4/30/2010 PERMALINK
Study links microRNA to shut-down of DNA-repair genes. New research shows for the first time that molecules called microRNA can silence genes that protect the genome from cancer-causing mutations. The study, led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, shows that microRNA-155 (miR-155) can inhibit the activity of genes that normally correct the damage when the wrong bases are paired in DNA. The loss or silencing of these genes, which are called mismatch repair genes, causes inherited cancer-susceptibility syndromes and contributes to the progression of cancers. "This is the first evidence that deregulation of microRNAs can cause genomic instability, a characteristic of cancer cells," said principal investigator Dr. Carlo M. Croce, director of Ohio State's Human Cancer Genetics program.

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
Female Holy Grail discovered: neuropeptide oytocin hormone spray found to significantly enhance male empathy. Dr. Rene Hurlemann of Bonn University's Clinic for Psychiatry was able to state that 'significantly higher emotional empathy levels were recorded for the oxytocin group than for the placebo group'. The administration of the oxytocin spray had the effect of enhancing the ability of the subjects to experience empathetic feelings to levels that would normally only be expected to be found in women.

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
EU-funded study sheds light on culturing embryonic stem cells. Scientists in Europe have discovered that the prolonged culture of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can trigger changes resulting in chromosomal abnormalities. (EU-funded? Can Greece afford this? - Editor)

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists learn how to block pain at its source. A substance similar to capsaicin, which gives chili peppers their heat, is generated at the site of pain in the human body. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have discovered how to block these capsaicin-like molecules and created a new class of non-addictive painkillers.

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
New research reveals the neural mechanisms that allow you to discover abstract cognitive relationships. There is some evidence that the frontal cortex might be organized in a front to back (known as "rostro-caudal") hierarchy in which neurons located in the anterior region of the frontal cortex process progressively more abstract representations, says coauthor Dr. Andrew Kayser from the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. To test this hypothesis, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study participants during two learning tasks, one concrete and one that provided study participants with an opportunity to acquire an abstract rule. "We found that more anterior regions along the rostro-caudal axis of the frontal cortex supported rule learning at higher levels of abstraction," says Dr. David Badre from the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Brown University.

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
Bioengineer describes nano-components for, and calls for development of, personal autodoc bots. A growing set of nano-scale components are emerging from the lab that can power handheld bots capable of providing custom health care advice. The systems will marry novel bioengineering components with existing computer and consumer technologies, said Luke P. Lee, professor of bioengineering at Berkley, recently in a speech to the Embedded Systems Conference. (Sorry fellow, but the FDA gestapo will do everything in their power to frustrate your efforts and keep American medicine decades behind the possible, no matter how many lives their Luddite ways cost us. - Editor)

4/29/2010 PERMALINK
Study links liver transplantation to accelerated cellular aging. Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that liver transplant recipients develop premature immune senescence, the normal process by which the immune system ages and becomes less effective. The diminished immune response appears to be the result of impaired T-Cell function, say the researchers.

4/28/2010 PERMALINK
A researcher has developed a way to use nanodots to store an entire library on a single chip. The new nanodot chip represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology. 'We have created magnetic nanodots that store one bit of information on each nanodot, allowing us to store over one billion pages of information in a chip that is one square inch,' says Dr. Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University and author of the research.

4/28/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists uncover alternative pathway of microRNA generation. MicroRNAs are small bits of RNA within cells that wield enormous power. They influence virtually every biological process by controlling the 'expression' of genes. Helping them in exerting this control is a unique class of proteins called Argonautes. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers led by Professor and HHMI investigator Gregory Hannon, Ph.D, now report that in animal cells, one of Argonautes, called Ago2, has a different role, it helps generate microRNAs instead. The study, points to an alternative pathway of microRNA generation that the team discovered by analyzing a microRNA molecule produced in developing red blood cells.

4/28/2010 PERMALINK
'Epigenetic' concepts offer a new approach to understanding the degenerative disease that arrive as you age. The new field of 'epigenetics' is rapidly revealing how people, plants and animals do start with a certain genetic code at conception. But, the choice of which genes are 'expressed,' or activated, is strongly affected by environmental influences. The expression of genes can change quite rapidly over time, they can be influenced by external factors, those changes can be passed along to offspring, and they can literally hold the key to life and death. According to Rod Dashwood, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, epigenetics is a unifying theory in which many health problems, ranging from cancer to cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders, can all be caused at least in part by altered "histone modifications," and their effects on the reading of DNA in cells.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Phosphorous in sodas and processed foods accelerates signs of aging say scientists. New research shows that high levels of phosphates in sodas and processed foods accelerate signs of aging. High phosphate levels may also increase the prevalence and severity of age-related complications, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular calcification, and can also induce severe muscle and skin atrophy. 'Humans need a healthy diet and keeping the balance of phosphate in the diet may be important for a healthy life and longevity,' said M. Shawkat Razzaque, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Medicine, Infection and Immunity at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. 'Avoid phosphate toxicity and enjoy a healthy life.'

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Will a micro-supercapacitor power your wearware and implants. By etching electrodes made of monolithic carbon film into a conducting substrate of titanium carbide, John Chmiola, a chemist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was able to create micro-supercapacitors featuring an energy storage density that was at least double that of the best supercapacitors now available. When used in combination with microbatteries, the power densities and rapid-fire cycle times of these micro-supercapacitors should substantially boost the performance and longevity of portable electric energy storage devices.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Stem cells from surgery leftovers can be used to repair damaged hearts. Paolo Madeddu, Professor of Experimental Cardiovascluar Medicine and his team in the Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) at the University of Bristol have for the first time succeeded in extracting vital stem cells from sections of vein removed for heart bypass surgery. Researchers found that these stem cells can stimulate new blood vessels to grow, which could potentially help repair damaged heart muscle after a heart attack.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Brain-like computing achieved on an organic molecular layer for the first time. Information processing circuits in digital computers are static. In our brains, information processing circuits—neurons—evolve continuously to solve complex problems. Now, an international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University has created a similar process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems. This is the first time a brain-like 'evolutionary circuit' has been realized.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Higher vitamin D levels appear to positively impact your physical function as you age. Dr. Denise Houston from the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University and her collaborators studied the relationship between vitamin D status and physical function in a group of relatively healthy seniors. When the results were tabulated, participants with the highest levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were found to have better physical function. And, although physical function declined over the course of the study, it remained significantly higher among those with the highest vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study compared to those with the lowest vitamin D levels.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Gradual odor changes produce abrupt neuronal transitions, giving scientists insight into how your brain processes data. Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research are unraveling how odors are processed by the brain. Odors in the olfactory brain are classified into groups represented by discrete activity states of neuronal circuits. Using advanced optical methods, they discovered that gradual variations in odors result in abrupt transitions between patterns of neuronal activity. These findings provide fundamental insights into the brain’s information-processing mechanisms.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Long telomeres can be linked to poorer memory. A team of collaborating researchers from the Swedish universities of Umea, Stockholm, and Linkoping is now publishing data showing that long telomeres in non-demented adults and seniors can be associated with poorer memory. The end portions of chromosomes, telomeres, are important in protecting the genes inside. Every time a cell divides, these telomeres become shorter."

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Olive oil may be able to 'switch off' genes causing inflammatory activities leading to heart disease and arthritis. Olive oil's health-giving benefits stem from its ability to help 'switch off' genes that inflame conditions ranging from heart disease to arthritis, claim researchers. Their discovery shows how the much-praised Mediterranean diet can suppress chronic disorders. Spanish researchers identified almost 100 genes whose inflammatory activity is dampened by consumption of olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil.

4/26/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists move one step closer to being able to generate any type of cells and tissues from a patient's own cells. A study by investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine (MGH-CRM) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) has found that an important cluster of genes is inactivated in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that do not have the full development potential of embryonic stem cells. Generated from adult cells, iPSCs have many characteristics of embryonic stem cells but also have had significant limitations. "We found that a segment of chromosome 12 containing genes important for fetal development was abnormally shut off in most iPSCs," says Konrad Hochedlinger, PhD, of the MGH-CRM and HSCI, who led the study. "These findings indicate we need to keep improving the way we produce iPSCs and suggest the need for new reprogramming strategies."

4/23/2010 PERMALINK
On DNA Day (April 25th), a top genetic testing lab will be offering you a personal genetic test for just $99. For one day only on National DNA Day this Sunday, April 25th, 23andMe is offering their Complete Edition personal genetic test for just $99, that is a savings of $400 off the normal price.

4/23/2010 PERMALINK
Subtle changes in PTEN tumor suppressor gene can determine your susceptibility to cancer. A new study led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) demonstrates that even subtle changes in expression of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene can significantly increase cancer susceptibility in specific tissues, suggesting that environmental factors, such as diet or exposure to carcinogens, may have a more dramatic influence on tumor development than previously recognized.

4/23/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists find gene that lets a worm regenerate any body part, even a whole new head and brain. Research led by Dr Aziz Aboobaker, a Research Councils UK Fellow in the School of Biology at the University of Nottingham into the Planarian worm could one day make the regeneration of old or damaged human organs and tissues possible. It has shown for the first time that a gene called 'Smed-prep' is necessary for correct regeneration of a head and brain in planarian worms.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
What does your brain, a map of a nematode's nervous system and a standard computer chip all have in common? All three share two basic properties, all have a Russian doll-like architecture, with the same patterns repeating over and over again at different scales. And all three show what is known as Rentian scaling, a rule used to describe the relationship between the number of elements in a given area and the number of links between them.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
A deadly new strain of airborne fungus is killing people in Oregon and spreading outward. A newly discovered strain of an airborne fungus has caused several deaths in Oregon and seems poised to move into California and other adjacent areas, according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center. 'This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people,' said Edmond Byrnes of Duke's Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. 'Typically, we see this fungal disease associated with transplant recipients and HIV-infected patients, but that is not what we are seeing.' Byrnes and other Duke co-authors work in the laboratory of senior author Joseph Heitman, M.D., Ph.D., and chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. The mortality rate for recent C. gattii cases in the Pacific Northwest is running at approximately 25 percent out of 21 cases analyzed.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
Study reveals that one gene appears to have a major effect on determining intelligence. Although genetics is the most significant known determinant of human intelligence, how specific genes affect intelligence remains largely unknown. A multi-institution team led by a University of Utah USTAR researcher has found that the brain gene STX1A plays a significant role in the level of intelligence displayed by patients with Williams Syndrome. The study may have implications for the understanding of intelligence and treatment of neurological disease in the general population. Researchers at UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Salk Institute, and the U of U found that variations in the expression of STX1A could account for 15.6 percent of cognitive variation in a group of 65 WS patients, a very high level of confidence in comparison to prior genetic studies. STX1A is involved in the electrochemical processes that occur at the brain's synapses.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists discover a key step for regulating embryonic development. The key actors are members of two tightly associated families of proteins that Edward T.H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of M. D. Anderson's Department of Cardiology and colleagues discovered and continue to study. The first, Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier, or SUMO, attaches to other proteins to modify their function or physically move them within the cell (SUMOylation). The second, Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 2, or SENP2, snips SUMO off of proteins (de-SUMOylation). This line of research started when Yeh and colleagues knocked SENP2 out of mouse DNA and found that the embryos died at about day 10. Their hearts had smaller chambers and thinner walls.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
New carbon composite holds promise for bionics. Mimicking the human nervous system for bionic applications could become a reality with the help of a method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to process carbon nanotubes. While these nanostructures have electrical and other properties that make them attractive to use as artificial neural bundles in prosthetic devices, the challenge has been to make bundles with enough fibers to match that of a real neuron bundle. With current technology, the weight alone of wires required to match the density of receptors at even the fingertips would make it impossible to accommodate. Now, by adapting conventional glass fiber drawing technology to process carbon nanotubes into multichannel assemblies, researchers believe they are on a path that could lead to a breakthrough. 'Our goal is to use our discovery to mimic nature's design using artificial sensors to effectively restore a person's ability to sense objects and temperatures,' said Ilia Ivanov, a researcher in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences Division.

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
Viruses can hide from the immune system by using small RNAs to silence the expression of cellular genes. Viruses have evolved a broad range of strategies that enable them to evade the immune systems of their hosts. A team of researchers led by LMU virologist Professor Jurgen Haas has been studying a recently discovered mechanism that pathogenic viruses exploit for this purpose, and their latest results could point the way to new antiviral therapies. The mechanism is based on the production of short RNA molecules, called microRNAs, by the virus. RNA is chemically related to the genetic material DNA, and full-length RNA copies of gene sequences specify the structures of all cell proteins. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), on the other hand, play a crucial role in regulating gene expression. 'Viruses use them to regulate the expression not only of their own genes, but also of host genes', says Haas. 'Because human cells also produce regulatory miRNAs, the viral molecules do not provoke an immune response'. Haas and his team, in cooperation with several other groups in Germany and abroad, have now identified 158 human genes that are targeted by miRNAs synthesized by two types of herpesvirus that can cause cancer in humans."

4/22/2010 PERMALINK
What if you could go to sleep with a vision problem and wake up with a crystal-clear view of the world? A Spanish optometrist not only says this is possible, but he actually wants you to sleep in your contacts. His patented contact lenses, designed to achieve the same effect of corneal reshaping surgery, can correct vision defects like myopia (nearsightedness) and stigmatism – and now hyperopia (farsightedness) – without taking sharp instruments or lasers to your eyes.

4/21/2010 PERMALINK
Fish oil supplements provide no benefit to brain power. Fish oil supplements provide no benefit to brain powerThe largest ever trial of fish oil supplements by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine investigated the effects of taking omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplements over a two year period on the cognitive function of participants aged 70-80 years. No evidence was found that they offer any benefits for cognitive function in older people.

4/21/2010 PERMALINK
Alcohol abuse causes cancer and aging at the cellular level by shortening your telomeres. 'Heavy alcohol users tend to look haggard, and it is commonly thought heavy drinking leads to premature aging and earlier onset of diseases of aging. In particular, heavy alcohol drinking has been associated with cancer at multiple sites,' said lead researcher Andrea Baccarelli, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Center of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Granda Hospital Foundation, University of Milan, Italy. 'All the cells in our body have a biological clock in telomeres.' Using real-time polymerase chain reaction, the researchers measured serum DNA among 59 participants who abused alcohol (22 percent consumed four or more alcoholic drinks per day) and 197 participants with variable alcohol consumption habits (4 percent consumed four or more alcoholic drinks per day)." The two groups were similar in age and other factors that might affect telomere length, such as diet, physical exercise, work-related stress and environmental exposures. Results showed that telomere length was dramatically shortened in those who consumed heavy amounts of alcohol. Telomere length was nearly half as long as telomere length in the non-abusers (0.41 vs. 0.79 relative units).

4/20/2010 PERMALINK
For children with hearing loss, the earlier the better for cochlear implants. Receiving a cochlear implant before 18 months of age dramatically improves a deaf child's ability to hear, understand and, eventually, speak, according to a multicenter study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins. The study is believed to be the first nationwide look at the impact of surgical timing on the success rate of the implants. The surgery consists of placing a small electronic device into the ear that bypasses the inner ear's damaged nerve cells and transmits sound signals to the brain.

4/20/2010 PERMALINK
Children's cognitive ability decreased by mother's prenatal exposure to urban air pollutants. A study by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) carried out in Krakow, Poland has found that prenatal exposure to pollutants can adversely affect children's cognitive development at age 5, confirming previous findings in a New York City (NYC) study. Researchers report that children exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Krakow had a significant reduction in scores on a standardized test of reasoning ability and intelligence at age 5. PAHs are released into the air from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation, heating, energy production, and from other combustion sources. 'The effect on intelligence was comparable to that seen in NYC children exposed prenatally to the same air pollutants,' noted Frederica Perera, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the CCCEH at the Mailman School of Public Health, and senior author. 'This finding is of concern because IQ is an important predictor of future academic performance, and PAHs are widespread in urban environments and throughout the world.'

4/20/2010 PERMALINK
Newspaper's investigation of the global carbon offsets market conclude that it is just another massive financial fraud scheme. An investigation by The Christian Science Monitor and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found that individuals and businesses who are feeding a $700 million global market in offsets are often buying vague promises instead of the reductions in greenhouse gases they expect. They are buying into projects that are never completed, or paying for ones that would have been done anyhow, the investigation found. Their purchases are feeding middlemen and promoters seeking profits from green schemes that range from selling protection for existing trees to the promise of planting new ones that never thrive. In some cases, the offsets have extremely negative consequences, such as erecting windmills that force poor people off their farms. (Sorry folks, but as we've been telling you for some time now, carbon credits are just another way to let the financial fraudsters get into your pocket. -- Editor.)

4/20/2010 PERMALINK
The remarkable effects of fat loss on your immune system. Australian scientists have shown for the first time that even modest weight loss reverses many of the damaging changes often seen in the immune cells of obese people, particularly those with Type 2 diabetes. The immune system is made up of many different kinds of cells that protect the body from germs, viruses and other invaders. These cells need to co-exist in a certain balance for good health to be maintained. Many factors, including diet and excess body fat, can tip this balance, creating cells that can attack, rather than protect, our bodies. Undertaken by Dr Alex Viardot and Associate Professor Katherine Samaras from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the results showed an 80% reduction of pro-inflammatory T-helper cells, as well as reduced activation of other circulating immune cells (T cells, monocytes and neutrophils) and decreased activation of macrophages in fat.

4/20/2010 PERMALINK
Spanish scientists create artificial human skin with optimised biomechanical properties using tissular engineering. Scientists from the University of Granada, Spain, have generated artificial human skin by tissular engineering basing on agarose-fibrin biomaterial. The artificial skin was grafted onto mice, and optimal development, maturation and functionality results were obtained. This pioneering finding will allow the clinical use of human skin and its use in many laboratory tests on biological tissue. Further, this finding could be useful in developing new treatment approaches for dermatological pathologies.

4/19/2010 PERMALINK
Gene variant protects your memory and thinking skills as you age. 'This is the first study to identify a protective relationship between this gene variant and cognitive function,' said study author Alexandra Fiocco, PhD, with the University of California, San Francisco. For the study, researchers followed 2,858 African-American and Caucasian people between the ages of 70 and 79 for eight years. Participants' DNA was analyzed for the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene, a gene shown in studies to affect thinking skills. The allelic variants associated with this gene are the Val and Met variants. The group was also given two types of thinking tests. One test measured skills such as language, concentration and memory. The other test measured response time, attention and judging sights and objects. The study found that the Met variant of the COMT gene was linked to a greater decline in thinking skills over the years, while the Val variant had a protective effect on thinking skills, with lower declines over the years. In Caucasians, those with the Val variant scored 33 percent better over time than those without the variant. Among African-Americans, people with the Val allele gene variant scored 45 percent better over time than those who did not have the variant."

4/19/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers identify new gene involved in the development of cancer. Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified a new tumor-promoting gene that may play a key role in the development of liver cancer. Levels of the gene's expression are significantly higher in more than 90 percent of patients with the disease compared to their healthy counterparts. Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine hope the findings could lead to an effective therapy to target and inhibit the expression of this gene and result in inhibition of cancer growth. Hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC, or liver cancer, is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the world.

4/19/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists discover that two key brain regions are linked together into a network. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found new evidence that the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, two important areas in the central nervous system, are linked together to form an integrated functional network. 'The basal ganglia and the cerebellum are two major subcortical structures that receive input from and send output to the cerebral cortex to influence movement and cognition,' explained senior author Peter L. Strick, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. Each subcortical structure houses a unique learning mechanism. Basal ganglia circuits are thought to be involved in reward-driven learning and the gradual formation of habits. In contrast, cerebellar circuits are thought to contribute to more rapid and plastic learning in response to errors in performance.

4/19/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers find a biotherapy strategy for esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide with a very high mortality. Currently, the ability to reverse the outcome of esophageal cancer is limited. Progression of esophageal cancer may be associated with sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) and its receptors S1P1-5, which play an important role in other cancers. Using semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, gene transfection, MTT assay and transwell migration assay, a research team in China has investigated S1P receptor expression profile in human esophageal cancer cells and the effects of S1P5 on proliferation and migration. Their study found S1P binding to S1P5 inhibits the proliferation and migration of S1P5-transfected Eca109 cells. Their results indicated that deficiency in inhibitory effect of S1P-S1P5 may be of importance in the growth and metastasis of esophageal cancer. S1P5 or its associated signaling molecules may serve as a future strategy in biotherapy for esophageal cancer.

4/19/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists seek to regenerate damaged neurons by inhibiting ADAM-17. A group of researchers at the University of Cadiz, headed by Doctor Carmen Estrada, has been studying neurogenesis - the process of forming new neurons from mother cells - in the adult mammal brain. The technique applies cellular therapy to the tissue through the implanting of mother cells in the lesioned zone simultaneously with treatment to inhibit ADAM-17 which would encourage these transplanted cells to transform themselves into neurons. 'The ideal is to be able to find a potential drug that would serve to annul the activity of ADAM-17 but that would not have secondary effects in humans,' explained one of the researchers.

4/18/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists have developed a brain implant that essentially melts into place, snugly fitting to the brain's surface. The technology could pave the way for better devices to monitor and control seizures, and to transmit signals from the brain past damaged parts of the spinal cord of to computers. 'These implants have the potential to maximize the contact between electrodes and brain tissue, while minimizing damage to the brain. They could provide a platform for a range of devices with applications in epilepsy, spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders,' said Walter Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

4/18/2010 PERMALINK
Study reveals a molecular mechanism that triggers mate selection. A mystery about the mechanism behind sexual mate selection has been resolved. According to a new study by Universite de Montreal researchers have discovered a molecular switch that becomes activated in response to a potential mate's signal. Simply put, an organism knows that a potential mate is close-by and healthy enough to mate. 'This mating decision is controlled by a simple chemical switch that converts an incoming pheromone signal into a cellular response,' says senior author Stephen Michnick, a Universite de Montreal biochemistry professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Genomics.

4/17/2010 PERMALINK
So what might your future with intelligent bots be like? Give Escape Pod #239: A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness a listen, for an interesting speculation on the future of bot/human interface.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers mod a virus to turn sunlight and water directly into hydrogen fuel. MIT researchers have found a new way to make hydrogen fuel by mimicking the process by which plants harness sunlight. The team used a virus mod as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up a water molecule. By using sunlight to make hydrogen from water, the hydrogen can then be stored and used at any time to generate electricity using a fuel cell, or to make liquid fuels (or be used directly) for cars and trucks.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Segway Robotic Mobility Platform drafted to be used as moving targets for sniper practice. Showing the performance and durability of the Segway Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) line of products, the RMP 200 two-wheel balancing platform and the RMP 400 four-wheel drive platform are being used by the military as moving targets for sniper practice. (Bots taking over jobs no human wants to do, this sure must be the ultimate example of that. -- Editor)

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Exoskeletons researchers say they can mitigate or reverse the frailty that comes with age. The Toyama Lab in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has created a wearable Agri Robot. It is an exoskeleton for aging japanese farmers that should be commercially available in Japan in 2012 for about one million yen ($10,000). And researchers say this price can be cut in half if demand allows the device to be produced in larger quantities.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Schizophrenia found to be caused by mutations in the SHANK3 gene. 'Our findings show that a significant number of schizophrenia cases are the result of new genetic mutations in the SHANK3 gene. Where previous approaches have failed, our detailed analyses and rich patient database led us to this discovery. We are convinced that future studies will validate the SHANK3 gene as a marker for schizophrenia,' continues Dr. Guy Rouleau, senior author of the study and Canada Research Chair in Genetics of the Nervous System. 'The SHANK3 gene has previously been linked to autism,' adds lead author Julie Gauthier, a Universite de Montreal researcher. 'Not only does this suggest a molecular genetic link between these two neurodevelopmental disorders, it suggests that SHANK3 may have a role in other brain disorders.'

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Are you ready for a self parking car? Volkswagen Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab at Stanford demonstrates their autonomous parking technology.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Chinese scientists discover marker indicating the developmental potential of stem cells. Researchers in China are reporting that they have found a way to determine which somatic cells, or differentiated body cells, that have been reprogrammed into a primordial, embryonic-like state are the most viable for therapeutic applications. Two collaborating teams from institutes at the Chinese Academy of Sciences point to a marker they found in induced-pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, taken from mice. That marker is a cluster of small RNA whose expression appears strictly correlated with levels of pluripotency, or 'stemness.' The more pluripotent, the more likely a stem cell will develop into the desired tissue, organ or being.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
We're in a war now, corporate media is moving to destroy your democratic freedoms and take control of your life. In the US, the MPAA and RIAA (American equivalents of the MPA and the BPI) just submitted comments to the American Intellectual Property Czar, Victoria Espinel, laying out their proposal for IP enforcement. They want to force you to install spyware on all of your computers and phones that will give them total control over your computers and access to the net. There is no way that democracy cannot continue to exist with this kind of intrusion into everyone's personal lives. Already oppressive regimes are using corporate media's demands as an excuse to censor and enslave their people. This will spread everywhere if we let it. The best way to win this war is to stop feeding the evil men and women that are seeking to destroy and enslave us all. Stop buying ANY media from the corporations seeking to destroy your democratic liberties. There is plenty of indie media out there now on YouTube and elsewhere, support them instead. The only way to keep the snake from crushing the life out of you is to starve it.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Using stem cells to heal damaged hearts undergoes testing. Some patients with heart muscles seriously affected by coronary heart disease may soon be able to benefit from an innovative treatment. Researchers at the Research Centre of the Centre hospitalier de l'Universitede Montreal (CRCHUM), in collaboration with the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (MRH) are evaluating the safety, feasibility and efficacy of injecting stem cells into the hearts of patients while they are undergoing coronary bypass surgery. These stem cells could improve healing of the heart and its function.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Extend and pretend, government & banks still colluding to defraud investors by covering up enormous actual loses. With regard to credit conditions, the U.S. financial system continues to pursue a strategy of 'extend and pretend.' A year ago under heavy pressure from the Federal Government, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) suspended rule 157, which had previously required banks to mark their assets to market value when preparing balance sheet reports. Since that suspension banks have been able to keep worthless loans on their books at full value, defrauding any new investors in their securities.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Regeneration of insulin-producing cells achieved in diabetic mice. Scientists have achieved regeneration of insulin-producing cells from other sources than pre-existing beta-cells. In order to investigate the origin of the newly formed cells, regeneration was studied in mice in which different pancreatic cell types were labeled, so that their fate could be monitored. "We were surprised to find that production of new beta-cells results mainly from the spontaneous conversion of a completely different type of cells, the so-called alpha-cells. The latter are indeed programmed to synthesize glucagon, a hormone whose function is opposite to that of insulin", explains Prof. Pedro Herrera.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Bot reduces the time it takes to find new genes from years to milliseconds. Researchers at Stanford University have developed a simple processing method for searching through large public databases of genes and their associated proteins using Boolean logic (if A then B, if not C then D, etc) to suggest which genes are responsible for different stages of complex chemical processes in our cells.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
New nano molecular switch could protect your body from environmental toxins. Two chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have synthesized a new nano-scale scientific tool - a tiny molecular switch that turns itself on or off as it detects metallic ions in its immediate surroundings. This molecule may be useful as a laboratory tool for controlling tiny reactions in the test tube, and it has potential to be developed as the basis of nano-devices that could sensitively detect metals, toxins, and other pollutants in your environment or inside your body.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists solve riddle of why stem cells are so difficult to grow in lab culture. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have solved the decade-old mystery of why human embryonic stem cells are so difficult to culture in the laboratory, providing scientists with breakthrough techniques that move the field closer to the day when stem cells can be routinely used for therapeutic purposes. In the study, the team found two new synthetic small molecules that can be added to human stem cell culture that each individually prevent the death of these cells. The team also unravels the mechanisms by which the compounds promote stem cell survival, shedding light on a previously unknown aspect of stem cell biology.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
The molecular machinery that switches on the gene that causes cancer to spread and invade other organs identified. An international team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has discovered that RhoA over-expression is implicated as the cause of cancer metastasis. Development of a method to thwart expression of the RhoA gene could prevent cancer from spreading, according to Hui-Kuan Lin, Ph.D., senior author and an assistant professor in M. D. Anderson’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Honda's U3-X personal mobility device rolls into New York City. Honda demonstrates its U3-X personal mobility machine. Step aside, Segway, because this is amazing. This U3-X is a tiny unicycle like people mover designed for folks with debilitating injuries or problems walking. You sit on it, put your feet on a pair of pedals, and move your body to move forward, backwards, and even side to side. It’s amazingly small and lasts one hour on a charge.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Seeing Is Believing: World's First Bionic Eye. Watch this video of progress in bionic eye development. An America inventor, but the device is not for Americans due to our insane FDA regulation regime that kills millions of people worldwide annually by hugely retarding the pace of medical innovation. Our medical inventors are forced to work under draconian rules that can cause a new medical invention to take ten years to make it onto the market. The best and the brightest are, of course, driven into other fields by this insanity. In normal, industries, annual improvements to inventions move innovation vastly faster than in the medical field.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Mice that are missing a protein involved in the response to low oxygen stay lean and healthy, even on a high-fat diet. 'They process fat differently,' said Randall Johnson, professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, who directed the research. While their normal littermates gain weight, develop fatty livers and become resistant to insulin on a high fat diet, just like overweight humans do, the mutant mice suffered none of these ill effects. The protein, an enzyme called FIH, plays a key role in the physiological response to low levels of oxygen and could be a new target for drugs to help people who struggle with weight gain. 'The enzyme is easily inhibited by drugs,' Johnson said. Because the protein influences a wide range of genes involved in development, the scientists were surprised that its deletion improved health.

4/16/2010 PERMALINK
Gene variants linked to high risk of broad range of seizure disorders. Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered evidence suggesting that people missing large chunks of DNA on chromosome 16 are much more likely than others to develop a chronic seizure disorder during their lifetime. "We found that the presence of this genetic variant is one of the strongest risk factors for all forms of epilepsy, possibly accounting for as many as 300,000 cases of epilepsy worldwide," said Erin Heinzen, an assistant professor in the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University Medical Center and the lead author of the study.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
Temperature-sensing protein TRPV3 linked to skin cancer and excessive hair growth. The new research shows that in addition to serving as a temperature sensor, the protein is important for proper hair growth and skin health. University of Michigan cell biologist Haoxing Xu and colleagues discovered that TRPV3, found mainly in cells called keratinocytes in the outer layer of skin, functions as a calcium channel -- a gateway that, when activated, allows calcium to pass through and deliver signals that stimulate processes such as muscle contraction, release of hormones or firing of neurons.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
Study shows potential benefit of dark chocolate for your liver & stomach health. Doctors could soon be prescribing a dose of dark chocolate to help patients suffering from liver cirrhosis and from dangerously high blood pressure in their abdomen, according to new research presented today at the International Liver Congress, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Liver in Vienna, Austria. According to the Spanish research, eating dark chocolate reduces damage to the blood vessels of cirrhotic patients and also lowers blood pressure in the liver. Dark chocolate contains potent anti-oxidants which reduce the post-prandial (after-meal) blood pressure in the liver (or portal hypertension) associated with damaged liver blood vessels (endothelial dysfunction). The data also showed that eating dark chocolate may exert additional beneficial effects throughout the whole body. In comparison, white chocolate, which contains no beneficial 'phytochemicals', did not result in the same effects.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
New strategy for generating induced pluripotent stem cells for clinical use is safer and more efficient. A new technique for reprogramming human adult cells from researchers at Peking University could greatly improve the safety and efficiency of producing patient-specific stem cells for use in a range of therapeutic applications to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues. The new technique manipulates ectopic expression of OCT4/SOX2/NANOG to generate human-induced pluripotent stem cells from gut-derived cells.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers prove the gene responsible for muscular dystrophy can be repaired. Researchers from Universite Laval's Faculty of Medicine and the CHUQ Research Center have proven that it is possible to repair the defective gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The team, led by Professor Jacques P. Tremblay, is presenting its new therapeutic approach in an article published today in the online version of the scientific journal Gene Therapy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a hereditary disease affecting one in 3,500 males. It causes progressive muscle degeneration that begins in early childhood and causes death by age 25 in most people afflicted. The disease is caused by mutations that affect a protein called 'dystrophin.' The mutations alter the normal nucleotide sequences of this protein's gene and stop its synthesis."

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
A new wave of media-driven denial of the scientific method threaten our civilization's progress. Michael Specter speaks at TED.com about how dangerous vaccine-autism claims, 'Frankenfood' bans, the herbal cure craze, and the resulting growth of public fears and outright denial of science and reason can be. He warns that in not checked, this trend will spell disaster for human progress.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
Culturing a garden of neurons in microfluidic chambers enables researchers to discovery exactly how your memory works. In order to be able to understand complex organs such as the brain or the nervous system, simplified model systems are required. A group of scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt led by brain researcher Erin Schuman has successfully developed a new method to grow cultured neurons in order to investigate basic mechanisms of memory. The researchers grew two separate populations of neurons in microfluidic platforms. These neurons extended their processes through tiny grooves, to meet each other and form synaptic connections. Perpendicular to the grooves, a perfusion channel was constructed that allows the researchers to manipulate very small populations of synapses with drugs or neurotransmitters. The chambers are amenable to imaging, allowing researchers to visualize the dynamics of synapses, the movement of molecules within the neurons.

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
New studies reveal that age-related nerve decline is associated with inflammation, differs by gender. University of California, San Francisco studies reveal that neurological function of the peripheral nervous system attributed to aging may be related to metabolic factors, such as blood sugar levels, even if these factors are within the normal range. In a related study of peripheral nerve function, the same group found that aging affects the nerves of men more than women later in life. The findings imply, the researchers say, that age-related declines in peripheral nerve function may not be the consequence of the aging process alone but instead the consequence of aging, gender, plus metabolic factors that may be modifiable. The peripheral nerves are the nerves in the limbs that connect to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

4/15/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers identify the gene that regulates hair growth. Activation of the gene Lhx2 leads to increased hair growth found research by Leif Carlsson’s research team at Ume University in Sweden. The findings partly refute earlier research results in the field. Hair is formed in hair follicles, which are complex mini-organs in the skin that are specialized for this purpose. Hair follicles in which Lhx2 has been inactivated cannot produce hair. Moreover, the activation of the Lhx2 gene in hair follicles has been shown to activate the growth phase and hence the formation of hair. Thus, Lhx2 is a gene that is important for the regulation of hair growth.

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
A newly discovered type of RNA triggers the brain circuitry changes that allow you to learn from your experiences. One fundamental property of the mammalian brain is that it continues to develop after birth, and one of the biggest drivers of the formation of new links between neurons is experience. Every time a baby sticks her finger on a pin or laughs in response to an adult’s embellished gestures, a cascade of genetic activity is triggered in her brain that results in new, and perhaps even lifelong, synaptic connections. New research from the lab of Michael Greenberg, Nathan Marsh Pusey professor and chair of neurobiology at HMS, in collaboration with bioinformatics specialist and neuroscientist Gabriel Kreiman, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Children’s Hospital Boston, has found that a particular set of RNA molecules widely considered to be no more than a genomic oddity are actually major players in brain development—and are essential for regulating the process by which neurons absorb the outside world into their genetic machinery."

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
New artificial pancreas successfully controls blood sugar in initial trial in patients. An artificial pancreas system that closely mimics the body's blood sugar control mechanism was able to maintain near-normal glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia in a small group of patients. The system, combining a blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technology with software that directs administration of insulin and the blood-sugar-raising hormone glucagon, was developed at Boston University (BU). The first clinical trial of the system was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and confirmed the feasibility of an approach utilizing doses of both hormones. In their report, appearing in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers also found unexpectedly large differences in insulin absorption rates between study participants, differences they were able to account for by adjustments to the system.

'This is the first study to test an artificial pancreas using both insulin and glucagon in people with type 1 diabetes. It showed that, by delivering both hormones in response to frequent blood sugar tests, it is possible to control blood sugar levels without hypoglycemia, even after high-carbohydrate meals,' says Steven Russell, MD, PhD, of the MGH Diabetes Unit, who co-led the research team with Edward Damiano, PhD, of the BU Department of Biomedical Engineering."

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
Inexpensive, pocket autodocs could let you powerfully monitor your own health, but obsolete patent laws are blocking their development. Exclusive licenses to gene patents, most of which are held by academic institutions and based on taxpayer-funded research, do more to block competition in the gene testing market than to spur the development of new technologies for gauging disease risk, say researchers at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP). As single-gene tests give way to multi-gene or even whole-genome scans, exclusive patent rights could slow promising new technologies and business models for genetic testing even further, the Duke researchers say.

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
Could a plant virus that has found a way to infect humans be making you sick? It has always been assumed that plant viruses cannot infect animals, and vice versa, but plant viruses are known to be abundant in human feces. Now Didier Raoult at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France, and his team think a pepper virus is making people sick, too. They have found RNA from the pepper mild mottle virus in the feces of 7 per cent of the 304 adults they tested. Those with the virus were more likely to report fever, abdominal pain and itching than those without it, his team found.

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
Sequencing the genomes of both healthy & cancer cells from the same patient shows how cancer spreads. Scientists at Washington University, in St. Louis have identified genetic clues to how a tumor spreads throughout the body. Understanding the genetic aberrations that enable the metastasis of cancers could help scientists design better prognostic tests and more effective treatments. In the research, the scientists compared the genome sequence of a breast cancer patient with that of both her primary tumor and cancer cells that had spread to her brain.

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
Here is definitive proof of just how totally corrupt the American political system has become.
Amazing how by getting the government to bailout them out, allow them to keep bad loans on their books at full value, loan them more money for zero interest and not prosecute anyone for the obvious frauds committed. Wall Street's bankers have managed to get their profits and bonuses right back up to their previous obscene levels so quickly.

4/14/2010 PERMALINK
Printing new skin on a wound using a modded inkjet printer. By modding an ink jet printer and growing skin cells from a patient's body researchers have developed an amazing treatment for severe burns, printing new skin. Once the patient's skin cells are in a sterile ink cartridge, a computer uses a three dimensional map of the wound to guide the printing. 'The bio-printer drops each type of cell precisely where it needs to go,' explains Kyle Binder, a biomedical scientist at the, Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine's Wake Forest lab. 'The wound gets filled in and then those cells become new skin.'

4/13/2010 PERMALINK
Stanford researchers engineer a method for generate electrical current directly from living plants. In an electrifying first, Stanford scientists have plugged into algae cells and harnessed a tiny electrical current. They found it at the very source of energy production – photosynthesis, a plant's method of converting sunlight to chemical energy. It may be a first step toward generating high-efficiency bioelectricity that doesn't give off carbon dioxide as a byproduct, the researchers say. 'We believe we are the first to extract electrons out of living plant cells,' said WonHyoung Ryu, the lead author of the research. The Stanford research team developed a unique, ultra-sharp nanoelectrode made of gold, specially designed for probing inside cells. They gently pushed it through the algal cell membranes, which sealed around it, and the cell stayed alive. From the photosynthesizing cells, the electrode collected electrons that had been energized by light and the researchers generated a tiny electrical current.

4/13/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists discover how a tumor suppressor induces senescence to stave off cancer. A frequently mutated gene in human cancers is the reitnoblastoma (RB) gene, which controls a potent tumor suppression pathway. Mutations in the gene disable the vast and intricate RB pathway in virtually all tumor cells, leading to disturbances in a host of cellular functions and ultimately provoking cancer. But which of these functions is crucial for the gene's tumor-suppressing activity has been uncertain. 'We have now found that a key function of RB in suppressing cancer stems from its ability to induce cellular senescence, a stage of growth arrest in which cells no longer divide,' explains Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor and HHMI investigator Scott Lowe, Ph.D."

4/13/2010 PERMALINK
A single pulse of artificial light at night disrupts your cell division. Just one 'pulse' of artificial light at night disrupts circadian cell division, reveals a new study carried out by Dr. Rachel Ben-Shlomo of the University of Haifa-Oranim Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology along with Prof. Charalambos P. Kyriacou of the University of Leicester. 'Damage to cell division is characteristic of cancer, and it is therefore important to understand the causes of this damage,' notes Dr. Ben-Shlomo.

4/13/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers make first direct recording of mirror neurons in human brain. Dr. Itzhak Fried, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, Roy Mukamel, a postdoctoral fellow in Fried's lab, and their colleagues have for the first time made a direct recording of mirror neurons in the human brain. Mirror neurons fire not only when we perform a particular action but also when we watch someone else perform that same action, allowing us to empathize with other people.

4/13/2010 PERMALINK
Lab mods the photosynthesis process to produce the most stunning fuel production breakthrough yet. Improving on a previous MIT breakthrough for harnessing the powerful photosynthesis process that lets plants tap directly into the energy of the sun to turn CO2 into fuel. University of Cincinnati scientists have created a photosynthesis foam that creates sugars that can be easily converted into fuel. In today's primary biofuel process, making ethanol from corn sugars, corn is only about 5% efficient at making sugars from sunlight, while their new foam process is 96% efficient. Even when compared to more efficent algae techniques that other labs have been working on, the new foam process a stunning improvement, costing only $10 for 1 million BTUs compared to $300 for algae. This breakthrough for the first time promises carbon neutral fuel production at a price that is actually considerably cheaper than today's cost of petroleum.

4/09/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers turn simple cotton T-shirt into comfortable body armor for troops and cops. Researchers at the University of South Carolina, collaborating with others from China and Switzerland, have drastically increased the toughness of a T-shirt by combining the carbon in the shirt's cotton with boron, the third hardest material on earth. The result is a lightweight shirt reinforced with boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks. "The boron-carbide nanowires we synthesized keep the same strength and stiffness of the bulk boron carbide but have super-elasticity," explained Dr. Xiaodong Li, USC Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "They are not only lightweight but also flexible. We should be able to fabricate much tougher body armors using this new technique. It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and airplanes."

4/09/2010 PERMALINK
New magnetic assist device with no moving parts can keep damaged heart functioning until stem cells can repair it. The new VAD (ventricular assist device) was initially developed at and spun-off from the University of Utah and is being commercialized by WorldHeart Corporation. Unlike other VADs, this one uses a fully magnetically suspended rotor that operates without bearings or other moving parts that wear out and can damage blood. Although the current clinical trial is evaluating the VAD as a bridge to transplant, it may become an alternative to heart transplant and a bridge to heart recovery. The VAD is efficient and durable enough to take over for a failing heart long enough for the muscle to strengthen on its own or with the help of stem cell transplants. "The University currently is conducting such a stem cell trial, in which a patient's own stem cells are harvested, purified, and then injected into a diseased heart to help grow healthy cells. But the only way many patients' hearts could repair themselves would be through an extended period of rest provided by a long-lasting VAD."

4/09/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers create new nanoparticle vaccine capable of curing type 1 diabetes. Using a sophisticated nanotechnology-based 'vaccine,' University of Calgary researchers were able to successfully cure mice with type 1 diabetes and slow the onset of the disease in mice at risk for the disease. The study provides new and important insights into understanding how to stop the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, and could even have implications for other autoimmune diseases.

4/09/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers present global map of human gene expression. By integrating gene expression data from an unprecedented variety of human tissue samples, Alvis Brazma and his team at the European Bioinformatics Institute, an outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and their collaborators have for the first time produced a global map of gene expression.

4/09/2010 PERMALINK
As we move into the era of designer babies, the smarter the donor, the higher the egg price. All things being the same, when a university has a higher average SAT score, its students are offered more for their eggs. For every increase of 100 points on the SAT, the rate of compensation increased by $2350.

4/08/2010 PERMALINK
Magnetic modding of stem cells creates more potent treatment for heart attacks. Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found in animals that infusing cardiac-derived stem cells with micro-size particles of iron and then using a magnet to guide those stem cells to the area of the heart damaged in a heart attack boosts the heart's retention of those cells and could increase the therapeutic benefit of stem cell therapy for heart disease.

4/08/2010 PERMALINK
Using adult stem cells, researchers create functional blood vessels that can replace synthetic grafts for bypass surgeries. "Our grafts have the potential to be used for peripheral artery disease bypass, arteriovenous fistula and heart bypass surgery," said Stephen E. McIlhenny, Ph.D., lead author of the study and tissue engineer of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. "However, the first uses of the grafts would be for treatment of peripheral artery disease and dialysis access grafting."

4/07/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers create mini robotic muscles stronger than motors but 1/20th the weight. MIT researchers have found a new way to use shape-memory alloys, metals that change shape when heated, to create small mechanical muscles for electronic devices. The mechanical muscles, or actuators, can produce three to six times as much torque as electric motors of similar size but weigh no more than one-20th as much.

4/07/2010 PERMALINK
The 10 coolest wearware fashions of first decade of the 21st Century. These garments and accessories contain computers, lights, and all sorts of gadgets. Why wear boring regular clothes when the newest wearware styles can turn you into a walking multimedia phenom.

4/07/2010 PERMALINK
Utterly bankrupt and corrupt American governance system grants Comcast control over your internet. A US federal appeals court has ruled that the FCC doesn't have the authority to force broadband providers to treat all internet traffic equally. Comcast gets to become like China, filtering what their customers get to access and blocking or slowing load to a crawl for anything that a web site they own. It is absolutely insane that the local and federal governments have conspired to extend the old legacy phone companies and cable company de facto monopolies to include the internet. If we had put buggy whip manufacturers in charge of building the nation's highway system, we'd still have nothing but buggy trails. But this is precisely what we are doing with the internet. Both cable and the phone companies have the strongest possible incentives to prevent you from getting world class net service. Because YouTube, Skype, Netflix, Hulu and hundreds of others make will be so good over fiber that it will kill the cable TV and phone offerings of the cable and teleco companies. Comcast is perhaps the worst offender, doing everything it can think to do, like this lawsuit, to strangle access and push all of us into only having movie and phone services owned or controlled by our local cable or teleco provider. Two competitors is not a free market, it is a duopoly. If you let this happen your internet will soon become Comcast's internet, complete with very limited and lame programming, not to mention their arrogant and lousy customer service.

4/07/2010 PERMALINK
Smart pill can report to your doctor's office when you take it. Researchers at the University of Florida have engineered a smart pill with a tiny antenna and microchip that can signal when it has made it into a patient's stomach through a cell phone or computer.

4/05/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers engineer smart orthopedic implants and self-fitting tissue scaffolding. Orthopedic surgeons are often hamstrung by less-than-ideal grafting material when performing surgeries for complex bone injuries resulting from trauma, aging or cancer. Conventional synthetic bone grafts are typically made of stiff polymers or brittle ceramics, and cannot readily conform to the complex and irregular shapes that often result from injury; in addition, they often require metallic fixation devices that require open surgeries to insert and remove. Ideally, a scaffolding graft would conform to complex shapes of an injury site, provide weight-bearing support, require less invasive surgical delivery, and ultimately disappear when no longer needed. Using a nanoparticle core, Jie Song, PhD, assistant professor of orthopedics & physical rehabilitation and cell biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, fashioned a new type of tissue and bone scaffolding polymer that addresses a number of these long-standing limitations by using heat-activated smart materials that combine tissue-like properties and strength that are clinically safe to deploy and able to integrate with surrounding tissue.

4/05/2010 PERMALINK
When your stem cells reprogram into unique tissues, differentiation is imperfect in the early stages. Multipotent stem cells have the capacity to develop into different types of cells by reprogramming their DNA to turn on different combinations of genes, a process called differentiation. In a new study, researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have found that reprogramming is imperfect in the early stages of differentiation, with some genes turned on and off at random. As cell divisions continue, the stability of the differentiation process increases by a factor of 100. The finding will help scientists understand how stem cells reprogram their genes and why fully differentiated cells are very hard to reprogram, knowledge with potential impacts on aging, regenerative medicine, and cancer research.

4/05/2010 PERMALINK
Seeing obviously sick people or even pictures of them boosts the response of your immune system. Researchers asked young adults to watch a 10-minute slide show containing a series of unpleasant photographs. Some of these participants looked at pictures of people who looked obviously sick in some way (people with pox and rashes, people coughing and sneezing and blowing mucus out of their noses). The participants gave blood samples both before and after each slideshow. Next the researchers exposed these blood samples to a bacterial infection, and measured the extent to which white blood cells produced interleukin-6 (IL-6). IL-6 is a proinflammatory cytokine that white blood cells make when they detect microbial intruders. More IL-6 indicates a more aggressive immune response to infection. So, by measuring IL-6 before and after the slide show, the researchers were able to determine whether seeing pictures of sick people might actually stimulate the immune system to fight infection more aggressively. And, in fact, it did.

4/05/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists find a way to break down medical carbon nanotubes into nontoxic form using natural body enzyme. A new study of carbon nanotubes gives hope for medical applications by contradicting what was previously believed, that carbon nanotubes are not broken down in the body or in nature. The scientists hope that this new understanding of how myeloperoxidase (MPO) converts carbon nanotubes into water and carbon dioxide can be of significance to medicine. 'Previous studies have shown that carbon nanotubes could be used for introducing drugs or other substances into human cells,' says Bengt Fadeel, associate professor at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. 'The problem has been not knowing how to control the breakdown of the nanotubes, which can caused unwanted toxicity and tissue damage. Our study now shows how they can be broken down biologically into harmless components'.

4/05/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers show that alpha cells in pancreas can spontaneously change into insulin-producing beta cells. Alpha cells in the pancreas, which do not produce insulin, can convert into insulin-producing beta cells, advancing the prospect of regenerating beta cells as a cure for type 1 diabetes. The study at the University of Geneva led by Dr. Pedro L. Herrera demonstrates that beta cells will spontaneously regenerate after near-total beta cell destruction in mice and the majority of the regenerated beta cells are derived from alpha cells that had been reprogrammed, or converted, into beta cells. Dr. Herrera's results are the first to show that beta cell reprogramming can occur spontaneously, without genetic alterations. Previous efforts to reprogram non-beta cells into beta cells relied on genetic manipulations - processes that can not be easily translated into therapies.

4/04/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers uncover new genetic pathway responsible for triggering vascular growth. UMMS researchers uncover novel genetic pathway responsible for triggering vascular growth: "Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a critical step for blood vessel growth in zebrafish embryos, providing new insight into how vascular systems develop and offering a potential therapeutic target for preventing tumor growth. UMMS Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine and the Program in Gene Function and Expression Nathan Lawson, PhD, and colleagues have identified a novel microRNA-mediated genetic pathway responsible for new blood vessel growth, or angiogenesis, in zebrafish embryos. The work provides new insights into how vascular systems use the forces of existing blood flow to initiate the growth of new vessels.

4/03/2010 PERMALINK
The Open Prosthetics Project produces useful innovations in prosthetics and freely shares the designs. This project is an open source collaboration between users, designers and funders with the goal of making our creations available for anyone to use and build upon. Our hope is to use this and our complementary sites to create a core group of lead users, and to speed up and amplify the impact of their innovations in the industry.

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Promoting Healing by Keeping Skeletal Stem Cells ‘Young’. University of Rochester Medical Center: "Scientists seeking new ways to fight maladies ranging from arthritis and osteoporosis to broken bones that won’t heal have cleared a formidable hurdle, pinpointing and controlling a key molecular player to keep stem cells in a sort of extended infancy. It’s a step that makes treatment with the cells in the future more likely for patients. Controlling and delaying development of the cells, known as mesenchymal (pronounced meh-ZINK-a-mill) stem cells, is a long-sought goal for researchers. It’s a necessary step for doctors who would like to expand the number of true skeletal stem cells available for a procedure before the cells start becoming specific types of cells that may – or may not – be needed in a patient with, say, weak bones from osteoporosis, or an old knee injury.

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Expect your self-esteem to be lowest as a young adult, increase to peak at age 60, then decline. The 3,617 adult subjects were asked about their ethnicity, education, income, work status, relationship satisfaction, marital status, health, social support and if they had experienced stressful life events. Some examples of stressful life events are suddenly losing a job, being the victim of a violent crime, or experiencing the death of a parent or of a child. On average, self-esteem peaked at age 60, and women had lower self-esteem than did men throughout most of adulthood, but self-esteem levels converged as men and women reached their 80s and 90s. Blacks and whites had similar self-esteem levels throughout young adulthood and middle age. In old age however, average self-esteem among blacks dropped much more sharply than self-esteem among whites. This was still the result even after controlling for differences in income and health.

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Sex hormone replacement in your joint fluid can regenerate your cartilage tissue. German researchers determined that concentrations of the sex hormones, testosterone in men and estrogen in women, may have a positive effect on the regenerative potential of cartilage tissue. The study suggests hormone replacement in the joint fluid of men and women might be beneficial in treating late stages of human osteoarthritis (OA) by regenerating damaged tissue. Free moving (diarthrodial) joints, such as the knee and hip, produce smooth and painless limb movement when there is adequate transmission of forces between the bones and joint (articular) cartilage. Disturbances in joint architecture due to trauma, abnormal load, endocrine diseases (diabetes, hypothyroidism) or inflammatory conditions may result in OA. Worldwide estimates say 9.6% of men and 18% of women 60 years or older have OA symptoms and the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that by 2020, OA will be the fourth leading cause of disability.

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Research promises much lighter and more powerful batteries for your personal technologies. A new study has found that electrodes using gold or platinum as a catalyst can greatly boost the activity and efficiency of lithium-air batteries. Lithium-oxygen (also known as lithium-air) batteries are similar in principle to the lithium-ion batteries that now dominate the field of portable electronics and are a leading contender for electric vehicles. But because lithium-air batteries use lightweight porous carbon electrodes and oxygen drawn from a flow of air to take the place of heavy solid compounds used in lithium-ion batteries, the batteries themselves can be much lighter.

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Plastic electronics could slash the cost of solar panels and let your wearware generate its own power. 'Conductive polymers [plastics] have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity,' said Yueh-Lin Loo, an associate professor of chemical engineering, who led the Princeton team that made the breakthrough. 'We have figured out how to avoid this trade-off. We can shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity.'

4/02/2010 PERMALINK
Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent. United States District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet has issued a decision that invalidated seven patents related to the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, whose mutations have been associated with cancer. Lawyers for patients and doctors challenge the patents last May, agruing that genes, products of nature, fall outside of the realm of things that can be patented. The patents, they argued, stifle research and innovation and limit testing options. (The patent meme was created because it was thought to encourage research and invention. A couple hundred years of living with it has produced zero scientific research showing this is in fact the case, and quite lot that shows it does exactly the opposite, significantly stifling innovation, invention and progress. -- Editor)

4/01/2010 PERMALINK
Some people, about 2%, experience time as a spatial construct. Synaesthesia is the condition in which the senses are mixed, so that a sound or a number has a colour, for example. In one version, the sense of touch evokes emotions. To those variants we can now add the newly discovered time-space synaesthesia. "In general, these individuals perceive months of the year in circular shapes, usually just as an image inside their mind's eye," says David Brang of the department of psychology at the University of California, San Diego.

4/01/2010 PERMALINK
A drug previously found to extend life span found to also prevents Alzheimer's deficits. In July 2009, Barshop Institute researchers and colleagues at two other institutions reported that microencapsulated rapamycin extended the life span of mice, possibly by delaying aging. A bacterial product first isolated from soil of Easter Island, rapamycin is approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. Rapamycin is the first pharmacologic intervention shown to extend life in an animal model of aging. Now it has been found to retard the onset of Alzheimer's in a mouse model.

4/01/2010 PERMALINK
Aging gene found to govern lifespan, immunity and resilience. Scientists at the University of Birmingham have discovered that a gene called DAF-16 is strongly involved in determining the rate of ageing and average lifespan of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and its close evolutionary cousins. DAF-16 is found in many other animals, including humans. It is possible that this knowledge could open up new avenues for altering ageing, immunity and resistance to stresses in humans. Dr Robin May, who led the research said: 'Ageing is a process that all organisms experience, but at very different rates. We know that, even between closely related species, average lifespans can vary enormously. We wanted to find out how normal ageing is being governed by genes and what effect these genes have on other traits, such as immunity.'

4/01/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers unveil new NeuroPhone direct brain to mobile phone interface. The Mobile Sensing Group at Dartmouth College demos NeuroPhone, a brain to mobile phone interface. As your phone scans through photos of your friends, the unit reads your mind to determine which one you wish to call.