Scanning for Emerging Science and Technology Issues
27.01.2011
“A naturally occurring growth factor significantly boosted retention and prevented forgetting of a fear memory when injected into rats’ memory circuitry during time-limited windows when memories become fragile and changeable. In the study funded by the National Institutes of Health, animals treated with insulin-like growth factor (IGF-II) excelled at remembering to avoid a location where they had previously experienced a mild shock. [...]”
Source/article: Science Daily
24.01.2011
“The existing food system fails half the people on the planet, and needs radical change if world is to feed itself, report warns
The world will not be able to feed itself without destroying the planet unless a transformation on the scale of the industrial revolution takes place, a major government report has concluded.
The existing food system is failing half of the people on Earth, the report finds, with 1 billion going hungry, 1 billion lacking crucial vitamins and minerals from their diet and another billion “substantially overconsuming”, leading to obesity epidemics. Stresses on the food system are reflected in price spikes but the cost of food will rise sharply in coming decades, the report adds, which will increase the risk of conflict and migration.
“The global food system is spectacularly bad at tackling hunger or at holding itself to account,” said Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies and an author of the Global Food and Farming Futures report. [...]”
Source/article: Guardian
23.01.2011
“The nearly universal human desire to preserve youth can often motivate people to make major lifestyle changes or try the latest wonder supplement. But is it really possible to slow the rate of aging with current knowledge and technology? I argue herein that aging can be dramatically slowed by fine-tuning your longevity genes. Indeed, scientific research carried out in the last 20 years has shown that lifespan can be readily modulated by a variety of genetic or dietary strategies.
In this article, I describe our efforts at Genescient LLC in Irvine, CA to develop strategies to delay aging and age-related disease. Genescient’s primary business focus is on the development of pharmaceuticals for age-related diseases, but in conjunction with its spinoff firm Life Code LLC, it has provided testing services for the development of nutraceuticals based on its unique genomics platform. Our findings can be summarized as follows:
Source/article: hplusmagazine
23.01.2011
“HIV adapts in a surprising way to survive and thrive in its hiding spot within the human immune system, scientists have learned. While the finding helps explain why HIV remains such a formidable foe after three decades of research – more than 30 million people worldwide are infected with HIV – it also offers scientists a new, unexpected way to try to stop the virus. [...]
The work by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Emory University was published Dec. 10 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
It’s thanks largely to its ability to hide out in the body that HIV is able to survive for decades and ultimately win out against the body’s relentless immune assault. One of the virus’s favorite hiding spots is an immune cell called a macrophage, whose job is to chew up and destroy foreign invaders and cellular debris. “[...]
Source/article: PhysOrg
21.01.2011
“Just 13 days after receiving a pioneering larynx transplant, a Californian woman was able to speak her first words in a decade. Her own larynx was permanently damaged by an operation 11 years ago.
The first combined larynx and thyroid transplant was performed in 1998, but in the latest operation Brenda Charett Jensen of Modesto, California, received a section of trachea too. The feat, which took 18 hours, was performed last October at the Medical Center of the University of California, Davis, but announced only yesterday.
The transplant also works far better than the first because more of the donated organs’ nerves have been plugged into the 52-year-old woman’s own nervous system. This enables her to move muscles that control speaking by moving the vocal cords, and others that will eventually allow her to swallow again, once she relearns how to do it.
“It is a miracle,” says Jensen. “I’m talking, talking, talking, which just amazes my family and friends.” The sound of her voice is her own, rather than that of the donor. [...]”
Source/article: New Scientist
22.01.2011
“HERE’S another reason to kick the habit: within minutes of inhaling, regular smokers produce chemicals that cause genetic damage linked with cancer.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in tobacco smoke are one of the main culprits behind lung cancer. In the body they form metabolites that react readily with DNA to produce mutations that in turn can cause tumours.
Stephen Hecht and colleagues at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis asked 12 volunteers with a history of smoking to smoke a cigarette laced with phenanthrene, a type of PAH that binds with DNA but is non-carcinogenic.
By collecting blood samples before, during and after smoking, the team were able to track the concentrations of phenanthrene metabolites and determine the speed at which they formed in the body. [...]”
Source/article: New Scientist
20.01.2011
“A new study shows that by 2030, we could create 100 percent of our energy around the world from totally renewable and affordable sources. But will we?
Hopefully this news isn’t a big shock to anyone, but fossil fuels–which currently make up 80-percent of all the world’s energy supply—are running out, and at the current rate of consumption, the world will hit a cataclysmic energy crisis within most of our lifetimes. When that happens, the world will quickly fall apart, wars will be fought over the smallest surpluses, our technology will be pushed back centuries, dogs and cats will live together, etc., etc. In short, it would be bad. Very very bad. [...]
A new study published in the Energy Policy Journal and recounted by Physorg.com, claims that with a concerted global effort, all energy could come from affordable and 100-percent renewable energy sources by the year 2030. We would also be able to continue to provide renewable and low pollution energy indefinitely. [...]”
Source/article: Digital Trends
12.12.2010
“And if the idea of a robot suit helping those with disabilities walk sounds like the stuff of science fiction, think again: the real-life Cyberdyne is in the business of revolutionising lives.
The firm produces an exoskeleton robot device called the Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, which in another sci-fi related coincidence shares its name with the devious computer in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
It gives power to its wearer by anticipating and supporting the user’s body movements using sensors monitoring electric signals sent from the brain to the muscles. Current options are for a single leg device or both legs.
HAL has many potential applications, from assisting caregivers lift people to helping construction workers or even firefighters.
In one case, three weeks of training with HAL enabled a man who had suffered brain injuries to stand on his own feet after nine years in a wheelchair, said Cyberdyne CEO Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor at the University of Tsukuba.
The group is now gearing up for mass-production and started leasing the battery-powered suit to welfare facilities last year. [...]”
Source/artocle: PhysOrg
05.12.2010
“Wellcome Trust scientists have shown for the first time that exactly how we see our environment depends on the size of the visual part of our brain.
We are all familiar with the idea that our thoughts and emotions differ from one person to another, but most people assume that how we perceive the visual world is usually very similar from person to person. However, the primary visual cortex – the area at the back of the brain responsible for processing what we see in the world around us – is known to differ in size by up to three times from one individual to the next.
Now, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have shown for the first time that the size of this area affects how we perceive our environment. Their study is published online today in the journal Nature Neuroscience. ” [...]
Source/article: PhysOrg