Male contraception: One door opens, another closes
...ay. But are we getting any closer? The answer may finally be "yes." This week marked the announcement of one hot new lead and one dead end. A door opens Researchers in Italy and at the Population Council in New York have announced a breakthrough on a non-hormonal compound known as Adjudin (Nature Med...Scientists use gene therapy to improve memory and learning in animals
...ool, it swims around looking for an exit, until it finally discovers the platform and climbs out of the water. "When the animals first go in, they're pretty clueless," Nicholas said. "It usually takes them about a minute to locate the platform, but over time, they get very efficient at finding it. Once the...A key antibody, IgG, links cells' capture and disposal of germs
...d lysosomes into the so-called phagolysosomes that finally do in most invading microbes. Specifically, the antibody prompts phagosomes and lysosomes to dock and bind to each other with actin filaments, the first step in the unification of the two vesicles. Among the antibody's other known roles, Nohturfft'...'The Strangest Song' -- The story of the link between a rare genetic disorder and musical talent
...s. Lenhoff is at first rebuffed, called crazy, and finally vindicated when scientistsand his own formal researchconfirm his hunch. Williams syndrome is a rare genetic aberration that occurs once in every 7,500 births. It springs from a peculiar mishap on the molecular level, a tiny chemical error, but one th...Small, smaller, smallest -- The plight of the vaquita
...and named as a species, the Mexican Government has finally taken specific actions to try to prevent its extinction. On 29 December 2005 the Ministry of Environment declared a Vaquita Refuge that contains within its borders approximately 80% of all verified vaquita sighting positions. In the same decree, the ...Ebola-outbreak kills 5000 gorillas
... results will push some public or private donor to finally commit the two or three million dollars necessary to develop a safe and effective way of delivering Ebola vaccine to wild apes." Walsh contends that Ebola vaccination is a cost effective method of ape conservation. "People in the conservation commu...'Best of both worlds' -- Targeting a single gene could inhibit bone decay and stimulate bone growth
...ecay while stimulating bone formation. "We have finally proven the theory that targeting one gene can do both," said Choi. "Now that we have demonstrated a new approach that is theoretically attainable, one that combines the best of both worlds, we can go to work on the genes up and down stream from our t...Regulating the nuclear architecture of the cell
...dentify the proteins expressed by these genes, and finally to learn how they act on the chromosomal material. Steps along the path Several genes previously identified in Drosophila as having a role in the suppression of gene expression, known as suppressors of variegation, were named Su(vars). The ge...University of Washington-led team discovers a gene that causes familial pancreatic cancer
...n abnormal pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue. "We finally found what we had so doggedly pursued -- a gene that was expressed 21 times more than any other," said Brentnall. "This gene, Palladin, was mutated in Family X and appeared to cause the fatal inheritance. Every one of the members of Family X who had ...Study reveals molecular basis of botulism toxin's deadly activity
...and sometimes respiratory failure. "The structure finally helps to answer part of the mystery of how a very large protein can search through the body and locate the neuromuscular junction with such high affinity and specificity," says Scripps Research Professor Raymond Stevens, an author of the paper who ha...Science's breakthrough of the year -- The Poincar Theorem
...th abstract shapes in three-dimensional space, had finally been solved. Science and its publisher AAAS, the...lved the Poincar Conjecture. By 2006, the others finally caught up. Three separate teams wrote papers that filled in key missing details of Perelmans proof, ...McBride shows DNA detective work with paper-eating bacteria that 'glide'
...re efficiently convert cellulose into glucose, and finally into ethanol. McBride's interest in C. hutchinsonii goes beyond its possible value in bioenergy. What really intrigues him is that it's a "gliding bacterium," able to crawl rapidly over surfaces by an unknown mechanism, which is the main subject of...Leading cause of US food-borne illness makes its own pathway through cells
...ckets, that make their way toward the nucleus, and finally locate near the cell's transportation hub, the Golgi apparatus. "It's been known for over two decades that campylobacter can enter intestinal epithelial cells -- but until now no one could show how it was taken up or where it localized. That suggest...Scientists crack the genome of the parasite causing trichomoniasis
Scientists have finally deciphered the genome of the parasite causing trichomoniasis, a feat that is already providing new approaches to improve the diagnosis and treatment of this sexually transmitted disease. According to the World Health Organization trichomoniasis affec...... his horse-racing friends, John Cook, that the net finally closed in on Palmer. Knowing that Cook had won a large amount of money, Palmer invited him for dinner to celebrate. It would be the last meal he would ever eat. At his trial at The Old Bailey in London, Palmer was found guilty of Cook's murder. But ...Can engineered immune cells stop AIDS?
...HIV, the foundation reported. "I think we are finally on the right track," Wang says. "If scientists can find a way to genetically engineer immune cells to neutralize HIV, we may be able to develop immunotherapy for HIV-Infected people, as well as find ways to prevent it all together." Wang's resear...MIT: Nanocomposities yield strong, stretchy fibers
...then dissolved the polymer in the new mixture, and finally removed the solvent. The end result is a "nanocomposite" of stiff clay particles dispersed throughout a stretchy matrix that is now stronger and tougher. Importantly, the clay platelets are distributed randomly in the material, forming a structure ...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- January 24, 2007
... vegetables, wine, dark chocolate and other foods finally have comprehensive data on flavonoid levels in foods consumers buy in the United States. The U. S. Department of Agricultures James M. Harnly and colleagues are unveiling new flavonoid data collected from the first systematic sampling of foods desig...National Academy of Engineering announces winners of $1M challenge
...r sand, then wood charcoal to remove organics, and finally through fine river sand and wet brick chips to remove fine particles and stabilize water flow. The SONO filter is now manufactured and used in Bangladesh. The system developed by the Silver Award-winning team is applied at a community's well hea...FSU researchers determine a critical factor in workings of proteins
...se that two associating proteins go through before finally becoming a specific complex. The rate prediction is broken into two parts: how much the rate would be if the proteins find each other purely through random motion, and how much electrical attraction increases the rate. "This theory opens numerous o...