Any older person can attest that aging muscles don’t heal like young ones. But it turns out that’s not the muscle’s fault. A study in the Feb. 17 issue of Nature shows that it’s old blood that keeps the muscles down.
The study, led by Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, built on previous work showing that old muscles have the capacity to repair themselves but fail to
Fossils push human emergence back to 195,000 years ago
When the bones of two early humans were found in 1967 near Kibish, Ethiopia, they were thought to be 130,000 years old. A few years ago, researchers found 154,000- to 160,000-year-old human bones at Herto, Ethiopia. Now, a new study of the 1967 fossil site indicates the earliest known members of our species, Homo sapiens, roamed Africa about 195,000 years ago. “It pushes back the beginning of anatomically modern humans,” says
Researchers have long puzzled over the apparently multiple causes of complex developmental disorders such as schizophrenia. Individuals seem to be predisposed to the disease by a tragic, mysterious combination of genetics, prenatal trauma, viral infection, and early experience. And its array of symptoms–including hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and antisocial behavior–has defied simple explanation.
In experiments with rats, however, researchers led by led by Gerard J.M. Ma
Injecting spinal-epidural analgesia in early labor does not increase cesarean delivery rates and provides better pain relief and a shorter duration of labor than systemic opioid analgesia, according to an article by Northwestern University researchers published in the Feb. 17 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Epidural injections are administered into the space between the wall of the spinal canal and the sheath covering the spinal cord and anesthetize the abdominal, genital an
Weight limits for biggest black holes confirmed
The very largest black holes reach a certain point and then grow no more. That’s according to the best survey to date of black holes made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Scientists also discovered previously hidden black holes well below their weight limit. These new results corroborate recent theoretical work about how black holes and galaxies grow. The biggest black holes, those with at least 100 million times th
There were nearly 2.9 million new cases of cancer and more than 1.7 million cancer deaths in Europe last year, according to new estimates in a report published today (Thursday 17 February) in Annals of Oncology [1]. The authors warn that the ageing of the European population means that these figures will continue to rise, even if incidence and mortality rates for specific age groups remain constant.
They also say that it is vital to make a major assault on the four biggest kille
Several large earthquakes with magnitude higher than 8 on the Richter scale have already occurred along the margins between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, under the ocean off Ecuador and Colombia. This region is vulnerable, all the more so because since the 1980s, Ecuador’s oil export terminal is sited within it. More information is needed on this zone of extremely high seismic risk. For this reason, two scientific campaigns, “Amadeus” and “Esmeraldas” were launched on 3 Februa
ESA’s SMART-1 mission was extended by one year, pushing back the mission end date from August 2005 to August 2006.
ESA’s Science Programme Committee endorsed unanimously the proposed one-year extension of SMART-1 on 10 February 2005. The extension by one year of the mission will provide opportunities to extend the global coverage, compared to the original six-month mission, and to map both southern and northern hemispheres at high resolution. The new orbit will also be more stab
Unmatched performance of Biacore T100 supports critical decision-making from research through to manufacturing and QC
Uppsala, Sweden, February 7, 2005. Biacore International AB (Biacore) (SSE: BCOR) today announced the launch of Biacore T100, a new generation system for protein interaction analysis.
Biacore T100 provides comprehensive information about how proteins interact with other molecules. The unique information generated by Biacore T100 is invaluable for many ap
Although most people think of California when they think of earthquakes, the Feb. 10 quake in Arkansas was not unusual, said UAB geologist Scott Brande, Ph.D. “There are fault zones throughout the Eastern United States, and many are associated with the Appalachian Mountains.
The one causing the earthquake in Arkansas was the New Madrid seismic zone, which has a long history of earthquake activity. Hundreds of earthquakes occur there each year along the borders of Missouri, Kentucky, T
Making the Nature Conservancy’s list of Last Great Places doesn’t guarantee a safe habitat. The osprey, a fish-feeding bird, nests along the Delaware River and Bay and continues to face contaminated living conditions. Although stable, osprey reproduction is stressed, according to an article published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Ospreys and other wildlife share the Delaware River and Bay area with factories, manufacturers and water traffic using
Keeping watch on the world from orbit is helping to make it a safer place to live, heard European journalists visiting the Earth and Space Week in Brussels. Experts recounted how Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative is already delivering operational information services and it is set for further expansion.
A day-long series of press briefings at the Earth and Space Expo focused on the joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and ESA known as G
The European Vaccine Effort against HIV/AIDS, today announced that a phase I clinical trial of novel investigational vaccines comprising DNA-HIV-C and NYVAC-HIV-C for the prevention of HIV infection has started in Lausanne and London in February 2005. These vaccines are based on HIV subtype C, which is prevalent in China, India and sub-Saharan Africa, and constitutes more than 50 percent of the new HIV infections worldwide.
The phase I clinical trial, with the EuroVacc Foundat
Finnish researchers have discovered an interesting link between lactose malabsorption and the occurrence of bone fracture in elderly people.
It was three years ago that the Finnish researchers first identified a change affecting a single alkali in the human genome related to primary lactose malabsorption. The change is the conversion of cytosine to thymidine (genotype C/T) and it makes a person tolerate lactose for the rest of his/her life. Without this genetic change (genotype C/
In close co-operation with the Directorates General for External Relations, Development and the EuropAid and Co-operation Office, the European Commission’s Directorate General, Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) is contributing to European Union initiatives in Africa by developing a dedicated Environmental Information System based on satellite and computermapping technologies.
This provides information on food needs, helps the European Commission Humanitarian Office provide aid in the
Parrots, long a favorite pet animal, are attractive to owners because of their vibrant colors. But those colors may mean more to parrots than what meets the eye.
For more than a century, biochemists have known that parrots use an unusual set of pigments to produce their rainbow of plumage colors, but their biochemical identity has remained elusive. Now, an Arizona State University researcher has uncovered the chemistry behind the colors of parrots, describing on a molecular level
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