Synopsis: 5. medicine & health:


Nature 05259.txt

Disease control The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of defense announced on 13 Â February that they will team up with 26 Â countries,

over the next five years to improve global disease detection and control. They established a Global Health Security Agenda that calls for countries to increase immunizations and share data.

US President Barack Obama will ask for an extra US$45 Â million for the programme in his budget request next month.

a crowd-funded initiative to develop an HIV vaccine that has sparked debate among scientists. See go. nature. com/hwcnwu for more.


Nature 05268.txt

Study revives bird origin for 1918 flu pandemicthe virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic probably sprang from North american domestic and wild birds, not from the mixing of human and swine viruses.

Worobey and his colleagues analysed more than 80,000 gene sequences from flu viruses isolated from humans, birds, horses,

pigs and bats using a model they developed to map evolutionary relationships between viruses from different host species. The branched tree that resulted showed that the genes of the deadly 1918 pandemic virus are of avian origin.

Birds have been implicated in the deadly strain s origins before. A 2005 genetic analysis of the 1918 pandemic virus pulled from a victim s preserved tissue concluded that it most closely matched viruses of avian origin2.

But a 2009 study3 found instead that the viral genes circulated in humans and swine for at least 2 to 15 years before the pandemic and combined to make the lethal virus. Gavin Smith, an evolutionary biologist at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical school at the National University of Singapore,

calls the current study"an important contribution to how we analyse data. Smith, a co-author of the 2009 study,

but there is evidence that the influenza virus evolves at different rates in different hosts faster in birds than in horses, for example.

says Philippe Lemey, a molecular epidemiologist at the Rega Institute for Medical Research at KU Leuven in Belgium.

The analysis also reveals a shared ancestor for almost all avian flu strains and an H7n7 virus that struck down horses and mules throughout North america in 1872.

"Transmission between horses and humans seems to have been key to some epidemics when horses were an intimate part of our lives,

"We now have this idea that the source for a lot of influenza virus we see now worldwide is potentially equine,


Nature 05279.txt

7 13 february 2014sharing drug data Ten major pharmaceutical companies have agreed to share data from early-stage trials with each other and with academic researcher,

as part of a US$230-million venture with the US National institutes of health. The Accelerating Medicines Partnership, announced on 4 Â February,

is designed to speed up identification of biomarkers and promising drug targets for four diseases: Alzheimer s, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and diabetes.

Once the data are shared, the companies will be free to pursue proprietary research towards their own therapies.

See go. nature. com/rn12cl for more. Frederic Stevens/Gettyillegal ivory crushed  France destroyed 3 tonnes of poached ivory on 6  February.

It is the first European country to take such a step since the global ban on ivory came into force in 1989."

such as identifying at-risk people through mental-health screenings in hospital emergency departments, and preventing suicidal people from accessing firearms.

Insider trading On 6 february, a US court found former hedge-fund manager Mathew Martoma guilty of leading a massive insider-trading scheme using confidential information about an Alzheimer s disease clinical trial.

Stem-cell ruling Certain types of stem-cell treatment should be regulated as drugs, a US appeals court decided on 4 Â February.

The ruling rejects claims by Regenerative Sciences of Broomfield, Colorado, that its stem-cell therapy, used in orthopaedic applications,

is a medical procedure that does not require regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. The court decided that processing the cells for use in the therapy made the end product a drug.

The company has completed not clinical trials on the treatment so cannot market the product in the United states. It does sell it in the Cayman islands (see Nature 488

14; 2012. Source: NSFIN Science and Engineering Indicators 2014, a biennial round up of global trends in research,


Nature 05283.txt

and wane in response to each other, disease and the weather. But for the longest predator-prey study in the world,

and could either save the landmark project without the need for tranquillizer darts and wolf crates,

In the past two decades, wolf skeletons have displayed spinal deformities that can painfully pinch nerves and affect gait and generally reduce fitness.

According to work led by Vucetich and Rolf Peterson, also an ecologist at Michigan Technological University, this might explain why the number of moose needed to support a given number of wolves has increased:


Nature 05310.txt

Undefined illness The US Institute of Medicine cannot define Gulf war illness, which plagues veterans of the 1990-91 war with symptoms of fatigue, pain, memory loss and gastrointestinal disorders.

The diversity of symptoms and the lack of a diagnostic test prevented a single definition,

The department argues that the condition should not be treated primarily as a mental illness. Swiss grants crisis The swiss government has stepped in to offer substitute grants in the wake of a move that bars researchers in the country from applying to the European Research Council (ERC.

The foundation funds basic non-medical research with a budget of US$7. 2 Â billion;

Integrity red tape The departing director of the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), David Wright, has accused the Department of health and human services in


Nature 05349.txt

Scientists used them for now-discredited research to determine anatomical differences between races. Researchers identified the remains among thousands of bones in historic anthropological collections at the University of Freiburg and the Charitã Medical University in Berlin.

NASA/JAXASNOW satellite launch A joint US-Japanese mission to monitor rain and snow launched from the Tanegashima Space center in Japan on 27 february.

The technique could prevent children from inheriting diseases that affect mitochondria, the cell s energy producers, by transplanting nuclear genetic material to a donor cell with healthy mitochondria.

a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel examined the science behind the technologies on 25-26 Â February.

Energy department officials said the health and environmental impacts of the leak seem to be minor,

The European commission and Cancer Research UK made the most links, according to an analysis by the publication Scibx.

Among companies, Astrazeneca had the most public-private partnerships, including its deal with Sweden s Karolinska Institute to create a US$100-million cardiac-research centre.


popsci_2013 00002.txt

I wonder if you had a child who was bitten allegedly by a wolf would you okay the rabies test you cite that could be reliable

and perhaps infected with the always fatal rabies disease would you opine about the population of wolves DNR practices of wolf management and the ethical treatment of animals?

@streakygopher...wolves don't pass on rabies. The killed wolf was sent to the University of Minnesota for testing both DNA testing to see

if it was the same wolf that attacked the teen camper and rabies testing. Wolves are not reservoirs of rabies meaning they can't pass it on

but they do sometimes catch it from other animals like foxes.)Mt guess is the testing for rabies is to try to gain an understanding of why the wolf behaved in such a way

if it is even the same animal. There was no reason to kill the first wolf they ran across.

However the author states that wolves cannot pass on rabies. I'm not sure what exactly he's referring to but

I have not seen any evidence that a wolf cannot get infected with rabies via a bite

or raccoons are in areas around the country they can certainly present a hazard to human (and other mammalian) health if infected.

I would absolutely recommend that they take steps to get treatment for potential rabies infection.

It makes more sense to start rabies shots rather than wait for something that may never happen.

Besides rabies shots are not what they used to be decades ago with a series of very painful shots.

if there was a danger from rabies. Maybe they thought that human suffering was of some import.

Can a wolf pass on rabies or not? A definitive answer please. Thanks cheers. To Dan No-wits The wolf was trapped

Everything from bats to raccoons (which carry rabies. Oh but those traps are okay right

ADF&G performed necropsies and collected samples for disease testing and DNA analyses...Investigators found no evidence in any of the wolves of contributing factors to the attack such as rabies disease defense of food or habituation to human food.

www. adfg. alaska. gov/index. cfm? adfg=pressreleases. pr12062011) Your closing paragraph states: Yes this wolf attacked a person but...

Wolves are not reservoirs of rabies...YES THEY ARE! Where do you get your information?

and anyone who has a different view on how wolves are managed is a wildlife hating maniac.

and don't need to see a doctor to report it. Like me. When I was sixteen

and kill this individual wolf for rabies and DNA testing. If it is the wrong wolf then that honestly is too bad

while the lab tried to extract the wolfã¢Â#Â#s DNA from his wounds?

Since your obviously not familiar with the real world limitations of such testing you might not know that most wounds like this are cleaned thoroughly

The majority of EMTS and paramedics wouldnã¢Â#Â#t know to thoroughly swab for DNA before they get to work ensuring infection doesnã¢Â#Â#t spread from the gaping scalp lacerations on a 16 year

Thatã¢Â#Â#s a tough but possible task with a dead animal in the lab even tougher to pull off in the 30-45 minutes an animal would be under anesthesia at a trap site.

and allowing hunting again is advised an ill attempt to appease this hatred and shameful politics.

and there isn't much one can do to persuade the ill-informed otherwise once they've seen a graphic photo used to perpetuate those misconceptions...

Either way the boy will need rabies shots because there is no way to be certain so killing the wolf serves no purpose except for some misguided vengeance or revenge.


popsci_2013 00044.txt

and not get sick by using medicine or killing off animals that are considered pests. Pests are just animals that have been given a natural ability to survive where we dont really want them.

Maybe we should stop spending money on cancer programs as many different types of cancers have had very little success in curing them.

We're now finding out that bees are important to the health of millions of plants


popsci_2013 00048.txt

So to give them a leg up the group Open Tech Forever has developed a beehive that can track the health of bees

and track the health and behaviour of a colony as it develops. Each hive contains an open source sensory kit The Smart Citizen Kit (SCK)


popsci_2013 00090.txt

The added genes are similar to the ones that appear in Oxitec's mosquitos which the company has tested in Brazil bringing down one town's dengue-fever-carrying mosquito population by 96 percent.


popsci_2013 00131.txt

According to Alfonso Troisi a clinical psychiatrist in Rome who has studied female orgasm in Japanese macaques they're easier to study in the lab than gorillas or chimps.

but they're currently investigating its anatomy further. And what of dolphins widely touted as the only other species to have sex for pleasure?


popsci_2013 00151.txt

âÂ#Âoeuh-ohã¢Â# he thought âÂ#Âoei m deaf and I have to make music.

âÂ#Âoemy hearing aids cut off at 120 decibelsã¢Â# he says. So he retreated to a quiet hotel room and hunkered down.


popsci_2013 00154.txt

It's insanity. It also makes the art of being a meteorologist that much more impressive.


popsci_2013 00162.txt

and disease depressing manipulative and hopeless. Manipulative? Maybe. But effective? A new study suggests yes perhaps to a greater extent than any lush landscape.


popsci_2013 00187.txt

and cause harm. They can live in us and flourish for a long time before we become sick and or die.

or crippled with sickness. The idea of who owns the moon and how it is exploited also sets the ideas of Mars


popsci_2013 00259.txt

or another an average of once every 500000 miles in the U s. Accidents that cause injuries are even rarer occurring about once every 1. 3 million miles.

or in the case of a physically handicapped person at least one prosthetic device or aid on the steering mechanism at all times when the motor vehicle is in motion.

Technology he says should prevent oblivious drivers from causing harm. Self-driving-car boosters talk about a virtuous circle that starts

dynamic lane reversals micro-tolling to reduce congestion autonomous-software agents negotiating the travel route with other agents on a moment-to-moment basis

This has been true for things like electric starters windshield wipers hydraulic brakes four wheel brakes disk brakes automatic gear boxes ABS power steering electronic fuel injection light alloy wheels and a long

Congestion cannot occur. Entering and exit points would be as close together as those on the Interstate Highway.


popsci_2013 00300.txt

/Brazilian Doctor Arrested For Using Silicone Fingers To Fool Fingerprint-Based Biometric Check-Inour keyless

Thaune Nunes Ferreira 29 was arrested on Sunday for using prosthetic fingers to fool the biometric employee attendance device used at the hospital where she works near Sao paulo.

Police said she had six silicone fingers with her at the time of her arrest three of which have already been identified as bearing the fingerprints of co-workers. http://disinfo. com/2013/03/brazilian-doctor-arrested-for-using-silicone-fingers-to-fool-fingerprint-based-biometric-check in/Mr

I don't think massive amounts of intoxicating drugs would make Dan's writing any better.


popsci_2013 00307.txt

HIV is probably the best-known retrovirus. This EAV-HP retrovirus is responsible for inserting that weird gene the one that turns the chicken eggs blue.


popsci_2013 00313.txt

While they go to work pollinating our crops bees could simultaneously bring natural microbial pest control agents to help those crops stave off disease.

Scientists have suggested that this colony collapse disorder could be the result of long-term exposure to a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids

Save the bees from disease and they can in turn save our food. CBC News w


popsci_2013 00314.txt

but might be present on one-to 10-year timescales âÂ#Âarguably important enough to be a concern in terms of skin cancer rates Tarduno said.

when Sir William Gilbert physician to Queen Elizabeth i suggested that the Earth was a giant magnet.

That cosmic radiation blasting the Earth's surface could cause genetic mutations and cancers. Yet when palaeontologists scoured the fossil records looking for signs of mass extinctions

and doctors that we see everyday that to simply take the word of these people is foolish and

but yes doctors and scientist can be wrong it is not a valid point to assert that nearly all are likely wrong

when things are serious like a serious diagnosis for instance...it seems odd you would think 97%of climatologists would not qualify as enough of a second opinion to except the first climatologist opinion...

Just giving you a taste of your own medicine really. However if you would like to go back to being civil then we can try that.


popsci_2013 00370.txt

Broadly a chemical weapon is a toxic chemical delivered by an explosion such as a bomb artillery shell or missile.

and kill people through horrific reactions including choking nerve damage blood poisoning and blistering. The first chemical weapons used in World war i were released gases from canisters.

despite the fact that it has been linked to cancer heart disease and birth defects. Al Mauroni director of the USAF counterproliferation center in Alabama and author of Chemical Demilitarization:

Incineration uses a tremendous amount of heat to turn the toxic chemical into mostly ash water vapor and carbon dioxide.

however that this dispersal was one of the many factors behind Gulf war Syndrome an illness seen in veterans of the Persian gulf war.

The thermal decontamination is done at extremely high temperatures. There are precursor chemicals which are used the components to make a chemical weapon that aren't the weapon itself yet

Weapons of War-Poison gas Considered uncivilised prior to World war One the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare.

Introduction of Poison gas The debut of the first poison gas however-in this instance chlorine-came on 22 april 1915 at the start of the Second battle of ypres.

A Missed German Opportunity Panic-stricken The french and Algerian troops fled in disorder creating a four-mile gap in the Allied line.

and the use of poison gas continued to escalate for the remainder of the war. Allied Retaliation Once the Allies had recovered from the initial shock of the Germans'practical application of poison gas warfare a determination existed to exact retaliatory revenge at the earliest opportunity.

The british were the first to respond. Raising Special Gas companies in the wake of the Germans'April attack (of approximately 1400 men) operating under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Foulkes instructions were given to prepare for a gas attack at Loos in September 1915.

It has been estimated that more British gas casualties were suffered that morning than German. Although the numbers are arguable there is little doubt

While inflicting serious injury upon the enemy the chemical remained potent in soil for weeks after release:

By 1918 the use of use of poison gases had become widespread particularly on the Western Front.

If the war had continued into 1919 both sides had planned on inserting poison gases into 30%-50%of manufactured shells.

The french army occasionally made use of a nerve gas obtained from prussic acid. However three forms of gas remained the most widely used:

Diminishing Effectiveness of Gas Although gas claimed a notable number of casualties during its early use once the crucial element of surprise had been lost the overall number of casualties quickly diminished.

It has been estimated that among British forces the number of gas casualties from May 1915 amounted to some 9 per cent of the total

In large part this was because of the increasing effectiveness of the methods used to protect against poison gas.

or antidote chemicals) were the norm and proved highly effective although working in a trench while wearing such respirators generally proved difficult and tiring.

and disgust at the wartime use of poison gases that its use was outlawed in 1925-a ban that is at least nominally still in force today...

and a link to the original source is provided where's the harm?@@Starz stop antagonizing lol@Manannan-from the article:

If the containers were designed to leak slowly the poisons may dissipate enough to become harmless.

I would imagine that the vaporization would leave NO trace of the poisons or their delivery systems!


popsci_2013 00407.txt

The story of how that wheat got made is a peek into the constant worldwide fight against crop diseases.

The new plants are designed to combat wheat stem rust a fungus that used to take out a fifth of the U s.'wheat crop at once during epidemics through the 1950s.

You'd better get to a doctor. Bubba: Oh my God! -Just a'bot that is hot in a'lectronic world.

inducing more cancer deathes and mutations. Here comes the MUTANTS! HERE COMES THE MUTANTS S


popsci_2013 00416.txt

assessing the effect of listening to opera on heart transplant patients who are mice. Reference:

Qi Zhang Toshihito Hirai Atsushi Amano Hisashi Bashuda and Masanori Niimi Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery vol. 7 no. 26 epub.

the medical techniques described in their report Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam techniques which they recommend except in cases where the amputated penis had been eaten partially by a duck.

Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam by Kasian Bhanganada Tu Chayavatana Chumporn Pongnumkul Anunt Tonmukayakul Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn Krit Komaratal and Henry Wilde

American Journal of Surgery 1983 no. 146 pp. 376-382. Ed note: Okay then! Until next year friends.


popsci_2013 00456.txt

#2 Million Americans Annually Get Infections That Antibiotics Can't Curemore than two million Americans get sick every year with infections that defy modern antibiotics.

Such infections may account for as much as $20 billion in extra healthcare costs and $35 billion in lost productivity.

These big numbers come from a report published today by the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If we're not careful the medicine chest will be empty when we go there to look for a lifesaving antibiotic CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden said during a conference call for reporters.

Without urgent action now more patients will be thrust back to a time before we had effective drugs.

Many places have reported on the new CDC analysis so don't let our coverage be your first and last stop.

What are antibiotic-resistant infections? How do they arise? Antibiotic-resistant infections develop from using antibiotics.

As the CDC report says Antibiotics are limited a resource. The more that antibiotics are used today the less likely they will still be effective in the future.

It's worse if people take antibiotics when they don't need them or when doctors prescribe unnecessary antibiotics to their patients.

Farmers also contribute to the problem by feeding antibiotics to their livestock. When people (or animals) take antibiotics they don't need the medicines kill off most bacteria

while leaving behind a few germs that are naturally genetically resistant to the treatment. Over time antibiotic use breeds more and more resistant germs.

In addition the weird biology of bacteria means that they are able to easily share genes with one another further spreading antibiotic resistance.

People can harbor their own resistant bacteria get infected with resistant bacteria from another person or encounter resistant bacteria from unhygienic processes in food production.

Who's to blame? Up to half of the antibiotics doctors prescribe to patients aren't needed

or aren't prescribed correctly according to the CDC report. Farmers use antibiotics to cure or prevent diseases in their livestock.

In addition some farmers give their cows pigs and chickens low doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster.

This is unnecessarily and should stop the CDC says. What are the worst infections? The CDC divided the resistant bacteria it knows about into three categories:

urgent serious and concerning. The urgent pathogens include: Clostridium difficile and drug-resistant enterobacteriaceae are generally infections people get

while they are in hospitals from their catheters breathing machines and other invasive equipment. What is the CDC going to do about it?

The U s. health agency says it will work to prevent infections track infections when they happen

and try to develop new drugs. Most importantly it will need to change how people use antibiotics.

You don't get<i>Clostridium difficile </i>from the things you describe above (catheters'breathing machines')as far as I'm aware.

Antibacterial use (appropriate or inappropriate) is what can lead to<i>C. diff</i>infection.

Its spores lie dormant and harmless in the large intestine of certain individuals and are kept normally this way by the bacteria which colonise the intestine.

If numbers of these bacteria are reduced by antibacterials then the<i>C. diff </i>spores are more likely to germinate into the'adult'bacteria

which cause the nasty symptoms. I'm a bit skeptical (what's new?)about the numbers.

The headline indicates that every year 0. 6%of the population gets an incurable bacterial infection.

That means in 5 years about 1 in 30 people in the US will have an incurable bacterial infection.

That's about the same percentage of gay people in a given population. I don't know anyone who has an incurable bacterial infection but

I know a TON of gay people. Where are these 10 million (minus the 115k that died) who have acquired these mega-infections in the last 5 years?

Also At least 23000 Americans die each year. This sentence is amusing when taken out of context.

Maybe its time to stop injecting livestock with antibiotics and eating them. Maybe its time for in vitro meat t


popsci_2013 00491.txt

#Gray matter: The Fire Birdoil and water don't mix: it's an old saying but it's never more true than

when you're talking about a pot of hot cooking oil and the moisture condensed on the surface of a frozen turkey. it's pretty incredible the amount of fire that simple combination can create.

Cooking oil is flammable but it doesn't catch fire in a deep fryer because it never approaches the approximately 800°F required.

Even if you drop a match in the fryer the heat is conducted away from the flame


popsci_2013 00495.txt

Neal Barnard a nutrition author and physician at George washington University argues that today the cultural appeal of meat trumps any physiological benefits.


popsci_2013 00528.txt

And they used endoscopes the cameras doctors use during surgery to see inside hives. More than Honey is in theaters now in the U k. It's already had its run in the U s. showing in New york in June and in Los angeles in August.


popsci_2013 00596.txt

#Is Red Bull Downplaying Research On The Harms Of Mixing Alcohol And Energy Drinks? Step away from the Jà ¤gerbomb.

Peter Miller a psychologist from Austrialia's Deakin University has taken to BMJ (formerly The british Medical Journal) to air his view that energy drink titans like Red Bull are meddling in research that explores the harms of mixing energy drinks

and placebo supplies to scientists whose research supports their interests. Red Bull sold 4. 6 million cans of its picker-upper last year presumably in large part to college students who wanted to use it as a mixer.

Red Bull often provides a placebo drink to researchers--after the company approves their protocols

--but as one psychologist told Livescience this means that there's no independent verification that the placebo doesn't contain stimulants like the active version of the Drink in an email to Popular Science Patrice Radden a spokesperson for Red Bull had this to say in response to Miller

The company did not respond to inquiries about the placebo they provide researchers or their methods for approving study protocols.

1. Adrenal fatigue: chronic use means your adrenals are pumping out adrenaline and noradrenaline at phenomenal rates.

which is similar to having a constant heart attack) Mix in some alchohol and a bad day and you can have charges.

Lets not forget about death from aneurysm or overdose either i


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