Scientists Find Survival Factor for Keeping Nerve Cells Healthy

Scientists at the Babraham Institute have discovered a novel survival factor whose rapid transport along nerve cells is crucial for keeping them alive. The same factor seems likely to be needed to keep our nerves healthy as we age.

These findings, published in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, show that a molecule known as Nmnat2 provides a protective function; in its absence healthy, uninjured nerve cells start to degenerate and boosting levels of Nmnat2 can delay degeneration when the cells are injured. This suggests an exciting new therapeutic avenue for protecting nerves from disease and injury-induced degeneration.

This breakthrough by Drs Jon Gilley and Michael Coleman at Babraham, an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), furthers our understanding of the basic biology of our nerves and provides new insight into the factors causing neurodegenerative diseases like Motor Neurone Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterised by a loss of viable nerve cells, which in many cases has been shown to be preceded by degeneration of the axon. Axons are the long, slender projections from nerve cells, sometimes over a metre long, that carry messages to target cells such as other nerve or muscle cells, rather like a fibre-optic cable carrying outgoing messages. Although the disintegration and collapse of axons is seen in many neurodegenerative diseases, the factors driving this have remained elusive.

Unravelling the processes initiating axon degeneration is helping to understand mechanisms of disease progression. It also increases our potential to protect synapses and axons in disease using Nmnat2 as a therapeutic target.

"What is really exciting here is how a single, intrinsic protein affects nerve cell survival," explained Dr Coleman, a Group Leader at Babraham. "It offers a new approach to treating axonal disorders by specifically targeting this protein, or by targeting other steps in the same pathway that we hope to work on next."

Axonal transport is a remarkable process that traffics thousands of biochemical compounds needed for axon survival and function along every one of our hundred billion nerve cells, day and night, across distances that dwarf any other mammalian cell. We are not aware of it until it goes wrong but then the results can be devastating. Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, motor neuron disease and multiple sclerosis are some of the neurodegenerative disorders that involve a block of axonal transport. Even the healthy ageing process shows a dramatic decline in axonal transport that may predispose us to these and other age-related disorders.

Coleman continued, "Think about the fate of a flower after its stem is cut. Without water it quickly wilts and dies. In water it lasts much longer but still dies earlier than on the plant, so water is the limiting factor for survival even if the flower needs other essential substances in the longer term.

There are some similarities when a nerve is injured. If a nerve is cut, axons beyond the injury site die within a couple of days because they lack essential proteins that are normally transported along the nerve.

"Like the flower's critical need for water, we found that one protein seems to be a limiting factor for axon survival by a large margin," explained Coleman. "Other missing proteins have little effect on this timescale. Nerve cells do differ in that they die through an active process rather than withering away, but the process may still be triggered by one factor, or at most just a few."

Cultured nerve cells were used to find which of the many biochemical factors limit axon survival. This builds on earlier work in the Coleman lab, which revealed that a single, harmless genetic variation, the slow Wallerian degeneration (WldS) gene, can extend the survival of a cut axon tenfold. However, this cannot provide what axons normally need to survive because most animals and probably all people lack the WldS gene. Nevertheless, its identity provided vital clues.

The new research, supported by the MRC and BBSRC, has identified a key axon survival factor present in all of us, Nmnat2, without which axons quickly degenerate. Nmnat2 is metabolic enzyme situated in part of the cell known as the Golgi, and now the Babraham group also finds it in axons. This raises the possibility of manipulating its activity with drugs in order to protect or delay axons from degeneration.

"As Nmnat2 is present in all our nerves it could be modulated directly, whereas WldS would first have to be introduced to our nerves." Coleman said. "By understanding how Nmnat2 is trafficked along nerves, what regulates its stability, and what it does when it gets there, novel treatments could now be developed for thus far incurable neurodegenerative diseases."

sciencedaily.com

New glaciers discovered in European mountains

British geographers from the University of Manchester have discovered four previously unknown glaciers while on a recent expedition to the "cursed" Prokletije mountains of Albania. The discovery was published in the December issue of Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, ahead of a full scholarly paper to be released later this year.

The newly found glaciers are located unusually low on the mountains,, beginning at roughly 6500 feet. But despite that, their existence has gone unnoticed for so long because the region has been embroiled in war and chaos for decades. Over the past decade some semblance of order has been achieved in the region, and it has allowed expeditions to explore the mountains more fully. The peaks are considered cursed by the locals, so few have ever ventured up their slopes.

The researchers from the university were completely surprised by their discovery. They suspect that other than a few local shepherds, no one else was even aware of the existence of the glaicers. They were also surprised to find them at such low altitudes and so far south. Glaciers at the same latitude are generally found much higher on mountains, but ample snow fall and cool temperatures all year long, help to feed these patches of snow.

By all accounts, the Prokletije mountains are said to be quite beautiful, offering good opportunities for trekking and backpacking throughout the area. The discovery of the glaciers is likely to make the region even more appealing to adventurous travelers looking to visit an area that has been mostly off limits for years.

by Kraig Becker
gadling.com

New Tyrannosaur Species Discovered

Credit: David Baccadutre, New Mexico Museum of
Natural History and Science.

T. rex's family tree just got one member larger. Scientists unearthed bones from a new dinosaur species, including an adult specimen and bones from a "teenager" that lived some 75 million years ago.

Called Bistahieversor sealeyi, the dinosaur lived about 10 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex appeared on the scene. Even so, B. sealeyi belongs to the same dinosaur linage as the famous T. rex.

Fossils from Bistahieversor (pronounced: bistah-he-ee-versor) were discovered in New Mexico back in 1998, and after many years of studying the bones, the paleontologists just announced the findings as a new genus and species, which they detail in the January issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

To the untrained eye, Bistahieversor looks like most of its tyrannosaur relatives, but many subtle features, especially in its skull, set it apart.

"When we take all these features together, it's clear that we have something different than what's been seen before," said Thomas Carr, a professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin, who studies tyrannosaurs and co-authored the paper.

The scientists based their conclusion on one main specimen, consisting of a complete adult skull and partial skeleton. This bipedal carnivore was about 29 feet (9 meters) long, with a head the size of a washing machine, and would have weighed at least a ton, Carr said. Bistahieversor was thus quite a bit smaller than its T. rex cousin, which had a head about 5 feet long and weighed around 6 tons, said Thomas Williamson, a curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, who also was involved in the research.

The researchers also unearthed a "teenager" of the species, along with a few bones from another adult.

Bistahieversor shares a few characteristics with more advanced tyrannosaurs, like the T. rex, but also has many, more primitive features. The findings give the researchers insight into the evolution of this dinosaur linage, helping them understand when particular features may have arisen.

"Our animal is a window on what that common ancestor might have looked like," said Carr.

Distinguishing features

Like T. rex, Bistahieversor had a deep snout (as seen vertically from the side), which would help the animal kill its prey using its jaws. The fact that Bistahieversor has a T.-rex-like snout, even though it is older, indicates that this feature is relatively primitive, Carr said, and it is not unique to more advanced tyrannosaurs.

More primitive tyrannosaurs were smaller, had shallow snouts and long forearms, and probably captured prey with their hands, Carr said. These creatures then increased in size, but still retained their shallow snouts. Later on however, their snouts increased in depth.

"Our new animal represents that change, after the large body size was established, then the snout became deep and the head became the main killing instrument," said Carr.

Unique predator

Finding this fossil in the American southwest "really changes our picture of what predators were around," Carr said.

Up until it was discovered, most of the teeth and bones found in the area were thought to be from dinosaurs that were more closely related to T. rex, such as Albertosaurus, and who lived farther north. But this fossil shows that there was actually a predator unique to the area.

And since Bistahieversor is more primitive than its northern cousins, "it seems that we have primitive animals hanging on in the southwest, but the advanced ones are farther north," said Carr, who added that he thinks this pattern was brought on by geographical barriers between the north and the south, such as the formation of the Rocky Mountains.

By Rachael Rettner
LiveScience
.

New find bolsters bird-dino connection

The bird family tree just gained a new and distinctive member, according to Chinese palaeontologists.

They have found a long-legged, toothy, stubby-armed, three-fingered dinosaur that was an important early member of the lineage that includes birds and their closest dinosaur relatives.

The 160-million-year-old dinosaur, Haplocheirus sollers, is about 10 million years older than what is believed to be the world's first known bird, Archaeopteryx, and exhibits characteristics associated with both dinosaurs and birds.

The new species, described in the journal Science, helps to fill in the fossil record and cement the long-held view that birds did indeed emerge out of the Maniraptora 'hand snatcher' clade.

"Many dinosaurs are very bird-like and early birds are dinosaur-like," says co-author Professor Xing Xu, adding that there is still debate over the exact moment when birds first emerged.

"It is more or less depending on what you call a bird a bird, which is somewhat an arbitrary procedure," says Xu of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "For example, Epidexipteryx (a small, feathered 'dinosaur') could be considered to be the earliest representative of the avian lineage."

'Hand snatcher'

Xu and his colleagues analysed the new dinosaur, discovered in orange mudstone beds at Junggar Basin in Xinjiang, China. According to Xu, the researchers determined it was "a relatively small carnivorous dinosaur" about 2 metres long with a slender head and "numerous small teeth."

The "hand snatcher" description seems quite appropriate in this case, since the dinosaur's hands had three strong fingers, with the middle finger being "much more robust than the others."

H. sollers belonged to the Alvarezsauroidea group of dinosaurs, now thought to have originated in Asia. Later members possessed a single, massive claw on each hand that was probably used for digging. The impressive middle finger on the new dinosaur likely represented an early evolutionary stage for this claw.

The new dinosaur, which was big for a bird but small for a dinosaur, also shows how some dinosaurs shrunk down to bird size over time.

H. sollers is the world's largest and oldest known alvarezsauroid - 63 million years older than other known members of this group.

Dino feathers

A second important dinosaur study this week, published in Nature and again co-authored by Xu, shows how another bird trademark - feathers - originated. Scientists previously wondered if they were first used for flight, insulation or display.

"We now know that feathers came before wings, so feathers did not originate as flight structures," says palaeontologist Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol who worked on the Nature study.

"We therefore suggest that feathers first arose as agents for colour display and only later in their evolutionary history did they become useful for flight and insulation."

By analysing colour-bearing organelles buried in the fossils of bird-like dinosaurs and early birds, Benton and his team were even able to reconstruct the colour of these prehistoric animals.

The dinosaur Sinosauropteryx, for example, sported orange and white rings down its tail. The early bird Confuciusornis, on the other hand, had patches of white, black and orange-brown colouring.

"These discoveries open up a whole new area of research," says Benton, "allowing us to explore aspects of the life and behavior of dinosaurs and early birds that lived over 100 million years ago."

By Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Photo: Portia Sloan

Deadly fish virus discovered in Lake Superior

A deadly fish virus has been discovered in fish from Lake Superior near Duluth.

The contagious disease, viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus, causes death in numerous fish species, but poses no threat to humans.

The virus attacks freshwater and saltwater fish and causes them to bleed to death. It already had been found in the other four Great Lakes and has been identified in 28 fish species in the Great Lakes watershed, where it has killed large numbers of walleye, muskellunge, smallmouth bass, whitefish, yellow perch and black crappies.

Dirk Peterson, acting fisheries chief for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said the discovery will not change regulations in Minnesota. Anglers already are required to remove aquatic vegetation from boats and take other precautions to avoid moving invasive species from infested waters to clean waters. The DNR will continue checking for the virus in a number of lakes, he said, including private and state-owned ponds that are used to stock fish in public waters.

The virus came to the United States from Europe and was discovered in the Detroit area in 2002. The Superior discovery was made by Cornell University researchers who tested 874 fish taken last summer from seven sites in Lake Superior in collaboration with U.S. Geological Survey fisheries scientists. The disease was found in fish from St. Louis Bay and Superior Bay near Duluth, and from two sites in Michigan.

The virus is considered one of the most serious pathogens of fish worldwide "because it kills so many fish, is not treatable and infects a broad range of fish species," said Paul Bowser, one of the researchers and a professor at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Peterson said he had expected the virus would eventually reach Lake Superior. He said the results remain preliminary until confirmed because scientists used a new screening tool to test the fish.

By TOM MEERSMAN
Star Tribune

Maya tomb find could help explain collapse

Mexican archaeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture.

Archaeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading.

Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around A.D. 820.

But Yadeun, who oversees the Tonina site for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said artifacts from the Toltec culture found in the tomb may point to another explanation. He said the tomb dates to between A.D. 840 and 900.

"It is clear that this is a new wave of occupation, the people who built this grave of the Toltec type," Yadeun said Wednesday. "This is very interesting, because we are going to see from the bones who these people are, after the Maya empire."

The Toltecs were from Mexico's central highlands and apparently expanded their influence to the Maya's strongholds in southern Mexico. They are believed to have dominated central Mexico from the city of Tula — just north of present-day Mexico City — between the 10th and 12th centuries, before the Aztecs rose to prominence.

Archaeologists not connected with the dig expressed caution about drawing conclusions from one site, noting the Maya empire covered a wide area, with a varied and complex history.

"One tomb, even if it is very fancy, isn't going to answer big things about the trajectory of Maya history all over the place ... maybe locally," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Susan Gillespie, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, said that "the whole idea of a migration of people from Tula to the Maya area has been abandoned."

The jungle-clad site is dotted with temples and platforms left by the classic Maya. The newly uncovered tomb — first detected during maintenance work in December, and later excavated and shown to reporters Wednesday — is dug into the earth at the foot of one of the older temples.

Inside, a stone bowl-type sarcophagus lies inside a narrow burrow, topped by a heavy stone lid. While such lids often bore inscriptions, this one does not; the Maya apparently began to abandon their elaborate writing system in the twilight of their culture.

Archaeologists also found a pottery urn and the bones of what they believe is a woman. Her skull appears to have been intentionally deformed, a practice common among the Maya. Physical anthropologists are now studying the bones, hoping to identify which group she came from.

The tomb does bear evidence that at least one other pre-Hispanic group took over the site after the collapse of the Maya.

The institute said the woman's bones were displaced by boiled bones in another pottery urn, apparently put there by Tzeltal chieftains sometime in the late 1400s, just before the Spanish conquest.

By MANUEL DE LA CRUZ
AP

Stonehenge served as site to impart knowledge

Stonehenge may have been used as a site where knowledge was communicated ritually, according to a new theory.

Lynne Kelly, La Trobe University doctoral researcher and science writer, has been working on technologies oral cultures used to present and pass on scientific knowledge.

Kelly demonstrated the constant changes in the archaeology at Stonehenge are consistent with the mnemonic (conveying through chants and rituals) needs of the knowledge elite as they settle, while delivering the inaugural Marshall McLuhan Lecture in Chicago.

'Instead of moving between sacred places to perform the cycle of ceremonies which encode all formal knowledge of their culture, Neolithic Britons replicated that landscape in the monuments they built over 1,500 years in transition from a mobile hunter-gathering to settled agriculture,' says Kelly.

The Neolithic Britons who built Stonehenge, like other cultures starting to settle, lacked a written language with which to preserve their knowledge.

Kelly says the most reliable recording system they had were mnemonic methods, whereby knowledge ranging from animal behaviour to astronomy could be communicated.

To facilitate this, she argues that Stonehenge itself acted as a knowledge centre, a function that it had in common with many other sites around the world, says a university release.

Kelly's research draws parallels with oral cultures such as Native American, African and Aboriginal Australian, and finds clues in the physical remains of Stonehenge.

IANS

Huge Mayan head found in Guatemala

Maya mask at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Image: Wolfgang Sauber, via Wikipedia.

Archaeologists have discovered a huge Mayan sculptured head in Guatemala that suggests a little-known site in the jungle-covered Peten region may once have been a significant city.

The stucco sculpture, which is three metres wide and 3.5 metres tall, was buried for centuries at the Chilonche ruins, close to the border with Belize.

The recent discovery of the head, which dates from the early Classic period between 300 to 600 AD, means the site is much older than previously thought.

The Maya often constructed new buildings using older ones as foundations.

"It could be an imaginary being, something from the underworld, perhaps linked to a Mayan deity," Polytechnic University of Valencia professor Gaspar Munoz, part of the team of archeologists that found the head, said.

Unlike Guatemala's famous Mayan cities of Tikal and El Mirador, little excavation has been carried out at Chilonche.

Looters, looking for artefacts to sell on the black market, had dug a small tunnel passing the buried sculpture, which is similar to others decorating a solar observatory at another site, Uaxactun.

Guatemala's Peten region is home to dozens of Mayan ruins, but the largely jungle-covered area is plagued by looters, poachers and smugglers taking cocaine to Mexico.

Reuters

Two thousand year old Roman aqueduct discovered

Prof. Lorenzo Quilici in the Aqua Traiana Photo: MEON HDTV

A pair of British amateur archaeologists believe they have found the hidden source of a Roman aqueduct 1,900 years after it was inaugurated by the Emperor Trajan.

The underground spring lies behind a concealed door beneath an abandoned 13th century church on the shores of Lake Bracciano, 35 miles north of Rome.

Exploration of the site has shown that water percolating through volcanic bedrock was collected in underground grottoes and chambers and fed into a subterranean aqueduct, the Aqua Traiana, which took it all the way to the imperial capital.

Centuries later, it provided water for the very first Vatican, after Rome began to convert to Christianity under the Emperor Constantine.

The underground complex, which is entangled with the roots of huge fig trees, was discovered by father and son documentary makers Edward and Michael O'Neill, who stumbled on it while researching the history of Rome's ancient aqueducts.

They recruited a leading authority on Roman hydro-engineering, Prof Lorenzo Quilici from Bologna University, who confirmed that the structure was Roman, rather than medieval as had long been believed.

Using long iron ladders to descend into the bowels of the sophisticated system, they found that the bricks comprising the aqueduct's walls are laid in a diamond shape known as "opus reticulatum" – a distinctive Roman style of engineering.

"A lot of the stone work bears the original Roman tool marks," Edward O'Neill said.

The underground labyrinth of galleries has remained almost unknown to archaeologists because for hundreds of years it was full of water.

It was only when modern bore pumps started directing the supply to the nearby town of Bracciano that the water level dropped dramatically and the subterranean complex became accessible.

The vaulted ceiling was decorated with a rare type of paint known as Egyptian Blue, which led the O'Neills to speculate that the grotto was a Roman nymphaeum – a sacred place believed to be inhabited by water gods.

"The paint was very expensive to make, but it was painted all over the walls, which suggests an imperial link," said Mr O'Neill.

It may even have been inaugurated by Trajan himself in AD 109. Historical records show that the emperor may have been in the area on June 24 of that year.

By coincidence, the O'Neills first explored the aqueduct on June 24 2009 – exactly 1,900 years later.

A coin minted during Trajan's reign commemorates the opening of the aqueduct, the documentary makers believe.

It depicts a river god holding an urn and a reed – traditionally symbols of a spring – and reclining in what looks like a cave, over what may be the representation of a tunnel.

The documentary makers hope to raise funds to pay for the site to be excavated by professional archaeologists.

By Nick Squires
telegraph.co.uk
.

Stone Age surgery discovered

Evidence of surgery carried out nearly 7,000 year ago has emerged – suggesting our Stone Age ancestors were more medically advanced than first thought.

Early Neolithic surgeons used a sharpened flint to amputate the left forearm of an elderly man, scientists have discovered.

And, more remarkable yet, they ensured the patient was anaesthetised and the limb cut off cleanly while the wound was treated afterwards in sterile conditions.

Scientists unearthed evidence of the surgery during work on tomb discovered at Buthiers-Boulancourt, about 40 miles south of Paris.

It suggests an incredible degree of medical knowledge was available in 4900BC and the revelation could force a reassessment of the history of surgery.

Researchers have also recently reported signs of two other Neolithic amputations in Germany and the Czech Republic.

It was known that Stone Age doctors performed trephinations, cutting through the skull, but not amputations.

‘The first European farmers were therefore capable of quite sophisticated surgical acts,’ said a spokesman for the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.

Cécile Buquet-Marcon and Anaick Samzun, both archaeologists, and Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist, discovered the Neolithic surgery while researching the tomb of an elderly man.

The man, who lived in the Linearbandkeramik period, when European hunter-gatherers settled down to agriculture, stock-breeding and pottery, was clearly important.

His grave was 6.5ft long - bigger than most - and contained a schist axe, a flint pick and the remains of a young animal, which are evidence of high status.

The most intriguing aspect, however, was the absence of forearm and hand bones.

Tests showed that the humerus bone had been cut above the trochlea indent at the end ‘in an intentional and successful amputation’.

Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that the patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, might have damaged his arm in a fall, animal attack or battle.

‘I don’t think you could say that those who carried out the operation were doctors in the modern sense that they did only that, but they obviously had medical knowledge,’ she said.

A flintstone almost certainly served as a scalpel.

Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that pain-killing plants were likely to have been used, perhaps the hallucinogenic Datura.

‘We don’t know for sure, but they would have had to find some way of keeping him still during the operation,’ she said.

Other plants, possibly sage, were probably used to clean the wound.

‘The macroscopic examination has not revealed any infection in contact with this amputation, suggesting that it was conducted in relatively aseptic conditions,’ said the scientists in an article for the journal Antiquity.

The patient survived the operation and, although he suffered from osteoarthritis, he lived for months, perhaps years, afterwards, tests revealed.

Despite the loss of his forearm, the contents of his grave showed that he remained part of the community.

‘His disability did not exclude him from the group,’ the researchers said.

dailymail.co.uk

Compounds That Help Protect Nerve Cells Discovered

Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found some compounds that improve a cell's ability to properly "fold" proteins and could lead to promising drugs for degenerative nerve diseases, including Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Misfolded proteins in nerve cells (neurons) are a common factor in all of these diseases. The Duke team has identified many new chemicals that activate a master regulator to increase the supply of "protein chaperone" molecules that help fold proteins properly.

The scientists further explored one of the candidate molecules to activate the master regulator of chaperone gene expression, Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1), to learn whether it would work in model systems of Huntington's disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disease of protein misfolding.

They were able to show that the molecule stimulated protein chaperones in cells and in an animal system. The damage to early-state rat neurons was much lower in cells pre-treated with the HSF1 activator, and damage to the neurons of fruit flies that had a Huntington's-like disorder was also greatly reduced.

Previous studies suggested that elevating the abundance of protein chaperones is effective in treating cell and animal models of Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases. This work provides a new approach to address the root cause of these diseases -- protein misfolding. Earlier attempts had used heat shock and other approaches that stress a nerve cell in order to produce more chaperone molecules, but at a cost of damaging the cell to save it.

"The advantage of our screen is that it identifies molecules that can elevate the levels of chaperones without inducing cellular stress and that don't inhibit a key protein chaperone called Hsp90 that is needed for cells to function normally," said senior author Dennis J. Thiele, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology. "We found a creative way to identify new molecules that can activate the body's natural protein folding machinery."

The research was published in the Jan. 19 online issue of PLoS Biology.

Lead author Daniel Neef, Ph.D., says they used genetically altered yeast to find compounds that might aid chaperone development. The scientists took yeast with a deleted HSF1 (master regulator) gene and inserted the related human HSF1 gene. These yeast, however, still weren't able to activate human HSF1 on their own, and in effect, died. They needed an additional molecule to make human HSF1 become active.

The team put these "humanized yeasts" into wells and started testing compounds that would provide the missing link. In several of the wells, if the compound worked, the yeast started multiplying. "Out of over 12,000 compounds tested from chemical libraries, about 50 compounds worked," Neef said. The team decided to explore one of these compounds (HSF1A) in further experiments.

"The humanized yeast-based screening results in our study provide a way to identify new classes of small molecules, small enough to penetrate the blood-brain barrier to work in neurons, in flies as well as in humans," Thiele said. "These small molecules may be effective therapies in neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein conformational disorders such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

The scientists found that HSF1A could stimulate more protein chaperones and reduce the protein misfolding. They showed that adding a small amount of HSF1A to the developing rat neurons kept the proteins dissolved throughout the cell, rather than clumping visibly as speckled areas (as seen under microscopes).

"We enhanced the cells' viability by four or five times by pre-treating them with this molecule," Neef said. "Otherwise, the cells would have died."

They used fruit flies with Huntington's disease for experiments to prove that the principle would work in an animal. Adding HSF1A to the fly's food produced more chaperone molecules in their neurons. This suggests that the molecule could travel from the fly's stomach into its circulation and cross a barrier to the fly brain.

In the key experiment, the Huntington's disease flies received either their usual food or food plus HSF1A. Those with untreated food developed eyes with dying photoreceptor neurons and lacking the normal red color. Those that ate HSF1A went on to have normal-colored eyes, indicating a repair had taken place, just by eating food laced with the promising compound.

Michelle Turski, now with Stanford University, was a co-author of the study. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Duke University Medical Center
sciencedaily.com

Rare stingray discovered in Wagonga inlet

The stingray was discovered using baited underwater video cameras
which film marine life attracted to the bait.

Researchers from the University of Newcastle and the Batemans Marine Park have discovered a species of stingray never before seen in Wagonga Inlet.

The estuary stingray (Dasyatis fluviorum) has never been recorded any further south than Botany Bay and disappeared from the Sydney region by the 1880s.

Batemans Marine Park research scientist Dr Melinda Coleman said finding the estuary stingray in Wagonga Inlet was “a big surprise”.

“This is a significant finding. The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable,” Dr Coleman said.

“It has dramatically decreased in number over the past century probably due to the impact of commercial fishing which would have caught the stingray as bycatch. Habitat modification of shallow foreshore waters, where these creatures are frequently found feeding, may also have played a role in the decline.

“The fact that both these activities have been significantly limited in the pristine waters of Wagonga Inlet may go some way towards explaining why they have been found here,” Dr Coleman said.

The stingray was discovered using baited underwater video cameras which film marine life attracted to the bait.

Professor Bill Gladstone, from the University of Newcastle and currently at the University of Technology, said the video work was part of a pilot study aimed at optimising methods of investigating estuarine fish communities within the Batemans Marine Park.

“We are planning to launch a larger research program and we were trying to find out just which methods worked best in estuaries.

“The discovery of the estuary stingray wasn’t realised until PhD Student Steve Lindfield was analysing the video footage later on and recognised the stingray as Dasyatis fluviorum. And what a great find!

“This find really warrants further survey work to determine the abundance of the species within Wagonga Inlet and other estuaries in the Batemans Marine Park,” Professor Gladstone said.

The estuary stingray may be seen feeding on mudflats with the incoming tide and is distinguished by its extra long tail, the white marking along the edge of its body and ‘tubercules’ or bumps along the top of its body.

"Fishers are reminded that stingrays are not only protected in sanctuary zones but also in habitat protection zones and if hooked should be returned to the water without harm,” Professor Gladstone said.

ANI

Egypt announces find of ancient cat goddess temple

This undated photo released Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, by Egypt's supreme council of antiquities shows the ancient cat-goddess Bastet found amongst the temple's ruins in the Kom el-Dekkah area of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. (AP Photo/EGYPT'S SUPREME COUNCIL OF ANTIQUITIES, HO)

Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday. The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.

The city was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt for 300 years until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra.

The statement said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C.

Mohammed Abdel-Maqsood, the Egyptian archaeologist who led the excavation team, said the discovery may be the first trace of the long-sought location of Alexandria's royal quarter.

The large number of statues depicting Bastet found in the ruins, he said, suggested that this may be the first Ptolemaic-era temple dedicated to the cat goddess to be discovered in Alexandria.

This would indicate that the worship of the ancient Egyptian cat-goddess continued during the later, Greek-influenced, Ptolemaic period, he said.

Statues of other ancient Egyptian deities were also found in the ruins, he added.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said the temple may have been used in later times as a quarry as evidenced by the large number of missing stone blocks.

Modern Alexandria was built squarely on top of the ruins of the classical-era city and many of its great temples, palaces and libraries remain undiscovered.

The temple was found in the Kom el-Dekkah neighborhood near the city's main train station and home to a Roman-era amphitheater and well preserved mosaics.

By HAMZA HENDAWI
AP

Argentine Diggers Find 18th-Century Galleon

300-year-old Spanish wreck found by team building Buenos Aires apartment block

Workers digging the foundations for a riverside apartment complex in Buenos Aires stumbled across the buried wreck of an 18th-century Spanish galleon. Experts believe the ship is at least 300 years old and was likely driven ashore by a storm and then buried in mud. Archaeologists are combing the area for remnants of the galleon's cargo.

"I don't think there's any treasure, but what there will be is a nice collection of artifacts," said one archeologist. So far several cannons have been discovered, along with several jugs probably used to hold olive oil. Construction of the building is to continue but the city's mayor promised that the unprecedented find would be preserved.

By Rob Quinn
NEWSER

New bird species found in rainforests of Borneo

A new species of bird has been spotted in the rainforests of Borneo.

Leeds University biologist Richard Webster first glimpsed the bird from a canopy walkway 35m above ground.

The spectacled flowerpecker, a small, wren-sized, grey bird, was feeding on some flowering mistletoe in a tree. On one sighting it was heard singing.

The bird has white markings around its eyes, belly and breast. It has not yet been given a scientific name because so little is known about it.

Dr David Edwards, a tropical ecologist at the University of Leeds, identified the bird as a new species from photographs.

"It's like a dream come true," he said. "I've spent all these years, decades, watching birds and all you want to do really is discover a new species to science.

"All that tropical field work has paid off, all the mosquitoes, the leeches, the rainstorms and the mud have been worthwhile."

The team caught sight of the birds several times in the days following its first appearance.

They were working in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysia, last summer.

"The discovery of a new bird species in the heart of Borneo underlines the incredible diversity of this remarkable area," said Adam Tomasek, leader of WWF's Heart of Borneo initiative.

The findings are published in Oriental Bird Club's journal BirdingASIA.

By Doreen Walton
BBC News

New pondlife discovered on nature reserve

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have found a large variety of tiny aquatic organisms in the East Stoke Fen nature reserve.

Queen Marys'''' School of Biological and Chemical Sciences working with Dorset Wildlife Trust has discovered more than 30 species of invertebrates called meiofauna, because they are smaller than half a millimetre, and over 100 single-celled species (ciliates) in less than two months.

“Cryptic biodiversity helps natural ecosystems to bounce back in response to environmental change. The Wet Fens Project in partnership with Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Freshwater Biological Association is pioneer work in the UK, to link research with conservation practice with the aim of incorporating small organisms into wetland conservation management.

Local biodiversity conservation will become all-embracing by covering the full range of aquatic organisms that contribute to the proper functioning of an ecosystem– not just those judged as ‘charismatic’,” Dr Genoveva Esteban of Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said.

“It is very exciting to learn about these incredible animals on our reserve, thanks to the work of the scientific team. The Wet Fens Project will help to protect them for the future, alongside the more visible aquatic wildlife,” Dr Rachel Janes, Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Pond Project Co-ordinator, said.

ANI

''Missing piece of jigsaw puzzle'' in brain message transmission found?

Scientists have seemingly found the previously missing link that could help explain how our minds combine experiences from many different senses into one memory.

Dietmar Plenz and Tara Thiagarajan at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland observed that groups of brain cells of two awake macaque monkeys appear to have their own version of quantum entanglement, or "spooky action at a distance" that could explain memories.

The researchers saw that patterns of activity, dubbed "coherence potentials", were mimicked or "cloned" and were more complicated than the simple phase-locked oscillations.

"The precision with which these new sites pick up on the activity of the initiating group is quite astounding - they are perfect clones," New Scientist quoted Plenz as saying.

Plenz also likened the appearance of cloned signals after one region had reached a threshold level of activity to the "tipping point", suggesting a coherence potential maybe triggered in the various parts of the brain that store aspects of the same experience.

Karl Friston, University College London, dubbed the discovery "a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle" in terms of brain message transmission.

ANI

New spider found in giant sand dune in Israel

Photo by Yael Olek, credit to the University of Haifa

A new species of spider has been discovered in the dune of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava region of Israel, scientists from from the department of biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim said this week.

With a leg span of up to 5.5 inches (14 centimeters), the new spider is the largest of its type in the Middle East, the scientists said.

Its habitat is endangered. "It could be that there are other unknown species [in the dune] that will become extinct before we can discover them," said Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa, who is heading research in the area.

"The discovery of this new spider illustrates our obligation to preserve the dune," Shanas said.

The Sands of Samar are the last remaining sand dune in Israeli territory in the southern Arava region, the university said. In the past, the sands stretched some three square miles (seven square kilometers), but due to the rezoning of areas for agriculture and sand quarries, the sands have been reduced to less than half that.

The spider is a member of the Cerbalus genus. Since it was found in the Arava, it was been given the name Cerbalus aravensis.

"Even though details are still lacking to enable a full analysis of its biology and of its population in the sands, the scientists know that this is a nocturnal spider, mostly active in the hottest months of the year, and that it constructs an underground den which is closed with a 'lifting door' made of sand particles that are glued together to camouflage the den," the university explained.

The Israel Land Administration intends to renew mining projects in the Sands of Samar in the near future, which will endanger the existence of the newly discovered spider, Shanas said.

It is possible that there are additional unknown animal species living in the sands, and therefore efforts should be made to preserve this unique region in the Arava, the researcher added.

"The new discovery shows how much we still have to investigate, and that there are likely to be many more species that are unknown to us. If we do not preserve the few habitats that remain for these species, they will become extinct before we can even discover them," Shanas said.

blogs.nationalgeographic.com
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Ancient coins and artefacts found in Terengganu’s Chinatown worksite

Earth-works for the new ring road and sewage system in Chinatown here have uncovered hundreds of ancient coins and other artefacts.

And there is concern that workers at the site and the public may have been quietly digging up these items to sell.

Site manager Omar Mahmod said many items might have been sold before he realised that his worksite contained buried treasures when he uncovered a porcelain vase that he believed was from ancient China.

He questioned his workers and discovered that many items had been found at the site.

“Many of these artefacts were found when we started earth excavation in February last year, but the workers concealed their find from us at first,” he said yesterday.

Realising that the items were being sold off on the quiet, he directed the workers to declare any artefacts found from the site.

He also directed his colleagues to comb the area to search and hand over the relics to museum authorities.

“Those who comb the area after a heavy downpour can be sure of finding such artefacts,” he said.

Since discovering the porcelain vase, Omar has dug out coins with early Jawi writing, Arabic script and ancient Chinese emblems, ancient Indian ornaments and Chinese jars, plates and vases.

An Indonesian worker from the site who requested anonymity said he surrendered most of the artefacts to his superior but admitted he had sold some to collectors.

“Such coins are collectors’ items some of which I will take back to Surabaya,” he said.

State MCA chief Toh Chin Yaw said the items were priceless and part of the state’s history. He said the contractor had been asked to declare any future discovery of artefacts. “We want to preserve valuable items extracted at the site for our future generations,” he said.

Toh said he had informed the relevant authorities to visit the site and claim any artefacts found.

By R.S.N. MURALI
thestar.com.my

Borna Virus Discovered in Human Genome

Fossil viruses are helping to shed light on the deep history of viruses like HIV,
shown above with red triangular cores of RNA material.
Eye of Science/Photo Researchers

The borna virus is at once obscure and grotesque. It can infect mammals and birds, but scientists know little about its effects on its victims. In some species it seems to be harmless, but it can drive horses into wild fits. The horses sometimes kill themselves by smashing in their skulls. In other cases, they starve themselves to death. Some scientists have even claimed that borna viruses alter human behavior, playing a role in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, although others say there is no solid evidence of a link.

The virus now turns out to have an intimate bond with every person on Earth. In the latest issue of Nature, a team of Japanese and American scientists report that the human genome contains borna virus genes. The virus infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since.

Borna viruses are not the only viruses lurking in our genome. Scientists have found about 100,000 elements of human DNA that probably came from viruses. But the borna virus belongs to a kind of virus that has never been found in the human genome before. Its discovery raises the possibility that many more viruses are left to be found.

Scientists who hunt for these viruses think of themselves as paleontologists searching for fossils. Just as animals get buried in rock, these viruses become trapped in the genomes of their hosts. While their free-living relatives continue to evolve, fossil viruses are effectively frozen in time.

“We can really dig fossils out of the genome and literally put them back together,” said Cédric Feschotte, a genome biologist at the University of Texas, Arlington. “It’s like putting a hominid back together and asking it if it can walk upright.”

When scientists sequenced the human genome in 2001, they noticed many segments that bore a striking resemblance to genes in retroviruses, a class of viruses that includes H.I.V.

Retroviruses carry their genetic material in a single-stranded version of DNA, called RNA. To make new viruses, they make DNA versions of their genes, which are inserted into a host cell’s genome. The cell then reads the retrovirus’s genes as if they were its own, and manufactures new retroviruses.

Scientists speculated that every now and then a retrovirus inserted itself into a host cell and then failed to turn it into a virus factory. If the trapped retrovirus happened to be in sperm or egg cells, its DNA might be passed down to the host’s descendants. From generation to generation, the virus’s DNA would mutate. It would lose its ability to produce normal viruses. For a while it might be able to make new viruses that could re-infect the same cell, but over enough time, the viruses would become disabled.

In recent years, scientists have found several lines of evidence to support this idea. . Koala retroviruses, for example, appear to be in the middle of the journey. The viruses can move from one koala to another. But in some populations of koalas, the virus’s DNA is permanently lodged in their genomes.

Thierry Heidmann of the Gustave Roussy Institute in France and his colleagues put the fossil virus hypothesis to a spectacular test: they tried to resurrect a dead retrovirus. They first identified a number of copies of the same virus-like stretch of DNA in the human genome. Each version had its own set of mutations that it acquired after the virus had invaded our ancestors.

By comparing the copies, Dr. Heidmann and his colleagues were able to figure out what the original sequence of the virus’s genes had been. When they synthesized the genes from scratch and injected the genetic material into cells, the cells produced new viruses.

“It was a tour-de-force of an experiment,” said John Coffin, an expert on fossil viruses at Tufts University.

Now fossil virus hunters are moving beyond the human genome. They’re taking advantage of the growing number of mammal genomes piling up in online databases and helping to flesh out the evolutionary history of viruses, reaching back tens of millions of years. Aris Katzourakis, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, and his colleagues recently went on a hunt for fossils of foamy viruses in mammals. Foamy viruses infect some mammals, including monkeys and apes. Primate foamy viruses can infect humans harmlessly, but researchers fear they may evolve to become dangerous. Dr. Katzourakis and his colleagues discovered hundreds of foamy virus copies in the DNA of the two-toed sloth. They then found the same virus lurking in the genome of the three-toed sloth. Before Dr. Katzourakis’s fossil hunt, scientists had never found a foamy virus infecting any sloths, or any of their relatives like armadillos and anteaters.

Sloths and their relatives branched off from all other placental mammals about 100 million years ago. Dr. Katzourakis’s discovery thus reveals the great antiquity of foamy viruses. They were already infecting the common ancestor of all placental mammals back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

These fossils are also offering clues to how viruses evolved. Dr. Katzourakis and his colleagues have found fossil viruses that are helping shed light on the deep history of H.I.V., for example.

H.I.V. evolved about a century ago from a chimpanzee virus known as simian immunodeficiency virus, or S.I.V. Many apes and monkeys carry their own strain of S.I.V, but it’s not clear how long the viruses have been infecting primates.

In 2008, Dr. Katzourakis and his colleagues discovered fossil S.I.V. in the genome of the gray lemur, a primate that lives in Madagascar. Last May, Dr. Feschotte and his colleagues reported that they had found the same fossil virus in the fat-tailed lemur.

Scientists had never before found S.I.V. in lemurs, which branched off from all other living primates some 50 million years ago. The fossil virus is also missing one of the genes found in all other forms of S.I.V. and H.I.V. It may be a transitional form of the virus, akin to the fossils paleontologists have found of feathered dinosaurs that couldn’t fly.

Fossil viruses are also illuminating human evolution. Scientists estimate that 8.3 percent of the human genome can be traced back to retrovirus infections. To put that in perspective, that’s seven times more DNA than is found in all the 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome.

But that figure may be too low, according to Dr. Katzourakis. “The measurable diversity of viruses may go up, and the true diversity may be much higher,” he said.

For one thing, some viruses may be too well hidden for scientists to see. The discovery of borna viruses in the human genome is another reason to wonder if we’re actually more viral than we know. All fossil viruses discovered until now have been retroviruses, but borna viruses are not.

Unlike retroviruses, borna viruses do not insert themselves into host genomes. Instead, they take up residence inside the nucleus, the chamber that holds our DNA. There, they manipulate the cell’s proteins to make new copies of themselves.

Keizo Tomonaga, a virologist at Osaka University, discovered the borna virus DNA by accident. He had been comparing the virus genes with human genes to see if the virus might have evolved to mimic our own proteins. Instead, he discovered four segments of human DNA that clearly had descended from a borna virus gene. “I was surprised when I found them,” Dr. Tomonaga said.

He and his colleagues found the same borna virus DNA in apes and monkeys. In other words, borna virus first invaded the common ancestor of humans, apes and monkeys about 40 million years ago. But primates were not the only targets for borna viruses. Dr. Tomonaga and his colleagues have found independent invasions in other mammals, including ground squirrels, guinea pigs and elephants.

Dr. Tomonaga and his colleagues suspect that borna viruses didn’t actually invade mammal genomes. Instead, the genomes kidnapped them.

Mammal genomes contain thousands of stretches of DNA called LINEs. LINEs sometimes make copies of themselves that get reinserted back into the genome. Dr. Tomonaga’s research indicates that LINEs grabbed the genes of borna viruses and pulled them into their genome.

The discovery raises the possibility that LINEs have kidnapped other viruses floating near their host’s DNA, like flu viruses.

Two of the four copies of the borna virus gene carry crippling mutations. It’s impossible for our cells to make proteins from them. But the other two genes look remarkably intact, perhaps suggesting that our bodies use them for our own benefit. Exactly what they do isn’t clear though.

Studies on other captive viruses have revealed that some help ward off viral invasions. One virus protein, syncytin, is essential for our being born at all.

“The only place it’s expressed is in the placenta,” Dr. Heidmann said. To understand its function, he and his colleagues disabled the gene in mice. Without syncytin, mice developed deformed placentas, and their embryos died.

Syncytin started as a surface protein on retroviruses that fused them to cells. When mammals captured the gene, they used it in the placenta to create a layer of fused cells through which mothers can send nutrients to their embryos.

Dr. Heidmann and his colleagues have discovered that over the past 100 million years, mammals have repeatedly harnessed viruses to make syncytin. “Wherever we search for them, we find them,” Dr. Heidmann said.

But the syncytin genes we use today may have actually replaced an ancestral one that a virus bequeathed to the very first placental mammals. In fact, that infection may have made the placenta possible in the first place. “It was a major event for animal evolution,” Dr. Heidmann said.

By CARL ZIMMER
nytimes.com
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Small marine creature discovered in murky depths

A small marine creature, found in the murky mysterious depths of the Kermadec Ridge in New Zealand, is causing a stir among scientists.

The amphipod, now kept in ethanol at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's (NIWAR) collections, is believed to be a species never seen on dry land before.

Niamh Kilgallen of the institute said the amphipod had been collected by NIWAR scientists at the ridge, northeast of New Zealand, in 2002, but initially staff members had not believed it was a new species.

However, late last year staff at work reorganising and registering the 100,000 items held in the institute's collection took another look.

There were only three known species of the type of amphipod they believed this one belonged to, but Kilgallen said its leg shape and ridges were different from those already known.

She was spending the summer trying to establish whether or not any other amphipod like this one had been found.

'It's initially a bit of a buzz when you think you have something new, and then you get into the work and all the double-checking the other ones out there.'

The amphipod had become the collection's 'show-off piece' as it was in good condition and relatively large.

For Kilgallen, discovering that items found in deep waters were new to science was the most satisfying, said a NIWAR release.

'If it's from the deep, it feels a little bit special. You can't just go to the shore and pick it up out of the water.'

IANS

Egypt discovers new workers' tombs near pyramids

(AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities)

Egyptian archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said Sunday.

The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.

The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt's 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.

Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990, he said, and discoveries such as these show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.

"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," said Hawass in the statement. "If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."

Evidence from the site, Hawass said, indicates that the approximately 10,000 laborers working on the pyramids ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms in northern and southern Egypt.

He added that the workers were rotated every three months and the burial sites were for those who died during the construction.

Discoveries like these reveal other aspects of ancient Egyptian society besides just the stone monuments and temples frequented by priests, rulers and nobles, explained Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.

"It is important to find tombs that belong to lower class people that are not made out of stone that tell you about the social organization and the relative wealth of a range of people," she said.

Workers' tombs from the 4th Dynasty were typically made of mud bricks and shaped like cones and covered in white plaster, probably echoing the nearby limestone-clad pyramids of the kings.

The most important new tomb discovered, according to Hawass, belonged to a man named Idu and the statement described it as rectangular in structure, with a plaster covered mud brick outside casing.

The tomb also featured burial shafts encased in white limestone.

Further grave sites were found around the main tomb, including burial shafts containing skeletons and clay pots.

By PAUL SCHEMM
Associated Press Writer

Gene that regulates heartbeat discovered

British scientists have uncovered the gene that regulates our heartbeat.

The discovery of the "pacemaker gene" could lead to new drug treatments to avoid heart attacks and disease, say experts.

A person's heartbeat is controlled by electrical signals, which start in one central place - the heart's pacemaker - and travel around the heart muscle.

And now, a team at Imperial College London have found the gene that controls those electrical signals and thus the rhythm of the heart.

The researchers claimed that the damage or mutations to the gene - known as SCN10A - increase the risk of heart disease.

The researchers believe that the finding could help them to understand how the body's heartbeat is controlled and could ultimately help them come up with new treatments for heart rhythm disturbances.

It is also hoped that studying different variations of the gene in different people will help doctors discover why some people are more susceptible to heart trouble than others.

"Genetic variation is like the two sides of a coin. One side is associated with increased risk, the other with decreased risk. We have identified a gene that influences heart rhythm, and people with different variants of the gene will have increased or decreased risks of developing heart rhythm problems," the Telegraph quoted Dr John Chambers, lead author of the study as saying.

In the study, the researchers analysed the genetic make-up of almost 20,000 people to look for genetic factors influencing the heartbeat.

They studied the electrocardiogram (ECG, a recording of the heartbeat) of each person, and measured the time taken for electrical signals to travel to different parts of the heart.

They found that variation in the gene SCN10A was linked with slow and irregular heart rhythms, including risk of ventricular fibrillation.

ANI

Archaeologists find 8,000-year-old home near Tel Aviv

The remains, found on the banks of the Yarkon river,
are the earliest discovered in the Tel Aviv region (AFP)

Israeli archaeologists have found remains of an 8,000-year-old building as well as hippopotamus bones and pottery shards in the Tel Aviv area, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Monday.

The remains, found on the banks of the Yarkon river, are the earliest discovered in the Tel Aviv region.

"This discovery is both important and surprising to researchers of the period," said Ayelet Dayan, who led the excavations.

"For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region about 8,000 years ago."

That places it in the Neolithic period when man went from a nomadic existence to living in permanent settlements.

Flint implements ascribed to earlier periods were also discovered at the site, including the point of a hunting tool from the Middle Paleolithic period or about 100.000 years ago.

Animal remains, including hippopotamus bones, were found at the site.

AFP

We could find Earth-like planets soon

Astronomers say they are on the verge of finding planets like Earth orbiting other stars, a key step in determining if we are alone in the universe.

A top NASA official and other leading scientists say that within four or five years they should discover the first Earth-like planet where life could develop, or may have already. A planet close to the size of Earth could even be found sometime this year if preliminary hints from a new space telescope pan out.

At the annual American Astronomical Society conference this week, each discovery involving so-called "exoplanets" — those outside our solar system — pointed to the same conclusion: Quiet planets like Earth where life could develop probably are plentiful, despite a violent universe of exploding stars, crushing black holes and colliding galaxies.

NASA's new Kepler telescope and a wealth of new research from the suddenly hot and competitive exoplanet field generated noticeable buzz at the convention. Scientists are talking about being at "an incredible special place in history" and closer to answering a question that has dogged humanity since the beginning of civilization.

"The fundamental question is: Are we alone? For the first time, there's an optimism that sometime in our lifetimes we're going to get to the bottom of that," said Simon "Pete" Worden, an astronomer who heads NASA's Ames Research Center. "If I were a betting man, which I am, I would bet we're not alone — there is a lot of life."

Even the Roman Catholic Church has held scientific conferences about the prospect of extraterrestrial life, including a meeting last November.

"These are big questions that reflect upon the meaning of the human race in the universe," the director of the Vatican Observatory, the Rev. Jose Funes, said Wednesday in an interview at this week's conference.

Worden told The Associated Press: "I would certainly expect in the next four or five years we'd have an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone."

Worden's center runs the Kepler telescope, which is making an intense planetary census of a small portion of the galaxy.

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which is a general instrument, Kepler is a specialized telescope just for planet-hunting. Its sole instrument is a light meter that measures the brightness of more than 100,000 stars simultaneously, watching for anything that causes a star to dim. That dimming is often a planet passing in front of the star.

Any planet that could support life would almost certainly need to be rocky rather than gaseous. And it would need to be in just the right location. Planets that are too close to their star will be too hot, and those too far away are too cold.

"Every single rock we turn over, we find a planet," said Ohio State University astronomer Scott Gaudi. "They occur in all sorts of environments, all sorts of places."

Researchers are finding exoplanets at a dizzying pace. In the 1990s, astronomers found a couple of new planets a year. For most of the last decade, it was up to a couple of planets every month.

This year, planets are being found on about a daily basis, thanks to the Kepler telescope. The number of discovered exoplanets is now well past 400. But none of those has the right components for life.

That's about to change, say the experts.

"From Kepler, we have strong indications of smaller planets in large numbers, but they aren't verified yet," said Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley. He is one of the founding fathers of the field of planet-hunting and a Kepler scientist.

But there is a big caveat. Most of the early exoplanet candidates found by Kepler are turning out to be something other than a planet, such as another star crossing the telescope's point of view, when double- and triple-checked, said top Kepler scientist Bill Borucki.

Kepler is concentrating on about one-four hundredth of the nighttime sky, scanning more than 100,000 stars, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand light years away. A light year is about 5.9 trillion miles. So such planets are too far to travel to, and they cannot be viewed directly like the planets in our solar system.

If there were an Earth-like body in the area Kepler is searching, the telescope would find it, Marcy said. But it can take three years to confirm a planet's orbital path.

What Kepler has confirmed so far keeps pointing to the idea that there are many other Earths. Before Kepler, those bodies were too small to be seen. Borucki this week announced the finding of five new exoplanets — all discovered in just the first six weeks of planet-hunting. But all those planets were too large and in the wrong place to be like Earth.

When Kepler looked at 43,000 stars that are about the same size as our sun, it found that about two-thirds of them appeared to be as life-friendly and nonviolent as our nearest star.

Marcy, who this week announced finding a planet just four times larger than Earth, does not like to speculate how many stars have Earth-like planets. But when pressed, he said Thursday: "70 percent of all stars have rocky planets."

PTI

Australian lakes may hold clues to life on Mars

In a new research, a team of scientists is studying organisms found in Australian Lakes, which they believe may hold clues to life on Mars.

The research, by microbiologists like Dr Melanie Mormile from Missouri University of Science and Technology are studying organisms found in the salt-water lakes of Western Australia that have an acidic pH because the lakes’ conditions are similar to those found on Mars.

Until recently, it was thought that life could not be sustained in lakes like those Mormile studied in Australia, which tend to have a high concentration of metals and other ions due to the type of rocks that form the lake floors.

Mormile and her fellow researchers found that prokaryotes, simple organisms that lack a nucleus, were able to handle the unusual conditions.

“When you look at these extreme environments, only the prokaryotes have the metabolic capability to survive,” Mormile said.

Mormile’s group took samples from 11 lakes in Western Australia. They found a great deal of diversity among bacteria present in each.

The diversity was grouped by the environmental conditions present in each of the lakes.

In the future, Mormile hopes to return to Australia to isolate and characterize the bacteria in each of four of the lakes originally sampled to determine what, if any, new species may be thriving there.

Once Mormile knows what organisms are present in the lake, she can then determine things like how they consume carbon sources and produce energy.

Knowing the types of metabolism present in these acidic high-saline lakes would help researchers understand the metabolism required for life on Mars.

“As a microbiologist, it seems obvious that wherever there is liquid water, there is usually life present,” Mormile says. “Just because you can’t see it with the naked eye, doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” she added.

ANI

New Sucker-Footed Bat Discovered in Madagascar

Photograph by Steven M. Goodman

This newly discovered bat is an exemplar of stick-to-it-iveness—in more ways than one.

Scientists were conducting fieldwork in the fast-disappearing forests of Madagascar when they found this new species of bat with sticky suckers on its feet and thumbs.

The creature, dubbed Myzopoda schliemanni, uses the adhesive organs to scale the large, broad leaves of tropical plants where it roosts.

Only one other species of this sucker-footed family is known to science, and it too makes its home on the large African island (see Madagascar map).

But the newfound mammal lives only in Madagascar's dry western forests, while its cousin is found in the more humid woodlands to the east.

The international team of scientists who made the find suggests that the new bat may be uniquely adapted to Madagascar's vanishing forests.

Only eight percent of the country's original forest cover remains, the scientists estimate, as farmers burn large swaths to make way for farmland and cut down trees for fuel.

But the sparse, scorched land left behind by this destruction is prime habitat for the traveler's palm, a hearty plant whose big, slick leaves require a certain sticky touch.

That Myzopoda schliemanni seems to have adapted to the devastation is a sorry testament to the state of Madagascar's forests, the scientists say. But it also suggests that the rare bats could be out of the woods when it comes to their extinction risk.

"For now, we do not have to worry as much about the future of Myzopoda," Steven M. Goodman, field biologist from Chicago's Field Museum who led the research, said in a statement.

"We can put conservation efforts on behalf of this bat on the back burner, because it is able to live in areas that have been completely degraded."

By Blake de Pastino
news.nationalgeographic.com
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Massive statue of Pharaoh Taharqa discovered deep in Sudan

Photo copyright Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project. The largest piece of the Taharqa statue is pictured here. It includes parts of the base and torso. There is an inscription on the back-pillar.






















No statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one. At the height of his reign, King Taharqa controlled an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant.

A massive, one ton, statue of Taharqa that was found deep in Sudan. Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty of Egypt and came to power ca. 690 BC, controlling an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant. The pharaohs of this dynasty were from Nubia – a territory located in modern day Sudan and southern Egypt.

The Nubian pharaohs tried to incorporate Egyptian culture into their own. They built pyramids in Sudan – even though pyramid building in Egypt hadn’t been practised in nearly 800 years. Taharqa’s rule was a high water mark for the 25th dynasty. By the end of his reign a conflict with the Assyrians had forced him to retreat south, back into Nubia – where he died in 664 BC. Egypt became an Assyrian vassal – eventually gaining independence during the 26th dynasty. Taharqa’s successors were never able to retake Egypt.

In addition to Taharqa’s statue, those of two of his successors - Senkamanisken and Aspelta – were found alongside. These two rulers controlled territory in Sudan, but not Egypt.

Dr. Julie Anderson of the British Museum is the co-director for the Dangeil excavations. This project is an archaeological mission of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Sudan. It is also co-directed by Dr. Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed.

Dr. Anderson confirmed that no statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one. “That’s one reason it’s so exciting and very interesting,” she said. The discovery was such a surprise that one colleague of Anderson's didn't believe it at first saying that the statues “can’t possibly be (at) Dangeil.”

Dangeil is near the fifth cataract of the Nile River, about 350 kilometres northeast of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. There was a settlement at the time of Taharqa, but little of it has been excavated. Most of the finds discovered at Dangeil, so far, date to the time of the Kingdom of Meroe (3rd century BC – 3rd century AD).

While this is the furthest south that a pharaoh’s statue has been found, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Dangeil is the southern border of Taharqa’s empire. It’s possible that he controlled territory further up the Nile.

The statue of Taharqa is truly monumental. “It’s a symbol of royal power,” said Dr. Anderson, an indicator that Dangeil was an “important royal city.”

It’s made of granite and weighs more than one ton. It stood about 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) when it had its head. In ancient times it was smashed into several pieces on purpose. This was also done to the two other statues. It’s not known who did this or why. It happened “a long time after Taharqa,” said Anderson.

One idea is that there was a dynastic struggle. A group came to power in Nubia that was determined to eliminate reminders of Taharqa’s reign and that of this successors. Another possibility is that in 593 BC an Egyptian military force, led by pharaoh Psamtek II, succeeded in reaching Dangeil and decided to damage the statues.

The largest piece of Taharqa's statue is the torso and base. This part of the statue is so heavy that the archaeological team had to use 18 men to move it onto a truck.

“We had trouble moving him a couple hundred meters,” said Anderson. The move was “extremely well planned,” with the team spending eight to nine days figuring out how to accomplish it without the statue (or the movers) getting damaged.

Given the lack of moving equipment the team resorted to “traditional methods.” Anderson and Ahmed say that “the back of the statue was first protected with sacking after which a heavy plank of wood was attached to the backpillar. Trenches were dug under the statue to facilitate the attachment of the wood backing,”

The team than rotated the statue so that it rested on this wood. A platform of red-brick and silt was created beneath the statue. “The statue was raised upwards, one brick’s thickness at a time (approximately 80mm), using wooden and iron levers.” A team of 18 men then brought it to a truck, dragging it over an ancient wall.

Taharqa’s ancient statue movers would have had an even rougher job. The nearest granite quarry is at the third cataract – hundreds of kilometres up the Nile. The trip was “certainly many days” said Anderson, consisting of a river ride and in “some places dragging.”

The construction of the statue and the painstaking effort to move it to Dangeil “demonstrates how powerful he (Taharqa) was.”

By Owen Jarus

Neanderthal 'make-up' discovered

Scientists claim to have the first persuasive evidence that Neanderthals wore "body paint" 50,000 years ago.

The team report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that shells containing pigment residues were Neanderthal make-up containers.

Scientists unearthed the shells at two archaeological sites in the Murcia province of southern Spain.

The team says its find buries "the view of Neanderthals as half-wits" and shows they were capable of symbolic thinking.

Professor Joao Zilhao, the archaeologist from Bristol University in the UK, who led the study, said that he and his team had examined shells that were used as containers to mix and store pigments.

Black sticks of the pigment manganese, which may have been used as body paint by Neanderthals, have previously been discovered in Africa.

"[But] this is the first secure evidence for their use of cosmetics," he told BBC News. "The use of these complex recipes is new. It's more than body painting."

The scientists found lumps of a yellow pigment, that they say was possibly used as a foundation.

They also found red powder mixed up with flecks of a reflective brilliant black mineral.

Some of the sculpted, brightly coloured shells may also have been worn by Neanderthals as jewellery.

Until now it had been thought by many researchers that only modern humans wore make-up for decoration and ritual purposes.

There was a time in the Upper Palaeolithic period when Neanderthals and humans may have co-existed. But Professor Zilhao explained that the findings were dated at 10,000 years before this "contact".

"To me, it's the smoking gun that kills the argument once and for all," he told BBC News.

"The association of these findings with Neanderthals is rock-solid and people have to draw the associations and bury this view of Neanderthals as half-wits."

Professor Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist from the Natural History Museum in London, UK, said: "I agree that these findings help to disprove the view that Neanderthals were dim-witted.

But, he added that evidence to that effect had been growing for at least the last decade.

"It's very difficult to dislodge the brutish image from popular thinking," Professor Stringer told BBC News. "When football fans behave badly, or politicians advocate reactionary views, they are invariably called 'Neanderthal', and I can't see the tabloids changing their headlines any time soon."

Hybrid boy?

Another study published in the same issue of PNAS provides intriguing evidence about the relationship between humans and Neanderthals.

An international team of researchers examined teeth from the skeleton of a human child that was discovered in Portugal in the late 1990s.

It was suggested by some scientists at the time that this skeleton, which dates from the Upper Palaeolithic period - between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago - might have been the product of human and Neanderthal interbreeding.

The researchers found that the skeleton's teeth shared some features with Neanderthals rather than modern humans.

Although this does not settle the argument of whether the child was a hybrid, it does indicate, the researchers write, that "these earlier Upper Palaeolithic humans are not simply older versions of [today's] humanity".

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