More than a decade ago, Professor Neil Turok of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, proposed that a certain cosmic defect,called a texture,could be observed from the hot and cold spots they create in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The significance of these textures lies in the fact that they are remnants of symmetrical imperfections in matter, although on extremely small scales, dating all the way back to the Big Bang. Now, using modernized methods, observational backing of this theory is beginning to surface.

There is mounting evidence that some of the viral vector systems used in creating a proper vaccine can interfere with the host immune system and are thus too dangerous to use for vaccine development. The latest study from The Wistar Institute provides strong support for the idea that viral vector vaccines could cause more harm than good. Recent study from researchers at The Wistar Institute has made scientists re-evaluate efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.

An article published October 29th in the New York Times details the exchange of $110 million for 161,000 acres of the Adirondack Mountains. The Nature Conservancy, one of the largest environmental groups in the world, bought the lands from the Finch, Pruyn & Company, a timber company who has held the vast expanse of acreage since the Civil War. The controversy surrounding the deal is that the Finch paper mill will continue logging there for the next twenty years.

Researchers from the Biocommunications Research Institute in Wichita, Kansas, along with teams from the University of Alberta and the University of Western Ontario have discovered a stem cell from menstrual blood in women that has the potential to treat damaged or senesced tissue.aged tissue. During menstruation – a monthly cycle where blood and mucosal tissue from the uterus in nonpregnant women is released – cells that line the womb wall are shed. Researchers discovered that some of these cells are a type of stem cell, which they called Endometrial Regenerative Cells (ERC), and that these cells can differentiate into several different cell types. This research was published in the November issue of the Journal of Translational Medicineand sponsored by Medistem Laboratories.

Results published in PLoS One suggest that inhalation of carbon dioxide can trigger symptoms in healthy individuals that resemble those of panic attacks in anxiety-prone individuals. These results imply that neuronal misfiring leads to the body's oversensitive reaction to changes in carbon dioxide levels. This, in turn, causes the body to believe that it is suffocating and leads to symptoms that resemble panic attacks. One implication of the findings is the possibility of inducing anxiety in the laboratory for the purpose of testing of anti-anxiety drugs.

One of the most anticipated annual events in the scientific community is undoubtedly the Nobel Prize for Physics. This is a prestigious award, which in recent memory has been dominated by purely scientific research interests such as blackbody radiation and elementary particle research. This year, French physicist Albert Fert and German physicist Peter Grünberg were awarded the prize for their independent discovery in 1988 of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR).

In September 2007, scientists from all over the world met at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to discuss the viability of offsetting global warming by fertilizing parts of the ocean with iron.

A research team, led by Clifford J. Woolf and Bruce Bean, tested the combination of capsaicin (the active ingredient in chilli peppers) and a drug called QX-314 (a derivative of lidocaine, the most commonly used local anesthetic) on rats, and showed that the combination was effective in alleviating pain without causing motor impairment. The drug combination took half an hour to fully block pain in the rats. However, once it began, the pain relief lasted for several hours.

A team of researchers from China led by Tao Liu and Chun-You Wang have performed the differentiation of rat pancreatic ductal epithelial cells into insulin-producing cells after transfection with pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor-1 (PDX-1) gene. The researchers have shown that the production and insulin secretion of insulin-producing cells differentiated from pancreatic ductal epithelial cells were higher than those of the untransfected cells in vitro with a significant difference.

Some genes when transferred between bacteria could be lethal to the recipient, barricading the transmission of genetic material between the organisms, an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) revealed in the October 19 edition of the journal Science. Eddy Rubin, director of DOE JGI, suggested that this research could present a novel approach to the discovery of new antibiotics.

The smallpox vaccine is back! But don't be alarmed, the smallpox disease is still eradicated. A joint research team from Stanford University and Jennerex Biotherapeutics, headed by Stephen Thorne, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh, investigated into the smallpox vaccine's potential in eradicating tumors. Results published in October 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation revealed that liver tumor growths in rabbits can be deterred or even reversed. These results suggest a very optimistic outlook in the vaccine's application as an anti-cancer treatment in humans.

In research featured recently in Nature, a group led by Dr. Haifan Lin, Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center and professor of cell biology at Yale School of Medicine, has found that newly discovered piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) may have a greater genetic function, specifically in stem cells, than previously thought.

Caesarean section raises the risk of asthma by 20% and this might be the reason behind the increasing incidence of asthma these days, Dr. Suren Thavagnanam and his colleagues at the Royal Belfast Hospital for sick children in Northern Ireland concluded in their meta-analysis report published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy, July 2007.

Fat cells produce an enzyme which triggers pancreatic beta cells to secret more insulin, concludes a study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis and published in the November issue of Cell Metabolism. Shin-ichiro Imai, the lead researcher, asserts this finding could provide a better therapy for Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, which more than 7 million people are living with in the USA alone.

Researchers at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) and at the University of Pavia have found that RNA is present in the components of chromosomes called telomeres. This discovery about telomeres, whose DNA has long been thought to not transcribe into RNA as the rest of the DNA present on a chromosome does, could provide scientists with a novel way of halting the replenishment of telomeres in cancer cells.

In research published online in a November edition of Nature, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have found that a deficiency in serotonin is associated with abnormally violent, aggressive behavior.

With the climbing demand for whole blood (blood containing all of its components), a new blood substitute may soon offer hope. Researchers at HemoBioTech have solved the problems that have been plaguing artificial blood for several decades. With this new development called HemoTech, the company is taking their product through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trials and hope to have it on the market in a few years. Despite the massive benefits of this new substitute blood, it still has a few hurdles to overcome before we see it in wide use.

More than a decade ago, Professor Neil Turok of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, proposed that a certain cosmic defect,called a texture,could be observed from the hot and cold spots they create in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The significance of these textures lies in the fact that they are remnants of symmetrical imperfections in matter, although on extremely small scales, dating all the way back to the Big Bang. Now, using modernized methods, observational backing of this theory is beginning to surface.

In an article published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Gonzalor Laje, M.D. and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, University of Texas, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, report findings that there may be two genetic markers that increase the likelihood of suicidal thoughts during the course of antidepressant treatment. Their motivation for the study was in part guided by the life-threatening nature of suicidal thoughts during the course of antidepressant treatment with SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, despite being a relatively rare occurrence.

Scientists from Madison, Wisconsin have reported in the most recent issue of Science that they are now able to turn adult skin cells into stem cells. Stem cells hold the promise of curing chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, or Multiple Sclerosis. Although most scientists already recognize this potential, the ethical concerns surrounding the methods of isolating stem cells from human embryos have impeded stem cell research. Fortunately, new methods of obtaining stem cells bypasses the need for human embryos, and Dr. Douglas A. Melton, co-director of the Stem Cell Institute at Harvard University, even claims that it is "ethically uncomplicated (1)."