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Cell Cultures Can Sort Out CJD And Scrapie Infectious Agents
Research at Yale University School of Medicine shows that infection with a weak strain of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) prevents infection by more virulent strains and that the protection requires persistent replication by the infectious agent, but not misfolded prions. Protection with a weak animal agent may account for the low incidence of CJD linked to Mad Cow Disease in people.

Saber-toothed Cat Was More Like A Pussycat Than A Tiger
In public imagination, the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon ranks alongside Tyrannosaurus rex as the ultimate killing machine. Powerfully built, with upper canines like knives, Smilodon was a fearsome predator of Ice-Age America's lost giants. For more than 150 years, scientists have debated how this iconic predator used its ferocious fangs to kill its prey. Results will certainly put in dent in Smilodon's reputation. The innovative computer modeling shows it had a decidedly wimpy bite.

Powerful Mineral Mapper Heads To Mars
With the launch of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars -- or CRISM -- joins the set of high-tech detectives seeking traces of water on the red planet. Built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., CRISM is the first visible-infrared spectrometer to fly on a NASA Mars mission. Its primary job: look for the residue of minerals that form in the presence of water, the "fingerprints"left by evaporated hot springs, thermal vents, lakes or ponds on Mars when water could have existed on the surface.

Patients May Want To Skip That Cup Of Coffee Before Undergoing PET/CT
Patients who need a positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) procedure to evaluate known or suspected malignancies should lay off the java, according to research by Medhat M. Osman, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of internal medicine's division of nuclear medicine and director of PET at Saint Louis University Hospital.

Multiple Dimensions Shape Our Perception Of Mind, Harvard Study Sugges
Through an online survey of more than 2,000 people, psychologists at Harvard University have found that we perceive the minds of others along two distinct dimensions: agency, an individual's ability for self-control, morality and planning; and experience, the capacity to feel sensations such as hunger, fear and pain.

For Improving Early Literacy, Reading Comics Is No Child's Play
A professor of library and information science says that comic books are just as sophisticated as other forms of literature, and children benefit from reading them at least as much as they do from reading other types of books.

Stone Age Scandinavians unable to digest milk, study shows
The hunter-gatherers who inhabited the southern coast of Scandinavia 4,000 years ago were lactose intolerant, according to a new study carried out by researchers in Sweden. The study supports the researchers' earlier conclusion that today's Scandinavians are not descended from the Stone Age people in question but from a group that arrived later.

Novel Way To Remove Iron From Ferritin Could Dramatically Improve Sick
A small protein or heptapeptide could be used to accelerate the removal of iron from ferritin, according to new research. The results of this study may help scientists develop new medications that dramatically improve the removal of excess iron in patients diagnosed with blood diseases such as B-Thalassemia (Cooley's anemia) or sickle cell disease.

First Known Gunshot Victim Of New World Found In Peruvian Inca Cemeter
Archaeologists have uncovered the skeleton of the first documented gunshot victim in the New World in an Inca cemetery outside Lima, Peru. The body is thought to be the first forensically proven casualty of the Spanish conquest, one of 72 apparent victims of an uprising against the conquistadors.

Stomach Ache? It May Be Newly Recognized Inflammatory Reaction
As many as one in four people in westernized countries experience pain or discomfort in their upper abdomen, and physicians have almost nothing to offer except antacid medicines, which usually don't work. Now, in a small but novel study, researchers have found evidence that an abnormal amount of inflammatory cells populates the upper intestine of affected individuals, which suggests a fresh way of understanding the common complaint.

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