Science & TechnologyS


Beaker

The cure for schizophrenia isn't in our genes after all

Alasdair Wilkins
io9
Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:50 UTC
dna schizophrenia
© agsandrew, via Shutterstock
Scientists have long searched unsuccessfully for the genetic factors that cause schizophrenia. Now we know why: the disorder is actually caused by what happens in cells around the genes. That knowledge could give us our best treatment yet for schizophrenia.

It turns out that schizophrenia is an example of what's known as an epigenetic effect, which are changes in the body's cells that are not directly tied to genetic defects. These epigentic effects can actually prevent DNA from functioning properly, and these have the potential to cause some truly devastating diseases.

One part of the cell that is particularly susceptible to these epigenetic problems are structures known as the histones, which are structural proteins that DNA has to wrap around. Much like our small intestine has to be tightly coiled within our body to fit it all in, the total length of DNA would never actually fit in any one cell, and so it has to be wrapped around the histones for it to fit at all.

Comment: The scientists might get a little further if they were to look in the direction of diet and environment as a source of gene signalling:

Gluten Intolerance Tied to Schizophrenia
Wheat and Schizophrenia
The Links Between Sugar and Mental Health
Toxoplasmosis linked to schizophrenia
Severe, acute maternal stress linked to the development of schizophrenia

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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Child Abuse, Most Goes Unreported: Study

Tiffany Sharples
Time.com
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:39 UTC
Image
© Sean Justice / Getty
Children in highly developed countries suffer abuse and neglect much more often than is reported by official child-protective agencies, according to the findings of the first in a comprehensive series of reports on child maltreatment, published Dec. 2 in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Based on a review of research conducted on child abuse between 2000 and June of this year, researchers estimate that 4% to 16% of children are physically abused each year in high-income nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. As many as 15% are neglected, and up to 10% of girls and 5% of boys suffer severe sexual abuse; many more are victims of other sexual injury. Yet researchers say that as few as 1 in 10 of those instances of abuse are actually confirmed by social-service agencies - and that measuring the exact scope of the problem is nearly impossible.
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Nuke

"Bunker Buster" and "Low Yield" Nuclear Weapons- An Analysis by FAS

Robert W. Nelson
Federation of American Scientists
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:58 UTC
bunker buster bombs
© AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
Despite the global sense of relief and hope that the nuclear arms race ended with the Cold War, an increasingly vocal group of politicians, military officials and leaders of America's nuclear weapon laboratories are urging the US to develop a new generation of precision low-yield nuclear weapons. Rather than deterring warfare with another nuclear power, however, they suggest these weapons could be used in conventional conflicts with third-world nations.

Critics argue that adding low-yield warheads to the world's nuclear inventory simply makes their eventual use more likely. In fact, a 1994 law currently prohibits the nuclear laboratories from undertaking research and development that could lead to a precision nuclear weapon of less than 5 kilotons (KT), because "low-yield nuclear weapons blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war."

Last year, Senate Republicans John Warner (R-VA) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) buried a small provision in the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill that would have overturned these earlier restrictions. Although the language in the final Act was watered down, the Energy and Defense Departments are still required to undertake a study of low-yield nuclear weapons that could penetrate deep into the earth before detonating so as to "threaten hard and deeply buried targets." Legislation for long-term research and actual development of low-yield nuclear weapons will almost certainly be proposed again in the current session of Congress.

Senators Warner and Allard imagine these nuclear weapons could be used in small-scale conventional conflicts against rogue dictators, while leaving most of the civilian population untouched. As one anonymous former Pentagon official put it to the Washington Post last spring,
"What's needed now is something that can threaten a bunker tunneled under 300 meters of granite without killing the surrounding civilian population."
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Bulb

VS Ramachandran on Your Mind

Vilayanur Ramachandran
TED.com
Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00 UTC

Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples.

V.S. Ramachandran is a mesmerizing speaker, able to concretely and simply describe the most complicated inner workings of the brain. His investigations into phantom limb pain, synesthesia and other brain disorders allow him to explore (and begin to answer) the most basic philosophical questions about the nature of self and human consciousness.
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Eye 1

National Biometric Database Time Bomb in Big Brother France

John Kennedy
siliconrepublic.com
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:23 UTC
eye
© unknown
The passing of a new law in France paving the way for a biometric database and requiring all citizens to carry a biometric ID card is a time bomb for civil liberties, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has warned.

On Tuesday, the French National Assembly passed a law for the creation of a national biometric database, ostensibly to fight identity fraud.

However, the EFF warns that biometric databases pose a mission-creep threat since the data can be used for reasons beyond identity fraud.

It points out that governments are increasingly demanding storage of citizens' biometric data on chips embedded into identity cards or passports and centrally held on government databases, with little regard to citizens' civil liberties.

The new laws compel the creation of an ID card that will contain information such as fingerprints, photograph, home address, height and eye colour. New passports will also contain the chip.

A second, optional chip will be created for online authentication for e-government services and e-commerce.
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Eye 1

CCTV car jamming at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured cars being filled with fuel

Martin Fricker
The Metro
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:17 UTC
anpr
© unknown
UK - Cameras at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured or untaxed vehicles from being filled with fuel, under new government plans.

Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4million motorists who drive without insurance.

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are already fitted in thousands of petrol station forecourts.

Drivers can only fill their cars with fuel once the camera has captured and logged the vehicle's number plate.

Currently the system is designed to deter motorists from driving off without paying for petrol.

But under the new plans, the cameras will automatically cross-refererence with the DVLA's huge database.

When a car is flagged as being uninsured or untaxed, the system will prevent the fuel pump being used on that vehicle.
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Info

Single Gene May Drive Men's Aggressive Stress Response

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:42 UTC
Angry Man
© dundanim, ShutterstockA new hypothesis suggests that men's aggressive fight-or-flight responses to stress boil down to the role of a single gene.

When men get stressed, their bodies get more revved up than women's. Now, two Australian researchers have a theory as to why - and it all boils down to a single gene.

The classic "fight-or-fight" response to stress is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system - the part of our nervous system that deals with automatic functions such as breathing. Under stress, this system goes wild, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, hastening breathing, and otherwise readying you to face down your enemy or to run.

But most of the research that established this fight-or-flight paradigm was done on men. About 12 years ago, researchers started to pull together evidence from that women don't respond to stress in the same way. In fact, they found, women do show a fight-or-flight response to immediate stress, but it's dampened by a tendency to "tend and befriend," or to seek out social support in stressful times.

Neuroscientist Joohyung Lee of Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleague Vincent Harley of Monash University in Melbourne now suspect that a Y-chromosome gene called SRY may be at the root of why men's response to stress is more aggressive than women's.
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Ladybug

Redheads feel less pain than most?

Kerry O'Shea
Irish Central
Sat, 10 Mar 2012 09:32 UTC
Image
Studies have shown that redheads truly are in a league of their own. The so-called 'ginger' population inherit certain traits that distinguish them from their other-colored hair counterparts.

The Daily Mail reports on the findings about redheads and their reactions to pain and other sensations. Studies found that redheads were less susceptible to skin pain and can better handle hot and spicy foods. However, the studies also found that that redheads are more aware of toothaches and cold sensations.

"Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain," said Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen, one of the researchers conducting the study. "They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding."
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Info

Chlamydia Evolves into New Strains

Jeanna Bryner
Live Science
Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:04 UTC
Chlamydia
© Sebastian Kaulitzki | ShutterstockChlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world, is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis.

The bacteria that cause Chlamydia, the world's most common sexually transmitted disease, seems to be sneakier than once thought, as a new study suggests it frequently exchanges DNA between different strains to form entirely new strains.

Chlamydia is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis, and though its symptoms are often mild, the sexually transmitted disease can cause infertility in women and a discharge from the penis of an infected man. Chlamydia is the most common bacterial STD in the world, including in the U.S. where more than 1.3 million cases were reported in 2010. About 100 million cases of Chlamydia are reported each year across the globe.

Scientists know there are two groups of Chlamydia strains, one that seems to infect the eyes and urinary-genital areas, and another set known to spread through the lymphatic system, which is important to the body's immune system. Currently, an epidemic of the lymphatic types is progressing in Europe and North America, particularly in men who have sex with men, the researchers note online today (March 11) in the journal Nature Genetics.

However, little is known about how these different strains evolve and emerge.
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Beaker

Brain Memory Code Cracked, Claim Scientists


Science Daily
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:25 UTC
Despite a century of research, memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.

In an article in the March 8 issue of the journal PLoS Computational Biology, physicists Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona demonstrate a plausible mechanism for encoding synaptic memory in microtubules, major components of the structural cytoskeleton within neurons.

Microtubules are cylindrical hexagonal lattice polymers of the protein tubulin, comprising 15 percent of total brain protein. Microtubules define neuronal architecture, regulate synapses, and are suggested to process information via interactive bit-like states of tubulin. But any semblance of a common code connecting microtubules to synaptic activity has been missing. Until now.
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