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8,579 articles frome SEPTEMBER 2010
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THURSDAY 30. SEPTEMBER, 2010
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21:24
Researchers achieve major breakthrough in cell reprogramming
(PhysOrg.com) -- A group of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made so significant a leap forward in reprogramming human adult cells that HSCI co-director Doug Melton, who did not participate in the work, said the Institute will immediately begin using the new method to make patient and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, know as iPS cells. -
21:24(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT researchers and collaborators from Tufts University have now engineered E. coli bacteria to produce large quantities of a critical compound that is a precursor to the cancer drug Taxol, originally isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. The tree's bacteria can produce 1,000 times more of the precursor, known as taxadiene, than any other engineered microbial strain.
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21:24Last year, 720 people in the United States became infected with West Nile virus, a potentially serious illness that is spread through the bite of a mosquito - the Culex mosquito - that has first fed on infected birds. Such mosquitoes have the virus eventually located in their salivary glands and transmit the disease to humans and animals when they bite to draw blood.
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21:24When it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. A new study co-authored by MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Union College researchers documents the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups' individual members, and that the tendency to cooperate effectively is linked to the number of women in a group.
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21:24As researchers and policymakers work toward an effective HIV vaccine in a constrained global economy, cost-effective prevention strategies such as Couples Voluntary Counseling and Testing (CVCT) must take a larger role in efforts to decrease the rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa, says Emory University HIV/AIDS vaccine researcher Susan Allen, MD, MPH.
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21:24Three top executives are poised to leave Yahoo! in the latest management turmoil at the Internet company, a leading Silicon Valley technology blog reported.
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21:23
Lawmakers At Odds over Polar Satellite System Overhaul
A section of a bill passed last night by the House of Representatives expresses... -
21:17
Massive storm brings heavy rain from NC to Maine (AP)
AP - A massive rainstorm drenched the East Coast from the Carolinas to Maine on Thursday, washing out commutes and wiping away months of dry weather.
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21:13
Video: 5-Foot Penguin Fossil Discovered
Scientists have found the fossilized remains of a giant penguin, believed to have stood about 5 feet tall, in Peru. Video.
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21:12
Science spending in the UK: where the money goes
A number of top scientists are poised to quit Britain for better-funded jobs abroad, as the heads of several prestigious universities warn that proposed budget cuts threaten the UK's research community. Just how much does the UK spend on science research?
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21:06
File/Atta Kenare)" border="0" />AFP - Under threat of US sanctions, European oil firms Total, Shell, Statoil and Eni have pledged to stop investing in Iran in what amounts to a "significant setback" to Tehran, a US official said Thursday.
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21:02
Distant planet 'could have life'
Astronomers have detected an Earth-like exoplanet that may have just the right kind of conditions to support life. -
21:02
Digital coupons not catching on
Attempts by retailers to replace paper coupons with a digital version downloaded onto loyalty cards have failed to gain consumer acceptance, according to a University of Arizona study. -
21:00Ancient fossil sheds light on how birds became such expert swimmers
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21:00
To claim attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is genetic is to dangerously simplify the nature of the condition
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is the bane of many parents, nurseries and schools. Children who suffer from the condition find it difficult to concentrate, and they can be disruptive and difficult at home and in the classroom.
The argument over what causes the disorder has been raging for decades. Many blame bad parenting, whereas others point the finger at disorders of brain chemistry or hormonal disturbances in the womb. But research that has just been published in the Lancet claims to have found the answer: it's all down to genes.
The study, headed by Professor Anita Thapar from Cardiff University, examined 366 children with ADHD and 1,047 in a control group. They searched for mutations that occur when a chunk of DNA is either duplicated or deleted. The study found these in 14% of children with ADHD, but only 7% of the controls. The Lancet press release claimed that the study "is the first to find direct evidence that ADHD is a genetic disorder". Thapar stated: "Now we can say with confidence that ADHD is a genetic disease and that the brains of children with this condition develop differently to those of other children."
But is 14% compared to 7% sufficient evidence for claiming that ADHD is a genetic disease? It's easy to turn the numbers around and show that seven out of eight children with ADHD had no detectable genetic abnormality. That sounds very different from the kind of disease, such as cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy, that we normally describe as "genetic". The genetic lesions discovered in the Cardiff study occur in only a small minority of patients and half as frequently in perfectly healthy children. To put it in yet another way, of 100 children who inherit the kind of mutation identified by the Cardiff group, only four of them will develop ADHD.
The study is clearly not strong evidence for ADHD being a genetic disease. However, to make their case, Thapar and other geneticists would cite heritability. This is a measure of how much conditions tend to run in families. Earlier studies report a rather high heritability for ADHD of about 76%.
So where are the missing genes? It is of course possible that more genes will turn up in further studies that might close the gap. But perhaps we need to look again at the evidence for these high levels of heritability.
And heritability itself is a funny thing that isn't as heritable as people often imagine. For instance, lung cancer was mostly an inherited disease until people starting smoking, and then it became a disease that was caused mostly by cigarettes. Heritability only really works as a measure of the influence of genes if the environment of the individuals concerned is held constant. And that clearly is not the case for children with and without ADHD, as many studies have found plenty of evidence for environmental influences.
Of course Thapar knows this and, when questioned, is keen to stress that it's not just genes but rather a complex mix of genes and environmental factors that cause ADHD. But that is very different from asserting that ADHD is a genetic disease.
Conditions such as tuberculosis show relatively high levels of heritability in some studies, despite having a well-known environmental cause: the tuberculosis bacterium, for example. Indeed, all diseases are caused by "a complex mix of genes and environmental factors". Claiming that a particular disease is genetic when the evidence is, at best, suggestive is misleading and potentially dangerous.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
20:57LiveScience.com - Penguins didn't always boast tuxedo-like black-and-white markings, according to a new study. The discovery of the first ancient penguin fossil with evidence of feathers reveals the aquatic birds were once reddish-brown and gray.
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20:56AP - The company that makes rocket boosters for the soon-to-be-retired space shuttle said it laid off hundreds of employees Thursday because of uncertainty over the future of the U.S. space program.
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20:55
QNX OS Likely To Power Future BlackBerry Devices
Research In Motion is planning to transition its BlackBerry smartphones to the Neutrino QNX operating system it acquired last April, according to media reports. Although the BlackBerry maker has not officially confirmed this, RIM Vice President Alan Panezic said it would be a "logical conclusion" and Vice President Alan Brenner said there was no reason "to rule it out," according to web site Intomobile.It's hardly surprising that RIM has been thinking about taking advantage of some long-term synergies based on the OS expertise in the separate BlackBerry and QNX software-engineering teams. Apple made major changes in the microprocessor and OS platforms for its Mac line at different times and has been successful, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC.
"At some point every technology vendor has to make a hard decision as to whether to carry on with what they have or to reboot with a new strategy," Hilwa said. "The trick is how to manage such transitions."
Skipping a Beat The key for RIM is coming up with a transition strategy that includes the tools, simplified or automated app migrations, and common APIs for the old and the new platforms. "In this case, it looks like RIM's focus on its WebWorks platform to shift development on BlackBerry phones to the web is one of those strategies," Hilwa said.
The good news for RIM is that its mobile software is tied to hardware that becomes obsolete more quickly than standard computer gear. So five years from now there will be almost no devices left running BlackBerry OS 6, which is what makes such a transition possible for the BlackBerry maker, Hilwa said.
"The bad news is that things move very fast in mobile, and skipping a beat may slow down growth rates and give room for competitors to...
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20:54You're walking down the street and your smartphone reminds you of your appointments, notes nearby sales of those shoes you've been searching for, and points out that your ex-girlfriend is in the restaurant on the corner. That's the heavenly -- or hellish -- vision of the future of computing presented by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week.
He called it "a serendipity engine," and suggested it will be among a variety of new services that will help to "make your life just work."
'Amazing' That Humans Drive Cars In the brave new world now emerging with smart mobile devices, fast broadband, and powerful cloud computing, Schmidt said users will never be lonely because some friend will always be online. He also said users will never be bored because of the vast amount of online information and entertainment.
There's a catch, of course. People need to share information about themselves so the search giant and others can better direct content and functions. Schmidt described the current debate over privacy -- which presumably includes the heavy criticism directed at, and some legal investigations of, Google -- as "healthy" because the massive databases about virtually everyone need to be managed carefully.
But Schmidt's view of the future isn't limited to helping you remember where you put your car keys. In fact, in his future the car is the driver, not you.
"It's amazing to me that we let humans drive cars," he told the conference. He said it's "a bug that cars were invented before computers," and computers should do the driving so humans can sit back and do whatever they need to do while getting from one destination to another. Computers should "help us do the things we are not very good at," Schmidt said, and humans should likewise help our bit-processing...
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20:49Wind Mobile has filed a complaint with the federal Competition Bureau over claims made by rival Rogers that its discount brand Chatr has fewer dropped calls and a better network than its new competitors.
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20:45
Doctor and Patient: Paying Doctors for Patient Performance
The kinds of patients physicians care for can have as much influence on pay-for-performance rankings as what those doctors do.
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20:44
AP - Some ancient penguins may have been twice as big as today's Emperor penguin but they lacked the dashing tuxedo.
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20:41Scientists unearth a fossil in Peru of a giant penguin that lived some 36 million years ago, offering an insight into the birds' evolution.
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20:32Environment Minister Jim Prentice has announced the appointment of a six-person advisory panel to look into the water-testing regime in the Athabasca River around Alberta's oilsands.
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20:30SPACE.com - Scientists have long known the colorful northern lights that amaze skywatchers are more than just pretty light shows in the sky. But until now, the engine behind their diversity has been a mystery.
Naposledy aktualizované zdroje
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ScienceDaily (dnes, 03:53)
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Discovery (24. 5, 22:06)
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EurekAlert (24. 5, 06:00)
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TIME (23. 5, 08:40)
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NASA (18. 5, 07:24)
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Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories (16. 1, 22:07)
