Fluffy comets, meat-eating mystery beasts and molecular machines: Scientific shockers set heads spinning in a year marked by out-of-this-world finds. By Leander Kahney.
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As video surveillance creeps into public spaces around the world, tech-savvy activists develop techniques to turn the cameras against their masters. Ann Harrison reports from the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
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The first Galileo demonstrator is in orbit, marking the very first step to full operability of Europe’s new global navigation satellite system, under a partnership between ESA and the European Commission (EC). Giove A, the first Galileo in-orbit validation element, was launched today from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, atop a Soyuz-Fregat vehicle operated by Starsem.
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a molecular link between a high-fat, Western-style diet, and the onset of type 2 diabetes. In studies in mice, the scientists showed that a high-fat diet disrupts insulin production, resulting in the classic signs of type 2 diabetes.
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The University of Colorado at Boulder’s long heritage with NASA planetary missions will continue Jan. 17 with the launch of a student space dust instrument on the New Horizons Mission to Pluto from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
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Like boxers wearied by a 15-round bout, CD8 T cells eventually become “exhausted” in their battle against persistent viral infection, and less effective in fighting the disease. Dana-Farber and Emory researchers have traced the problem to a gene that turns off the infection-fighting drive of CD8 T cells in mice. The discovery raises the possibility that this exhaustion can be reversed, reinvigorating the immune system’s defenses against chronic viral infections, including hepatitis and HIV.
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In recent years, cardiologists have begun to view acute heart failure syndrome (AHFS) as a distinct condition. However, there is not yet a consensus on a definition, epidemiology, appropriate therapy and directions for future research for acute heart failure syndrome, says a special report published in today’s Circulation journal.
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The tiny rabbit-like pika, an animal species considered to be one of the best canaries in a coal mine for detecting global warming in the western United States, appears to be veering toward the brink of extinction in the Great Basin.
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Red-headed finches dominate their black-headed and yellow-headed peers by physical aggression and by the mere fact of being red-headed, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. University of New South Wales biologists made the discovery following experiments with stunningly colourful Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae). Among Australia’s most endangered native birds, Gouldian finches are now restricted to small isolated populations across the tropical north.
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The activity of connections among brain cells significantly affects levels of the toxic protein beta-amyloid (Aß) that is a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), researchers have found. Aß is produced by the cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) within brain cells. Findings suggest that the kind of mental activity people practice or drugs they might take for depression or anxiety could affect their AD risk or the disease progression.
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