In the News
PASt Explorers
This Portable Antiquities Scheme [PAS] website "is designed for use in the classroom, museum or at home"and provides teaching and learning resources "aimed at children between the ages of 7-11"and related to the English National Curriculum. It features information and materials about English and Welsh historic periods (prehistoric, Iron Age, Roman, and medieval), a database of objects (such as Roman coins), an introduction to archeology, and more. From the British Museum and other partners. [Ironic] LONDON: A jailed cocaine dealer is working as Santa Claus on
John Tams, who dons beard, boots and red suit to work in a cafe's Christmas grotto, said he wanted to give something back to the community... PET/CT Brings New Hope To Patients With Deadly Form Of Breast Cancer
Researchers are improving the chances of women faced with an aggressive and difficult to diagnose form of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer spreads quickly and can be lethal in six to nine months. But by using fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography, radiologists and physicists are able to spot the spread of cancer earlier. Researchers Develop New Ways To Predict Number Of Drug Users
In research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology a team of researchers from Imperial College London, the Health Protection Agency, Medical Research Council and GlaxoSmithKline analysed the numbers of opiate and injecting drug users who had overdoses, to see if it was possible to model long term trends for the number of opiate or injecting drug users. First-ever Atomic-detail Computer Simulation Of How Proteins May Vibra
The first-ever atomic-detail computer simulation of how proteins vibrate in a crystal has been performed. Understanding how proteins -- life's worker molecules -- interact with each other is a major goal of biological sciences. The simulation, which was made possible by recent advances in scientific computing, describes the forces and vibrations involved in protein crystals, which provide an environment in which the proteins are ordered and thus lend themselves to detailed study. Ragworm ragtime
 When I was a youngster I used to do a spot of sea fishing on the freezing cold north east coast. It wasn’t so much a hobby as an obsession at one point. Key to success was a plentiful supply of lugworm which could be dug from the wet golden sand at lowtide and stored ready for the next angling venture, while ragworm, which have a nasty bit, came from the local fishing bait supplier. Never would it have occurred to my 11-year old self that these lowly creatures could harbour the secrets of our own evolution.
However, apparently it does. Detlev Arendt of the European Molecular Biology Laboratoryhas been studying the multifunctional neurones that sense the environment and release hormones in vertebrates (including ourselves), flies, and worms. The last common ancestor of all of these creatures must provide the evolutionary basis of our modern brains that endow us with the skills to varying degrees of success to dig up ragworm, take part in fishing trips, and ponder our origins. Hormones control growth, metabolism, reproduction and other biological processes. In humans, as indeed in all vertebrates, the chemical signals are produced by the hypothalamus and other specialist brain centres and secreted into the blood for circulation around the body. This signalling system is not, it turns out, the preserve of those creatures with a backbone. Arendt and his colleagues now believe that the hypothalamus and its hormones have
their
evolutionary origins
in an ancientwormhormones have their evolutionary origins in an ancient worm-like creature that lived hundreds of millions of years ago and is the common ancestor of vertebrates, flies, and worms. Hormones work slowly, on the whole, and have body-wide effects. Insects and nematode worms use hormones, but the specific molecules they use are very different from their vertebrate counterparts. “This suggested that hormone-secreting brain centres arose after the evolution of vertebrates and invertebrates had split,” explains Arendt, “But then found vertebrate–type hormones in annelid worms and molluscs, indicating that these centres might be much older than expected.” Comparisons of two types of hormone-secreting nerve cells from zebrafish, a vertebrate, and the annelid worm Platynereis dumerilii, in Arendt’s lab have now revealed some stunning similarities that point to a shared and ancient ancestry for our hormonal systems. “These findings revolutionise the way we see the brain,” says Kristin Tessmar-Raible who carried out the comparison, “So far we have always understood it as a processing unit, a bit like a computer that integrates and interprets incoming sensory information. Now we know that the brain is itself a sensory organ and has been so since very ancient times.” The research appears in detail in the journal Cell. Bewildering to think that I used to skewer these little creatures on a barbed hook and cast them into the sea to catch scaly marine creatures. It almost makes no sense. Biomarkers For Alzheimer's Disease Can Be Trusted In Clinical Trials
The best-established biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease have a low natural variation over two years. The results speak for the inclusion of these biomarkers in clinical trials of novel drugs against Alzheimer's disease. Disabling A Carbohydrate Trigger Reduces Obesity And Appetite
The absence of a key protein prevents normally obese mice from becoming fat, lowers their blood triglycerides, a type of fat, and reduces the insulin resistance related to type 2 diabetes, researchers have found. The study provides further insight into the role that carbohydrate response element binding protein plays in converting excess carbohydrates to fatty acids for long-term storage. Performing Monkeys In Asia Carry Viruses That Could Jump Species To Hu
Some urban performing monkeys in Indonesia are carrying several retroviruses that are capable of infecting people, according to a new study led by University of Washington researchers. The results indicate that contact with performing monkeys, which is common in many Asian countries, could represent a little-known path for viruses to jump the species barrier from monkeys to humans and eventually cause human disease. Avian Influenza Infection In Birds Spreads To Turkey, Romania
Tests conducted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have today confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in samples taken from domestic birds in Turkey. In Romania, investigations of recent poultry deaths have, to date, identified the H5 subtype of avian influenza virus.
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