If Brazil gets a climate protocol, like the Kyoto Protocol for the rich countries, it will be possible to create an incentive for the country to reduce the deforestation of the Amazon region. The Kyoto Protocol targets a reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
In a new study, Martin Persson, in collaboration with Christian Azar, at the Section for Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has examined how to deal with emissions of carbon di
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute have found that changes in the “powerhouse” of cells, the mitochondria, play a key role in aging. The findings are being published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.
Mitochondria, which provide energy to cells, have their own set of DNA. Mutations of mitochondrial DNA increase with age, but until now no one knew whether this is a result of aging or a cause of aging. New research findings now indicate that the latter is the case.
Mice w
Researchers from Newcastle University in the UK have ended a 15-year search for the gene that causes the rare Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. (CdLS).
CdLS affects just one in 40,000 live births but can be devastating, with affected youngsters having growth problems, missing or deformed limbs, gastro-intestinal disorders, seizures, cardiac problems, neurological, learning and behavioural difficulties and oro-dental issues.
Doctors in the USA and Europe knew that there was likely to be a rogue
Evidence based practice is currently in vogue, and basing medical practice on published evidence is clearly a good idea, but what if the published findings are inaccurate? An article published this week in BMC Medical Research Methodology shows that a large proportion of articles in top science and medical journals contain statistical errors, 4% of which may have caused non-significant findings to be misrepresented as being significant. Thirty-eight percent of the Nature papers and a quarter
The response of glaciers to global warming is an important element in understanding climate change, involving sea-level change and changes to the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic. To predict changes in the future it is vital to understand the behaviour of the sub-glacial bed. But reliable data is a prerequisite.
In the first investigation of its kind in the world the University of Southampton’s interdisciplinary GLACSWEB team is recording glacier behaviour through a network of
Periconceptional use of folic acid supplements is effective for the primary prevention of neural-tube defects and is recommended by reproductive health researchers
Recent research in this area, however, centres on two main debated questions. The first one is whether the use of folic acid alone or folic acid-containing multivitamins is better. The second one is whether high dose of folic acid (e.g. 5 mg) might be better than a daily multivitamin with low dose 0.4 – 0.8 mg of folic acid
By linking biometrics with cryptographic authentication, the VIPBOB IST project has developed a new and more secure method of verifying a person’s unique identification number using an old-fashioned, but proven method – the fingerprint.
Biometrics refers to the measurement of certain properties of the human body, such as the ridges on the fingertip, the structure of this iris or the pattern of speech. Many of these properties are truly random – they are different even for genetically i
A new kind of wireless network protocol that is based on IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) allows users to link to network no matter which platform.
“What we’ve designed is a system that is platform independent,” says Tommi Saarinen of Oulu University, Finland, and 6HOP coordinator. “It can be used with the ordinary 802.11x wireless LAN cards you can buy in shops. The difference is that the 6HOP system was designed around IPv6 from the start, and also supports IPv4 legacy networks.”
A vaccine against allergies. This may be the eventual result of research at Uppsala university in Sweden. New findings are presented by Anna Ledin in her doctoral dissertation. She vaccinated dogs and rats against their own IgE antibodies, and shows that their allergic symptoms diminished.
The type of antibody called IgE is part of the body’s defense against parasites, but today it is best known for its key role in allergic reactions. IgE is what brings about an allergic reaction. Normally i
Looking closely at unhealthy, discolored plants in Texas Panhandle wheat fields is part of Dr. Charles Rush’s job. He is a plant pathologist with Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. But the scientist knows the damage isn’t drought-induced at all.
The damage is caused by two different viruses, the wheat streak mosaic and the High Plains, he said. Both are transmitted by the wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella), common to the central plains of the United States.
“In the p
The discovery of millions of micro-microbes surviving in a 120,000-year-old ice sample taken from 3,000 meters below the surface of the Greenland glacier will be announced by Penn State University scientists on 26 May 2004 at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, Louisiana. The discovery is significant because it may help to define the limits for life on Earth as well as elsewhere in the universe, such as on cold planets like Mars.
According to Penn S
Researchers from Ohio Wesleyan University suggest that some birds may select nesting material with antimicrobial agents to protect their young from harmful bacteria. They present their findings at the 104th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“If the fresh herbs and plant materials that parent birds bring into the nest have a sufficient concentration of antimicrobial compounds, they could protect the nestlings from harmful bacteria,” says researcher Jann Ichida.
A study by scientists with the Veterans Affairs’ Neurobiology Research Laboratory and UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute shows that brain cells containing the chemical histamine are critical for waking.
Detailed in the May 27 edition of the journal Neuron, the findings show that the cessation of activity in histamine cells causes loss of consciousness during sleep, while cessation of activity in other brain cells–those containing the brain chemicals norepinephrine or serotonin–causes lo
Computer model shows why some get sick after TB infection, while others don’t
University of Michigan microbiologists have created a virtual model of the human immune system that runs “in silico” to study what happens inside the lungs after people inhale Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB.
The computer model is helping scientists learn more about this ancient pathogen, and why some people are able to fight off the infection, while others get sick. U
The three-dimensional structure of a DNA-damaging, bacterial toxin has been visualized by scientists at Rockefeller University. The molecular image of the toxin, published in the May 27 issue of the journal Nature, shows exactly how the toxin is put together at the molecular level and damages human DNA. The structure also could help scientists to design new drugs to fight the wide variety of bacteria that use this toxin.
The toxin, called cytolethal distending toxin, or CDT, is used by bact
Carbon dioxide and oxygen, not methane, were prevalent in the Earth’s atmosphere more than 1.8 billion years ago as shown by the absence of siderite in ancient soils but the abundance of the mineral in ocean sediments from that time, according to a Penn State geochemist.
“The absence of siderite in some ancient soils has been linked to low carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, levels that would be too low to compensate for the cooler sun 2.2 billion years ago,” says Dr. Hiroshi Ohmot
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