New study shows hope for treating inhalant abuse
UPTON, N.Y. -- A new study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory suggests that vigabatrin (a.k.a. gamma vinyl-GABA or GVG) may block the addictive effects of toluene, a substance found in many household products commonly used as inhalants. These results broaden the promise of GVG as a potential treatment for a variety of addictions. The study will be publ...When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, it set off an enormous avalanche, spewed out deadly hot steam, and buried a vast area with volcanic rock and ash, violently shattering its 123-year 'slumber.' Ecologists used this once in a life-time chance to discover how ecosystems respond to such a natural disturbance.... ...The symposium "Ecological Recovery After the 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens"...Wolves are rebalancing Yellowstone ecosystem
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park may be the key to maintaining groves of cottonwood trees that were well on their way to localized extinction, and is working to rebalance a stream ecosystem in the park for the first time in seven decades, Oregon State University scientists say in two new studies.... The data show a clear and remarkable linkage between...Jorge Escalante-Semerena receives 2004 ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award
WASHINGTON, DC--APRIL 23, 2004--Jorge C. Escalante-Semerena, Ph.D., Ira Baldwin Professor of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, has won the 2004 ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). A deeply committed teacher and mentor, Escalante-Semerena is honored as an inspiring role model who has trained dozens of doctoral and undergraduate s...Key gene identified for development of inner-ear structure required for balance
Bar Harbor, Maine--Ears do more than hear; they also control balance and our perception of gravity and motion. An international team of scientists including David E. Bergstrom and John C. Schimenti, at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor; and Rainer Paffenholz and Gabriele Stumm at Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG in Martinsried, Germany, identified for the first time a protein whose enzymatic functi...Out-of-balance ecosystems play role in demise of amphibian populations
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- During the last decade, Val Beasley of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine has led a team wanting to know why the world's amphibian populations have been dwindling or riddled with limb deformities.... ...Evidence from his and other teams points to increasing numbers of common parasites as an important cause. However, the problems facing amphibian habitats...Sex selection for social reasons unlikely to skew gender balance in Germany and UK
Allowing sex selection for social reasons would be highly unlikely to skew the gender balance at least in Germany and the UK according to new research published today (Thursday 25 September) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction .... ...Surveys of more than 1,000 men and women in each country did reveal differences between the two countries, with the British expre...Tipping the balance of prion infectivity
Two important questions face biologists studying the infectious proteins called prions: What stops prions that infect one species from infecting another species and what causes the invisible transmission barrier between species to fail sometimes?...... , Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have shown how point mutations in prions -- which do not compromise their infectivity -- can neverth...New Zealand biotech: An emerging global presence
... ...WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2003 New Zealand has the eighth-fastest-growing biotech industry in the world. Many of the country's major biotech companies will be represented here at BIO 2003, sponsored by the Biotechnology Industry Organization ( ), June 22-25 at the Washington Co...Inner ear of chicken yields clues to human deafness and balance disorders
St. Louis, May 22, 2003 Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have gained new insights into the causes of human deafness and balance disorders by studying the inner ear of chickens. ... ...The research provides new clues as to why birds can replace critical cells in the inner ear and humans cannot. Loss of these so-called sensory hair cells in humans is a leading ca...Researchers discover gene that contributes to sense of balance
St. Louis, March 24, 2003 -- Researchers have discovered a gene that appears to be critical for maintaining a healthy sense of balance in mice. The study, led by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appears in the April 1 issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics and online March 24. ... ..."Loss of balance is a significant problem in the elderly because it can lea...Researchers will no longer be 'snowed' in predicting future avalanches
ARLINGTON, Virginia - The recent deaths of 14 Canadian skiers in two separate snow avalanches in British Columbia have increased attention on safety issues, but some U.S. scientists are turning their focus elsewhere to studying the properties of snow stability that could lead to more accurate means of predicting avalanche events....... Montana State University professor of geography Kathy Hansen...'Scientific balancing act' dominates AAAS top ten list of science policy stories for 2002
Balancing safety with scientific openness--and preventing fear from stifling scientific discovery--was cited today by the world's largest general scientific organization, AAAS, as the key science and technology policy issue to emerge in 2002. ...... Human cloning, stem cell science and protecting the planet's natural resources also appear on the 2002 AAAS Top Ten Science Policy List. ...... Prepa...Protein discovered that keeps hemoglobin in balance
Hematology researchers at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia have discovered a gene and its associated protein that may have major implications for red blood cell formation, specifically for hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells. Understanding how this protein functions may eventually lead to novel treatments for the hemoglobin-related blood disease, thalassemia. ... ...Thalasse...Keeping autoimmunity in check may depend on balance in the immune system
(PHILADELPHIA - April 16, 2002) - Scientists know that the potential to generate dangerous antibodies that attack our own cells and tissues - one of the defining characteristics of autoimmune disorders like lupus - exists in everyone. That potential is unrealized in healthy individuals, but spins out of control in those who develop disease. So, what are the factors that push the potential for pro...Researchers describe overall water balance in subglacial Lake Vostok
Lake Vostok, which lies buried under thousands of meters of ice high on the Antarctic Plateau, is thought to be home to unique habitats and microorganisms. Confirming the existence of life forms and unique biological niches without contaminating the pristine lake waters, however, is a difficult scientific and technical challenge with international ramifications. ... According to a paper to b...Biologists discover protein's impace on plant-water balance
Researchers at Penn State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that a protein in plant guard cells impacts how well a plant holds water. Eventual application of the researchers' work could help control the amount of water in a plant and lead to more ecologically friendly, effective, and efficient means to raise crop plants. ... ...In response to drought, sunlight,...New Zealand aircraft to fly mission to USA McMurdo Station
. A Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) cargo plane will fly to McMurdo Station, Antarctica to transport several U.S. citizens to New Zealand, some of whom require medical attention that cannot be provided in Antarctica.. . The wheeled, C-130 aircraft will leave Christchurch, New Zealand on Monday, April 23 (Christchurch time) to pick up the patients from the main U.S. research station in A...Balanced diet lowers homocysteine, reducing risk of heart disease
. . .Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found yet another reason to eat a well-balanced diet low in fats and rich in fruits and vegetables: It lowers blood levels of homocysteine, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease.. .Homocysteine, an amino acid, is a by-product of protein metabolism. Epidemiological studies have shown that too much homocysteine in the blood is related to an increase...Life and death struggle: Proteins play against each other, bringing balance to immune system
.Each day, viruses attack the immune system looking to gain a foothold in the body and cause sickness. But the immune system regularly turns away these invaders by using antibodies and killer T cells that attack the antigen. Until now, scientists only knew these that events happened, but not how or why.. A research team at National Jewish Medical and Research Center led by Philippa Marrack, Ph....Studies of clumsy flies yield molecule important in balance, hearing
. . , the researchers reported experiments in which they precisely twitched the microscopic bristles of u...Do US ecosystems balance US fossil fuel use?
Atmospheric carbon dioxide gradients suggest that uptake of carbon dioxide by US forests may balance US fossil fuel use. New model calculations and data, published in Science (17 March 2000) by David Schimel of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena/Germany and a group of international researchers suggest lower carbon uptake. Carbon dioxide fertilization, once thought to be the onl...New Zealand's prime minister addresses environmental risk
.Washington, DC (August 31, 1999) - Prime Minister Simon Upton will discuss.strategies for managing ecological risk when he delivers the inaugural Robert C..Barnard Environmental Lecture at AAAS on Thursday, September 2. Upton is New.Zealand's Minister of the Environment and the Deputy Minister for Foreign.Affairs and Trade. His remarks will be delivered at a lecture honoring local.lawyer Robert...Dietary Lutein Inhibits Mammary Tumor Growth And Normalizes Immune Balance In Tumor-Bearing Mice
.Washington, DC, April 18, 1999 -- The carotenoid antioxidant lutein can.normalize immune system balance in mammary tumor-bearing mice, effectively.slowing tumor growth, according to a study presented today at the Federation of.American Societies for Experimental Biology 1999 annual meeting. . . "Tumor-bearing mice that were fed chow containing lutein had significantly.smaller tumor growth than...Striking A Healthy Balance For The Elderly
. . .ANN ARBOR---America's elderly consume at least the recommended dietary.allowances of iron, zinc and magnesium, but the use of nutritional supplements.and drugs commonly used by the elderly can offset the balance of these important.nutrients, a new University of Michigan School of Public Health study shows.. .The study by Srimathi Kannan, a visiting assistant professor of environmental.and i...Stanford Chemical Engineer Chaitan Khosla Receives Alan T. Waterman Award From NSF
. .A 34-year-old Stanford University professor of chemical engineering and.chemistry whose work is leading to the discovery of new drugs to fight.infections and diseases has received the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s.most prestigious prize for young researchers.. . Chaitan S. Khosla will be honored with the 1999 Alan T. Waterman Award.at a National Science Board awards ceremony May...Researchers Find Vaginal Bacteria Imbalance Might Boost AIDS Risk
.CHAPEL HILL - In 1997, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.scientists showed that sexually transmitted diseases increase susceptibility to.HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS. They also demonstrated that people infected.simultaneously with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases shed more of the.deadly virus in their genital secretions than doctors expected and that treating.men for u....PASCO, Wash., June 19 -- People who love kippers for breakfast, smoked salmon on.their bagels, and caviar on their canapés, should welcome news of a new.technique that could help to assure these delicacies contain precisely the right.amount of salt. Researchers at Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, report.that a new technique offers fish processors a safer and more economical way t...