As a part of a research collaboration, scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Sweden, have developed a new drug candidate against HIV-infection. The new substance, named alphaHGA, will be tested on patients this year.
Predicted increases in precipitation due to warmer air temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions may actually increase sea ice volume in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean. This finding from a new study adds evidence of potential asymmetry between the two poles and may be an indication that climate change processes may have varying impacts on different areas of the globe.
Physiology is sometimes a crossroads where many different paths converge. Such is the case with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a severe and often fatal condition also known as adult respiratory distress syndrome or simply “shock lung.” Acute respiratory distress syndrome can be caused by a number of underlying conditions, including smoke inhalation, a severe blow to the chest, bad pneumonia, septic shock, severe blood loss, or drug overdose. Although the causes vary greatly, the situation for a patient who arrives at an emergency room with acute respiratory distress syndrome is largely the same — critical.
A drug that has been used for 40 years for the treatment of skin fungus has been found to be a possible cancer treatment, according to an international team of scientists. Leslie Wilson, professor of biochemistry and pharmacology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that the antifungal drug, griseofulvin, has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in his laboratory. The results are published in today’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Size doesn’t matter, at least not the size of the eyespots on a male butterfly’s wings when female butterflies consider potential mates. Instead, females are attracted to the “sparkle” created by the ultraviolet reflectivity of the pupils, the white circles at the center of eyespots, according to new research from University at Buffalo biologists.
For the last five billion years of our planet’s violent history, Earth has been walloped by comets. These small bodies and their asteroid cousins whacked Earth often in its early years, knocking the stuffing out of our young world. As the solar system matured, impacts happened less often–but they have never ceased. Earth bears its scars in the form of weathered craters and extinct species.
Parents whose children are born with a low birth weight run greater risk of dying of cardiovascular diseases. Even the fathers are at greater risk. These findings are published in a new report by Karolinska Institutet. The report shows that genetic factors affect both birth weight and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It is already known that poor foetal growth is associated with high blood pressure, type II diabetes (adult onset diabetes), and cardiovascular diseases in later life. This new study from Karolinska Institutet is more extensive than previous studies, and uses a totally new approach by also investigating the risk posed to fathers.
The dry, dusty, treeless expanse of Chile’s Atacama Desert is the most lifeless spot on the face of the Earth, and that’s why Alison Skelley and Richard Mathies joined a team of NASA scientists there earlier this month. The University of California, Berkeley, scientists knew that if the Mars Organic Analyzer (MOA) they’d built could detect life in that crusty, arid land, then it would have a good chance some day of detecting life on the planet Mars.
Scientists are fascinated by a dark, lake-like feature recently observed on Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a series of images, released today, showing a marking, darker than anything else around it. It is remarkably lake-like, with smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike any seen previously on Titan. “I’d say this is definitely the best candidate we’ve seen so far for a liquid hydrocarbon lake on Titan,” said Dr. Alfred McEwen, imaging team member and a professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The putative lake measures 230 kilometers by 70 kilometers (145 miles long by 45 miles) wide, about the size of Lake Ontario, on the U.S. Canadian border.
Scientists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, studying the effects of a drug used in the treatment of a distressing skin condition, have found that it is actually killing off the cells which are the cause of the problem. The team believe the discovery represents a major step towards enabling the design of better treatments for psoriasis. Dithranol, which is widely used in the treatment of psoriasis, is derived from a natural compound, called chrysarobin. Chrysarobin is prepared from the araroba tree found in the rain forests of the Amazon. In India, the same substance is known as Goa powder.
For the first time, an environmentally friendly weapon against Desert Locusts has been successfully tested under large-scale field conditions, FAO said today. During a field trial organized jointly by the plant protection authorities of Algeria and FAO near El Oued in eastern Algeria, the biopesticide, called Green Muscle®, was sprayed on more than 1 400 hectares of land infested by Desert Locust larvae. Locusts were clearly weakened and started moving slowly after four days and were then eaten by birds, lizards and ants.
Pfizer Inc. said today that a review of all post-marketing ocular event reports has concluded that there is no evidence of increased risk of blindness among patients taking Viagra. “There is no evidence that Viagra causes blindness or any other serious ocular condition,” said Dr. Joseph Feczko, Pfizer’s chief medical officer. “Men taking Viagra are at no greater risk for blindness — including vision loss from NAION — than men of similar age and health not taking the medicine.”
Expectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests. In humans, decreased blood flow and oxygen to the infant brain is linked to premature birth and other irregularities during pregnancy, birth and early development. The phenomenon, which is called hypoxia ischemia, causes brain injury in approximately 2 of every 1,000 full-term human births and in a very high percentage of babies born before 34 weeks of gestation.
A good night’s sleep triggers changes in the brain that help to improve memory, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. These findings, reported in the June 30, 2005, issue of the journal Neuroscience and currently published on-line, might help to explain why children – infants, in particular – require much more sleep than adults, and also suggest a role for sleep in the rehabilitation of stroke patients and other individuals who have suffered brain injuries.
Google Inc. has announced the launch of Google Earth, a new satellite imagery-based mapping product that combines 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capability and Google search. Based on Keyhole technology, Google Earth enables users to fly from space to street level views to find geographic information and explore places around the world.
A team of U.S. and Canadian scientists has developed a vaccine against Lassa fever that fully protects nonhuman primates from experimental infection with lethal doses of Lassa virus. The research, published in the online and print editions of the journal PLoS Medicine, could eventually lead to development of a vaccine for human use. Currently there is no preventive measure available to halt the spread of Lassa fever, other than rodent control in affected areas. The disease is transmitted to humans from rodents that carry the virus.
The more seniors watch television, the greater their negative images of aging may be, but maintaining a diary of viewing impressions increased their awareness of the negative stereotyping on television, researchers at Yale report in the Journal of Social Issues. “These findings suggest that the promotion of awareness could provide a means of helping elders confront ageism.”
The theory that the mind works like a computer, in a series of distinct stages, was an important steppingstone in cognitive science, but it has outlived its usefulness, concludes a new Cornell University study. Instead, the mind should be thought of more as working the way biological organisms do: as a dynamic continuum, cascading through shades of grey.
