The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report from the group working on global warming’s impacts contained at least one error. "Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world (see Table 10.9) and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate," the report notes. [More] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – Climate change – Global warming – Environment – Climate Change: The Ipcc Response Strategies Original Source: Physorg.com
The ancient scourge smallpox was relegated to biowaste bin of history more than 30 years ago, the result of the world’s first and only successful disease eradication programs. Since then, however, cases of monkeypox–a serious, although less severe smallpoxlike illness–have substantially increased in central Africa, according to a study published August 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The authors stress that better surveillance and a thorough assessment of the public health threat posed by this once-rare viral infection are needed.
"I’m concerned about monkeypox," says Don Burke director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn’t involved in the study. "It isn’t going to emerge as pandemic tomorrow, but could at any time start to increase its transmission. It’s worrisome. This is the type of warning siren we need to take very seriously."
[More] Africa – University of Pittsburgh – Smallpox – Central Africa – Public health Original Source: Physorg.com
Nature certainly has a way of one-upping the fruits of human ingenuity. Extreme astrophysical objects have long been known to accelerate the particles that make up cosmic rays to whopping energies that make the Large Hadron Collider look like a child’s slingshot. The mammoth collider near Geneva, Switzerland, which resumed service in 2009 after an aborted start-up the year before, will ultimately boost protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts. Cosmic-ray protons, in comparison, have been clocked striking Earth with tens of million times as much energy; a single proton can pack as much punch as a baseball hurled at 60 miles per hour. (For the technically inclined, some cosmic rays have energies exceeding 10 20 electron volts.) [More] Large Hadron Collider – Geneva – Switzerland – Cosmic ray – Physics Original Source: Physorg.com
Realistic stem cell therapies to replace diseased or damaged tissue may still be years away, but researchers have uncovered a promising new use for these undifferentiated cells: they can be programmed to become patient-specific laboratory models of inherited liver disease. These new tools could be useful for teasing out disease mechanisms and testing new drug therapies.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Medical Research obtained skin cells from 10 patients–seven who had various forms of inherited liver disease, and three healthy controls. They reprogrammed the skin cells, rejuvenating them into an embryolike state (using the four-gene approach described in 2007). The researchers then cultured these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in a mixture of chemical factors that triggered their conversion into liver cells, which had the appearance and functional properties of native liver cells.
[More] Stem cell – Cambridge University – Medical Research – Liver – Induced pluripotent stem cell Original Source: Physorg.com
As psychologist Benjamin Scheibehenne and his wife left the restaurant where they had just finished dinner, they discussed whether to stop somewhere else for dessert. It was an everyday decision, one they had made countless times before, but this particular evening they could not make up their minds.
"When we came out of the restaurant, we didn’t really know whether we were still hungry or not," Scheibehenne recalls. "We realized we were completely clueless about how much we actually consumed." [More] Psychologist – Mental health – Health – Disorders – Eating Original Source: Physorg.com
Targeted beams of high-intensity radiation can shrink early-stage tumors with limited collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The addition of robotics and image guidance systems in recent years has made these stereotactic, or directed beam, radiosurgery systems an even more versatile weapon against cancer, attacking not only brain tumors (for which they were originally designed) but also other diseases virtually anywhere in the body. [More] Cancer – Brain tumor – Radiosurgery – Health – Tumor Original Source: Physorg.com
Some ants live longer than others–way longer. And the mapping of the first full genome sequences of ants helps to reveal how two ants from the same colony, and with much the same genetic material , can have such different life histories. The work may also provide insights into longevity in another social species with which ants share about one third of their genes: humans. [More] Harpegnathos – Gene – Carpenter ant – Genome – Biology Original Source: Physorg.com
Plants have evolved many direct defenses against herbivores, such as thorns, slippery leaves, lethal toxins and irritating resins. But some plants also employ indirect defenses by releasing chemicals that attract the natural enemies of herbivores. When a caterpillar starts feasting on a tobacco plant, for example, the leaves waft volatile compounds that attract some predatory and parasitoid insects. These predators hunt the caterpillars and their eggs, which benefits the plant by reducing the number of its attackers. Now, researchers have uncovered a surprising secret of plants’ chemical cries for help that could yield new ways to fight crop pests .
[More] Tobacco – Insect – Predation – Caterpillar – Herbivore Original Source: Physorg.com
The HIV pandemic has historically been thought of as either concentrated in specific populations–such as gay men, injection drug–users, sex workers–or generalized across the entire population in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. But as more and better epidemiological data has become available, the evidence is clear: men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of whether or not they identify as gay, also are at the core of those generalized epidemics.
MSM in developing countries are 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, according to a 2007 literature review.
[More] sub-Saharan Africa – HIV – Men who have sex with men – AIDS pandemic – Sexually transmitted disease Original Source: Physorg.com
