US scientists have cracked the entire genetic code of breast and colon cancers, offering new treatment hopes. The genetic map shows that nearly 200 mutated genes, most previously unknown, help tumours emerge, grow and spread. The discovery could also lead to better ways to diagnose cancer in its early, most treatable stages, and personalised treatments, Science magazine reports. The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center says the findings suggest cancer is more complex than experts had believed. Distinct differences The mutated genes in breast and colon cancers were almost completely distinct, suggesting very different pathways for the development of each of these cancer types. Each individual tumour appeared to have a different genetic blueprint, which could explain why cancers can behave very differently from person to person, the scientists said. ‘No two patients are identical,’ co-author Dr Victor Velculescu explained. Now researchers will study how these mutations occur in breast and colon cancers. Previous cancer gene discoveries have already led to successful detection and treatment strategies. For example, the breast cancer drug Herceptin targets a breast cancer cell receptor made by the Her2-neu gene. Blood tests for hereditary bowel cancer are […]
Sir Nicholas Stern, the head of the British Government Economic Service, has produced the world’s first big report on the economics of climate change. But his 700-page effort, although stuffed with figures, is not really about economics. It is about politics-the politics of getting America to lead a global effort to mitigate the effects of climate change. The purpose of Sir Nicholas’s report-commissioned by Tony Blair-is to deal with the argument of people who accept that climate change is happening, but who say that trying to do anything about it would be a waste of money. This argument is heard occasionally in Europe and frequently in America, where, for added potency, it is combined with the notion that European attempts to tax carbon are part of a conspiracy by socialists determined to undermine the American way of life. Sir Nicholas’s argument is that, far from undermining the American way of life, attempts to mitigate climate change may help preserve it. He argues this by setting the costs of allowing climate change to happen against the costs of mitigating climate change. Previous estimates of the costs of climate change-as a result of more hurricanes, more floods and rising […]
As modern humans spread across Europe tens of thousands of years ago, they may have interbred with Neanderthals, creating hybrids, according to a new study of ancient human bones from Romania. Anthropologists have long wondered what happened when the two species met as modern humans spread from Africa into Neanderthal territory in Eurasia: did the populations interbreed or did modern humans simply replace their cousins? The specimens examined and dated for the first time in this study show that ‘at least in Europe, the populations blended,’ said study author Erik Trinkaus of Washington University. The study compared the fragments, including a skull [image] and jaw [image], to bones of Neanderthals, early modern humans in Africa before they spread, and in Europe afterward. Trinkaus said that he and his colleagues found certain features that could have only come from Neanderthals, because early modern humans lost them before they spread from Africa. They found a swelling at the back of skull, called an occipital bun, which is the result of differential brain growth and is commonly found in Neanderthal skulls. Also, the arrangement of muscle attachment at the back of the jaw was a trait of Neanderthals. […]
A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists’ recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show. In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency’s inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species. The documents show that MacDonald has repeatedly refused to go along with staff reports concluding that species such as the white-tailed prairie dog and the Gunnison sage grouse are at risk of extinction. Career officials and scientists urged the department to identify the species as either threatened or endangered. Overall, President Bush’s appointees have added far fewer species to the protected list than did the administrations of either Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush, according to the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity. As of now, the administration has listed 56 species under the Endangered Species Act, for a rate of about 10 a […]
Militia fighters are operating just an hour’s drive from the capital’s suburbs, confident of undermining Western support for the war The Taliban are planning a major winter offensive combining their diverse factions in a push on the Afghan capital, Kabul, intelligence analysts and sources among the militia have revealed. The thrust will involve a concerted attempt to take control of surrounding provinces, a bid to cut the key commercial highway linking the capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad, and operations designed to tie down British and other Nato troops in the south. Last week Nato, with a force of 40,000 in the country including around 5,000 from Britain, said it had killed 48 more Taliban in areas thought to have been ‘cleared’. ‘They have major attacks planned all the way through to the spring and are quite happy for their enemy to know it,’ a Pakistan-based source close to the militia told The Observer. ‘There will be no winter pause.’ The Taliban’s fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, yesterday rejected overtures for peace talks from President Hamid Karzai and said it intended to try him in an Islamic court for the ‘massacre’ of Afghan civilians. Since their […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
