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3D
Brain Mappers Scan Thousands
Thursday,
December 6, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing an effort to create a comprehensive atlas of the
human brain:
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A
group of brain cartographers is creating the most detailed and
sophisticated computer atlas of the human brain ever assembled.
When the $15m (£10.6m) project is completed, the map will
display the brain's anatomy and models of how it functions.
...
Brain scans of 7,000 healthy individuals from nine different
countries, representing a cross section of the global population,
are being put together. When finished, scientists and physicians
will be able to use the 3D atlas online to compare, or contrast,
all sorts of information about the human brain.
Human
brains are as
varied as faces
...
"The frontal cortex and language cortex were very strongly
determined by genetics ... Those areas were almost indistinguishable
in identical twins. The frontal cortex is associated with problem
solving and IQ, while the language cortex is associated with
speech production and language comprehension." ...
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Source:
Natural
Born Killer of Infections
Friday,
December 7, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing the possibility that an enzyme may be used as a killer
of bacteria:
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Scientists
able to use an enzyme
to kill bacteria in test tubes
Scientists
have discovered an enzyme which could be a "natural born
killer" of infections - and it could be delivered through
a nasal spray. It could be the secret weapon scientists have
been seeking for decades because of the growth of antibiotic-resistant
infections.
Research
published in the journal Science suggest the enzyme, which comes
from bacteriophage, or phage viruses which attack and kill bacteria,
could be used to prevent infection.
The
scientists, from Rockefeller University, New York, said the
enzyme might also improve treatment if used in combination with
antibiotics.
...
"A nasal spray containing this enzyme would prevent infection
before the start. We would no longer have to wait for an infection
to arise in order to treat it."
Tests
in mice have shown the enzymes wiped out the streptococcus pneumonia,
naturally present on mucous membranes in the nose and throat.
They were also shown to kill penicillin-resistant strains of
the bacterium, a major cause of infections, in test-tubes. ...
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Source:
Humiliating
End for Fanatics Who Ruled by Fear
Friday,
December 7, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing the Taliban's rise and fall:
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Pro-Taliban
fighters, captured by
the Northern Alliance, in Sibirgan
prison near Mazar-I-Sharif
The
Taliban announced their capture of Kabul in September 1996 by
castrating and murdering a former communist president and hanging
him from a lamppost.
...
Within days of taking Kabul they declared what amounted to an
Islamic Year Zero, imposing on Afghanistan the harshest Muslim
regime ever known.
...
Within days of its fall the capital was rewound hundreds of years:
female education and employment were banned; women who refused
to wear the all-enveloping burqa were beaten; television sets
were smashed; tapes ripped from cassettes and cinemas burned down.
In
the only publicity stunt they ever held, the Taliban summoned
reporters to witness the destruction of the last alcohol in
Kabul.
As
its grip tightened, the edicts became more surreal. High heels
were prohibited lest their clicking distracted men going to
the mosque. Men who trimmed their beards were locked for days
on end in freight containers.
White
paper bags were outlawed in case they were made of recycled
pages of the Koran.
With
the eccentricity came barbarity. Homosexuals were sentenced
to death by having a wall pushed on them, adulterers were stoned
to death.
To
the outside world it may have seemed the Taliban were a sick
joke. But they were born out of their own conservative cultural
environment, Afghans' strong adherence to Islam and the ruins
of a society on the verge of disintegration.
The
founders all came from the south ... All had studied at fundamentalist
seminaries in Pakistan that imbued them with the idea of recreating
an Islamic utopia based on the words of the Prophet Mohammed.
...
Last night, after two months of rhetorical defiance, Abdul Salam
Zaeef, the movement's former ambassador to Pakistan, finally acknowledged
that it was all over.
The
Taliban, he said were finished as a political movement. "I
think we should go home," he said.
Now
the storm of the "summer rains" has all but passed,
and Afghanistan can, with the world's help, begin again.
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Source:
Stem
Cell Transplant Boost
Wednesday,
December 12, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing a type of stem cell resistant to transplant rejection:
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Scientists
carrying out
research into stem cells
Scientists
have found a particular type of stem cell which may be more
suitable for transplantation into humans. Stem cells are the
body's "master cells" - and doctors hope to use them
to create a wide variety of tissue for transplantation.
However,
transplanting stem cells or stem cell derived tissue from one
individual to another is problematic because of the likelihood
of rejection. However, transplanting this type of cell, to the
surprise of the researchers, did not create this effect.
In
animal experiments, even transplants between different species
did not cause a problem. The findings could mean stem cells
could be transplanted between adult humans without the worry
of rejection.
The
cells involved in the research by Osiris Therapeutics in Baltimore,
America, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are
mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have the potential develop
into muscle, cartilage, bone and several other tissues. ...
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Source:
Hands-on
Sentence in Nigeria
Thursday,
December 13, 2001
Complete
article
describing the hands-on advantage in lying about one's religion
when subjected to Islamic Sharia in Nigeria:
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Sharia
reveals underbelly
of Islamic anti-humanism
A
young man in northern Nigeria is back in prison, but relieved,
after being sentenced to nine months in jail and 30 lashes.
Last
week, in a bid to stop his hand being amputated, Mohamed Ali
told the Islamic court in Sokoto where he was charged with theft,
that he had renounced his Muslim faith, was now a Christian
and therefore could not be tried under Sharia law.
In
recent years, several northern Nigerian states have extended
Sharia by incorporating its punishments into their penal codes,
but Christians are not directly subject to Sharia laws.
But
the young man stunned the court on Thursday when he admitted
he had lied. "I am a Muslim, my parents are Muslims. I
did it under confusion and I regret it. I pray for forgiveness,"
he told the court.
The
judge said his sentence was not harsher because the value of the
kitchen goods he stole was less than $8, or the price of a goat,
which is the minimum prescribed for amputation.
After
the ruling Mohamed Ali told AFP news agency: "I feel happy
about the court's ruling. May God bless him (the judge). I take
Islam as a great religion. I regret claiming to be a Christian."
There
is unease among many Christians that the imposition of Islamic
law in the northern states serves to enforce the political will
of Muslim leaders over the substantial minority of non-Muslims
living there.
Since the
introduction of Sharia criminal punishments two years ago more
than 3,000 people have been killed in Christian and Muslim clashes
particularly in the north of the country.
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Source:
Late
Starter Martyr 'knew he was on his way to heaven'
Thursday,
December 13, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing the suicide / failed murder attempt by a 46-year
old Islamic extremist father of 8, yet another in a long list
of participants in the "suicide / murder for god"
segment of the Islamic faith:
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Daoud
Abu Sway seemed an unlikely candidate for death as a suicide
bomber.
Forty-six
years old, a father of eight living in a house he had built
for his family, he seemed to have too many family obligations
just to leave them all behind in the thunderous blast that blew
him to bits on Wednesday.
Abu Sway
left home in this village near Bethlehem at 5.30am, relatives
said, and appeared two hours later crossing a street in Jerusalem
near a luxury hotel.
Explosives
strapped to his body detonated, apparently prematurely, spattering
the wall with his blood.
A few people
on the street were slightly hurt. No-one else was killed.
Though
his mission failed, his widow and children on Thursday praised
him as a martyr who gave his life for God and country.
A statement
issued by the militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility
for his attack. ...
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Source:
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Researchers
Find Closest Living Relative of First Land Plants
Friday, December
14, 2001
Order
Charales
click for description
Excerpts
from article
describing the origin of the first land plants and their evolutionary
connection to the present day Charales algae:
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Some
470 million years ago, the first land plants emerged from prehistoric
waters, put down roots in soil and ended up ruling the plant
world. But scientists haven’t been certain about the family
history of those pioneer plants.
By
studying gene sequences of common fresh water algae, a team
of University of Maryland researchers, funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) has traced this family tree and identified
a group of algae that are the closest living relatives of the
first land plants. The scientists have moved a step closer to
understanding how land plants evolved and came to dominate the
terrestrial biosphere.
...
the closest living relative of the first land plants is a group
of green algae called the Charales, which survives today in fresh
water around the world.
...
Although both the Charales and land plants can be traced back
in the fossil record over a period of more than 400 million
years, their common ancestor has been extinct for even longer
and hasn't been identified in the fossil record.
“Our
data confirm that land plants and the Charales both evolved
from a common ancestor that was a fairly complex organism,”
said Delwiche. “We now can make specific inferences about
what this organism looked like. It wasn't just some sort of
amorphous pond scum. It was made up of branching threads and
reproduced with eggs and sperm.”
...
“These findings can help us understand what properties
allowed land plants to dominate the biosphere,” said Delwiche.
“It's really exciting to know that we still have plants
that look like the ancestors that were underfoot when the dinosaurs
roamed the earth.” ...
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Source:
Geophysicist
Studies Life in the Early Solar System
Monday,
December 17, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing the theory that life arose and was either totally
destroyed or almost totally destroyed many times due to massive
asteroid impacts on earth during its early history:
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Between
the cataclysmic impact that created the Moon around 4.5 billion
years ago and the first evidence of life 3.8 billion years ago,
there may have been long periods during which life repeatedly
spread across the globe, only to be nearly annihilated by the
impact of large asteroids.
The
early Earth, in other words, may have been an interrupted Eden
- a planet where life repeatedly evolved and diversified, only
to be sent back to square one by asteroids 10 or 20 times wider
than the one that hastened the dinosaurs' demise.
When
the surface of the Earth finally became inhabitable again, thousands
of years after each asteroid impact, the survivors would have
emerged from their hiding places and spread across the planet
- until another asteroid struck and the whole cycle was repeated.
...
"An asteroid a few hundred kilometers in diameter will boil
off much of the ocean and leave the rest of the ocean very hot,
so all that will survive will be high-temperature organisms living
deep in the subsurface," he says. Rock vapor and water would
fill the atmosphere, killing off any life on the surface with
temperatures upwards of 1,000 C (1,800 F).
The
only organisms that could survive such an impact are thermophiles
- heat-loving microbes - buried half a mile or more below the
Earth`s surface, where the effects of the burning atmosphere
would have been muted to a survivable 100 C (212 F). Those organisms
may have given rise to much of the life on today`s Earth.
Sleep
calls the region where those organisms would have lived the
"Goldilocks Zone" - deep enough for microbes to avoid
the heat of the burning atmosphere, but not so deep that they
ran afoul of the Earth's internal heat.
Since
there are no records of life before 3.8 billion years ago, there
is no direct proof that Sleep's theory is correct. But several
strands of evidence are highly suggestive. ...
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Source:
US
Build-up in the Middle East
Thursday,
December 20, 2001
Excerpts
from articles
describing increases in US forces in the Middle East:
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A US Marine
wriggles to get his heavy
pack on his back before rolling over
and staggering to his feet, at a secret
location in the Middle East
More
than 20,000 United States troops have been moved into Qatar
and Kuwait amid repeated suggestions that Washington is preparing
to move the war on terrorism into Iraq, defence sources said
on Wednesday.
The
US moved the headquarters of its 3rd Army to the region two
weeks ago and defence analysts have reported large numbers of
troops being moved there since.
The
3rd Army is the ground component of the US Central Command,
which oversees US military operations in the Middle East and
Afghanistan and was in charge of coalition forces during the
Gulf War.
The
Pentagon has insisted that it is merely rotating troops but
defence analysts say that about 24,000 troops have been moved
in with barely a brigade, around 4000, moving out.
The
Czech Republic inadvertently confirmed the military build-up
in the region by suggesting that up to 400 troops it has committed
to the US-led war on terrorism might be sent to Kuwait.
The
deployment of so many troops may be designed to intimidate Saddam
Hussein. US officials acknowledged that a State Department team
was surreptitiously sent into northern Iraq recently to meet
Kurdish leaders. The
visit was intended to make Baghdad jittery and to encourage
the Kurdish leaders to unite to provide opposition to Saddam.
...
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Source:
Third
Genetic 'chapter' Published
Thursday,
December 20, 2001
Excerpts
from article
describing the information available due to the decoding of
the human chromosome 20 to the "gold standard" previously
achieved for chromosomes 22 and 21:
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Tips of
chromosome 20 are
stained red in this photo
Another
chapter in the human book of life has been published. Scientists
have deciphered the complete genetic instructions of a third
chromosome, one of the 24 distinct bundles of DNA that carry
our genetic material. The latest to be finished, chromosome
20, is the largest so far.
...
The first draft of the entire human genome, the instructions
needed to make a human being, was unveiled in the spring. The
work was carried out by two groups, the publicly funded International
Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, and a private US company,
Celera Genomics.
Scientists
are now trying to fill in some of the gaps in the data to come
up with a "gold standard". Two human chromosomes have
already been completed to this standard. The sequence of chromosome
22 was revealed two years ago. This was followed, in May 2000,
by chromosome 21. ...
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Source:
Life's
Sweet Start
Thursday,
December 20, 2001
Excerpts
from articles
describing the likelihood that sugars in meteorites are the
result of chemical processes in space, processes that may have
been key in seeding early life on earth:
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Did life's
building blocks
fall from the skies?
Life
on Earth may have got off to a sweet start nourished by sugar
from space. The suggestion is based on the discovery of sugar
in two meteorites that are billions of years old.
Researchers from the American space agency, Nasa, say their
study of the two space rocks has revealed a range of organic
substances called polyols - the technical name for sugars.
...
George Cooper of NASA's Ames Research Center in California and
co-workers have found these compounds in the Murchison meteorite,
which fell over the Australian town Murchison in 1969, and in
the Murray meteorite, that fell to Kentucky in 1950.
Both
of these carbon-rich meteorites are thought to be fragments
of asteroids, rubble from the building of our Solar System.
The Murchison meteorite has been particularly well studied.
That it contains amino acids, the molecular building blocks
of proteins, helped to establish that these basic components
of life's molecules can be formed in extraterrestrial environments.
This
implied that life on Earth might have been seeded by organic
compounds falling from the skies, rather than having started
from scratch on the young planet. The meteorites' sugar molecules
hint that another essential building block of life may have
come from space.
Sugars
form part of the backbone of the molecules DNA and RNA, found
in all living organisms. They are also life's primary energy
store. Polyols, close chemical relatives of sugars, are used
commercially as sugar-free sweeteners such as sorbitol and mannitol.
...
The researchers think these cosmic sweeteners might have been
formed in reactions between formaldehyde and water on the asteroid
parent bodies of the meteorites. Formaldehyde, a very simple organic
molecule, forms in interstellar space by reactions of still simpler
molecules such as carbon monoxide.
The
findings therefore support a growing realization that, even
in the frozen depths of space, lifeless chemistry can arrange
the elements into molecular forms well along the road to primitive
life.
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Sources:
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