Dangerous Chemical Combination Presents Possible Scenario For Gulf War Illnesses
...ng to tremors, muscle spasms and other symptoms of increased nerve-cellactivity. The research team is conducting a follow-up study analyzing blood samplesfrom veterans with and without symptoms to determine if low enzymatic activityis associated with signs of illness....Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...y enzyme. As these crucial enzymesbecome disabled, increased numbers of neurons malfunction and may die, destroyingbrain tissue. The researchers have found this effect in two neurological diseases -- Huntington'sand Haw River Syndrome. They believe the effect also works for at leastthree other rare neurologic......recision over the radiation-measuring methods. The increased sensitivity also means that less material is required for analysis. "We are able to select pure limestone crystals," said Ku, thus reducing the risk of a sample's being accidentally contaminated by older or younger non-carbonate material. The mass s...Duke Researchers Find Second Gene Linked To Blood Vessel Disorder
...e is linked to defects in theendoglin gene have an increased risk of developing lesions in their lungsthat can lead to serious, secondary neurological problems. About 30 percentof people with this form of HHT develop these lung problems. "We are developing a genetic screen that would identify these peopleso...Cornell Researchers Precisely Date Wood From Ancient Tomb In Turkey
... massive growth. Reduced exposure to sunlight and increased soil moisture led to tree rings in juniper, cedar and pine samples from Porsuk, a site in central Turkey, that were three to eight times wider than normal. Porsuk is about 840 kilometers downwind of Thera. Archaelogists had long believed the Thera e...Core Spins Faster Than Earth, Scientists Find
...y did in the 1960s. Thespeed of the waves steadily increased over the period becausethe inner core's "fast axis" -- the fastest possibleroute through the inner core -- was gradually becoming more closelyaligned with the actual pathway traveled by the waves betweenSouth Sandwich and Alaska, the scientists said....Genetic Alterations Linked To Cancer In Some Blood Samples
...e from scientists two decades ago which pointed to increased levels of serum DNA in cancer patients," Sidransky said. "More recent studies suggest that cancer cells circulating in the blood may die and release DNA, which is carried through the bloodstream by plasma." In an accompanying study in Nature Medicin...Major Plant Genome Research Project Underway
...ucts. "Because plants are vital to our existence, increased understanding of the biology of plants will impact every facet of our lives, from agriculture, to energy, to the environment, to health," says Clutter. In 1990, the Multinational Coordinated Arabidopsis thaliana Genome Research Project was ...Component In Soy Products May Be Substitute For Estrogen Treatment
...by about 8 percent. HDL -- the good cholesterol -- increased significantly(by about 4.5 percent). So it appears that soy protein is beneficial inregard to cardiovascular risks even though total cholesterol didn't changesignificantly." In Belgium, John W. Erdman Jr., director of the U. of I. Division of Nutrit...Cornell Scientists Find Way To Boost Rice Crop Yield -- They'll Walk On The Wild Side
... actually shrinking in Asia and as a society we've increased rice yields per acre about as much as we could. We can't increase the land, so we have to do something," said McCouch. "Fertilization is no longer an effective way to boost yield -- it's plateaued. So, instead of boosting land mass -- which we can...Two Long-sought Diabetes Gene Found
...ion factors respond to other proteins that trigger increased activity," said Bell. "The identification of this biochemical signal could lead to new approaches for treating diabetes." NIDDM affects an estimated 100 million people worldwide, including 15 million in the United States, where it is the seventh lead...No Such Luck: Nitrogen From Air Pollution Unlikely to Moderate Global Warming
...- causes "eutrophication," a process that leads to increased growth of algae and other undesirable outcomes. Tilman and Wedin conclude that in grassland ecosystems, nitrogen loading is a major threat that leads to loss of diversity, greater abundance of non-native species and the disruption of ecosyste...Siblicide In Nature: Study Of Galapagos Seabird Finds Death Can Ensure Species Survival
...surance egg" hypothesis that a second egg greatly increased the chances of reproductive success turned out to be on target. By laying two eggs, boobies decreased their risk of total reproductive failure to about 16 percent. But what about the violence and the collaboration between parent and child to elimi...Environmental Impact Statements Need To Be Made Easier To Decipher
...ing and the inclusion of "before and after"visuals increased individual understanding dramatically in a subsequentstudy. "When citizens can't understand the material presented in an EIS [environmentalimpact statement], they can't participate in the process," said WilliamSullivan, a professor of natural resour...Urbanized Watersheds More Sensitive To Climate Change
...s and climate modelers decipher future effects of increased precipitation and temperatures, according to a Penn State researcher. "There have been a great many studies of stream flow, temperature and precipitation, but they have all been done on undeveloped watersheds that are minimally impacted by huma...Pinpoint Gene Control Holds Promise For Nervous System Studies
... Brooks and Dr. Federoff are studyingprecisely how increased NGF levels are causing these changes inthe animals... hippocampus. The team plansto study the effect of increased NGF in the hippocampus on theseneurons. One area of special interest is the effect of NGF onmemory a...Prostate Cancer May Be Predicted 10 Years Before Diagnosis
...ween 1980 and 1990 prostate cancer incidence rates increased 65 percent, largely due to improved detection. A free fact sheet on prostate gland changes, "Prostate Problems," is available by calling the NIA Information Center's toll-free number, 800-222-2225. Scientists who worked on this study include: Dr. J...ORNL Mice Helping Researchers Isolate, Identify Causes Of Cancer
...In people, the syndrome causespartial albinism, an increased susceptibility to infections and apredisposition to non-malignant lymphoma. Beige mice have the same clinicalsymptoms as humans. This similarity in diseases, along with comparative mapping studies, ledJustice and collaborators to trace the mouse gene...Selenium Supplements Can Reduce Cancer Rates
...at low selenium levels in the blood were linked to increased risk of neoplastic polyps in the colon, a precursor to colorectal cancer. And in other studies at Cornell, colleagues of Combs' reported in 1995 that animals fed diets high in selenium had 50 percent fewer tumors than those fed diets of average sele...Bottom-up Ecological Processes Better For Clear Waters, Study Finds
.... The modelpredicts that food webs will respond to increased growth at the plant level,such as algae, in differ...vores and predators), Oksanen'smodel predicts that increased plant production will result in more predatorsand plants, but fewer herbivores, because the predator...