Multiple Sclerosis Successfully Reversed In Mice: New Immune-suppressing Treatment Forces The Disease Into Remission

Dr. Jacques Galipeau of the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University. (Credit: Claudio Calligaris/McGill University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability.

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New Batting Helmet Offers Protection From 100 MPH Heat

The S100: More protective, but less stylish Earl Wilson via The New York Times

From Popular Science:

But players think it's too ugly to wear.

Back when pitching meant Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown gingerly tossing baseballs so worn down that they resembled leather hacky sacks, players didn't need to worry about lifelong injury after getting hit by a pitch. But now that 'roided up monsters can hurl the ball fast enough to cause serious damage, players need something substantial to protect their dome.

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The Truth Behind the 230 MPG Claim From the Chevy Volt: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

It's all in the numbers: The EPA has finally figured out exactly what the testing procedures might be (the regulation hasn't formally been adopted yet) for plug-in hybrid vehicles like the Chevy Volt. This week Chevy announced that the Volt will deliver 230 mpg. Other plug-in-hybrid manufacturers won't be long in announcing similarly astonishing fuel-economy numbers. But where on earth does that number come from?

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Invisible Doorways Or Portals A Step Closer To Reality, Claim Scientists

Scientists close to inventing a Harry Potter Platform 9 and 3/4

From The Telegraph:

Invisible gateways like the one to platform 9 and 3/4 in Harry Potter and to Lewis Carroll's hidden world in Through the Looking Glass are a step closer to reality after scientists developed a new theory.

Using a technique known as transformation optics, the researchers have revealed a way to alter the pathway of light waves that could eventually allow them to create portals that are invisible to the human eye.

Pushing the laws of refraction and reflection to the limit, the team from Hong Kong University and Fudan University in Shanghai, describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves but that allows the passage of other entities”.

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Antibodies To Strep Throat Bacteria Linked To Obsessive Compulsive Disorder In Mice

from :ScienceDaily

A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity indicates that pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and/or tic disorder may develop from an inappropriate immune response to the bacteria causing common throat infections.





The mouse model findings, published online by Nature Publishing Group in this week's Molecular Psychiatry, support the view that this condition is a distinct disorder, and represent a key advance in tracing the path leading from an ordinary infection in childhood to the surfacing of a psychiatric syndrome. The research provides new insights into identifying children at risk for autoimmune brain disorders and suggests potential avenues for treatment.
OCD and tic disorders affect a significant portion of the population. More than 25% of adults and over 3% of children manifest some features of these disorders. Until now, scientists have been unable to convincingly document the association between the appearance of antibodies directed against Group A beta-hemolytic streptoccoccus (GABHS) in peripheral blood and the onset of the behavioral and motor aspects of the disorder. As a result, treatment strategies were restricted to targeting symptoms rather than causes.





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'Many Hurricanes' In Modern Times

From BBC:

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are more frequent than at any time in the last 1,000 years, according to research just published in the journal Nature.

Scientists examined sediments left by hurricanes that crossed the coast in North America and the Caribbean.

The record suggests modern hurricane activity is unusual - though it might have been even higher 1,000 years ago.

The possible influence of climate change on hurricanes has been a controversial topic for several years.

Study leader Michael Mann from Penn State University believes that while not providing a definitive answer, this work does add a useful piece to the puzzle.

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Why Humans Can Talk And Chimps Can't

Nothing to say (IMAGE: Manfred Rutz/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

A brain region critical to speech and language ballooned after humans split from chimpanzees, a new study finds.

Named after French physician, Pierre Paul Broca, who identified the region in two brain-damaged patients incapable of uttering more than a few words, Broca's area usually occupies a much larger portion of the left half of the human brain than the right.

Because right-handed humans also tend to process language in their left halves – lefties' brain are flip-flopped – some researchers think that lop-sidedness in Broca's area may help explain why humans alone developed language.

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Drive For Atomic Energy Adds To Nuclear Challenge: US

Steam billows from cooling towers at a nuclear power generating station in Illinois. A senior US official acknowledged on Wednesday that the growing demand for atomic energy in response to climate change was adding to the challenges of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Scott Olson)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

GENEVA (AFP) – A senior US official acknowledged on Wednesday that the growing demand for atomic energy in response to climate change was adding to the challenges of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Some people are calling this a nuclear renaissance, it's very much in vogue," said Susan Burk, the US president's special representative for nuclear non-proliferation in what she termed her first public presentation.

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New Drug-resistant TB Strains Could Become Widespread, Says New Study

Chest X-ray image. One in three humans already carries the TB bacterium. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of New South Wales)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — The emergence of new forms of tuberculosis could swell the proportion of drug-resistant cases globally, a new study has found. The finding raises concern that although TB incidence is falling in many regions, the emergence of antibiotic resistance could see virtually untreatable strains of the disease become widespread.

Australian researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney have published the new finding in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Babies' Brains Churning With Activity

Electrodes recorded brain activity while infants grabbed for toys. The same brain area showed activity whether infants grabbed for a toy themselves or watched an adult do the same. Credit: Michael Crabtree.

From Live Science:

The look of amazement in the eyes of an infant suggests the wheels are churning away inside that noggin. New research confirms they are. Scientists have shown that when 9-month-olds watch people reach for objects, the motor region in their brains gets activated, as if the babies were doing the reaching themselves.

The brain ability is likely due to so-called mirror neurons, which fire both when we do an action ourselves, and when we watch others do a similar action. While such neurons have only been directly measured in monkeys, scientists think they exist in adult humans, and now in infants.

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NASA Budget Too Slim to Reach Moon by 2020, Panel Says

From Space.com:

A White House panel charged with reviewing NASA's exploration plans has dropped any hope of sending astronauts directly to Mars and found the space agency's budget too slim to accomplish its goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

After more than six hours of public deliberation on Wednesday, the 10-member committee overseeing the Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans decided not to include a plan to send astronauts straight to Mars - called Mars Direct - on its list of options to be considered by President Barack Obama because of its daunting challenges and cost.

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The FuA- Men

Robot Chefs Run a Restaurant

The FuA-Men - Fully Automated raMen restaruant in Nagoya, Japan features a chef and assistant - both fully autonomous robots. The robots perform all of the cooking tasks needed to make eighty bowls per day, serving the customers who come to their small shop.
When asked, customers seem to feel that there is little difference between noodle dishes prepared by real, human chefs, and meals prepared by autonomous robots. For those who appreciate precision in food preparation, you can't beat robot chefs.
"The benefits of using robots as ramen chefs include the accuracy of timing in boiling noodles, precise movements in adding toppings and consistency in the taste and temperature of the soup," said Kenji Nagaya, president of local robot manufacturer Aisei.
The two chefs also work very well together; their movements are perfectly choreographed (see video).

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Galapagos Face Ecological Disaster Due To Tourism: Study

File photo of a seal on the shores of San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said. (AFP/File)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

LONDON, (AFP) – Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said Wednesday.

The insects can spread potentially lethal diseases in the archipelago off Ecuador's Pacific coast, used by Charles Darwin as the basis of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".

"Few tourists realise the irony that their trip to Galapagos may actually increase the risk of an ecological disaster," said Simon Goodman of Leeds University, one of the study's co-authors.

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Satellites Track, Improve French Wine Crop

Toasting to Technology: The cutting-edge system, Oenoview, combines satellite pictures and grapevine analysis to help French winemakers determine when their grapes, planted in varying conditions across sprawling vineyards, will be ready for picking.

From Discovery News:

Aug. 11, 2009 -- French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of winemaking.

The Oenoview system -- initially developed to help grain producers -- combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.

It conveys important information about the berries to winegrowers, such as the amount of water in the fruit and how much to prune back their vines.

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Swine Flu: How Experts Are Preparing Their Families

How will the health infrastructure cope? (Image: Raveendran/AFP/Getty

From New Scientist:

AS THE swine flu pandemic continues to sweep the world, what do public health officials, epidemiologists and flu researchers think will happen in the coming months? When New Scientist asked 60 of them, it turned out that half are concerned enough about the possibility of a virulent swine flu outbreak to take precautions such as acquiring a supply of Tamiflu for their families. Though most do not think it likely that a nastier strain will emerge, many are worried that if it did, their local hospitals and other parts of the health infrastructure could not cope.

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NASA Falling Short of Asteroid Detection Goals

The team says it is almost certain that a large Baptistina fragment created the 180km Chicxulub crater off the coast of the Yucatan 65 million years ago. The impact that produced this crater has been strongly linked to the mass extinction event that eliminated the dinosaurs. Image from The BBC.

From Wired Science:

Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.

The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 miles) wide, a goal previously mandated by Congress.

Asteroids of this size are estimated to strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average and could be capable of causing a global catastrophe if they hit Earth. In 2008, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program spotted a total of 11,323 objects of all sizes.

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Molecular Condom Blocks HIV

Imgae: Viral blockade: A gel, shown here stained blue, forms tendril structures at pH 7.4. The red dots are 100 nanometer particles, about the same size as HIV, which are trapped in these structures. Credit: Kristopher Langheinrich

From Technology Review:

A novel gel that filters out HIV could protect women from infection.

A polymer gel that blocks viral particles could one day provide a way for women to protect themselves against HIV infection. The gel reacts with semen to form a tight mesh that blocks the movement of virus particles. The material, which is still in early development, could eventually be combined with antiviral gels currently in clinical trials to provide a dual defense against HIV.

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New Planet Displays Exotic Orbit

Planets with retrograde orbits should be rare

From The BBC:

Astronomers have discovered the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star.

Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates.

The new planet is thought to have been flung into its "retrograde" orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star.

The work has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication.

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When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age?

Gough's Cave. (Credit: Copyright Natural History Museum)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago.

A number of stone artefacts as well as human and animal bones from excavations, spread over more than 100 years, shed further light on the nature as well as the timing of people to the cave.
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New Facebook Lite To Take On Twitter With Simplified Messaging Service

Battle: Facebook is currently testing 'Facebook Lite' a simplified version of the service which looks remarkably similar to Twitter

From The Daily Mail:

Facebook are currently testing a simplified version of its social network service aimed at countries where Internet bandwidth is limited.
The new system, named Facebook Lite, focuses primarily on messaging and user updates and looks remarkably similar to rival micro blogging service Twitter.
Industry experts are viewing the development as the latest in a series of moves from Facebook to take on Twitter.

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