DNA repair ‘scissors’ discovered
“Researchers say they have unlocked a “major part” in the puzzle of understanding how DNA repairs itself. A team from the University of Dundee said they believed the finding could have implications for the future treatment of cancer.
They have discovered a protein, known as FAN1, which plays a vital role in maintaining healthy DNA. Researchers described the protein as “molecular scissors” which repair damaged DNA in human cells. This could help to prevent mutations which eventually lead to cancer.
Dr John Rouse, who is heading the team behind the discovery, said a major problem with DNA is that it is regularly damaged. He said: “If DNA damage is not fixed quickly then these instructions are changed and the result is mutations – undesirable changes in DNA – that can cause the cell to become abnormal.
“This is essentially what causes cancer.” Scientists have still to identify all the different factors contributing to DNA repair. However, Dr Rouse said: “With our findings we have unlocked a major part of the puzzle.”"
Read more at BBC News
Power of the hidden message revealed?
“Advertising men once used it to try to increase sales of popcorn, and Formula One teams have been accused of indulging in it to sell cigarettes. But it turns out that subliminal messaging – flashing an image or words on a screen for a fraction of a second – works best if it leaves the viewer in a state of fear.
An experiment by British researchers has found that even though subliminal messages are shown so briefly that the human eye cannot consciously read them, the brain is particularly good at picking up on the emotional meaning of a word if it is negative.
Scientists at University College London believe the results of the study, in which participants correctly identified when a subliminally transmitted word had negative connotations more than seven times out of 10, shows that humans are programmed at a sub-conscious level to respond to any stimulus that contains a potential threat.”
Read more at The Independent (Thanks Tracey)
Record Collapse of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Puzzles Scientists
An upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads, NASA announced Thursday.
The layer of gas – called the thermosphere – is now rebounding again. This type of collapse is not rare, but its magnitude shocked scientists.
“This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” said John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “It’s a Space Age record.”
The collapse occurred during a period of relative solar inactivity – called a solar minimum from 2008 to 2009. These minimums are known to cool and contract the thermosphere, however, the recent collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain.
“Something is going on that we do not understand,” Emmert said.
Read the rest of this article at Space.com
Is nuclear fusion finally on its way?
Fusion is arguably the perfect way to power the world. For one thing, there is enough fusion fuel to supply all of the world’s energy needs for millions of years. Furthermore, it produces no environmentally damaging wastes, no carbon dioxide emissions and there could be no accidents that require evacuating the population surrounding a fusion power plant. Fusion plants would also not need significant land area, and fusion fuels (lithium and deuterium) are available in seawater. Unfortunately, it is hard to make fusion work. Indeed, after more than 60 years of fusion research, no device has yet made more energy than it consumes.
Iter, the next fusion machine and the first to be built as an international collaboration, is designed to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of net energy production. It is expected that Iter will produce about 500MW of fusion power – 10 times the input power. Just as importantly, it will show how to integrate the many cutting-edge technologies required for efficient and reliable future power station designs. Put simply, it is the big step needed to prove the viability of fusion as a commercial energy source.
Unfortunately, Iter’s construction expenses have risen from about €5bn to over €13bn and the cost overruns have prompted some to questionw hy chasing nuclear fusion is a priority.
Stephen Cowley offers his opinion at the Guardian.
Nuclear Fusion explained at Wikipedia
Prehistoric marsupials, giant clawed sheep and ‘very strange’ fossils discovered
Scientists have discovered a cave filled with 15-million-year-old fossils of prehistoric marsupials in the Outback, a rare find that has revealed some surprising similarities between the creatures and modern-day kangaroos and koalas.
Researchers have unearthed a treasure trove of beautifully preserved fossils from the cave, including 26 skulls from an extinct, wombat-like marsupial called Nimbadon lavarackorum, an odd sheep-sized creature with giant claws. The findings were described this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
“It’s extraordinarily exciting for us,” said University of New South Wales paleontologist Mike Archer, co-author of the article. “It’s given us a window into the past of Australia that we simply didn’t even have a pigeonhole into before. It’s an extra insight into some of the strangest animals you could possibly imagine.”
A truly psychological thriller – Inception
Lovers of mind bending movies like 12 Monkeys, The Fountain and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have something to look forward to. Inception is another thriller based in the surreal landscape of dreams and uses some rather impressive effects and a wee bit of psychology to create a consistently entertaining journey. The movie has had such incredible reviews that talk of a backlash has been surfacing before it’s even opened.
Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio the movie has a 9.3 rating on IMDB which will push it right in to the top spot by a clear lead if voting continues this way. The movie is released today across the UK. You’re all welcome to leave your favourite mental movies in the comments and we’ll make a list.
Scientists create a mosquito that’s ‘malaria-proof’
A “malaria-proof” mosquito has been created by scientists who have engineered a genetic “on” switch that permanently activates a malaria-destroying response, according to their report in the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.
If these mosquitoes are successfully introduced into the wild, they could prevent millions of people from becoming infected with life-threatening Plasmodium — the parasite that causes malaria.
“We were surprised how well this works,” said Michael Riehle, a professor at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the new PLoS Pathogens paper. “We were just hoping to see some effect on the mosquitoes’ growth rate, lifespan or their susceptibility to the parasite. But it was great to see that our construct blocked the infection process completely.”
An estimated 250 million people are infected by the four kinds of Plasmodium each year, but each infection comes from female Anopheles mosquitoes. While sucking blood to feed her brood, the mosquito ingests an average of 40 Plasmodium parasites.
Tim Minchin – If You Open Your Mind Too Much
Can’t wait for this. Taken from the forthcoming series of ITV’s ‘Comedy Cuts’ – If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out.
via (Atheist Media)
Can you teach yourself synaesthesia?
“A form of synaesthesia in which people experience letters or numbers in colour may be trainable. The discovery could shed new light on how such traits develop.
Synaesthesia is thought to have a genetic component, but some people have reported synaesthetic experiences following hypnosis, so Olympia Colizoli at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues, wondered if it might also be possible to acquire synaesthesia through training.
To test the idea, they gave seven volunteers a novel to read in which certain letters were always written in red, green, blue or orange (see picture). Before and after reading the book, the volunteers took a “synaesthetic crowding” test, in which they identified the middle letter of a grid of black letters which were quickly flashed onto a screen. Synaesthetes perform better on the test when a letter they experience in colour is the target letter.
The volunteers performed significantly better on this test after training compared with people who read the novel in black and white.
The findings suggest that natural synaesthesia may develop as a result of childhood experiences as well as genetics, says Colizoli, who presented the findings at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Amsterdam last week.”
Read more at New Scientist
‘The chicken came first, not the egg’, scientists prove.. or do they?
“It’s an age-old puzzle that’s stumped generations of scientists. But now they believe they have cracked the conundrum of what came first: the chicken or the egg. British researchers say the chicken must have come first as the formation of eggs is only possible thanks to a protein found in the chicken’s ovaries. As a result any papers have been reporting this proves the Chicken must have come first. But according to this article this seems to be a typical case of poor science journalism.
‘It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first,’ said Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University, who worked with counterparts at Warwick University. ‘The protein had been identified before and it was linked to egg formation but by examining it closely we have been able to see how it controls the process,’ he added.
The protein – called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) – acts as a catalyst to speed up the development of the shell. Scientists used a super computer called HECToR, based in Edinburgh, to ‘zoom in’ on the formation of an egg. It showed OC-17 was crucial in kick-starting crystallisation – the early stages of forming a shell. The protein coverts calcium carbonate into calcite crystals which makes up the egg shell, creating six grammes of shell every 24 hours.
Prof John Harding, also of Sheffield University, said the discovery could have other uses. ‘Understanding how chickens make shells is fascinating in itself but can also give clues towards designing new materials,’ he said.”
Read more at The Metro (Thanks to Ellie for the update here)
