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Scientists find meteorite that came from innermost asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 18 (ANI): In a very rare finding, scientists have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered that it came from the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our Solar System.

However, information about where individual meteorites originated, and how they were moving around the Solar System prior to falling to Earth, is available for only a dozen of around 1100 documented meteorite falls over the past two hundred years.

According to Dr Phil Bland from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, the lead author of the study, “We are incredibly excited about our new finding. Meteorites are the most analysed rocks on Earth, but it’s really rare for us to be able to tell where they came from.”

The new meteorite, which is about the size of cricket ball, is the first to be retrieved since researchers from Imperial College London, Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic, and the Western Australian Museum, set up a trial network of cameras in the Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia in 2006.

The researchers aim to use these cameras to find new meteorites, and work out where in the Solar System they came from, by tracking the fireballs that they form in the sky.

The new meteorite was found on the first day of searching using the new network, by the first search expedition, within 100m of the predicted site of the fall.

The meteorite appears to have been following an unusual orbit, or path around the Sun, prior to falling to Earth in July 2007, according to the researchers’ calculations.

The team believes that it started out as part of an asteroid in the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

It then gradually evolved into an orbit around the Sun that was very similar to Earth’s.

The new meteorite is also unusual because it is composed of a rare type of basaltic igneous rock.

According to the researchers, its composition, together with the data about where the meteorite comes from, fits with a recent theory about how the building blocks for the terrestrial planets were formed.

This theory suggests that the igneous parent asteroids for meteorites like today’s formed deep in the inner Solar System, before being scattered out into the main asteroid belt.

Asteroids are widely believed to be the building blocks for planets like the Earth, so the new finding provides another clue about the origins of the Solar System. (ANI)

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Delay in becoming a mum may be risky

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 16 (ANI): Women who have their first baby at an advanced maternal age may be more at risk of complications, says a recent UK study.

The team at the University of Cambridge found women who started menstruation early, from the age of 12 onwards, were more likely to require medical assistance during childbirth such as forceps, or a Caesarean section.

The effect was taken care of if these women began a family at an early age.

But such was not the case for older mothers. Previous research also found that the risk of a medically-assisted delivery shot up with a woman’s age at the time of her first birth.

“The main significance of this study is not that menarche is usefully predictive of the risk of complications, but that the current finding sheds light on why advanced maternal age at the time of first birth might be associated with increased risks,” The BBC quoted Researcher Professor Gordon Smith as saying.

Professor Philip Steer, BJOG editor-in-chief, however, added larger investigation was required before reaching conclusions about the impact of early onset of menstruation in women.

He advised: “It is particularly important for them to ensure they lead healthy lifestyles and maintain a normal body weight, as a high BMI during pregnancy is itself associated with poor uterine contractions and an increased need for operative delivery.”

The University of Cambridge study has been published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. (ANI)

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Four giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 13 (ANI): A team of archaeologists has found four giant stone hand axes from the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, dating back to the Stone Age, which suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today.

The discovery of the axes is part of the finding of thousands of stone tools on the lake bed, which sheds new light on how humans in Africa adapted to several substantial climate change events during the period that coincided with the last Ice Age in Europe.

Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford are surveying the now-dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi.

Their research was prompted by the discovery of the first of what are believed to be the world’s largest stone tools on the bed of the lake.

Although the first find was made in the 1990s, the discovery of four giant axes has not been scientifically reported until now.

Four giant stone hand axes, measuring over 30 cm long and of uncertain age, were recovered from the lake basin.

Equally remarkable is that the dry lake floor where they were found is also littered with tens of thousands of other smaller stone-age tools and flakes, according to the researchers.

According to Professor David Thomas, Head of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, “Many of the tools were found on the dry lake floor, not around its edge, which challenges the view that big lakes were only attractive to humans when they were full of water.”

“As water levels in the lake went down, or during times when they fluctuated seasonally, wild animals would have congregated round the resulting watering holes on the lake bed,” he said.

“It’s likely that early human populations would have seen this area as a prolific hunting ground when food resources in the region were more concentrated than at times when the regional climate was wetter and food was more plentiful and the lake was full of water,” he added.

The research team has investigated islands on the floor of the lake – remnants of former sand dunes – which suggest the region’s climate has also been both windier and markedly drier than it is today.

“The interior of southern Africa has usually been seen as being devoid of significant archaeology. Surprisingly, we have found and logged incredibly extensive Middle Stone Age artefacts spread over a vast area of the lake basin,” Professor Thomas said. (ANI)

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1st century A.D. colossal statue of Greek God Apollo unearthed in Turkey

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 9 (ANI): Italian archaeologists have unearthed a 1st century A.D. colossal statue of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, light, music and poetry, from white calcified cliffs in southwestern Turkey.

Colossal statues were very popular in antiquity, as evidenced by the lost giant statues of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Colossus of Nero.

Most of them vanished long ago, with their material re-used in other building projects.

“This colossal statue of Apollo is really a unique finding. Such statues are extremely rare in Asia Minor. Only a dozen still survive,” team leader Francesco D’Andria, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Monuments and Sites at Italy’s National Research Council in Lecce, told Discovery News.

Split in two huge marble fragments, divided along the bust and the lower part of the sculpture, the 1st century A.D. statue was unearthed at the World Heritage Site of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale.

Founded around 190 B.C. by Eumenes II, King of Pergamum (197 B.C.-159 B.C.), Hierapolis was given over to Rome in 133 B.C.

The Hellenistic city grew into a flourishing Roman city, with temples, a theatre and popular sacred hot springs, believed to have healing properties.

Standing at more than four meters (13 feet) in height, the newly discovered statue, which is missing the head and the arms, might have been one of the most impressive sights in the city.

“It depicts the Greek god Apollo sitting on a throne and holding the cithara with his left arms. The god wears a wonderfully draped tunic. The cloth has a transparency effect to reveal mighty muscles,” said D’Andria.

Inspired by the great classical masterpieces, the artist did not pay the same peculiar attention to the back of the statue.

“This shows that the sculpture was placed against a wall and was supposed to be seen only frontally,” D’Andria noted.

Standing in all its massive regality, the statue was particularly important for the city, since Apollo was venerated as Hierapolis’ divine founder.

The colossal statue was probably the main sculpture at the sanctuary of Apollo, which was intentionally built over an active fault.

“Hierapolis is a unique site, and archaeologists are bringing to light incredible findings each year. As with all the other ancient buildings, the statue will be virtually reconstructed in full detail,” Francesco Gabellone, an architect at the National Research Council in Lecce, told Discovery News. (ANI)

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Smoking, overweighing up breast cancer risk

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 2 (ANI): A study conducted in Canada has reinforced the correlation between being overweight, smoking and breast cancer.

Published in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, the study is unique because it did not include subjects who were diagnosed for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which predispose women to breast cancer.

The study entirely focused on lifestyle factors like smoking, exercise, nutrition and weight.

All women analysed in the study were direct ancestors of the first French colonists.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study conducted on a sample of women without BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which are often found in French-Canadian women,” said lead researcher Vishnee Bissonauth, a graduate of the Universite de Montreal’s Department of Nutrition, and a researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center.

The study found that weight gains after the age of 20 increased the risk of breast cancer.

Where the weight gain was more than 15.5 kilos, the risk was found to increase by an average of 68 percent.

Risk increases depending on how late in life the weight gain occurs, according to the study.

Women who gained more than 10 kilos after age 30, or more than 5.5 kilos after age 40, were found to be almost twice as likely to suffer from breast cancer as a those whose weight was stable.

The study showed that the risk tripled if the body mass index was at its maximum after age 50.

Smoking a pack a day for nine years was also found to increase breast cancer risks by 59 percent.

Though the impact of smoking seemed to decrease for menopausal women, it remained at 50 percent.

Bissonauth stressed the need for more research into the correlation between smoking and breast cancer.

The researchers revealed that moderate physical activity appeared to decrease cancer risks by 52 percent for pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women.

The correlation was also observed for women who did intense physical activity, but the difference was not significant, said the lead researcher.

That finding, said Bissonauth, may be down to the fact that women who did moderate physical activity were more likely to do it regularly, while those who did intense physical activity were likely to quit after a few weeks.

“Cancer is a complex disease and can be latent for several years. Therefore, it is important to work on the factors we can control and to lead a healthy lifestyle, which means watching one’s weight, avoid smoking and doing regular exercise,” said Bissonauth. (ANI)

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Novel therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease identified

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 29 (ANI): Scientists from University of Helsinki Institute of Biotechnology have identified a novel therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease.

Lead researcher Professor Raimo K. Tuominen and colleagues have identified a growth factor that can be used to halt the progress of damage brought on by a nerve poison, and possibly restore the function of damaged cells.

The team is investigating two new nerve growth factors. MANF (mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor) and CDNF.

MANF is released from glial cells in the midbrain and is a member of the same growth factor family as CDNF.

The team found that in the experimental PD model, MANF and CDNF injections into the brain prevented dopamine nerve destruction caused by nerve poison and to some extent even restored the function of damaged cells in rats.

This suggests that MANF spreads more readily in brain tissue than other known growth factors.

This may be a highly significant finding in respect to the development of growth factor therapy for PD. (ANI)

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MJ pleaded for drugs from his doctor, shows affidavit

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 26 (ANI): Even though late King of Pop Michael Jackson’s death has been ruled as a homicide by the L.A. County coroner, an affidavit has revealed new details about actions of the singer’s doctor.

According to a search warrant affidavit released on August 24, Jackson pleaded with his doctor to give him more sedatives to cure his insomnia prior to his death, reports CBS News.

Jackson made “repeated demands/requests” for propofol, which the singer called his “milk”, the affidavit stated.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s cardiologist, administered 25 milligrams of the white-coloured liquid, a relatively small dose, and the singer finally fell asleep.

Murray told investigators that, at the time of Jacko’s death, he had been trying to wean the star off propofol, and that he’d been treating Jackson for insomnia for about six weeks with 50 milligrams of the drug every night via an intravenous drip.

The affidavit unsealed in Houston, where Los Angeles police took materials from one of Murray’s clinics last month as part of their manslaughter investigation, includes a detailed account of what detectives say Murray told them.

The L.A. County Coroner’s office will rule Jacko’s death as a homicide based on forensic tests, though the findings have not been publicly released.

“The coroner’s finding doesn’t mean we are going to see a homicide, as opposed to manslaughter case against anyone,” said a CBS News legal analyst.

“The examiner’s office doesn’t distinguish between legal terms ‘manslaughter’ and ‘homicide’,” the analyst added. (ANI)

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Scientists establish new link between pre-eclampsia and diet

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 26 (ANI): A new study has shown that pregnant women with pre-eclampsia have unusually high levels of a chemical compound called ‘ergothioneine’, which is found in unpasteurised food, in the red blood cells.

The finding made by scientists at the University of Leeds attains significance because they suggest that ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia, and may help scientists to understand the cause of the condition, which is currently unknown.

The researchers took blood samples from a group of 37 pregnant women, and compared the red blood cells from women with pre-eclampsia with those from women with no symptoms.

Writing about their findings in the journal Reproductive Sciences, the researchers said that they found a significantly higher concentration of the ergothioneine – a compound made by fungi – in the red blood cells of the women with pre-eclampsia.

Ergothioneine is already well known to be made by micro-organisms that are commonly found in foods like unpasteurised dairy products. Since humans cannot synthesise it, the compound finds its way into human cells exclusively through our diet.

Pregnant women are not advised against eating fungi or foods such as unpasteurised dairy products which contain ergothioneine producing fungi. In fact, scientific studies on animals highlight the benefit of ergothioneine.

“These results suggest that a higher level of ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia,” says lead researcher Dr. Julie Fisher, a chemist at the University of Leeds.

“I would not recommend that pregnant women stop eating fungi. However, the high concentration of ergothioneine in the red blood cells of women with pre-eclampsia is a very interesting finding – the more we know about the chemicals involved in the disease the closer we get to understanding what causes it,” says Professor James Walker, Professor of Obstetrics at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM), and a co-author of the research.

The symptoms of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure, protein in urine and fluid retention and affects almost 10 per cent of pregnancies after 20 weeks. If left untreated, the condition can cause a range of problems, such as growth restriction in babies and even foetal and maternal mortality. There is no known cause of the condition.

“Ergothioneine is known as an antioxidant and antioxidants have been proposed to be helpful in reducing the risk of preeclampsia. It is therefore very interesting that we have found it to be in excess for women with the condition,” says Dr. Fisher.

The researchers used a technique that is based on the same science as MRI scans, but which operates on fluids taken from the body, to identify chemicals in the red blood cells of pregnant women.

They say that the amount of these chemicals was found to depend on whether the women were healthy or whether they were suffering from pre-eclampsia.

They previously found that chemical markers for pre-eclampsia also exist in blood plasma. (ANI)

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Smoking may aggravate malnutrition in developing countries

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 24 (ANI): Smokers may exacerbate the problem of malnutrition in developing countries because they tend to finance their habit by dipping into the family food budget, say a pair of researchers.

Steven Block and Patrick Webb, of Tufts University, have revealed that their fidning is based on a study conducted in Java, Indonesia.

They say that their findings suggest that the costs of smoking in the developing world go well beyond the immediate health risks.

The researchers surveyed 33,000 households, most of which were poor, and found that the average family with at least one smoker spent 10 percent of its already tight budget on tobacco.

They observed that 68 percent of a smoking family’s budget went to food, and 22 percent for non-food, non-tobacco purchases.

On the other hand, said the researcher duo, the average non-smoking family spent 75 percent of its income on food, and 25 percent for non-food items.

“This suggests that 70 percent of the expenditures on tobacco products are financed by a reduction in food expenditures,” the researchers write.

They note in their report that that decreased spending on food appeared to have real nutritional consequences for children of smokers, with the study finding that smokers’ children tended to be slightly shorter for their ages than those of non-smokers.

The decrease in child nutrition associated with a parent who smokes is “an intuitive but rarely documented empirical finding,” the researchers write.

The team further pointed out that the poorer nutrition in smoking families came not only because they bought less food in total, but also because the food they ate tended to be of lower quality.

They said that, compared to non-smoking families, families with a smoker were found to spend a larger budget share on rice and a smaller share on meats, fruits and vegetables, which are nutrient-rich, but more expensive.

“The combination of direct health threats from smoking coupled with the potential loss of (food) consumption among children linked to tobacco expenditure presents a development challenge of the highest order,” the researchers conclude.

The study has been published in Economic Development and Cultural Change. (ANI)

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Tone-deaf people lack an important neural pathway

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 19 (ANI): Researchers have found that the nerve fibres that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people.

According to experts’ estimates, at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf – unable to sing in tune.

The new finding has pinpointed a particular brain circuit that is believed to be absent in these individuals.

“The anomaly suggests that tone-deafness may be a previously undetected neurological syndrome similar to other speech and language disorders, in which connections between perceptual and motor regions are impaired,” said Dr. Psyche Loui, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, one of the study’s authors.

For the study, the researchers used an MRI-based technique called diffusion tensor imaging to examine connections between the right temporal and frontal lobes.

It is known that this region, a neural “highway” called the arcuate fasciculus, is involved in linking music and language perception with vocal production.

They took brain images of 20 people, half of whom had been identified as tone-deaf through listening tests.

The arcuate fasciculus was smaller in volume, and had a lower fibre count in the tone-deaf individuals.

Particularly, the superior branch of the arcuate fasciculus in the right hemisphere could not be detected in the tone-deaf individuals.

Thus, the researchers speculated that this could mean the branch is missing entirely, or is so abnormally deformed that it appears invisible to even the most advanced neuroimaging methods.

“The findings are clear. They show that the arcuate fasciculus, a structure long-known to join perceptual and motor areas, has reduced connectivity in individuals with tone deafness. Beyond improving our understanding of the anatomical underpinnings of tone-deafness, this study provides new insight into a person’s ability to detect pitch,” said Dr. Nina Kraus, at Northwestern University.

The findings add to previous work by the same researchers demonstrating that tone-deaf people could not consciously hear their own singing, and work by other researchers indicating abnormalities in brain regions that affect sound perception and production.

The study has been published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. (ANI)

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Scientists identify how meningitis bacteria invade the brain

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 19 (ANI): Scientists in the U.S. have discovered that a specific protein on the surface of a common bacterial pathogen allows the bacteria to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain, initiating the deadly infection known as meningitis.

The new finding may lead to the development of improved vaccines to protect those most vulnerable, including young infants and the elderly.

“Streptococcus pneumoniae, commonly known as pneumococcus, is responsible for half the cases of bacterial meningitis in humans,” said the study’s senior author, Victor Nizet, MD, professor of paediatrics and pharmacy at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Meningitis develops when bacteria penetrate the “blood-brain barrier.”

The blood-brain barrier, comprised of a single layer of highly specialized microvascular endothelial cells, prevents most large molecules from entering into the cerebrospinal fluid, preserving an optimal biochemical environment for brain function.

The research team examined the functions of a protein known as NanA in order to discover how an entire bacterium can breech the blood-brain barrier and gain access to the central nervous system.

NanA is produced by all strains of pneumococcus and displayed prominently on the bacteria’s outer surface.

Through genetic manipulations, the researchers were able to remove the entire NanA protein, or just specific sections of the molecule, from the pathogen.

They found that while normal pneumococci were able to bind, enter and penetrate through human brain microvascular endothelial cells, mutant bacteria lacking the NanA protein -or those expressing only a truncated version of the protein – largely lost these abilities.

Conversely, when the full-length pneumococcal NanA protein was cloned and expressed on the surface of a nonpathogenic laboratory strain, the transformed bacteria gained the ability to bind and enter the same endothelial cells.

Satoshi Uchiyama, MD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Nizet Laboratory and lead author on the study, said: “Our tissue culture studies showed that the NanA protein was both necessary and sufficient for bacterial penetration of the blood brain barrier endothelial cells.”

“After infecting mice intravenously, we also found that far fewer NanA-deficient bacteria left the bloodstream and entered the brain, in comparison to mice infected with the normal pneumococcus,” Uchiyama added.

NanA is best known as an enzyme that cleaves and releases the sugar molecule known as sialic acid, which is present in abundance on the surface of all human cells.

While this enzymatic activity played a small part in promoting NanA-mediated blood-brain barrier interactions, a much stronger role was identified for the outer tip of the protein.

This tip seems to directly attach to the brain microvascular endothelial cells and then stimulate them to take in the pneumococcus.

According to Nizet, because NanA is expressed on the surface of all pneumococcal strains, it is an attractive candidate to include in a universal protein-based vaccine against pneumococcal infection.

The study is available online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. (ANI)

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New book debunks myths about lying, deception

August 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 8 (ANI): Defying conventional wisdom about how and why people lie, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts has said in his new book that lying is common, and people willingly accept and often welcome the lies they are told because it takes a lot of work to identify lying and liars.

Robert Feldman has offered his insights into the world of lying in his new book, titled ‘The Liar in Your Life’, published on August 3.

In the book, Feldman has debunked many myths and has said that we are not only bad at detecting falsehoods, but in fact are strongly and unconsciously willing to believe other people’s lies to make our lives easier.

Feldman also made some other revelations- for example, he said that despite what most of us would like to believe, even young children lie, and they get better at it over time.

In fact, parents consciously teach their children to lie.

He also said that it is very difficult to detect liars, even cops and detectives have trouble and can be easily fooled.

Feldman concluded that we all frequently practice some form of deception, from outright falsehoods to “little white lies,” in our daily lives.

He said that in the new interconnected world, use of e-mail and the Internet tends weaken our existing standards of honesty.

“We’re always managing what we say. I’ve found that ‘white lies’ do have consequences and that the danger of telling them is they lead us toward being more dishonest,” said Feldman.

He also said that although it is probably not reasonable to expect people to stop lying, it is possible to monitor our own behaviour to curtail the process as much as possible.

One of the most important finding of his research is what he calls the “liar’s advantage”-that is made up of several components, some of which are that lying is easy and it is very hard to detect.

He said that the belief that an individual who averts his or her gaze, acts nervous and perspires is probably not telling the truth, is false.

And neither is it accurate that someone who looks you straight in the eye will be telling the truth. He said that polygraph testing is also a poor judge of whether someone is telling the truth.

“Despite the beliefs of many law enforcement personnel. The scientific research shows that polygraphs are unreliable at detecting lies,” said Feldman.

Feldman said that he found that people don’t recognize how common it is to tell a socially acceptable “white lie,” or how easy it is for total strangers to begin twisting the truth even in a casual conversation.

The study found that strangers meeting face-to-face for the first time will tell lies three times within 10 minutes.

And if strangers meet through a computer conversation they are even more likely to lie, according to a new study reported in the book. (ANI)

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Lack of sunlight can cause ‘brain drain’ in depressed people

July 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 28 (ANI): Depressed people are less able to think clearly when there’s a short-term lack of sunlight, a new study has found.

Writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Environmental Health, researchers used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people.

The team of US researchers, which was led by Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight.

He said, “We found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment. This relationship remained significant after adjustment for season.

“This new finding that weather may not only affect mood, but also cognition, has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder”.

Kent and his colleagues speculate that the physiological mechanisms that give rise to seasonal depression may also be involved in sunlight’s effect on cognitive function in the context of depressive symptoms.

Cognitive function was assessed by measurement of short-term recall and temporal orientation. As well as regulating the hormones serotonin and melatonin, light has been shown to also affect brain blood flow, which has in turn been linked with cognitive functions.

The researchers write, “Discovering the environment’s impact on cognitive functioning within the context of seasonal disorders may lead not only to better understanding of the disorders, but also to the development of targeted interventions to enhance everyday functioning and quality of life.” (ANI)

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Earliest animals on Earth lived in lakes

July 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 28 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have found evidence that the earliest animals on Earth lived in lakes.

Conventional wisdom has it that animal evolution began in the ocean, with animal life adapting much later in Earth history to terrestrial environments.

Now, a UC (University of California) Riverside-led team of researchers, studying ancient rock samples in South China, has found that the first animal fossils in the paleontological record are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not marine sediments as commonly assumed.

“We know that life in the oceans is very different from life in lakes, and, at least in the modern world, the oceans are far more stable and consistent environments compared to lakes which tend to be short-lived features relative to, say, rates of evolution,” said Martin Kennedy, a professor of geology in the Department of Earth Sciences who participated in the research.

“Thus it is surprising that the first evidence of animals we find is associated with lakes, a far more variable environment than the ocean,” he added.

The study raises questions such as what aspects of the Earth’s environment changed to enable animal evolution.

In their research, the authors focused on South China’s Doushantuo Formation, one of the oldest fossil beds that houses highly preserved fossils dated to about 600 million years ago.

These beds have no adult fossils. Instead, many of the fossils appear as bundles of cells interpreted to be animal embryos.

“Our first unusual finding in this region was the abundance of a clay mineral called smectite,” said lead author Tom Bristow, who worked in Kennedy’s lab.

“In rocks of this age, smectite is normally transformed into other types of clay. The smectite in these South China rocks, however, underwent no such transformation and have a special chemistry that, for the smectite to form, requires specific conditions in the water – conditions commonly found in salty, alkaline lakes,” he added.

The researchers’ work involved collecting hundreds of rock samples from several localities in South China, carrying out mineralogical analysis using X-ray diffraction, and collecting and analyzing other types of geochemical data.

“All our analyses show that the rocks’ minerals and geochemistry are not compatible with deposition in seawater,” Bristow said.

“Moreover, we found smectite in only some locations in South China, and not uniformly as one would expect for marine deposits. This was an important indicator that the rocks hosting the fossils were not marine in origin. Taken together, several lines of evidence indicated to us that these early animals lived in a lake environment,” he added. (ANI)

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Yogurt could help gastric-bypass patients lose weight more quickly

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): Taking probiotics after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery can help obese patients to lose weight more quickly, according to a new study.

Probiotics are the so-called ‘good’ bacteria found in yogurt as well as in over-the-counter dietary supplements that help in the digestion of food.

New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital and Clinics suggests that patients who take probiotics after the gastric-bypass procedure tend to shed more pounds than those who don’t take the supplements.

“Surprisingly, the probiotic group attained a significantly greater percent of excess weight loss than that of control group,” said John Morton, MD, associate professor of surgery at the medical school who wrote the paper with lead author Gavitt Woodard, a third-year medical student, and five other medical students at the Surgery Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation in Stanford’s Department of Surgery.

The researchers followed 44 patients on whom Morton had performed the procedure from 2006 to 2007. Patients were randomized into either a probiotic or a control group.
oth groups received the same bariatric medical care and nutritional counseling, as well as the support of weight-loss study groups. Both groups also were allowed to consume yogurt, a natural source of probiotics.

In addition, the probiotic group consumed one pill per day of Puritan’s Pride, a probiotic supplement that is available online and in many stores. Morton has no financial ties to the company that makes the supplement.

The study showed that at three months, the probiotics group registered a 47.6 percent weight loss, compared with a 38.5 percent for the control group.

The study also found that levels of vitamin B-12 were higher in the patients taking probiotics – a significant finding because patients often are deficient in B-12 after gastric-bypass surgery.

The probiotics group had B-12 levels of 1,214 picograms per milliliter at three months, compared with the control group’s levels of 811 pg/mL.

Morton said he now recommends probiotic supplements to his patients, and he plans to continue to look for ways to enhance the outcomes from the procedure.

The study has been published in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. (ANI)

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2000-year-old statue of Greek athlete sheds light on metal corrosion

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 9 (ANI): The restoration of a 2,000-year-old bronze sculpture of the famed ancient Greek athlete Apoxyomenos may help modern scientists understand how to prevent metal corrosion, discover the safest ways to permanently store nuclear waste, and understand other perplexing problems.

That’s the conclusion of a new study on the so-called “biomineralization” of Apoxyomenos.

Best known as “The Scraper,” the statue depicts an athlete scraping sweat and dust from his body with a small curved instrument.

Scientist Davorin Medakovic and his team point out that Apoxyomenos was discovered in 1998 on floor of the Adriatic Sea.

While the discovery was a bonanza for archaeologists and art historians, it also proved to be an unexpected boon to scientists trying to understand biomineralization.

Biomineralization is the process in which animals and plants use minerals from their surroundings and form shells and bone.

Apoxyomenos was encrusted with such deposits.

“As studies of long-term biofouled manmade structures are limited, the finding of an ancient sculpture immersed for two millennia in the sea provided a unique opportunity to probe the long-term impact of a specific artificial substrate on biomineralizng organisms and the effects of biocorrosion,” according to the researchers.y evaluating the mineral layers and fossilized organisms on the statue, the researchers were able to evaluate how underwater fouling organisms and communities interacted with the statue as well as how certain mineral deposits on the bronze sculpture slowed its deterioration. (ANI)

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Two dietary oils could reduce body fat in older diabetic women

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 8 (ANI): Two common dietary oil supplements, safflower oil and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), have an inherent ability to reduce body fat in obese postmenopausal women with Type 2 diabetes, revealed a study.

Safflower oil is common cooking oil, while conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a compound naturally found in some meat and dairy products, which has been associated with weight loss in previous studies.

Both are composed primarily of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are considered “good fats”, which, when consumed in proper quantities, could lead to a variety of health benefits.

By comparing the two oils, the researchers found that16 weeks of supplementation with safflower oil reduced fat in the trunk area, lowered blood sugar, and increased muscle tissue in the women participants.

On the other hand, conjugated linoleic acid supplementation for the same length of time reduced total body fat, and lowered the women’s body mass index (BMI).

The women, who participated in the study, took one type of oil for 16 weeks, followed by the other oil for an equal amount of time.

The participants were instructed not to change their diets or exercise patterns over the course of the study, so the research would measure the effects of only the supplementation.

“Making this subtle change in the intake of high-quality dietary fats in an effort to alter body composition is both achievable and affordable to postmenopausal women in the United States who are managing the difficult combination of obesity and diabetes,” said Martha Belury, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University and senior author of the study.

One of the most surprising finding was that, in 16 weeks, these women could lose between about two pounds and four pounds of trunk fat simply by taking safflower oil supplements.

The study showed that CLA supplementation significantly decreased body mass index and total body fat over both diet periods.

“I never would have imagined such a finding. This study is the first to show that such a modest amount of a linoleic acid-rich oil may have a profound effect on body composition in women,” said Belury.

The dose of either oil taken each day was approximately 1 2/3 teaspoons.

Postmenopausal women tend to lose muscle at the same time that body fat accumulates toward their middle.

Thus, the research shows how dietary oils can complement lifestyle and medication in helping older diabetic women manage their health, said Belury.

The research has been published online, and is scheduled for later print publication, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (ANI)

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Genetic region linked with rare ability to recognize, name musical notes identified

July 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 3 (ANI): Scientists at the University of California-San Francisco (UNSF) say that they have identified a particular region of genes on human chromosome eight that is linked to perfect pitch, the rare ability to recognize and name musical notes without any reference pitch for comparison, at least in people of European ancestry.

Reporting their work in American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers say that their next step will be to identify a specific gene.

The finding, part of a larger examination of families of various ancestries – Europeans, Ashkenazi Jews, Indians and East Asians – is the first significant genetic evidence of a role of genes in perfect pitch.

The researchers say that it is likely that multiple genes are involved in all cases of perfect pitch, and that different genes could be associated with different ethnic backgrounds.

But despite that, they say, the finding is an important advance in their effort to move in on the relative roles of early musical training and genetic inheritance on perfect pitch.

Professor Jane Gitschier, the senior author of the study who is a singer herself, says that it is an advance in the team’s effort to explore the relative contributions of environmental factors and genes on learning and other behaviours.

“Perfect pitch is a window into the way in which multiple genes and environmental factors influence cognitive or behavioural traits,” she says.

The team has learnt over the last decade that both factors contribute to perfect pitch.

“What’s exciting now is that we now have made the first foray into teasing out the genes that may be involved,” she says.

Besides continuing to identify and collect data on families with multiple cases of perfect pitch, the researchers plan to analyse candidate genes for variations that might be associated with perfect pitch in participants of European ancestry.

For this purpose, the team plans to recruit and study individuals of European ancestry without perfect pitch, but with equivalent early musical training.

The ongoing effort is supported in part by a grant by the NAMM Foundation, which was established by the international music products industry association with the aim of promoting “active participation in music making across the lifespan,” in part by supporting scientific research. (ANI)

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Steroid use by bodybuilders not dependant on body image concerns

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 1 (ANI): Steroid use is not necessary to be heavily concerned with muscularity and leanness, suggest researchers.

According to Timothy Baghurst, a visiting assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Arkansas, there is no difference between bodybuilders who use steroids and those who do not when it comes to characteristics associated with muscle dysmorphia.

Muscle dysmorphia is a disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with the idea that he or she is not muscular enough, usually in bodybuilding.

Daniel Kissinger, an assistant professor of counsellor education, also contributed towards the understanding of mental health elements of the study as a second author of the article.

Kissinger said: “One of the problems associated with classifying muscular dysmorphia is that, while it is receiving increasing attention in the mental health literature, muscle dysmorphia is not recognized by the American Psychological Association as a distinct mental illness.”

Baghurst divided bodybuilders into sub-groups of “natural” and “non-natural”.

Natural bodybuilding referred to competitions in which partakers were drug-tested, and had to pass a polygraph in relation to their lack of prohibited drug use.

Non-natural bodybuilding referred to those competitions in which participants were not required to pass a polygraph, nor were they drug tested before the to competition.

Baghurst discovered: “By separating natural and non-natural bodybuilders, I found that either group is equally likely to have all of the traits of muscle dysmorphia with the exception of pharmacological use.”

He further found the males who were pumping iron to enhance their physique, but were not bodybuilders, also bared few characteristics linked with muscle dysmorphia including dissatisfaction with their size and symmetry.

Baghurst said: “This is an important finding, because it shows that someone doesn’t have to be big and buff to have concerns about how muscular they are or how much body fat they have.”

The study has been published in the international journal Body Image in June 2009. (ANI)

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Key culprits in lupus disease identified

June 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 30 (ANI): Scripps Research Institute researchers have identified three new proteins that play a role in the development of lupus erythematosus (or lupus), a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect different body parts, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs.

Lupus is one of several autoimmune diseases in which the immune system turns against parts of the body, destroying the very cells and tissues it is meant to protect.

Scripps Research Professor of Immunology and Microbial Science Dwight Kono demonstrated that three proteins, called Toll-like receptors (TLRs), are necessary for this autodestruction to occur.

TLRs are proteins found in immune cells that normally help stimulate the initial response of the immune system to foreign pathogens. Humans have 10 different types of TLRs.

While, some of them sit on the surface of immune cells, other TLRs-TLR 3, TLR7, and TLR 9-reside inside immune cells, in a compartment known as the endolysosome, where bits of foreign substances usually end up.

By engineering mice that lack either TLR 7 or TLR9, scientists have gathered evidence that these TLRs may play a role in the disease.

“Earlier studies had strongly suggested that endolysosomal TLRs were important, but if you eliminate one or the other you do not get a huge effect,” said Kono.

To answer this question, Kono and colleagues took advantage of strains of laboratory mice prone to lupus. These mice spontaneously develop many of the same signs and symptoms as humans with the disease.

The next step was to eliminate TLR 3, TLR 7, and TLR 9 in these lupus-prone mice.

They found that the mice lacking functioning TLR 3, TLR 7, and TLR 9 did not develop lupus.

“It seems like these three TLRs are absolutely required for optimal autoantibody production,” said Kono.

“This is an important finding that builds on results obtained by other groups,” Kono added.

The study is published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (ANI)

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