In this week’s journal Science, paleontologists announced the discovery of a new kind of ancient giant fish discovered in the chalk deposits of Kansas, Britain and elsewhere. And with that discovery comes the story of the family of Kansas relentless science to solve a mystery fish.

The scientists named the new genus after Leoti Bonner’s family, who found the specimen feed. The family has for decades sought to fossils in the Niobrara chalk bone-rich to soothe the pain of the death of his mother.

Bonnerichthys scientists are calling: 20 to 25 feet long, the eyes of 6 inches wide, a mouth that could’ve taken your children eight Bonner on one or two drinks.

The giant fish eat microscopic plankton, which is a big problem for fish historians, who could not fish like those experienced in the era of the dinosaurs.

The Bonners have changed the history of fish. They do not know the day in 1971 that resulted in a giant fish head of the canyons along chalk Twin Butte Creek.

* * *

Logan County, in western Kansas is “Dry Dust Bowl” as Orville Bonner says. Fossils of hills where the citizens of Bonn are hunted chalk, yellow and brown, covered with short grass and yucca, magnificent, the light from the sun under western Kansas. Oven door is hot in summer, with light-colored soil, so sunburn fossil hunters from the ground up.

Marion, father, film ran at night, by day and hunt for bones and teeth in a desert terrain looked like the cowboy movie house, dusty canyons and gullies local topographical names as Hell Creek, Thief Canyon, Rattlesnake Gulch. The head of the residents, in addition to livestock, are rattlesnakes, lizards, snakes and hognose lesser earless.

One day in 1971, Marion Bonner took his children along the Logan County Twin Butte Creek. Dana said it carried out in “Spiker” look prehistoric-1949 Chevy Suburban. They were crossing rural Kansans Life: Dana, a son high, had spent part of a team of summer wheat harvest.

Chuck, a 21-year-old art major at Fort Hays State University, who found the fish, climbed to the top of a hill the Bonners called “La Plaza”, a hill 40 feet tall from the top down the valley floor.

In one of the towers of chalk, Chuck saw something big and brown out.

“Dark fossil bone,” he said. “I did a little digging. I assumed it was an end.”

For four days, Marion Bonner scrambled bones excavated in the application of plaster to hold them in place of study.

They had to let the pile of bones to Spiker string.

* * *

Scientists love the Bonners, Marion and all her children: Orville, Clare-Jane, Letty, Steve, Chris, Chuck, Dana and Melanie.

Fossil hunting for therapy, “said Dana. His mother, Margaret died of a heart attack in 1967.

“It’s a very deep attachment to me on a spiritual level to go fossil hunting,” said Dana.

During the seven years he rose and brushed Marion chalk hills and more than four decades to his children accompanied him, the Bonners science helped enormously. When they noticed unusual appearance, bones, gave the scientists and let them take credit for discoveries published.

Their findings were now in museums in Kansas, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Discovery scientists named after them: A few invertebrates.

Bonneri Pecten, a small fish. Bonneri Pteranodon, a flying reptile. Niobrarateuthis bonneri, a prehistoric squid found by Melanie.

* * *

Marion Bonner had no idea what to do with the pile of bones.

Orville told to take them to the scientists.

Orville at the time was the coach at the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas. He took the bones KU paleontologist Larry Martin. Martin was impressed, saw the bone structures that had never before seen, eye sockets, 6 inches in diameter.

A “barn burner” of a fossil find, he said.

“A surprisingly large fish. I do not know what it was. But I knew it was a big problem.”

* * *

At the age of dinosaurs, North America was divided in two by the Western Inland Sea and the Great Plains, was a skeleton covered by the sea, the water over your home to sharks, squid, stingrays, giant clams, giant reptiles, mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, and plankton, a microscopic animal still alive today.

It fossilized plankton in oil and gas, is the plankton that feeds the world’s largest animals, plankton, including whales, basking sharks and manta rays. It is a paradox that in the biology of the world’s largest animals eat smaller food in the world.

Until this week, paleontologists always strange fish they never found any planktivores in the fossil record.

* * *

For decades at KU, Larry Martin showed that the bones of fish every time scientists could speak with them looking out of the box in Dyche Hall. But none could figure out what the fish head was saying.

There were no actual bone in your body, especially the skull and large front flippers. Without teeth.

Martin, now an expert on dinosaurs, small mammals ancient saber-toothed cats, birds and many other creatures old, was beginning to suspect that fish Bonner, like baleen whales today, was a “filter feeder.” If so, this was a great find.

Finally, let a commercial company to take the fish head to Colorado and prepare.

In Colorado, a fish scientist completed his PhD at the University of Chicago, Matt Friedman, saw the fish head – and became the first scientist to understand the meaning.

Martin called and got permission to study it.

In the course of time, Friedman went to work in England by the University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences. What he saw were long, toothless jaws support an open mouth, long bones that prepared the gill arches needed to filter large quantities of plankton-filled water.

At that time, Friedman had connected points, he had found other specimens of other species of this genus, in Britain and Japan, misidentified, scientists had not seen what they were.

As Friedman closed in identifying the new genre, the paleontologist Mike Everhart of Derby, an expert in the western inland sea, was digging a model in Gove County, more complete than the fish Bonner.

Suddenly, scientists could paint a fuller picture of the ancient seas, and now include such giants.

They were a kind of success, but that thrived 172 million years ago, and died 65 million years along with the dinosaurs.

* * *

Finding a new species, that the Bonners did several times over many years, is a big problem. Open the door to discover a whole new genre is even greater. A genus is a group of related animals, wolves and dogs, for example, are members of the genus Canis. Donkeys, horses and zebras: Equus. The Bonners added a new genre to the list of creations of nature.

Marion Bonner died in 1992 aged 81. He had spent seven decades contributed greatly to science.

Friedman called the fish genus Bonnerichthys after family, species found in Logan County is Bonnerichthys gladius.

Children of Marion still hunt the bones and teeth, and still walk Spiker.

Bonnerichthys.

“It’s pretty interesting,” said Orville Bonner.

“We never had an entire genre called us before.”

Ames, Iowa – Two teams of researchers from Iowa State University will receive a total of $ 8 million over three years from a department of U.S. 78 million U.S. dollars energy program to research and development of advanced biofuels.

Victor Lin – chemistry professor, director of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology Center for Catalysis at Iowa State and chief technology officer and founder of Catiline Inc. – lead a team embarking on a study of 5.3 million U.S. dollars biodiesel production from algae.

And Robert C. Brown – an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering and director of the Iowa Farm Bureau Bioeconomy Institute – conduct a study of 2.7 million U.S. dollars of thermochemical and catalytic conversion of biomass fuel.

“These grants to researchers at Iowa State University demonstrate the breadth and strength of our advanced biofuels programs,” said Sharron Quisenberry, Vice President of the State of Iowa for research and economic development. “We have researchers who can contribute to this national effort to develop clean, sustainable and cost-effective energy sources. These grants are two examples of how this translates Iowa State discoveries viable technologies and products that strengthen economies of Iowa and the world. ”

The research projects of the State of Iowa are part of an effort by the Department of Energy with the support of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The program creates two national research groups charged with finding ways to break barriers to the commercialization of advanced biofuels (such as green gasoline) while using the fuel market and existing infrastructure of transport:

* $ 44 million (plus $ 11 million in non-federal cost share funding) creates the National Alliance for biofuels and bioproducts led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo.

* And $ 34 million (plus $ 8.4 million non-federal cost share funding) creates the National Consortium for Advanced Biofuels addressed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington

Lin’s research team is part of the National Alliance for biofuels and bioproducts. Includes researchers in Catiline Inc., a catalyst technology company that Lin founded in 2007 with the help of Mohr Davidow firms of Menlo Park, California

Researchers study how silica nanoparticles developed by Lin – and produced by Ames-based Catiline Inc. – can be used to selectively extract and sequester fuel value compounds, high on a mixture containing lipids in algae. The rest of the algae oil biodiesel will become commercially available through T300 catalyst Catiline’s.

“Our technology is central to several key steps of the algae to biofuels as the supply chain efficient oil extraction and solid catalyst provides a path of conversion cost effectively,” said Lin.

Brown’s research team is part of the National Consortium for Advanced Biofuels. Includes Brent Shanks, director of the Center for Chemical based BIORENEW Iowa State professor of chemical and biological engineering, James Dumesic, Steenbock Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Linda Broadbelt, professor and director of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois

Researchers investigating the chemical reactions of fast pyrolysis (a process that uses heat in the absence of oxygen to decompose biomass into a bio-oil). Also be considered for improving bio-catalyst for transport fuels.

“The Department of Energy organized these consortia in order to accelerate the development of advanced biofuels through a coordinated research program between researchers of biofuels in the United States,” Brown said. “We are pleased that the Bioeconomy Institute was selected to join this national effort.

The national research effort is aimed at building a national bio-industry, create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, according to Steven Chu, the U.S. secretary energy.

“Advanced biofuels are crucial for building a clean energy economy,” Chu said. “By harnessing the power of science and technology can bring to market new biofuels and develop a transport sector is cleaner and more sustainable.” # # #

Just as the heartbeat of modern electronic devices depend on the ability to change the flow of electricity in semiconductors and lower the speed of lightning, the feasibility of the devices of spintronics “of the future – technologies that manipulate both magnetic flux, and “spin” of electrons – are required precise control over magnetism similar semiconductors.

Achieving this objective requires detailed knowledge of what happens at the exact point at which a transition of the semiconductor changes from a metal to an insulator – a phenomenon shrouded in mystery despite decades of examination.

But the results published Feb. 5 in the journal Science, a team led by Princeton scientists has observed electrons in a semiconductor at the edge of the metal-insulator transition for the first time. Caught in the act, the electrons form complex patterns similar to those observed in turbulent fluids, which confirms some long-standing predictions and provide new insights on how the semiconductor can become magnets. The work could also lead to the production of smaller and more energy efficient equipment.

“The spatial structure of waves of electrons within a given material determines how well it conducts electricity,” said team leader Ali Yazdani, professor of physics at Princeton. “If the waves are spread throughout the material, we have the metallic behavior, but if you get focused, or trapped in specific regions, the electricity stops flowing. The way in which the electrons undergo this transition in some semiconductors also appears to play a large role in how magnetic they become. ”

In its natural state, semiconductors such as silicon or gallium arsenide are insulators that does not conduct electricity. For decades, scientists have known that they can transform these insulators in metals that conduct electricity, by replacing some of the atoms in the lattice structure chemicals with other atoms, for example, replacing the gallium in the gallium arsenide, zinc or manganese. This process, called doping, changes in the number of electrons in the material to allow the flow of electricity, but also introduces disorder in the lattice structure that can hinder the movement of electrons and cause them to become “Stuck “, or located. Conduction can occur only if the electrons can “jump” from one atom to another in the structure, slalom between randomness and disorder in the network has been disrupted.

The idea of the electronic location dates back to the fundamental work of Joseph Henry of Princeton physics professor emeritus Philip Anderson, who won the Nobel Prize in 1979, in part, to propose that localization may occur through “quantum” particle including electrons, when obstacles are random, as in doped semiconductors. While research in the decades has found evidence of Anderson localization in many materials, the electron waves undergo this transition never before been visualized directly. In the transition point, computer simulations have long predicted the emergence of the complex and uneven patterns of electron waves, as the flow of water in a river of rock.

Yazdani team originally set out to understand how doping of gallium arsenide semiconductor with manganese atoms can become an imam and “activate” the electrical conductivity in the compound. After the team from the University of California at Santa Barbara manganese atoms added to the network structure, the researchers used specially designed scanning tunneling microscopes in Princeton to view the electronic states in the material.

Confronted with complex spatial patterns of electron waves, the scientists realized that the patterns they saw were in fact those provided for electrons at the edge of the location. In these models, most of the electrons are distributed throughout the semiconductor surface in a series of interconnected “puddles” that resemble fractals – self-similar shapes repeated on ever smaller length scales. Fractals are commonly associated with natural objects such as coastlines and snowflakes, but never before been seen in quantum particles.

These observed patterns have important implications for the shape of a semiconductor becomes a magnet. All electrons have a property called “spin” which describes how that rotate on its axis, which generates a magnetic field as they do. If the neighboring electron spins in a given material are opposite each other, these magnetic fields cancel each other. But when the neighboring electron spins in a material are aligned so that the electrons are spinning in tandem as synchronized swimming in a pool, the material becomes magnetic. This alignment only occurs between electrons of certain elements such as iron and manganese.

While it is assumed that the magnetism in gallium arsenide doped with manganese is because the spins of electrons in manganese doped semiconductor are aligned uniformly, the team’s findings suggested that this is not the case: The alignment of the spins depends on the location of electrons within the pools fractals, which indicates that there are likely areas of strong and weak magnetic interaction in the material.

“We have shown that electrons move and live in these pools irregular, so it is logical to consider that the manganese atoms that reside within each pool are interacting with each other and give rise to magnetism,” said Yazdani. “At this point of view, where pools are not, we manganese atoms, but do not interact or contribute to magnetism. Puddles part of history to understand how magnetism occurs.

Manganese-doped gallium arsenide has been at the heart of many recent technological advances, and an accurate understanding of what makes the magnetism in these semiconductors – and how to control it – it will be necessary to carry out one of the most promising applications of material: computer chips capable of both process and store information. In current devices, chips made of semiconductor, like silicon, are used to process information, which is then stored on hard disks made of magnetic materials like iron. If the magnetism of a material can turn on and off the same chip could be used for both purposes, paving the way for smaller and more energy efficient equipment.

In the future, the team intends to explore the connection between magnetism and shape optimization of fractal pools for more clues to the mechanism of magnetism and develop ways to enhance it. Their techniques also allow them to explore if the electrons form a similar pattern at the edge of phase transitions, such as conductivity of superconductivity.

Yazdani colleagues on the team was Princeton physics professor David Huse and graduate students Anthony Richardella also Illinois-Urbana/Champaign University, Pedram Roushan and Brian Zhou. The research team also included Shawn Mack, David Awschalom of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The neutron halo is one of the more spectacular than the physical aspects of nuclear structure have been observed in the exploration of the isotopes in and near the neutron drip line (the curve on a plot of atomic number with the number of neutrons that beyond neutron-rich nuclei start “leakage” neutrons) using exotic beam facilities. Atomic nuclei are usually uniformly dense objects with surfaces that are mostly well defined, with only a modest amount of accuracy. However, in the nuclei of one or more halo nucleons have wave functions that extend far outside the nucleus so that the distribution of matter has a long tail.

The halo nucleus was first observed in 11Li [1], which has two neutrons in the halo correlated [2]. The experiment that led to the observation of the halo was held at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory with Bevalac, the relativistic heavy ion accelerator in the world only in mid-1980. Researchers crashed a high energy beam of stable isotopes 20Ne in a “production target, and then separated the products of short duration that the magnets using the” fragmentation “reaction mounted on the light. The result of short duration (half-life of 8.6 ms) 11Li nuclei were directed at targets of beryllium, carbon and aluminum, and the sections of these reactions as measured result.

The radius of a nucleus as a function of atomic mass number A general can be calculated as FM (1.2) A1 / 3, which would give 2.7 for FM 11Li. Initial analysis of data from Tanihata et al. gave a great matter RMS radius of 3.11 ± 0.16 in MP, but improved models of reaction eventually led to the conclusion that the RMS radius is even greater (3.53 ± 0.10 FM [3]). Weak binding is essential for the formation of a halo, and two neutron separation energy of 300 ± 19 keV, 11Li gave the prototypical example of this too. Finally, 11Li essentially consists of three parts, two neutrons and a 9Li “core” which all must be present for the system is linked from 10Li is unbound. The quantum three-body system where the three parties must be present for the existence of the system is called “Borromeo”, after the three interlocking rings in the 15th century coat of arms of the Borromeo family in northern Italy (Fig. 1). The three rings are connected in a way that cutting a ring results in separation of the three.

With advances in the production of exotic beams have involved both improvements in accelerator to the stable “primary” beams and the development of highly sophisticated magnetic spectrometer to separate the exotic products of the reactions of fragmentation between the beams and stable production targets, detailed studies of dripline isotopes of the heavier elements have become possible. As K. Tanaka and colleagues at several institutions in Japan now report in Physical Review Letters, the radioactive isotope beam factory in RIKEN [4] which gave its first beam in 2006, has now been used to measure two neutrons in the halo 22C drip nucleus [5].

The measurement sensitivity is impressive, having performed with a type of beam 22C only ten cores per hour. With double the protons and neutrons as 11Li, 22C heavier nucleus is still observed Borromeo. The matter RMS radius of 5.4 ± 0.9 deduced from 22C FM differs markedly from the “norm” nuclear FM radio (1.2) A1 / 3 = 3.4 fm. Moreover, the cross section drops sharply 22C of the trend shown by measurements of carbon isotopes lighter than Tanaka et al. also performed.

As 11Li is loosely bound, so it’s 22C (although the mass measurements on this nucleus are certainly called-Tanaka et al. Assumed a value of 420 ± 940 keV). The authors also argue, based on the systematic behavior of the interaction cross sections for heavy carbon isotopes that the two halo neutrons preferentially occupy the 1s1 / 2 shell orbit SD. This is in some contrast to the situation in 11Li where the contribution to land-state wave function of the neutron halo is divided into equal parts between the 0p21 / 2 and 1s21 / 2 shell model configurations [6].

In the case of 11Li, the great role played by the orbit of 1s1 / 2 neutron signals the demise of the N = 8 shell closure that exists in stable nuclei. The displacement of shell closures near the neutron dripline is an underlying theme of the studies of exotic nuclei with the changes that occur routinely in neutron-rich isotopes (eg, see Refs. [ These changes also play an important role in the formation of neutron halo in 22C: The presence of an N = 16 shell closure in neutron-rich isotopes, recently highlighted by the determination of the doubly closed shell nature neighbors Isotone 24O [ In fact, a comparison of the three nuclei N = 16 drip-22C, 23N and 24O-offers a fine example of the fundamental dynamics of the physics of nuclear structure: the sensitive dependence of the nuclear behavior of proton and neutron number . Despite the presence of N 16 = closure of Shell in the three isotones, their geometries are very different. 22C is weakly bound and, as Tanaka et al. have shown, has a clear neutron halo (RMS radius of 5.4 ± 0.9 FM). 23N and 24O are much more tightly bound, the separation of the individual energies of neutrons in both 23N and 24O are several MeV and Ozawa et al. [11] showed that their matter fields are much closer to the core values of “normal” FM (1.2) A1 / 3 (the radii reported in Ref. [11] are 3.41 ± 0.23 FM and 3.19 ± 0.13 for FM 23N and 24O, respectively, whereas the corresponding values of FM (1.2) A1 / 3 are 3.41 and 3.46 FM FM). In fact, 22C, whereas now it has proven to be one of the most exotic of the 3000 known isotopes, 24O Isotone neighbors look shows that in many respects, the behavior of a conventional double magic nucleus [9, 10] (even if the n = 16 Shell closure is exotic).

In this context, it is worth noting that only one proton over 24O, hitting the neutron drip line at N = 16 N = 22 (the heavier isotope is bound fluorine 31F [12]). This phenomenon remains a challenge for our understanding of nuclear behavior in extreme conditions. In summary, the discovery of a neutron halo in 22C by Tanaka et al. [5] is not only a tour de force of border enforcement of experimental techniques to search for exotic nuclear behavior. When taken together with recent advances in understanding the neighbors Isotone 24O, 22C measurement provides an important step forward. Detailed studies of the heavier isotopes along the neutron drip line may be possible over the next decade as new exotic beam facilities and more sensitive detectors are online. These studies reveal halo nuclei, shell effects novel, and perhaps even phenomena that are totally unexpected in our understanding of the basic physics of the neutron drip line.

A breakthrough in HIV research, which has eluded scientists for over 20 years, can lead to better treatments for the virus, researchers have said.

The team from Imperial College London (ICL) and Harvard University in the U.S., has managed to grow a crystal that reveals the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in viruses like HIV. When HIV infects a person, using the integrase to paste a copy of their genetic information in DNA.

New antiretroviral drugs for HIV work by blocking integrase, but until now, scientists did not understand exactly how these drugs worked or how to improve them.

They had tried repeatedly and failed to solve the three dimensional structure of integrase bound to viral DNA. However, only you can determine the structure of this type of molecular machinery by obtaining high quality crystals.

As part of this latest study, researchers grew a crystal using a version of integrase borrowed from a little-known retrovirus called Prototype Foamy Virus (PFV). Based on your knowledge of PFV integrase and their function, they were sure that was very similar to its counterpart of HIV.

They conducted more than 40,000 trials over a period of four years and from this they were able to grow only seven types of crystals. Only one of these was of sufficient quality to allow determination of three-dimensional structure.

According to lead researcher Dr Peter Cherepanov ICL, this is a “truly amazing story.

“When we started, we knew the project was very difficult and many tricks had been tried and others long ago. Therefore, we returned to the starting point and began to seek a better model of HIV integrase, which may be more susceptible to crystallization.

“Despite initial progress painfully slow and many failed attempts, do not give up and our efforts were finally rewarded,” he said.

After determining the structure of integrase, the scientists then soaked the crystals in solutions of integrase inhibitor drugs and first observed how these drugs bind to and inactivate retroviral integrase.

The new study shows that retroviral integrase has a structure quite different from what was planned on the basis of previous investigations. Availability of integrase structure means that researchers can begin to understand how existing drugs that inhibit integrase are working, how can be improved and how to prevent HIV from developing resistance to them.

Sundrop Fuels Colorado harnesses the sun to turn corn stalks and wood chips in gasoline and diesel fuel, and the results are competitive in cost, even at pilot scale. Could this be the breakthrough green energy that we have been waiting for?

It is tempting to consider the following high and walk away thinking that sounds too good to be true: a biomass-to-fuel pilot project is not based on foodstuffs like corn, but corn fibrous products, such as the stems, and even wood chips are suitable for the process, even as a small pilot project, before economies of scale, is the production of fuel at a competitive cost of $ 2 per gallon, and to top it is the power of the sun that makes everything go.

As reported by Portfolio.com, a Louisville, Colo., the company may be on its way to the implementation of a breakthrough in the production of biofuels, which is more efficient, solar energy, cost, and just working hard to climb up to a operation capable of producing several million gallons of fuel annually.

The trial Sundrop Fuels scale facility is located halfway between Denver and Boulder in the city of Broomfield. The facility design incorporates by focusing mainly on solar energy to boost the biomass for fuel. Also at play is a process that goes beyond the diversion of food in the creation of biofuels use more fibrous raw materials. These factors, the focus position Sundrop as a set of potential change in the fast growing sub-sector of biofuels in the growing field of green energy.

Technological innovations emerge from years of research conducted by scientists at the University of Colorado, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where research teams have trained their efforts in using the sun to transform organic molecules.

A series of mirrors to the powers of the process by heating the raw material input to a temperature of 2,200 to 2,400 degrees. These temperatures are well above the current conventional generation biofuels plants operating at about 900 degrees. Due to extreme heat, the process generates, Sundrop process can lead almost instantly and chemical changes in a wide variety of materials from which the traditional biomass fuel plants can process. And by using solar energy, Sundrop has removed a major obstacle in operating costs – that of high energy inputs – in the development of its innovative approach.

The resulting products are a chemical match for diesel and gasoline, and are all set to transport and use without any change in equipment or infrastructure to use them. Sundrop’s next mission is to start praying for rain, speaking metaphorically and financially. After setting a goal to raise between $ 100 million and $ 150 million, Sundrop has its sights set on building a much larger facility with full operational capability on several occasions that the pilot project successful and promising. Company officials believe that with the support to get things moving, this technology could be expanded to produce 100 million gallons of fuel carbon neutral year.

Using mouse cells, scientists in Iowa and Iran have discovered a new strategy for making embryonic stem cell transplants are less likely to be rejected by the recipient’s immune system. This strategy, described in a new research report that appears in the February 2010 edition printing of The FASEB Journal, involves fusion of bone marrow cells with embryonic stem cells.

Once fused, the hybrid cells have DNA from donors and recipients, raising hopes that the immune rejection of embryonic stem cell therapies can be avoided without drugs.

“Our study shows that transplanted bone marrow cells fuse with cells not only the recipient’s marrow, but with hematopoietic cells, suggesting that if we can understand the process of fusion of cells, we may be able to target Some lesions of organs in the patient’s own bone cells from the bone and tissue repair, “said Nicholas Zavazava, MD, Ph.D., University of Iowa researcher involved in the work.

Although the study holds great promise for the future of embryonic stem cell therapies, the results can be even wider. Zavazava and his colleagues used two different mouse strains, one or the other as both donor and recipient. When bone marrow cells were grafted into the receiver, the evidence of the presence of donor cells and recipient and found three different types of cells: the donor cells, recipient cells, and cells that had melted DNA from the donor and recipient.

He then discovered that these cells might fuse with many different types of cells as well as embryonic stem cells, including liver, kidney, heart and stomach. Although more work is necessary to determine the exact clinical results, the discovery raises the possibility that bone marrow cells could be fused to transplant organs to reduce the likelihood of rejection. They could also be fused to lack of organs to support regeneration.

Editor of “difference of the machines in the same part can be used for various makes and models, each of us is personalized, and our immune system does not control quality,” said Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor in chief of The FASEB Journal . “As a result, human replacement parts, or organs, need closely related to the recipient’s tissue. This study used bone marrow cells to fuse with host tissues, so that nothing transplant is rejected by our immune system, and brings universal graft survival closer to reality. “

For most students at the worst consequence of drinking alcohol is a headache and perhaps a bad – or white – from memory.

However, for some of the more than 2,500 Asian students at IU, alcohol can cause more serious health problems.

The reason for this reaction is a genetic mutation that prevents the body from breaking down the toxins of alcohol. Normally toxins become friendly products by the liver. If toxins are not converted, they poison the body, causing headaches, heart palpitations and colors in the short term.

But in the long term, the condition has been associated with increased early onset Alzheimer’s and a 80 percent risk of developing oral cancer.

Now the good news:

Researchers at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and Stanford University have made an important breakthrough in the treatment of this liver failure. They have discovered a molecule called Alda-1, which can repair the parts of a liver malfunction.

“When I drink my face turn bright red, my heart race – Dum! Dum! Dum!” Said Min Si, first year at Kelley School of Business, beating his chest to show how hard your heart beats. “Everybody drink, but I can not.”

Thomas Hurley, director of the Center for Structural Biology at the IU School of Medicine, said about one billion people worldwide suffer from this condition.

“Through this research has just gone on a whim, and it worked,” said Daria Mochly-Rosen, chairman of molecular pharmacology at Stanford University.

In a healthy liver, the toxins of alcohol is broken down by an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). Enzymes act as catalysts, allowing a molecule to transform into another. They are like the glass slipper in Cinderella story: The poor girl becomes the beautiful princess, all thanks to the shoe.

As much as 40 percent of people with Asian ancestry, ALDH2 is malfunctioning.

If ALDH2 only converts toxins from alcohol, the solution is simple – do not drink any alcohol. ALDH2 but also can reduce the risk of heart disease and renal failure by removing naturally occurring toxins from the bloodstream.

For decades, researchers have been trying to replace or repair the enzyme. Alda-1 is the first drug found that can repair a defective human enzyme, which opens the door for the treatment of other enzyme-based diseases.

“Is this a novel idea? No.” Hurley said. “The breakthrough is finally finding something that works.”

Unlike most drugs of the enzyme, which replace the damaged enzyme, Alda made-1 enzyme repairs broken by altering its shape so that it becomes active. Mochly-Rosen said that fixing the enzyme itself is preferable to replace the man enzymes.

“If you have a mixer, and the top is broken, then things will start to jump,” he said. “You can put saran wrap around it, and that will be done. But if the repair, which is the best.”

Although Alda-1 is the first case of a repair enzyme, Hurley said that if they can do once you can do it again. This could mean that other diseases caused by defective enzymes, such as sickle cell anemia, could be cured using similar technology.

The discovery still has its drawbacks. It has yet to be tested negative side effects, a process that can take years.

Hurley said that they are seeking alternatives for Alda-1, as it is not easily absorbed into the bloodstream and only a small percentage actually reaches the enzyme broken. Ideally, a drug must be absorbed so easily be taken as a pill rather than as an injection.

Mochly-Rosen said he has considered the moral consequences of the drug and added that the studies suggest that would not cause a change in drinking behavior among those receiving it. In other words, a person with the condition suddenly not become an alcoholic. Any drug would only be available on a prescription basis.

As for Yes, he is not worried about losing too much drinking culture of the students.
Maybe it’s good, “he said,” because they have to do anything stupid when I’m drunk. “

In what could be termed as a breakthrough discovery, scientists say they have deciphered the soybean crop that could pave the way for improved crop plant protein rich.

With this experiment, the soybean has become the first to be sequenced legume. Scientists hope the discovery could help in better performance and defend the plant against pesticides.

“Soybeans and other legumes play an important role in global food security and human health and are used in a wide range of products, from tofu, soy flour, meat substitutes and soy milk to oil soy-based printing ink and biodiesel, “said Molly Jahn, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Collaborative research
The sequencing of the soybean genome is the result of more than 15 years of joint research. A set of ‘genome shotgun (WGS) approach was used to sequence 85 percent of the 1.1 billion base pairs of nucleotides that explain the complete DNA code of soybeans.

Scientists sequenced the genome mass of soybeans, giving an idea of how this significant change legume crops vital four ingredients – sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen – protein and oil, the building of many consumer products.

The sequence also provides researchers with a primary indication for use in the interpretation of the genetics of about 20,000 other legume species.

“The soybean was found to have 46,000 genes, but a high percentage – between 70 and 80% – are duplicates. This duality makes it difficult for agronomists to find the genes that need to raise new features. There are plenty of backup, “said Scott Jackson, professor of agronomy at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, who led the team in the gene sequencing.

The sequencing of the genome of the soybean crop could improve
The information gained from the study and similar studies, will allow the improvement of new soybean strains that have a significant impact on everything from the cost of chicken to pork to water pollution.

The sequencing will be reduced phytate formed in soy that prevent animals from absorbing the phosphorus in feed. The phosphorus in manure builds up and is a major cause of water pollution of phosphorus.

It also provides animals with low phosphorus feed implies low phosphorus in manure. This food is also more food for growth of animals and a decrease in infection by excessive organic swine and poultry waste.

Researchers have also used the procedure of sequencing to discover a change that could be used to produce soybeans to improve the capacity of animals and humans in the digestion of protein-rich grains.

Scientists have also found that the sequence could produce a resistance gene against the destruction of the Asian soybean rust disease.

They hope that if successful, the discovery may help improve the production of races of soybean rust resistant.

The details of the research published in the journal Nature.

Newton once again be the focus for economic green during a conference in Chicago.

Newton Mayor Chaz Allen has been invited to speak about movement of a blue collar Newton to the creation of green collar jobs in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Allen will speak on Monday about “The Midwest Green Technologies in the Future” along with Christopher Nelson, director of Global Business Development, Underwriters Laboratories of Environment. During the conference, Allen said he will be able to highlight many of the strengths of Newton and the city’s commitment to the development of green jobs following the departure of Maytag Company in October 2007.

“I’m excited to share the story of Newton,” Allen said.

Trip Allen is being paid by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Allen said he will have the opportunity to interact with many national and regional developers and listen to Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn, who is the keynote of the day, Dallas Tonsager, undersecretary of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and green industry leaders.

The conference is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Chicago Partners, Institute of Labor and Economy, Valmont and Underwriters Laboratories.

For more information about the event visit www.thechicagocouncil.org.