Protein Could Be a Target for Treating People Who Have the Blood Disorder 3 Baby repair kit found inside the womb 5 Bacterial Communication Could Affect Earth's Climate, Researchers Discover 8 Improve miscarriage guidelines to prevent misdiagnosis 10 T. Rex Was Bigger and Grew Faster Than Previously Thought 12 Prostate screening does more harm than good in US 15 Erasing History? Temporal Cloaks Adjust Light's Throttle to Hide an Event in Time 16 Sickle cell disease cured by gene knock-out 18 Wet and Mild: Researchers Take the Temperature of Mars' Past 19 Don't believe everything you think 22 How Life Might Have Survived 'Snowball Earth' 25 About time: Is time travel possible? 27 Earthquakes Generate Big Heat in Super-Small Areas 29 The world's most accurate clock 31 100,000-Year-Old Ochre Toolkit and Workshop Discovered in South Africa 32 Children in the Roman Empire 34 Severe Drought, Other Changes Can Cause Permanent Ecosystem Disruption 38 Discussing the marriage plot 40 Children, Not Chimps, Prefer Collaboration 44 Women’s lives at war 46 Possible Trigger for Volcanic 'Super-Eruptions' Discovered 49 1967–1971 51 Researchers Reconstruct Genome of the Black Death 53 Then and Now, 1992 56 Astrophysicists Find Evidence of Black Holes' Destruction of Stars 58 Who will get legal aid now? 61 Eating Your Greens Can Change the Effect of Your Genes On Heart Disease 67 Transtromer squabbles 69 Worms Among First Animals to Surface After K-T Extinction Event, Study Finds 73 Cosmic Neutrality 75 Liquid Can Turn Into Solid Under High Electric Field, Physicists Show in Simulations 80 The paradoxes of Russian Orientalism 83 The Deaths Map 88 Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting from the Morgan 101 Putin’s Rasputin 102 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world 107 Retrain Your Brain After Stroke 111 Artificial crystals get their own textbook laws 113 Planet-Sized Object as Cool as Earth Revealed in Record-Breaking Photo 115 Spaghetti functions: The mathematics of pasta shapes 117 Bioluminescence: Explanation for Glowing Seas Suggested 120 Mouse manoeuvres in the dark reveal brain's map links 122 Young Human-Specific Genes Correlated With Brain Evolution 123 First Americans hunted mastodons 13,800 years ago 126 U.S. Rivers and Streams Saturated With Carbon 128 In praise of stem-cell simplicity 130 NASA's Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby Solar System 131 Malaria vaccine halves risk of infection in infants 133 Computing Building Blocks Created from Bacteria and DNA 134 People with autism unaffected by social reputation 136 How the Milky Way Killed Off Nearby Galaxies 137 Chronic fatigue syndrome eased by cancer drug 139 Nano Funnel Used to Generate Extreme Ultraviolet Light Pulses 141 Drug addicts switch to inject in economic decline 144 New Radar Technology Provides Real-Time Video of What’s Going On Behind Solid Walls 145 Forest loggers join world's biggest ecology experiment 148 Viruses Coaxed to Form Synthetics With Microstructures Akin to Those of Corneas 150 Hubris came before the Times Atlas's fall 153 Face-To-Face With an Ancient Human 156 Solar lows caused extreme European winters 159 Stranded Dolphins Exhibit Bubbles, and Ability to Recover 161 Keeping a lid on your digital DNA 163 Fallout of a Giant Meteorite Strike Revealed in New Model 164 Twitter may influence the spread of disease 167 Solving the Mysteries of Short-Legged Neandertals 168 Iris scanner could tell your race and gender 170 Fiery Volcano Offers Geologic Glimpse Into Land That Time Forgot 172 Himalayas could become the Saudi Arabia of solar 175 Spiral Arms Hint at Presence of Planets 176 iPhone keylogger can snoop on desktop typing 178 Herzliya's 'anti-biennial' challenges the norms of the art world 180 NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map of Earth 183 Robot builds its own body from sprayable foam 185 Salman Rushdie is not afraid 186 Chatbots fail to convince judges that they're human 199 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 176 November 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Researchers Correct Sickle Cell Disease in Adult Mice: Protein Could Be a Target for Treating People Who Have the Blood Disorder Laboratory mouse. (Credit: © Vasiliy Koval / Fotolia) ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2011) — National Institutes of Health-funded scientists have corrected sickle cell disease in adult laboratory mice by activating production of a special blood component normally produced before, but not after, birth. "This discovery provides an important new target for future therapies in people with sickle cell disease," said Susan B. Shurin, M.D., acting director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which co- funded the study. "More work is needed before it will be possible to test such therapies in people, but this study demonstrates that the approach works in principle." Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston and the University of Texas at Austin corrected sickle cell disease in mice that had been bred to have the inherited blood disorder. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) -- all part of the NIH -- funded the research. The results of the study will appear online Oct. 13 in the journal Science. Sickle cell disease results from an abnormality in hemoglobin, the protein found in red blood cells that is responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body. People living with sickle cell disease have two copies of an altered gene that produces sickle hemoglobin instead of normal adult hemoglobin. Sickle hemoglobin changes shape after releasing its oxygen, causing the red blood cell to become stiff, misshapen and sticky, and slowing blood flow to tissues. This process damages organs and causes pain. The study tested a new approach to increasing the production of a third form of hemoglobin -- fetal hemoglobin. Production of fetal hemoglobin predominates before birth, but turns off thereafter as adult hemoglobin production takes over. People with sickle cell disease are unable to make normal adult hemoglobin, and instead make sickle hemoglobin starting in infancy. An elevated level of fetal hemoglobin within the red blood cell reduces the tendency of sickle hemoglobin to change the shape of red blood cells. Considerable NIH- supported research has shown that the drug hydroxyurea increases production of fetal hemoglobin and reduces the number of pain crises and other complications of sickle cell disease in adults and children. However, not all patients respond well to hydroxyurea, and adverse side effects are a concern. 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 176 November 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila The current study explores a more targeted approach to increasing fetal hemoglobin production. It builds upon earlier studies by Stuart Orkin, M.D., and his team at Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital of Boston, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, which discovered that a protein called BCL11A normally suppresses the production of fetal hemoglobin soon after birth. The researchers viewed the BCL11A protein as a target for therapy and decided to see what would happen if they blocked production of the protein. "This important advance in the battle against sickle cell disease is another outstanding example of how great things can happen when work proceeds from bench to bedside, and back to the bench," said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., director of NIDDK. "We hope that one day, this discovery and any that build upon it will translate into a viable treatment option for those suffering from this devastating illness." The current paper details how the research team silenced the mouse gene that produces the BCL11A protein in mice with sickle cell disease. Silencing the gene turned off production of the BCL11A protein and allowed the adult mice to continue to produce fetal hemoglobin. It appears to have eliminated disease symptoms without affecting other aspects of blood production. Approximately 100,000 Americans live with sickle cell disease. It is most prevalent in people of African, Hispanic, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern descent. There is no widely available cure for sickle cell disease. Bone marrow transplants have cured some patients, but the treatment is not without risk and most patients do not have relatives who can donate compatible and healthy bone marrow to them. Story Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111013141822.htm 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 176 November 2011 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Baby repair kit found inside the womb 15 October 2011 by Andy Coghlan Magazine issue 2834. Bathed in spare parts (Image: James Cotier/Photodisc/Getty) BABIES with holes in their diaphragms could soon become the first humans treated with "spare parts" built from their own stem cells. The cells, taken from amniotic fluid, would be grown in the lab ready to be implanted when the baby is born. If the trial goes ahead, it could be the start of an entirely new approach to treating congenital defects. What's more, gene such as the one causing haemophilia could actually be treated while the baby is still inside the womb (see "Gene upgrade before birth"). Common diaphragm defects such as Bochdalek hernia, where a hole in the diaphragm allows the stomach and intestines to protrude into the thorax, can cause lifelong breathing difficulties and are potentially fatal. At present, they are repaired with patches of Teflon, but these can detach as the baby grows, requiring repeat operations.