Developing world will produce double the e-waste of developed countries by 2016

Developing countries will be producing at least twice as much electronic waste (e-waste) as developed countries within the next 6-8 years, according to a new study published in ACS' semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology. It foresees in 2030 developing countries discarding 400 million - 700 million obsolete personal computers per year compared to 200 million - 300 million in developed countries.

Eric Williams and colleagues cite a dramatic increase in ownership of PCs and other electronic devices in both developed and developing countries. At the same time, technological advances are shrinking the lifetime of consumer electronics products, so that people discard electronics products sooner than ever before. That trend has led to global concern about environmentally safe ways of disposing of e-waste, which contains potentially toxic substances.

The scientists used a computer model to forecast global distribution of discarded PCs. It concluded that consumers in developing countries will trash more computers than developed countries by 2016, with the trend continuing and escalating thereafter. "Our central assertion is that the new structure of global e-waste generation discovered here, combined with economic and social considerations, call for a serious reconsideration of e-waste policy," the report notes.

via Developing world will produce double the e-waste of developed countries by 2016.

UniversitätsKlinikum Heidelberg: How Nerve Cells Distinguish Odors

Whether different odors can be quickly distinguished depends on certain synapses in the brain that inhibit nerve stimulation. The researchers in Professor Dr. Thomas Kuner’s team at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Heidelberg University Medical School and Dr. Andreas Schäfer at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research have shown that mice in which a certain receptor in the olfactory center is missing can distinguish similar smells more quickly than mice without genetic manipulation. This behavior was directly attributed to inhibitor loops between adjacent nerve cells.

The discovery of the activation principle of “lateral inhibition” in the eye 43 years ago by Haldan K. Hartline, George Wald, and Ragnar Granit was honored with a Nobel Prize. The Heidelberg researchers have for the first time succeeded in confirming the same mechanism for the olfactory system, from the molecular level to behavior. The results of the studies were published in the prestigious journal “Neuron”.

Odors attach to receptors of olfactory cells in nasal mucosa, where they trigger nerve signals. These signals are processed in what is known as the olfactory bulb, a part of the brain. In the neuronal network, the incoming signal is converted to a specific electrical pattern that is transmitted to the cerebral cortex and other areas of the brain and is recognized there.

Local inhibitor loops make recognizing smells more precise

Professor Kuner and his team have now shown for the first time how neuronal processing of olfactory stimuli directly affects the behavior of test animals. “We manipulated information processing very specifically in the olfactory bulb and then measured the effect of this genetic manipulation based on reaction time. We were thus able to prove that the test animals, due to localized inhibitor loops, could distinguish very similar odor combinations much faster, yet very reliably,” explained Professor Kuner.

Inhibition via interneurons acts as a kind of filter by amplifying strong stimuli and further weakening weak stimuli. This makes the essential information easier to recognize. In the test animals, reaction time was reduced by about 50 ms. The time needed by test animals to learn various odors and their memory capability remained unaffected. Recognition of simple odors was also unchanged. ...

via UniversitätsKlinikum Heidelberg: How Nerve Cells Distinguish Odors.

Suntanned women to be arrested under Islamic dress code

Iran has warned suntanned women and girls who looked like "walking mannequins" will be arrested as part of a new drive to enforce the Islamic dress code.

Brig Hossien Sajedinia, Tehran's police chief, said a national crackdown on opposition sympathisers would be extended to women who have been deemed to be violating the spirit of Islamic laws. He said: "The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehaviour by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values. In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins.

"We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them."

Iran's Islamic leadership has in recent weeks launched a scaremongering campaign to persuade the population that vice is sweeping the streets of the capital. National law stipulates that women wear headscarves and shape shrouding cloaks but many women, particularly in the capital, spend heavily on fashions that barely adhere to the regulations.

The announcement came shortly after Ayatollah Kazim Sadighi, a leading cleric, warned that women who dressed immodestly disturbed young men and the consequent agitation caused earthquakes.

via Suntanned women to be arrested under Islamic dress code - Telegraph.

Anyone reading this been to Iran? Is this stuff true? Are people over there really so insanely afraid of sex? It sounds from the Western perspective like Iranian men must all be rabid sex criminals who can not be trusted around any person identifiable as female.

Israel jails man for 'holy semen' sex abuse

An Israeli man has been imprisoned for 10 years for tricking women into sexual acts by claiming his semen was holy and had healing powers.

Nissim Aharon, a former employee at the Israeli defence ministry, was convicted of rape, sodomy, indecent acts and aggravated fraudulent acquisition.

Women paid him large sums of money, believing he was a holy rabbi who could heal body and soul, the court said.

Judges called his actions "monstrous", exploiting "women young and old".

The sentence was the result of a plea bargain, and was handed down at Petah Tikvah district court.

Under it, Aharon will also have to pay 100,000 Israeli shekels ($26,866) to each of five women who filed the complaint against him.

'Holy fluid'

Aharon, who was arrested last August, "over many years presented himself as a righteous man, as a saint with healing powers, who exploited the naivity of women and teenage girls, while carrying out appalling sexual acts and obtaining large sums of money by fraud," the Israeli Justice Ministry said in a statement.

He would claim to be a rabbi, and impersonate figures in authority who would then refer women and teenage girls to himself, the ministry said.

"He would give these people different explanations: among others, that a holy scent comes from him, and that his semen is a holy fluid, which by contact could heal body and soul," the statement said.

He would also claim that his "holiness" could be passed to those who touched him physically, cleansing their bodies, it said.

Aharon also pretended that he worked in posts in the security establishment, including for the Israeli intelligence services Mossad and Shin Bet, the ministry said.

via BBC News - Israel jails man for 'holy semen' sex abuse.

Man jailed after home break in strangeness

An Elizabethton man was arrested Monday after he reportedly entered the house of a Hampton woman without her permission and began acting strangely.

Michael Gordon Vest, 36, 107 Timber Ridge Lane, was arrested by Deputy Jon Frazier on a charge of aggravated burglary.

Penny Williams said she was in the rear of her residence shortly before 6 p.m. when she heard someone enter the front door. When she went to check, she found Vest, who was not known to her, standing in the living room holding a small house plant and reading from Williams’ antique Bible.

Williams ordered the man to leave, but she said he began to come further into the house. She retreated toward the rear of her house and Vest went outside, she said. When he got outside, she said, he attempted to plant several potted plants in the ground. Vest was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies shortly after that.

Lt. Patrick Johnson said Vest was wearing a pair of boots taken from Williams’ residence and had a pair of her glasses. During the encounter inside the house, the antique Bible Vest was reading was damaged and the front cover was torn off. A pair of household scissors was also fond sticking out of the exterior wall to the left of the front door.

Vest was taken to Sycamore Shoals Hospital for an evaluation, then taken to the Carter County Jail.

via JohnsonCityPress.com - Local News - Johnson City, TN.

Aspiring sailor trying to sail round the UK circles the Isle of Sheppey instead

The aspiring sailor didn’t realise until he ran out of fuel and had to call for assistance.

A lifeboat rescued him after his engine wound down off the Elmley Marshes on the Isle of Sheppey, which he had been sailing round all day and night.

In addition to his tour of the 8-mile-wide island, the man, who had set out from Gillingham, had made a number of unfortunate assumptions.

It is understood that he had bought the motor cruiser online and that since it only had a 20-litre fuel tank and a 20 horse power engine it was not suitable for sea use.

The man was also using a road map to navigate and had no provisions on board.

He was making his way to Southampton alone with no navigation equipment.

He told his rescuers that because he could drive in his car to Southampton using a single tank of fuel, he thought only needed one tank of fuel for the vessel.

Although he had a VHF radio he did not know how to use it.

Lifeboat volunteer Tom Ware said: "Because he had no chart and he didn’t even know what navigational charts were, his general principle was to keep the land on his right, except he didn’t realise Sheppey was an Island.

"It took him a day and a half to get from Gillingham to where he ran out of fuel."

Coastguards, who met the man at Queenborough, advised him that engine sizes and therefore fuel consumption differs and the coast route was longer than the road distance in any case.

Coastguard Ian Goodwin said: "We passed on relevant safety advice and advised him that the best way to Southampton would be by train. However, he said he would get some fuel and get underway but asked us if he went left or right when he came out of the Swale."

It is unknown whether the man made it to Southampton.

via Aspiring sailor trying to sail round the UK circles the Isle of Sheppey instead - Telegraph.

The smallest horse in the world?

So there you were, pretty confident that the best equine story you were going to read all week was the one about the artist who turns My Little Ponies into slightly sinister film characters. Recalibrate your expectations, people. You're about to meet Einstein, the world's smallest horse.

When he was born in New Hampshire on Friday, young Einstein weighed just 6lb (2.7kg) and stood a mere 14-inches (35.5cm) tall. It is traditional to patronise small things by describing them as being pint-sized. Having spent some time cooing over this video of Einstein gambolling around his paddock to a rather charming bluegrass soundtrack, I have concluded he is at least two-litre-sized.

But no matter. His breeders on the Tiz A Miniature horse farm in Barnstead, New Hampshire, in the north-east US, are confident that he is small enough to enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Isn't Thumbelina officially the world's smallest horse? You read it in the Daily Mail. So did I. Plus her very own website makes the same bold claim. The 17.5-inch (44.5cm) mare has been milking it pretty much ever since Guinness bestowed on her the honour in 2006. She has even done a US tour.

But Thumbelina weighed a comparatively hefty 8.5lb when she was born in 2000. And she is officially a dwarf and not merely a tiny version of a proper healthy horse like Einstein, says Rachel Wagner, Einstein's co-owner.

"Most of the ones that are really tiny are what we call dwarves and have some sort of dysmorphic features. This little guy is like all horses — he's almost all leg," said Wagner, adding, "He is very perfect looking little boy and not dwarfy looking at all."

via The smallest horse in the world? | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Man steals electricity with meat hook

German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.

Oddly Enough

The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said.

The man attached a cable to the meat hook and tossed it onto an overhead power line. He then drew power from the transmission line to his home, located about 150 meters away.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 34-year-career," said Friedrich-Wilhelm Lach, chief executive of regional utility Ueberlandwerke Leinetal GmbH, told Reuters. "It's incredibly dangerous and utterly stupid."

An employee of the utility noticed the meat hook during a routine check. Lach said the man was lucky he is still alive and warned copycats not to try it: "It will kill you," he said.

via Man steals electricity with meat hook | Reuters.

Monitor Lizard Discovered with Flame-Colored Head

A distinctly colored species of monitor lizard, a close relative of the Komodo dragon, has been discovered in Indonesia.

The lizard, whose scientific name is Varanus obor, is also called by its popular names, Torch monitor and Sago monitor. It's called Torch monitor because of its bright orange head with a glossy black body. "Obor" means torch in Indonesian.

The newfound lizard is a close relative of the intimidating Komodo dragon, as well as the fruit-eating monitor lizard recently reported from the Philippines.

The Torch monitor can grow to nearly 4 feet (1.2 meters) in length and 3.5 pounds (1.5 kilograms) in weight, and thrives on a diet of small animals and carrion.

The Torch monitor exists only on the small island of Sanana in the western Moluccan islands of Indonesia. A unique aspect of this geographical region is the lack of mammalian predators, which may have given reptiles the space to evolve as the top terrestrial predators and scavengers.

Several million years ago, this island was situated near New Guinea, and it is possible that the lizard lives on as a relic from that period. It is the only black monitor in its lineage, and the only monitor species anywhere that has evolved red pigmentation.

via Monitor Lizard Discovered with Flame-Colored Head | LiveScience.

Baby son outgrowing smallest mother

Britain's smallest mother has described the difficulties of caring for a baby son who is almost as tall as her.

Amanda Moore, 25, of Hinckley, Leicestershire, risked her life to give birth to Aidan, now aged 14 months.

She has a rare bone disease which stunted her growth at 3ft 1in (0.9m) and left her unable to stand.

At 2ft 6in (0.7m), Aidan is taller than his mother when she is seated. Ms Moore said: "Now he's walking he's more than a handful for someone my size."

She said she believes Aidan could end up being as tall as his father, Steven Fyfe, 20, who is 6ft 1ins (1.8m).

Ms Moore added: "When I sit on the floor to play with him, he is taller than me already and he's only 14 months old.

"He's getting so big and strong that soon we'll have to tell him to be gentle with Mummy.

"It's been a struggle because he's been running rings around me since he was crawling.

"Most boys are bigger than their mums but not after a year."

Ms Moore suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta - commonly known as brittle bone disorder.

'Very lucky family'

Born with 14 broken bones herself, she said doctors warned her becoming pregnant could prove fatal.

But Aidan was born in February 2009 weighing 5lbs 5oz and had not inherited his mother's bone condition.

He now weighs 22lbs (9.9kg) ...

via BBC News - Baby son outgrowing smallest mother.

'Noah's Ark' found in Turkey... oh, Nevermind. It's a Kurdish hoax.

THE remains of Noah's Ark have been discovered 13,000ft up a Turkish mountain, it has been claimed.

A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.

They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat.

Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team, said: "It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it."

He said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.

The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000ft in the vicinity, Yeung said.

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Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected while a major archaeological dig is conducted.

The biblical story says that God decided to flood the Earth after seeing how corrupt it was.

He then told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal species.

After the flood waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest on a mountain.

Many believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark and her inhabitants ran aground.

via 'Noah's Ark' found in Turkey | The Sun |News.

This is from Dec 28, 2009:

If Noah’s Ark has been sitting on a mountain somewhere in the Middle East for a few millennia, a few more months of waiting are a small price to pay, at least for Randall Price.

Price, who heads Liberty University’s Center For Judaic Studies, talked in January about his planned two-season expedition into Turkey, with the hopes of finding the Biblical artifact. He arrived in Turkey over the summer.

But Price said since then, he’s faced pressure from a political group in Turkey that is forcing him to keep his excursion very hush-hush. ...

“We did penetrate about 18 feet down into the glacier, and we have some evidence that we’re in the right place,” Price said, adding satellite data puts them about 30 feet from their goal.

Price said he’s aware that whatever rests under the glacier might not be the jackpot he has been looking for.

“While we’d like to think it’s Noah’s Ark, we’re not sure what it is, but it’s in the right place,” he said.

Price said whatever there is to be discovered, it should be found when he returns in the coming summer.

“There is negotiation between Turkish authorities and this warring faction,” he said, “and that should enable us to go back without problems next year.” - link

They returned after the ice melted and found the wood. Here's why an archaeologist and former member of the team says it's a hoax :

A group of Chinese and Turkish explorers announced this week they are '99.9 percent' sure of their discovery on Mt. Ararat. While Noah's ark found in Turkey would bolster Bible literalists, an American ark-hunter says the latest discovery could be a hoax.

A longtime ark-hunter has serious doubts about this week’s announcement that Noah’s ark was found in eastern Turkey.

A Chinese-Turkish team from Noah's Ark Ministries International held a press conference April 25 in Hong Kong to present their findings and say they were “99 percent sure” that pieces of wood found at above 12,000-feet elevation and dated as 4,800 years old were from the biblical Noah’s ark.

Such a finding would provide evidence for a literal interpretation of the Bible and boost the evangelical Christian worldview in a relatively young Earth that was formed in seven days and where a wrathful God punishes the wicked.

But Dr. Randall Price, an evangelical Christian and former member of the Chinese-led team that announced this week’s finding, says the latest purported finding may not withstand closer scrutiny.

"If the world wants to think this is a wonderful discovery, that’s fine. My problem is that, in the end, proper analysis may show this to be a hoax and negatively reflect how gullible Christians can be," he says.

'Difficulties with a number of issues'

Dr. Price, who is director of the Center for Judaic Studies at the conservative Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., was the archaeologist on the Chinese-led team in 2008 when this alleged discovery was first made. He says he has “difficulties with a number of issues related to the evidence at hand.”

Price declined to elaborate. However, a leaked email from Price – which he confirms that he wrote – shows that he has reason to believe that a group of local Kurdish men trucked wood up to the mountain and staged an elaborate hoax for the Chinese team.

A group of Kurdish workers “are said to have planted large wood beams taken from an old structure in the Black Sea area (where the photos were originally taken) at the Mt. Ararat site. … During the summer of 2009 more wood was planted inside a cave at the site. The Chinese team went in the late summer of 2009 (I was there at the time and knew about the hoax) and was shown the cave with the wood and made their film,” Price writes in the email.

Price is a longtime searcher himself for the ark. As a member of Noah’s Ark Search LLC, he had gone on a number of expeditions to Mount Ararat.

Price was not the only member to withdraw from the Chinese-led team over questions about their purported finding.

Not good evidence

Dr. John D. Morris, who is president for Dallas’ Institute for Creation Research and has been a consultant to the team since 2005, says he declined an invitation to be a part of this week's press conference in Hong Kong.

“I’m a scientist. I need to have good evidence,” says Dr. Morris. “As of right now, there is not.”  - csmonitor

An underlying cause for psychopathic behavior?

Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex), show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

One previous explanation for psychopathic tendencies has been a reduced capacity to make inferences about the mental states of other people, an ability known as Theory of Mind (ToM). On the other hand, psychopaths are also known to be extremely good manipulators and deceivers, which would imply that they have good skills in inferring the knowledge, needs, intentions, and beliefs of other people. Therefore, it has been suggested recently that ToM is made up of different aspects: a cognitive part, which requires inferences about knowledge and beliefs, and another part which requires the understanding of emotions.

Dr Simone Shamay-Tsoory, from the University of Haifa in Israel, along with colleagues from The Shalvata Mental Health Care Center and the Rambam Medical Center, tested the hypothesis that impairment in the emotional aspects of these abilities may account for psychopathic behaviour. Earlier research from the same group had shown that patients with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain lack some of the emotional aspects of Theory of Mind, so they speculated that psychopathy may also be linked to frontal lobe dysfunction.

The emotional and cognitive aspects of Theory of Mind abilities were examined for participants in the new study, which consisted of a number of different groups: criminal offenders, who had been diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder with highly psychopathic tendencies, patients with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, patients with damage to other areas of the brain, and healthy control subjects. The pattern of impairments in the psychopathic participants showed a remarkable resemblance to those in the participants with frontal lobe damage, suggesting that an underlying cause of the behavioural disturbances observed in psychopathy may be dysfunction in the frontal lobes.

via An underlying cause for psychopathic behavior?.

Gene silencing prevents its first human disease

The discovery over a decade ago that snippets of RNA can be used as gene silencers in worms garnered a Nobel prize in 2006. Now, for the first time, RNA interference (RNAi) has been proven effective against a human disease – a common respiratory virus.

Under RNAi, short strands of RNA are added to cells to destroy any native RNA molecules with a complementary sequence of letters. Since genes use RNA molecules to make proteins, these snippets effectively "silence" genes that carry the same sequence. In animals, RNAi has shown promise, but progress in people has been slow.

John DeVincenzo studies paediatric infectious disease at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He and his colleagues tested the ability of short interfering RNA (siRNA) to inhibit viruses of the respiratory tract, where cells are exceptionally willing to take up RNA snippets.

Eighty-five healthy adults were given a nasal spray containing either a placebo or siRNA designed to silence one of the genes of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is the leading cause of infant hospitalisation in the US but fairly harmless in healthy adults.

Delivery issue

They were to use the spray daily for five days. On day two, all the volunteers were infected with live RSV. By day 11, just 44 per cent of those who received the RNAi nasal spray had RSV infections, compared with 71 per cent of the placebo group.

RNAi can trigger an immune response, which might have helped keep infections at bay. But blood samples showed that the risk of RSV infection did not depend on levels of immune molecules, suggesting that RNAi's protective effect was due to the silencing of genes.

The team is now testing the therapy in lung-transplant patients, who take immunity-suppressing drugs that can make RSV infections deadly. DeVincenzo also hopes to test the therapy in infants soon.

For non-respiratory diseases, however, new ways of getting RNA into the target cells are still needed. "Delivery has always been the big issue for RNAi," says John Rossi, a molecular geneticist at City of Hope medical centre in Duarte, California, who is testing RNAi's potential to fight HIV.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0912186107

via Gene silencing prevents its first human disease - health - 26 April 2010 - New Scientist.

Revealed: The secret of how worms re-grow amputated body parts... and how humans could one day do the same

Scientists have discovered the gene that allows a worm to regenerate its own body parts after they are amputated, it was announced today.

The research into how Planarian worms can re-grow body parts - including a whole head and brain - could one day make it possible to regenerate old or damaged human organs and tissues, the University of Nottingham said.

The research, led by Dr Aziz Aboobaker, a Research Councils UK Fellow in the university's School of Biology, shows a gene called 'Smed-prep' is essential for correctly regenerating a head and brain in Planarian worms.

The worms have the unusual ability to regenerate body parts, including a head and brain, following amputation.

They contain adult stem cells that are constantly dividing and can become all of the missing cell types.

They also have the right set of genes working to make this happen as it should so that when they re-grow body parts they end up in the right place and have the correct size, shape and orientation, the research showed.

The study is published today in the open access journal PLoS Genetics.

Dr Aboobaker said: 'These amazing worms offer us the opportunity to observe tissue regeneration in a very simple animal that can regenerate itself to a remarkable extent and does so as a matter of course.

via Revealed: The secret of how worms re-grow amputated body parts... and how humans could one day do the same | Mail Online.

Scientists learn to block pain at its source

A substance similar to capsaicin, which gives chili peppers their heat, is generated at the site of pain in the human body. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have discovered how to block these capsaicin-like molecules and created a new class of non-addictive painkillers.

The findings were published April 26 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The senior investigator was Kenneth Hargreaves, D.D.S., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Endodontics in the Dental School at the UT Health Science Center. Amol M. Patwardhan, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., a graduate of the Health Science Center's Department of Pharmacology who worked under Dr. Hargreaves' supervision, is the lead author.

"Nearly everyone will experience persistent pain at some point in their lifetime," Dr. Hargreaves said. "Our findings are truly exciting because they will offer physicians, dentists and patients more options in prescription pain medications. In addition, they may help circumvent the problem of addiction and dependency to pain medications, and will have the potential to benefit millions of people who suffer from chronic pain every day."

A 'complex epidemic'

Pain has been called a "complex epidemic" in the United States. Nearly 50 million Americans live with chronic pain caused by disease or injury. Few physicians or dentists specialize in the field of pain medicine. With pain medication options largely limited to opioids (such as morphine) and aspirin-like drugs, some patients become addicted or dependent upon these drugs, or suffer side effects such as kidney or liver damage.

Researchers at the UT Health Science Center found a new family of fatty acids, produced by the body itself, that play an important role in the biology of pain.

"Capsaicin is an ingredient in hot chili peppers and causes pain by activating a receptor called transient potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). We started out seeking the answer to the question "Why is TRPV1 consistently activated in the body upon injury or painful heat? We wanted to know how skin cells talk to pain neurons," Dr. Hargreaves said. "What we found was much more surprising and exciting. We have discovered a family of endogenous capsaicin-like molecules that are naturally released during injury, and now we understand how to block these mechanisms with a new class of non-addictive therapies." ...

"We found that in the skin flaps heated at greater than 43 degrees Celsius, the cells' pain neurons showed tremendous activity in the wild type, but not in neurons from mice that lacked TRPV1," Dr. Hargreaves said. He indicated that this novel phenomenon was taking place because the cells, in response to the heat, began to create their own natural endogenous capsaicins, which they later identified as a series of compounds or fatty acids called oxidized linoleic acid metabolites (OLAMs).

Linoleic acid is one of the most abundant fatty acids in the human body. Under conditions such as inflammation, low blood pressure and some other illnesses, linoleic acid is rapidly oxidized to form biologically active metabolites. However, little else is understood about these substances. The metabolites that were consistently seen in increased amounts in the mouse skin biopsies exposed to heat temperatures greater than 43 degrees Celsius are called 9- and 13-HODE (hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid).

'Major breakthrough'

"This is a major breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms of pain and how to more effectively treat it," Dr. Hargreaves said. "These data demonstrate, for the first time, that OLAMs constitute a new family of naturally occurring capsaicin-like agents, and may explain the role of these substances in many pain conditions. This hypothesis suggests that agents blocking either the production or action of these substances could lead to new therapies and pharmacological interventions for various inflammatory diseases and pain disorders such as arthritis, fibromyalgia and others, including pain associated with cancer."

The research has led Dr. Hargreaves' team to develop two new classes of analgesics using drugs that either block the synthesis of OLAMs or antibodies that inactivate them. These drugs could eventually come in the form of a topical agent, or a pill or liquid that could be ingested, or in the form of an injection. Both approaches have the potential to block pain at its source, unlike opioid narcotics that travel to the brain and affect the central nervous system.

via Scientists learn to block pain at its source.

Study finds body's response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effect of repetitive exercise

Laughter is a highly complex process. Joyous or mirthful laughter is considered a positive stress (eustress) that involves complicated brain activities leading to a positive effect on health. Norman Cousins first suggested the idea that humor and the associated laughter can benefit a person's health in the 1970s. His ground-breaking work, as a layperson diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, documented his use of laughter in treating himself—with medical approval and oversight—into remission. He published his personal research results in the New England Journal of Medicine and is considered one of the original architects of mind-body medicine.

Dr. Lee S. Berk, a preventive care specialist and psychoneuroimmunology researcher at Loma Linda University's Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, and director of the molecular research lab at SAHP, Loma Linda, CA, and Dr. Stanley Tan have picked up where Cousins left off. Since the 1980s, they have been studying the human body's response to mirthful laughter and have found that laughter helps optimize many of the functions of various body systems. Berk and his colleagues were the first to establish that laughter helps optimize the hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which lead to stress reduction.

They have also shown that laughter has a positive effect on modulating components of the immune system, including increased production of antibodies and activation of the body's protective cells, including T-cells and especially Natural Killer cells' killing activity of tumor cells. Their studies have shown that repetitious "mirthful laughter," which they call Laughercise©, causes the body to respond in a way similar to moderate physical exercise. Laughercise© enhances your mood, decreases stress hormones, enhances immune activity, lowers bad cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and raises good cholesterol (HDL).

As Berk explains, "We are finally starting to realize that our everyday behaviors and emotions are modulating our bodies in many ways." His latest research expands the role of laughter even further. ...

via Study finds body's response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effect of repetitive exercise.

Physicists capture first images of atomic spin

Though scientists argue that the emerging technology of spintronics may trump conventional electronics for building the next generation of faster, smaller, more efficient computers and high-tech devices, no one has actually seen the spin—a quantum mechanical property of electrons—in individual atoms until now.

In a study published as an Advance Online Publication in the journal Nature Nanotechnology on Sunday, physicists at Ohio University and the University of Hamburg in Germany present the first images of spin in action.

The researchers used a custom-built microscope with an iron-coated tip to manipulate cobalt atoms on a plate of manganese. Through scanning tunneling microscopy, the team repositioned individual cobalt atoms on a surface that changed the direction of the electrons’ spin. Images captured by the scientists showed that the atoms appeared as a single protrusion if the spin direction was upward, and as double protrusions with equal heights when the spin direction was downward.

The study suggests that scientists can observe and manipulate spin, a finding that may impact future development of nanoscale magnetic storage, quantum computers and spintronic devices.

“Different directions in spin can mean different states for data storage,” said Saw-Wai Hla, an associate professor of physics and astronomy in Ohio University’s Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute and one of the primary investigators on the study. “The memory devices of current computers involve tens of thousands of atoms. In the future, we may be able to use one atom and change the power of the computer by the thousands.”

Unlike electronic devices, which give off heat, spintronic-based devices are expected to experience less power dissipation.

The experiments were conducted in an ultra-high vacuum at the low temperature of 10 Kelvin, with the use of liquid helium. Researchers will need to observe the phenomenon at room temperature before it can be used in computer hard drives.

But the new study suggests a path to that application, said study lead author Andre Kubetzka of the University of Hamburg. To image spin direction, the team not only used a new technique but also a manganese surface with a spin that, in turn, allowed the scientists to manipulate the spin of the cobalt atoms under study.

“The combination of atom manipulation and spin sensitivity gives a new perspective of constructing atomic-scale structures and investigating their magnetic properties,” Kubetzka said. ...

via OHIO: Research | Physicists capture first images of atomic spin.

US Republicans block debate of finance rules reform

US Republican senators have blocked moves to start a debate on a bill to introduce the most significant reforms to financial regulations for 60 years.

Needing 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to begin debating the bill, Democratic leaders fell three votes short.

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson joined 39 Republicans in voting against it.

Republicans says the bill does not go far enough in its reforms, while Democrats say their opponents want to protect wealthy corporate interests.

Both parties say they expect the overhaul eventually will be approved.

Correspondents say that with Wall Street reeling from a fraud case against Goldman Sachs they are eager to act before November's Congressional elections.

Goldman executives are due to appear before a Senate committee later. On Monday, the committee said the bank had made billions of dollars at its clients' expense during the housing market collapse. ...

via BBC News - US Republicans block debate of finance rules reform.

Robot vessels used to cap Gulf of Mexico oil leak

Robotic submersibles are being used to try to stop oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged well almost a mile (1.5km) below the surface.

Some 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil a day have been gushing from the well since a drilling rig exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast last week.

British oil company BP, which leased the rig, said the "first-of-its-kind" attempt would take 24 to 36 hours.

A nearby oil platform has been evacuated as a precaution.

Workers on the rig, the Ocean Endeavour, were taken away because the oil slick was coming dangerously close, said the US Minerals Management Service.

Conservation experts say the oil has the potential to damage beaches, barrier islands, wetlands and wildlife reserves along hundreds of miles of coastline in four US states.

Whales have been spotted near the spill but they did not appear to be in distress.

For now, the weather conditions are keeping the oil away from the shore and it is hoped the waves will break up the heavy crude oil, allowing it to harden and sink back to the ocean floor.

The oil is not expected to reach land for at least another three days.

Officials are monitoring the environmental effects by boat and plane.

'Very serious'

BP - which is responsible under federal law for the clean-up - said it was using four submersible vehicles, equipped with cameras and remote-controlled arms, to try to activate a blow-out preventer - a series of pipes and valves that could stop the leak. ...

via BBC News - Robot vessels used to cap Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

Panama's Noriega is extradited from US to France

The former Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega, has been extradited to France by the United States after spending more than 20 years in a prison there.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a "surrender

warrant" after all judicial challenges were resolved.

French officials later confirmed he was on board an Air France flight to Paris.

A court in France convicted Noriega in his absence in 1999 for laundering money through French banks, though it says he will be granted a new trial.

The 76-year-old had wanted to be sent back to Panama after finishing his 17-year jail sentence in 2007.

But in February the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal against extradition to France.

The former Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega, has been extradited to France by the United States after spending more than 20 years in a prison there.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a "surrender warrant" after all judicial challenges were resolved.

French officials later confirmed he was on board an Air France flight to Paris.

A court in France convicted Noriega in his absence in 1999 for laundering money through French banks, though it says he will be granted a new trial.

The 76-year-old had wanted to be sent back to Panama after finishing his 17-year jail sentence in 2007.

But in February the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal against extradition to France.

Panama's government said it respected the "sovereign decision" the state department took to extradite Noriega.

But it insisted it would seek his return to serve outstanding prison sentences there.

Noriega was escorted onto an Air France passenger jet at Miami International Airport on Monday afternoon, shortly after Mrs Clinton signed the extradition order, US officials said. ...

via BBC News - Panama's Noriega is extradited from US to France.