New research – published by Science Magazine within the Science Express Web site and released today at the 2004 AAAS Annual Meeting — may be a first step toward methods for treating diabetes, osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s and other diseases, by producing replacement cells unlikely to trigger immune-system rejection.
Transplantation medicine based on stem cells remains a distant hope for now, Science editors cautioned. But, the Science study describes intriguing early results:
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have provided strong evidence that a popular hypothesis concerning the origins of a genetic mutation common among Caucasians of Northern European descent that protects against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is wrong.
The hypothesis suggests that the mutation conferred resistance against bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, much as it does against HIV today. This idea was based on the fact that the mutation first appeared around the s
Scientists at Scripps research create single, clonable strand of DNA that folds into an octahedron
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has designed, constructed, and imaged a single strand of DNA that spontaneously folds into a highly rigid, nanoscale octahedron that is several million times smaller than the length of a standard ruler and about the size of several other common biological structures, such as a small virus or a cellular ribosome.
Making the
Coating DNA with a topical steroid might make for more effective therapeutic gene delivery, according to bioengineers at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers have shown that a common anti-inflammatory steroid, wrapped around a strand of DNA, can prevent the immune responses commonly associated with gene-transfer techniques.
Studies of the technique, performed in animal models, are presented in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Gene Therapy, available online now.
“The st
A proposed U.S. mission to investigate three ice-covered moons of Jupiter will demand fast-paced research, fabrication and realistic non-nuclear testing of a prototype nuclear reactor within two years, says a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist.
The roots of this build and test effort have been under way at Los Alamos since the mid-1990s, said David Poston, leader of the Space Fission Power Team in Los Alamos’ Nuclear Design and Risk Analysis Group.
NASA proposes using u
A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has linked population declines of California’s desert bighorn sheep with the effects of climate change. What’s more, many of the state’s remaining bighorn populations could face extinction if certain global warming forecasts for the next 60 years come true.
In the study, which is published in the current issue of Conservation Biology, the authors found that of the 80 groups of desert bighorn sheep known to
Report suggests we’re better at avoiding self-blame than we think
“Regrets? I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.” When Frank Sinatra crooned those lyrics in his song “My Way,” he probably didn’t know that having few regrets is more like “Our Way.”
Research has shown that people often expect to feel more regret when they “nearly succeed” (miss an airplane by a minute) than when they “clearly fail” (miss a flight by an hour) because they believe they will blame
Starving a cancerous tumor of its blood supply might stop its growth while other treatments aim to kill it.
“Nutrient depletion” is how Dr. Ed Harris, Texas A&M University biochemist, describes the process in the February issue of Nutrition Reviews. His article traces how independent studies around the world led researchers to consider copper, a trace mineral in the human diet, for its potential in controlling cancerous growth.
“The idea is to deprive a selective nutrient f
As the tropical oceans continue to heat up, following a 20-year trend, warm rains in the tropics are likely to become more frequent, according to NASA scientists.
In a study by William Lau and Huey-Tzu Jenny Wu, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., the authors offer early proof of a long-held theory that patterns of evaporation and precipitation, known as the water cycle, may accelerate in some areas due to warming temperatures. The research appears in the current iss
Losing weight and exercising regularly slows progression of chronic liver disease in those who are overweight, indicates a study in Gut.
Being overweight is bad for the liver. And non-alcoholic fatty liver is increasingly being diagnosed in those who are overweight, diabetic, or who have insulin resistance syndrome, a precursor to diabetes. Overweight and obesity are also recognised risk factors for the progression of other chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis C.
Once conside
Researchers at the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee have made an exciting new discovery on how cells regulate themselves and prevent cancer as reported in Nature tomorrow (Wednesday). Dr Tomo Tanaka and his team members, Drs Hilary Dewar and Kozo Tanaka have uncovered a tug of war that cells use to collect their full complement of correct chromosomes. The absence of this tug of war leads to irregular cells, tumours, cancer and congenital disorders such as Down syndrome. How all d
While cities provide vital habitat for human beings to thrive, it appears U.S. cities have been built on the most fertile soils, lessening contributions of these lands to Earth’s food web and human agriculture, according to a study by NASA researchers and others.
Though cities account for just 3 percent of continental U.S. land area, the food and fiber that could be grown there rivals current production on all U.S. agricultural lands, which cover 29 percent of the country. Marc Imhoff,
A CSIRO irrigation research laboratory at Griffith in NSW will provide ground-breaking knowledge, skills and technology to the world’s biggest and most intensive irrigation regions under a new United Nations program.
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has appointed CSIRO Land and Water’s Sustainable Irrigation Systems group in Griffith as the HELP (Hydrology, Environment, Life and Policy) Regional Coordinating Unit for the Australasian reg
The growing of cereal crops without recourse to fertiliser application or weeding, but alternatively rotating with vetch and fallow, together with returning the straw to the soil after the harvest, increases the production yield two-fold with respect to the conventional mode of growing crops, with its use of chemical additives and herbicides. Moreover, the profitability of this ecological system can be multiplied by four when an ecological market exists. This is what Gabriel Pardo Sanclemente from th
The sinking of the Prestige and the resulting leakage of petroleum oil, just over a year ago, provoked a real catastrophe. A significant number of research groups were prompted to set to work to clean up the remains of this oil slick. One year after, the first results of those researches are being known. They want to use bacteria that eat petroleum oil, extracted from the proper petroleum oil.
Certain bacteria are able to feed off petroleum oil which is, in fact, full of these kinds of bact
View from overhead of the the complex caldera (summit crater) at the summit of Olympus Mons on Mars, the highest volcano in our Solar System.
Olympus Mons has an average elevation of 22 km and the caldera has a depth of about 3 km. This is the first high-resolution colour image of the complete caldera of Olympus Mons.
The image was taken from a height of 273 km during orbit 37 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express on 21 January 2004. The view is centred
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