the better-for-you chicken for health-conscious customers.” But recent PCRM tests of the new grilled chicken revealed substantial amounts of a carcinogenic chemical in all samples tested.

http://www.pcrm.org/newsletter/jun09/carcinogen.html

Rare White Killer Whale Spotted In Alaskan Waters

The white killer whale was spotted with its pod about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, was able to catch the whale’s white fin and back.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080318203016.htm

Fish-Killing Toxin Could Kill Cancer Cells

There is a fish killing toxin that has many of the properties for killing off cancer cells. The toxin is called euglenophycin, it has a molecular structure similar to a solenopsin, an alkaloid from fire ant venom. Moeller working in NOAA's Center for Human Health Risk in Charleston, S.C., began to research more on the toxin. He later found out that there is a potential to the toxin. It can be used in treating cancer patients. Tests have shown that even low concentrations of euglenophycin led to a significant decrease in cancer cell growth, and can kill cancer cells. Further tests will be performed to see if the toxin can prevent tumors from growing. This is definitely a great discovery for the medical world.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002104022.htm

Bees Fight Back

The Agricutural Research Service wanted to develop bees with a genetic trait that would allow them to easily find the mites and toss them out of the broodnest. Because of this experiment, honey bees are fighting aggressively against Varroa mites. The mites attack the honey bees and begin to feed on a combination of blood and fluid inside the bee. thus could eventually weaken or kill off the colony. Varroa-sensitive hygiene (VSH) is a genetic trait of the honey bee that allows it to remove mite-infested pupae. ARS scientists have developed honey bees with high expression of the VSH trait. Honey bees that now have this VSH trait are more likely to fight off the mites longer and help their colonies lives healthy lives.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002103210.htm#

Should We Let the Pandas Die Out?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/wild-life-expert-pandas-die/story?id=8668627

An interesting view of one nature host, Chris Packam says that the time for pandas has come to an end. He is quoted as saying, "they are not very bright, they have many challenges reproducing in captivity, and because they live in the most populous country on the planet, China, their environment is shrinking." A very different point of view then that of most people Packam just doesn't seem to think that pandas are worth the time and money, and are basically at an evolutionary dead-end.

Was mighty T-Rex 'Sue' felled by a lowly parasite?

When looking at the giant T-rex, the Chicago museum likes to call "Sue", you think of all the things that that t-rex has once encounter in its life millions and millions years ago. You see holes in her jaw which they had thought to be nothing more then a fight with another dinosaur gone wrong, But some new information was brought to everyones attention.

Turns out the Giant seven ton dinosaur had a parasite in it, that still affects most common birds today. Its an avain parasitic infection called trichomononsis. From that infection the T-rex, that spread to maybe throat and mouth, the T-rex starved to death. For more information heres the link http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090929133117.htm

Aspirin and the 1918 Flu Pandemic.

The misuse of aspirin may have made the death toll of the 1918 influenza pandemic worse that it should have been. The article explains how that the use of aspirin was used very widely. Families needed hope for a cure and doctors were prescribing it because they didn't really know what else to do. This combined with no one understanding the risks behind aspirin and the toxicity that it could cause, helped to make the pandemic worse. I think that this article was written and the research was done on this topic because of the swine flu that is happening right now. No one wants to make the same mistake twice.

Link:http://www.idsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=15396

Cholesterol and Brain Development.

A Swedish study that was done on lab rats indicates that cholesterol is needed for brain development. The article has a lot of 'scientific language' that I don't really understand. However, the main gist that I did get from this article was that a specific type of cholesterol, called oxysterol, as well as dopamine-producing nerve cells are needed for many brain functions. This includes things like motor functions and thing of that sort. These cells are the cells that die when a person has Parkinson's disease. What researchers have found is that when stem cells are treated with the oxysterol, will form more dopamine-producing nerve cells....this means that this could be a possible advancement in how to treat Parkinson's disease. I found this article interesting because my pop-pop died from Parkinson's disease and I never really knew what it really was...

Link:http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/03/cholesterol_necessary_for_brain_development.html

Lip balm and cancer.

That's right. Just when you think you're safe in applying lip balm, they tell you it's another thing that can give you cancer. Figures. The article explains how dermatologist, Christine Brown, has done the research for this. She explains how the lips are a sensitive area on the face and is more susceptible for skin cancer. She goes on to explain how applying a shiny lip gloss or chap stick actually increases the light penetration from the sun and can create a higher risk for skin cancer. I couldn't believe this article when I first saw it. However, I am very glad to know that the lip balm or gloss itself does not cause cancer.

Here's the link: http://www.ebiologynews.com/4242.html

Biologists Found The First Lungless Frog

In Borneo, Indonesia biologists discovered a frog that can breathe in water without a pair of lungs. It is a frog that gets in its air only by its skin, no lungs are needed. I thought that was pretty weird that anything could live and breathe without a set of lungs. A Barbourula kalimantanensis is the type of frog this is. In 1978, a scientist actually came across this very same frog, but they did not think it was anything different so they did not dissect it at that time.

http://www.ebiologynews.com/4247.html