Copyright © 2002 AP Online By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press ATLANTA - Smoking among U.S. high school students has dropped to its lowest level in a decade, the government said Thursday, a decline that was credited to cigarette taxes and school programs that discourage youngsters from taking up the habit. Just 28.5 percent of high-schoolers in a nationwide survey last year reported they had smoked a cigarette in the previous month - down from 36.4 percent five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The rate is the lowest since 1991, when 27.5 percent of high school students said they smoked. The figure had climbed for most of the 1990s before reversing in 1999. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2075 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study by UK scientists at the University of Sheffield and University College London also found that infants can even tell the difference between monkeys. They believe natural changes in the brain as we grow older may be the reason why adults are not as good at recognising people. In a paper published in the journal Science, they said the changes might be like those associated with language - our ability to learn new languages decreases with age. The findings are based on an analysis of brain patterns and eye movements of infants after they were shown a series of pictures of human and monkey faces. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Vision
Link ID: 2074 - Posted: 05.17.2002

Scientists are closer to understanding the mysterious "circadian" rhythm that governs sleep and wake after an experiment using fruit flies. They bred flies missing a gene vital to the daily cycle - which made sleep deprivation have fatal consequences within hours. But they managed to help the flies survive longer by kick-starting a process which protects cells from sleep deprivation. Despite years of study, relatively little is known about the mechanism by which animals shut down for the night - or even precisely what biochemical processes are taking place while the body is asleep. The effects of sleep deprivation - in both humans and flies - can be damaging. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 2072 - Posted: 05.16.2002

Scientists have explained the extra-sensory powers of alligators and crocodiles. The animals can hunt without sight, sound or smell using sensors on their jaws that detect ripples in the water. The reptiles lurk half submerged at night, waiting for a potential snack. When prey enters the water, perhaps to take a drink, the alligator or crocodile is able to sense even the slightest movement and pounce. Even a single droplet falling into a tank the size of a bath can be sensed by the network of pressure detectors on the creatures' jaws. (C) BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2071 - Posted: 05.16.2002

Learn how Pinocchio felt (without having to lie) By Eric Haseltine How do you know how long your nose is? Perhaps you just feel how far it protrudes every time you twitch it or flare your nostrils. Or, you might have palpated your proboscis enough times to take its measure. Finally it's possible that you simply know the size of your shnozz by instinct. This last explanation, although elegant, is unsatisfying because it implies that your brain is born knowing how much your various body parts will grow. Given the variability of nutrition, disease and other factors that strongly influence growth, the brain cannot know a priori how big you will be. Recent research shows we not only have to learn-as-we grow about the size of our bodies, but that these learned perceptions can be altered in an astonishingly short time. © Copyright 2002 The Walt Disney Company. Back to Homepage.

Keyword: Vision; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2070 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Optimism for chemical that destabilizes harmful protein build-ups. HELEN PEARSON Clinical studies will start within weeks on a new drug that may erode the protein clumps behind Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes. In these diseases, proteins that are usually soluble fold abnormally into tightly packed deposits called amyloid that wreck internal organs. In mice, the prototype drug shrank these protein accretions within weeks, scientists have revealed. Preliminary tests on patients look promising. "I can't describe how excited I was," says Mark Pepys of University College Medical School in London, who has been working on the idea for the past 25 years. "We've invented a new molecule - and it does what we want." * Pepys, M.B. et al. Targeted pharmacological depletion of serum amyloid P component for treatment of human amyloidosis. Nature, 417, 254 - 259 , (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 2069 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientific discoveries about the animal kingdom are often used, even by biologists, to elucidate human behavior, especially our behaviors that pertain to sex and gender. For example, some people argue that male marmosets helping take care of their offspring helps us understand today's stay-at-home fathers. Or that the high divorce rate in recent years can be explained by invoking the fact that many female birds have chicks fathered outside the primary breeding pair. But in her new book 'Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals' (University of California Press, 2002), Marlene Zuk, professor of biology at UC Riverside, argues that while animals do display a lot of interesting variation, not all of it can be extrapolated to explain human behavior. She thinks some researchers have been too quick to ignore vital information from the animal kingdom, and have instead hustled "evidence" they believe is supportive of their ideas. "I am not saying we should never try to draw conclusions about human behavior from animals," says Zuk. "But people who already have social or political agendas sometimes see science as automatically deterministic about our behavior, as though we are programmed to behave in only a certain way. Then again, we have scientists who sometimes completely ignore the social or political biases that can affect our work." Copyright 2002, Regents UC.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 2068 - Posted: 05.16.2002

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Deciding on hormone-replacement therapy – weighing the far-reaching benefits and risks – can give a woman a headache. Now researchers say estrogen may dictate what problem-solving strategies the brain uses to solve problems. According to a study of rats published in the June issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, activation of different parts of the brain may depend on the presence or absence of estrogen. Rats treated with the hormone learned a place-oriented task faster than rats not getting it, but those not on estrogen were faster completing a response-driven task. These tasks are believed to be controlled by different neural or memory systems. “What we found is that given these analogous tasks that require different cognitive strategies, estrogen biased the rats to use a place, or spatial, strategy,” said Donna L. Korol, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Those not given estrogen are better using a response, or non-spatial, strategy. This suggests that estrogen isn’t just good for all kinds of memory. Rather, it is very specific in dictating what strategy one takes. Estrogen may enhance some and impair other forms of learning.”

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN DIEGO -- Like sleuths in an endlessly complex Agatha Christie novel, scientists at The Neurosciences Institute have been trying to solve the mystery of why we need to sleep. Now, following a two-year investigation, they have identified two genetic suspects that suggest one day it may be possible to prevent the consequences of sleep deprivation. The work presented in this week’s Nature, a scientific journal, built upon their previous work showing that sleep in the fruit fly is eerily similar to mammalian sleep, right down to the level of which genes are activated. Now they have shown that, like mammals, flies will die if they don’t sleep. "The significance of the study is that sleep is an important part of life and that without it you die," said lead project scientist Paul Shaw. "It is so important that it has survived throughout evolution even though it is a costly behavior. While animals sleep, they can't take care of their young, forage for food or engage in any number of other vital biological activities."

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2066 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have come one step closer to understanding how experimental, memory-enhancing drugs affect the brain on a molecular level. The researchers published their results in the May 16 issue of Nature. The finding provides an important insight into the mechanisms that regulate the sensitivity of brain cells to neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that the cells use to communicate with one another. “Learning how neurons respond to neurotransmitters is important not only to understanding basic brain functioning, but also may one day lead to new insight into a variety of new therapies,” said Duane Alexander, Director of the NICHD.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2065 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Trials of a promising new treatment for Alzheimer's will begin within weeks - and it might work for adult-onset diabetes as well. Mark Pepys of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and his colleagues have developed a drug designed to rid the body of amyloid, the clumps of misfolded protein that form in the brain of Alzheimer's sufferers and in the pancreas of people with diabetes. The drug has already produced promising results in 19 people with a rare condition called systemic amyloidosis, in which deposits build up in various organs. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 2064 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Key breakthroughs into epilepsy will rely on the consistent support of charities, says a lead researcher specialising in the condition. Internationally renowned Professor John Duncan says: ‘Those with epilepsy can take some comfort from the fact we are narrowing down the likely causes and consequences of this potentially-devastating disease of the brain. ‘But we still have much to learn, and unfortunately this is unlikely to happen without generous donations from charities.’ Paddington Bear ©P & Company 2001

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 2063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON, Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Bush's top drug policy adviser says teens are largely ignoring the government's anti-drug ads, and a survey finds no evidence the multimillion-dollar campaign is discouraging drug use. The survey, conducted by the private research firm Westat and the University of Pennsylvania, actually charted an increase in drug use among some teenagers who saw the television ads. But it noted that further analysis was necessary before the ads could be directly tied to the increase. The White House drug policy office, headed by John P. Walters, said the ad campaign must be refocused. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2062 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists said they have found the first direct biological evidence that smoking destroys brain cells and stops others being produced. Anti-smoking groups said this provided an even greater incentive to stop smoking. French researchers led by Pier-Vincenzo Piazza and Djoher Nora Abrous, at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) let three groups of rats give themselves low, medium or high amounts of nicotine. A fourth group was allowed no nicotine at all. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2061 - Posted: 05.14.2002

A British scientist is still hopeful that cannabis extracts will relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients - despite disappointing research results. Testimonies from many MS patients suggest that the drug is helpful in relieving symptoms such as spasticity - a painful rigidity of muscles experienced by many. However, a small Dutch study of only 16 MS patients given cannabis extract in capsule form found no apparent benefits. Despite this, Dr William Nottcutt, a consultant in pain management from the James Paget Hospital in Kings Lynn, said other research projects now coming to fruition were likely to produce more positive results. He said: "This is one study among dozens being conducted into MS. (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 2060 - Posted: 05.14.2002

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY [Q] . What is diplopia? How can it be treated? A. Diplopia is the formal medical name for double vision, seeing an object as two objects. (The name is Latin, derived from the Greek words for double and eye.) It is not a single disorder, but can be a symptom of several maladies, with different treatments. It also goes beyond mere blurring, as two competing images are seen, not just a fuzzy image. Perhaps the most common cause of persistent double vision is a muscular problem, with the muscles moving each eyeball being of unequal strength. Thus, the two eyes are not properly aimed for the retina to receive their slightly different views of what they are looking at. As a result, the wrong signals are sent to the brain, and binocular vision fails to merge the images into one. The eyes may appear to be crossed or otherwise misaligned. This problem is sometimes treated with exercise, sometimes with surgery and sometimes with both. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 2059 - Posted: 05.14.2002

By MARY DUENWALD Two years ago, after giving up his television series "Spin City," Michael J. Fox created a medical research foundation that is already renowned for its fast-paced disbursements to scientists. Since April of last year, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has given out nearly $17 million to help finance 57 studies. The foundation supports studies covering everything from gene therapy to the effects of caffeine on Parkinson's disease. It has recently dedicated $4.4 million to developing stem cell lines — some derived from embyonic or fetal tissue, some from adult tissue — that could be implanted in the brains of Parkinson's patients to replace the dopamine-producing cells they have lost. It is about to underwrite strategies for reducing dyskinesia, the involuntary movements that are side effects of taking L-dopa, the drug used most often to quell the tremors and rigidity of Parkinson's disease. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 2058 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CAROL KAESUK YOON In the battle for mates, it is the largest males of the animal kingdom that tend to dominate, facing down competitors with their towering height and great girth. But scientists have discovered one battle that conveys the advantage to the teeny-tiny male: the battle with gravity. Scientists at the University of Kentucky have provided one of the best explanations yet for the astonishingly small size of some males. It is a question that has puzzled researchers, including Darwin, for more than a century. The higher up the female spiders spin their webs, the researchers say, the greater the heights the males must scale to reach them, and the smaller these fellows tend to be. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 2057 - Posted: 05.14.2002

Cloned Cells Cure Parkinson’s in Rat Model Scientists at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago have discovered an important shortcut to creating a more efficient, more reliable, and safer source of stem cells with the ability to turn into specific neurons or brain cells. Paul Carvey, PhD, chairman of pharmacology at Rush, used his team's discovery to clone several generations of stem cells that, when grafted into the brains of rats with a Parkinson's like disease, developed into healthy dopamine neurons. This effectively cured the animals' severe Parkinsonian symptoms. The ability to clone large numbers of stem cells that would become neurons also has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and numerous other diseases and disorders of the brain and nervous system. The findings, and their clinical significance, were presented at the Experimental Biology 2002 meetings in New Orleans last month. This study is the first to identify the signal that instructs stem/progenitor cells to become dopamine neurons, the cells that degenerate in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Parkinsons
Link ID: 2056 - Posted: 06.24.2010

There are more autistic children in Scotland's schools than has previously been recognised, a charity says. A National Autistic Society (NAS) report has found that one in 121 children have "autism spectrum disorders". This contrasts with estimates of one in 166 made by the Public Health Institute of Scotland last year. The charity is calling on the Scottish Executive and local authorities to act on the findings. However, it is not making any link with the MMR combined measles, mumps and rubella jab, which children are supposed to be administered at primary school. (C) BBC

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 2055 - Posted: 05.13.2002