Aids: Is The End In Sight?

From The Independent:

Mass prescription of anti-retroviral drugs could eradicate the disease within 40 years, scientist says.

Testing everyone at risk of HIV and treating them with anti-retroviral drugs could eradicate the global epidemic within 40 years, according to the scientist at the centre of a radical new approach to fighting Aids.

An aggressive programme of prescribing anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to every person infected with HIV could stop all new infections in five years and eventually wipe out the epidemic, said Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis.

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U.S. Pinpoints Code Writer Behind Google Attack: Report

A bird flies over Google China headquarters building next to a Chinese national flag in Beijing in this January 14, 2010 file photo. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. government analysts believe a Chinese man with government links wrote the key part of a spyware programme used in hacker attacks on Google last year, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The man, a security consultant in his 30s, posted sections of the programme to a hacking forum where he described it as something he was "working on," the paper said, quoting an unidentified researcher working for the U.S. government.

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On Thick Ice: Live From An Antarctic Drilling Trip

Integrated Oceans Drilling Program Operations Superintendent Ron Grout on deck with icebergs in the background. (Photograph by Etienne Claassen, IODP/TAMU)

From Popular Mechanics:

PM's far-flung geological correspondent, Trevor Williams, of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, reports from the scientific research ship JOIDES Resolution. Part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, the Wilkes Land expedition has been drilling deep into the ocean floor around Antarctica to learn how the ice sheet reacted in warmer climates of the past, which will help scientists predict how it will respond to future warming.

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Retreating Glaciers May Boost Dust Storms

A massive dust storm streaming from northern Africa across the
Atlantic Ocean in February 2006. Credit: SeaWiFS/NASA

From Cosmos:

SAN DIEGO: The retreat of glaciers and the loss of moisture from soil due to climate change will likely increase the number of large-scale dust storms, such as those that blanketed Sydney in 2009, scientists predict.

“Every year, hundreds of millions of tonnes of African dust are carried westward across the Atlantic to South America, the Caribbean and to the North America,” as well as across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, said Joseph Prospero, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Miami.

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Climate Scientists Withdraw Journal Claims Of Rising Sea Levels

The Maldives could be hard hit by rising sea levels. Photograph: Reuters

From The Guardian:

Study claimed in 2009 that sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by the end of century – but the report's author now says true estimate is still unknown.

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

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New Role For Robot Warriors

From ABC News:

Drones Are Just Part of Bid to Automate Combat.

Science fiction sometimes depicts robot soldiers as killing machines without conscience or remorse. But at least one robotics expert today says that someday machines may make the best and most humane decisions on the battlefield.

Guided by virtual emotions, robots could not only make better decisions about their own actions but also act as ethical advisers to human soldiers or even as observers who report back on the battlefield conduct of humans and whether they followed international law.

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My Comment: Another interesting article on the evolving role of unmanned weapons platforms.

High-Tech Armor Protects Olympic Skiers, Why Not Lugers?

From ABC News:

Protective Suits Feature Orange Goo That Instantly Hardens Upon Impact.

The Olympic alpine skiing course has seen its share of wipeouts the last couple of weeks.

But crashing U.S. and Canadian skiers have been well protected by a neon orange goo.

Made by the British firm d3o and adapted by U.S. ski wear designer Spyder for the U.S. and Canadian ski teams, the material is soft and flexible under most conditions, but instantly hardens when a skier hits a gate.

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Sex Hormone Progesterone To Get Head Injury Trial

From The BBC:

Natural progesterone, the sex hormone used in the first contraceptive pills, is to be tested on patients with severe head injuries.

Scientists will begin a phase III clinical trial in March and say the drug could save patients' lives and reduce damage to their brains.

They announced the trial at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

It will involve 1,000 patients in 17 trauma centres across the US.

Dr David Wright, associate professor of emergency medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, will lead the trial.

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Warmer Planet Temperatures Could Cause Longer-Lasting Weather Patterns

Tony Lupo, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Missouri, is studying atmospheric blocking and how this weather pattern could be increasing due to global warming. (Credit: University of Missouri)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 21, 2010) — Whether it's never-ending heat waves or winter storms, atmospheric blocking can have a significant impact on local agriculture, business and the environment. Although these stagnant weather patterns are often difficult to predict, University of Missouri researchers are now studying whether increasing planet temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could lead to atmospheric blocking and when this blocking might occur, leading to more accurate forecasts.

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'The Biggest Loser' Has Big Problems, Health Experts Say

A biggest loser contestant during a weigh-in, which helps determine who stays and
who is booted off the show. Credit: NBC

From Live Science:

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" is all about records. In the past seasons, the weight-loss reality show has repeatedly set new benchmarks for heaviest contestant (454, 476 and 526 pounds), fastest 100-pound weight loss (seven weeks), and most weight lost in one week (34 pounds).

The show, which takes obese Americans and pits them against each other in a battle to lose the most weight and win $250,000, thrives on extreme numbers. But physicians and nutritionists worry the show's focus on competitive weight loss is, at best, counterproductive and, at worst, dangerous.

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Take That Power Nap - You Could End Up Smarter

Medical researchers have shown that power naps not only refresh the mind,
they also make people smarter

From The Daily Mail:

It may not make you popular with your boss but a snooze in the middle of the day dramatically boosts your brain power.

Medical researchers have shown that the power naps favoured by Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Margaret Thatcher not only refresh the mind, they also make people smarter.

They found snoozing for just one hour in the day is enough to increase the brain's ability to learn new facts in the hours that follow.

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Can Sophisticated Mathematical Models Help Police Fight Crime?

From Popular Mechanics:

Is it possible to predict crimes from studying human behavior? A new paper from researchers at the University of California shows how mathematical modeling may soon lead to truly predictive police work.

If television crime shows and Hollywood thrillers are to be believed, criminals are intelligent, complex people. It takes a crack team to catch these masterminds who usually elude the authorities time and again.

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Endeavour Set For Sunday Night Landing

Space shuttle Endeavour took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 8 for the International Space Station, and was scheduled to return Sunday evening. (Terry Renna/Associated Press)

From The CBC:

NASA pressed ahead with a Sunday night landing for space shuttle Endeavour, even though poor weather on both coasts threatened to scuttle any touchdown attempt.

Endeavour and its crew of six were returning from the International Space Station, which was hit by computer trouble that triggered temporary communication blackouts Sunday.

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Universal Therapy Could Contain Aids Epidemic In Five Years

From Times Online:

The global Aids epidemic could be contained within just five years by testing everybody in high-risk regions and immediately treating all those who are found to be HIV positive, according to a leading scientist.

Universal therapy with anti-retroviral drugs would not only save millions of lives, but would also prevent transmission of HIV by making people who carry the virus less infectious to others, said Brian Williams, of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (Sacema).

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How A Hobbit Is Rewriting The History Of The Human Race

A painting of what researchers believe Homo floresiensis may have looked like.
Illustration: Peter Schouten

From The Guardian:

The discovery of the bones of tiny primitive people on an Indonesian island six years ago stunned scientists. Now, further research suggests that the little apemen, not Homo erectus, were the first to leave Africa and colonise other parts of the world, reports Robin McKie.

It remains one of the greatest human fossil discoveries of all time. The bones of a race of tiny primitive people, who used stone tools to hunt pony-sized elephants and battle huge Komodo dragons, were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004.

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Found: 'Jurassic Parkette' – The Prehistoric Island Ruled By Dwarf Dinosaurs

Zalmoxes Photo: Natural History Museum

From The Telegraph:

A prehistoric "lost world" ruled by miniature dinosaurs has been discovered by palaeontologists.

The creatures lived on an island – a kind of pigmy Jurassic Park – and were up to eight times smaller than some of their mainland cousins.

One of the island-dwelling dinosaurs, named Magyarosaurus, was little bigger than a horse, but was related to some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth – gigantic titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus, which reached up to 100 feet long and weighed around 80 tons.

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Ecstasy Damages Complex Memory: Study

The researchers found ecstasy takers performed worse than other groups as tasks became harder or more complex (Source: Getty Images/)

From ABC News (Australia):

Ecstasy users have more trouble with difficult memory tasks than non-drug takers and even cannabis users, according to new Australian research.

The study provides further evidence that the 'party drug' causes brain damage in regions relating to memory and suggests it also affects learning.

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Singing 'Rewires' Damaged Brain

From The BBC:

Teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech, say scientists.

By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech.

If a person's "speech centre" is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their "singing centre" instead.

Researchers presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego.

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PleaseRobMe Website Highlights Dangers Of Telling World Your Location

From Times Online:

A website called PleaseRobMe has been launched to highlight the dangers of sharing too much information on the internet about your location.

The site pulls together updates on Twitter from people who publicly broadcast where they are at any given time, making the point that if they are in the pub, for instance, they are not at home and could be burgled.

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Saliva DNA Test Could Determine Future Health

A new DNA test uses saliva to determine whether someone is
prone to developing a life-threatening illness.

From The Guardian:

Quick, low-cost test being developed at Edinburgh University could determine whether a person is prone to disease.

A fast, low-cost DNA test which can determine a person's chances of developing certain inherited diseases could soon be a reality, scientists said today.

A drop of saliva will be enough to allow medics to pinpoint variations in patients' genetic code in a test being formulated by scientists at Edinburgh University.

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