Studies might improve understanding of leading cause of mental retardation in girls By studying gene mutations in patients with the complex set of behavioral and neurological symptoms that accompany Rett syndrome, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Huda Zoghbi and her colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine have designed a mouse model that faithfully recapitulates the disease down to its distinctive hand-wringing behavior. The development of the mouse, reported in the July
New study looks at link between ADHD symptoms and smoking in a community sample of high school students Adolescents with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to experiment with smoking and become regular tobacco users, a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Georgetown University indicates. This study appears in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. ADHD i
Scallops, oysters and mussels – the best of fare Scotland`s kitchens have resulted in a top Parisian award for a researcher from the University of Dundee. Matthew Gubbins is not a chef but a scientific expert on toxicity in shellfish. Matthew (26) has scooped the Daniel Jouvance award for his work on how shellfish become toxic and then lose their toxicity again in the sea. Identifying these processes will allow the industry to monitor more closely when shellfish are non-toxic , ready for harvest a
Two seemingly unrelated Native American children have one painful thing in common: juvenile Paget’s disease (JPD), an extremely rare, bone metabolism disorder. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Shriners Hospitals for Children, St. Louis, have discovered that the two patients also share an unusual genetic defect. The research team found that both patients are completely missing the gene for a recently discovered protein called osteoprotegerin, known to
As Congress considers legislative proposals aimed at saving Medicare+Choice, a new study published today on the Health Affairs Web site shows that under the best-case scenario, enrollment in the troubled managed care program would stabilize at about 5 million beneficiaries. Under the worst case of the four policy proposals to boost sluggish M+C reimbursement, enrollment would shrink to just 3.3 million by 2005, according to the article by health care scholars Kenneth E. Thorpe and Adam Ather
MIT engineers are excited about a new technique for repairing cartilage that could have significant advantages over the procedure now commonly used. This could affect people disabled by osteoarthritis, which slowly destroys the tissue that cushions joints. Hundreds of thousands others damage cartilage through sports-related injuries and other accidents. The new technique involves growing cartilage cells within a novel “designer” gel outside the body, then ultimately delivering the cell-seede
In a groundbreaking telemedicine development, doctors in Massachusetts earlier this month helped a physician at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to surgically repair the damaged knee of a meteorologist spending the winter in Antarctica. Using a “telemedicine” connection operated by Raytheon Polar Services Co. (RPSC) of Centennial, Colo., orthopedic surgeon Bertram Zarins and anesthesiologist Vicki Modest, both of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, helped South Pole physician Dr. Timothy Polla
Bacteria prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate and will swim towards it on an agar plate, so teachers have found out this week (15-19 July) at a summer school run by the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Reading. The experiment is one of a series of A-level practicals currently being produced for teachers by the Society.
“We have developed the chocolate experiment to show that bacteria can detect a food source and swim towards it – a process called chemotaxis. But we’ve see
What happens when a large meteor crashes into the Earth? The impact of a large meteorite releases an enormous amount of energy that evaporates, melts and fractures areas surrounding the impact over distances that can range over hundreds of kilometers. Although the subject of abundant recent interest, little is directly known about the propagation of damage during these events.
Three researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have come up with a new picture of damage propagation, whi
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have found that women in a large study who used estrogen replacement therapy after menopause were at increased risk for ovarian cancer. The report was published in the July 17, 2002, issue of JAMA.* The scientists followed 44,241 women for approximately 20 years. Compared to postmenopausal women not using hormone replacement therapy, users of estrogen-only therapy had a 60 percent greater risk of developing ovarian cancer. The risk increased with
Studies of cirrus clouds by some 450 scientists may lead to improved forecasts of future climate change. During July in southern Florida, scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. will join others to investigate high tropical cirrus clouds composed of tiny ice crystals.The researchers hope to determine how the clouds form, how they limit the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the Earth and how they trap heat rising from the surface and lower atmos
The effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF), such as those emitted around high-voltage transmission lines on human health, is controversial. Some studies suggest an association between exposure to ELF-EMF and incidence of leukaemia, although little direct evidence exists that exposure causes damage to biological molecules. A new study, published in the Cancer Cell International, presents experimental evidence to show that extremely low frequency electro-magnetic fields can
Satellites can help the EU monitor climate change, address international crises and contain natural disasters. Today in Brussels EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin and Mr Antonio Rodotà, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), officially opened a large stakeholder consultation forum aiming at the definition of European needs to enhance global monitoring for environment and security (GMES). 250 participants, representing users, suppliers and researchers, addressed poli
COLLEGE STATION – Lightning may not often strike twice in the same place, but it sure can hang out repeatedly in the same neighborhood. In Texas, that neighborhood is Houston, which Texas A&M University atmospheric scientists call the “lightning capital of the state.” Results of their lightning research, indicating that the high-energy stuff likes the city life, was originally published in Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, and an overview of that study is featured in the online
Despite two decades of consistent warnings from public health authorities that pregnant women should not drink alcoholic beverages, the vast majority of widely used medical textbooks fail to communicate this message unequivocally, a new study reveals. Many texts, including those published recently, contradict these public health guidelines, researchers report in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Medical texts are used for training as well as for reference,” ob
The annual sunburn is still a tradition for many Americans, with nearly 60 percent of young adults reporting at least one sunburn in the past year, according to a new study.
Sun damage is the leading preventable cause of both the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, and of the most common forms, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, occurring in more than 1 million Americans annually. Sunburn represents severe skin damage and
Feedback
