Science News Digest - 30th August 2010
In the science news this week, we take a look at a new technique to help those with damaged eyes, learn about a potential new treatment for two of the most deadly viruses on Earth, find out about planets orbiting a faraway sun... and finally, learn how being helpful might not make you popular.
A clearer picture.
Light is allowed to enter our eyes via a transparent covering known as the cornea. The cornea is also involved with refracting this incoming light onto our retinas to allow us to see.
Damaged corneas are the second highest cause of blindness worldwide, with an estimated 10 million people affected. Corneal transplant can reverse this blindness, but there is a chronic shortage of donors worldwide.
Scientists have successfully transplanted artificial, laboratory grown, corneas into ten Swedish patients, dramatically improving the sight in each.
Corneas are made of layers of cells and the protein collagen, with the artificial ones being 'grown' using a synthetic version of human collagen.
Surgeons removed the damaged corneas from the ten patients and replaced them with the artificial corneas. The patients were then followed for two years to assess how well the transplants were incorporating.
The results showed the vision of six of the patients had improved so they could view objects four times further away than pre-transplant. Whilst sight was improved in all of the recipients, some of them still required corrective contact lenses.
A common problem with organ donation is the possibility of rejection and the need for the recipient to have to take a lifetime of immune suppression drugs. The patients who received the artificial corneas will experience neither as corneas have no blood vessels and therefore have no direct interaction with immune cells. The lack of vessels is necessary in order to keep the cornea transparent. The corneal cells are kept oxygenated using oxygen in the air dissolved in our tears.
The scientists responsible for the work have stressed that this is only a pilot study, but are hopeful that the results may lead to a potential new source of corneas for transplant.
Full story at the BBC
---------------
The fight against deadly viruses.
Scientists from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Usamriid), have developed a potential new drug to treat those infected with the Ebola or Marburg viruses.
Both of these viruses have a very high mortality rate (up to 90%), and currently there are no effective treatments for either. As both viruses are so dangerous, they are categorised as Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4), the highest available, and require the strictest safety measures for research.
The new drugs that combat these viruses are so called 'anti-sense' drugs. They comprise of short lengths of nucleic acid which are able to bind to the virus' RNA to prevent the virus being able to manufacture the proteins they need to function and replicate. This allows the infected patients immune system to mount a defence against the pathogen.
The new anti-Ebola drug, known as AVI-6002, resulted in an over 90% survival rate in virus infected mice and guinea pigs and rescued three out of five infected monkeys. The anti-Marburg drug, AVI-6003, was more successful and all the infected monkeys survived.
The results were successful enough that the US Food and Drug Administration has given permission for human trials of the drug to proceed.
Full story at the Independent
---------------
Planetary find.
Scientists using the European Southern Observatory (Eso), located in Chile, have discovered the richest system of planets outside our solar system. Five "exoplanets", were discovered orbiting the star HD 10180 and are similar to the planet Neptune. There is also evidence of a potential further two planets, meaning this new system is the closest discovered yet to our own solar system, which has eight planets.
The 5 Neptune like planets are between 13 and 25 times as massive as the Earth and take between six and 600 days to orbit the star. One of the two potential planets is believed to be similar to Saturn, with an orbit of about 2,200 days. The second potential planet is just 1.4 times the size of Earth but orbit at a distance of 2% of that which separates Earth and the Sun. As this planet is so close to HD 10180 a “year” for it lasts less than 2 Earth days.
The discovery of this new planetary system beats the previous record holding system - 55 Cancri, which contains five planets in orbit around its sun.
Full story at the Guardian
---------------
Up in the air?
Experts are warning that the world may run out of helium in the next 25 to 30 years. The inert gas is vital in a number of scientific applications, such as MRI scanners, telescopes and rocket engines. Helium is the second lightest element in the universe and is made either in the nuclear fusion reactions of stars, or by radioactive decay of rocks. It is this decay that accounts for all of the stocks on Earth. There is no way of producing it artificially.
The reason for the potential loss of the world’s helium lies in a law passed in the US which keeps the price of the gas low, and makes recycling economically unviable. The 1996 law means that all the gas in the US National Helium Reserve, the biggest store of helium on Earth, must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price.
"The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability for ever," said Nobel laureate Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University, New York.
Professor Richardson believes that the US government should look again at the decision to sell off the Helium Reserve, and the price of the gas should be increased by 20-50% in order to make recycling a more cost effective proposition.
Full story at the Independent
---------------
How to make friends?
Psychologists from the Washington State University have shown that being too helpful may end up making others resent you.
A university study tested a group of volunteers, which involved exchanging tokens for meal vouchers. The volunteers were told that giving up the vouchers would improve the whole group’s chances of receiving a monetary reward. Some volunteers were told to be deliberately selfish and horde the vouchers, whilst others were told to be deliberately altruistic by taking less than their fair share.
Following the study the volunteers were quizzed on their peers. The greedy volunteers were unsurprisingly shunned, but so were those who were unnecessarily generous. Other members of the group felt that the altruistic volunteers were making them 'look bad'.
"The do-gooders are also seen as deviant rule breakers. It's as if they're giving away Monopoly money so someone can stay in the game, irking other players no end," said, Professor Craig Parks who led the study.
Full story in the Daily Telegraph
---------------
A clearer picture.
Light is allowed to enter our eyes via a transparent covering known as the cornea. The cornea is also involved with refracting this incoming light onto our retinas to allow us to see.
Damaged corneas are the second highest cause of blindness worldwide, with an estimated 10 million people affected. Corneal transplant can reverse this blindness, but there is a chronic shortage of donors worldwide.
Scientists have successfully transplanted artificial, laboratory grown, corneas into ten Swedish patients, dramatically improving the sight in each.
Corneas are made of layers of cells and the protein collagen, with the artificial ones being 'grown' using a synthetic version of human collagen.
Surgeons removed the damaged corneas from the ten patients and replaced them with the artificial corneas. The patients were then followed for two years to assess how well the transplants were incorporating.
The results showed the vision of six of the patients had improved so they could view objects four times further away than pre-transplant. Whilst sight was improved in all of the recipients, some of them still required corrective contact lenses.
A common problem with organ donation is the possibility of rejection and the need for the recipient to have to take a lifetime of immune suppression drugs. The patients who received the artificial corneas will experience neither as corneas have no blood vessels and therefore have no direct interaction with immune cells. The lack of vessels is necessary in order to keep the cornea transparent. The corneal cells are kept oxygenated using oxygen in the air dissolved in our tears.
The scientists responsible for the work have stressed that this is only a pilot study, but are hopeful that the results may lead to a potential new source of corneas for transplant.
Full story at the BBC
---------------
The fight against deadly viruses.
Scientists from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Usamriid), have developed a potential new drug to treat those infected with the Ebola or Marburg viruses.
Both of these viruses have a very high mortality rate (up to 90%), and currently there are no effective treatments for either. As both viruses are so dangerous, they are categorised as Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4), the highest available, and require the strictest safety measures for research.
The new drugs that combat these viruses are so called 'anti-sense' drugs. They comprise of short lengths of nucleic acid which are able to bind to the virus' RNA to prevent the virus being able to manufacture the proteins they need to function and replicate. This allows the infected patients immune system to mount a defence against the pathogen.
The new anti-Ebola drug, known as AVI-6002, resulted in an over 90% survival rate in virus infected mice and guinea pigs and rescued three out of five infected monkeys. The anti-Marburg drug, AVI-6003, was more successful and all the infected monkeys survived.
The results were successful enough that the US Food and Drug Administration has given permission for human trials of the drug to proceed.
Full story at the Independent
---------------
Planetary find.
Scientists using the European Southern Observatory (Eso), located in Chile, have discovered the richest system of planets outside our solar system. Five "exoplanets", were discovered orbiting the star HD 10180 and are similar to the planet Neptune. There is also evidence of a potential further two planets, meaning this new system is the closest discovered yet to our own solar system, which has eight planets.
The 5 Neptune like planets are between 13 and 25 times as massive as the Earth and take between six and 600 days to orbit the star. One of the two potential planets is believed to be similar to Saturn, with an orbit of about 2,200 days. The second potential planet is just 1.4 times the size of Earth but orbit at a distance of 2% of that which separates Earth and the Sun. As this planet is so close to HD 10180 a “year” for it lasts less than 2 Earth days.
The discovery of this new planetary system beats the previous record holding system - 55 Cancri, which contains five planets in orbit around its sun.
Full story at the Guardian
---------------
Up in the air?
Experts are warning that the world may run out of helium in the next 25 to 30 years. The inert gas is vital in a number of scientific applications, such as MRI scanners, telescopes and rocket engines. Helium is the second lightest element in the universe and is made either in the nuclear fusion reactions of stars, or by radioactive decay of rocks. It is this decay that accounts for all of the stocks on Earth. There is no way of producing it artificially.
The reason for the potential loss of the world’s helium lies in a law passed in the US which keeps the price of the gas low, and makes recycling economically unviable. The 1996 law means that all the gas in the US National Helium Reserve, the biggest store of helium on Earth, must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price.
"The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability for ever," said Nobel laureate Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University, New York.
Professor Richardson believes that the US government should look again at the decision to sell off the Helium Reserve, and the price of the gas should be increased by 20-50% in order to make recycling a more cost effective proposition.
Full story at the Independent
---------------
How to make friends?
Psychologists from the Washington State University have shown that being too helpful may end up making others resent you.
A university study tested a group of volunteers, which involved exchanging tokens for meal vouchers. The volunteers were told that giving up the vouchers would improve the whole group’s chances of receiving a monetary reward. Some volunteers were told to be deliberately selfish and horde the vouchers, whilst others were told to be deliberately altruistic by taking less than their fair share.
Following the study the volunteers were quizzed on their peers. The greedy volunteers were unsurprisingly shunned, but so were those who were unnecessarily generous. Other members of the group felt that the altruistic volunteers were making them 'look bad'.
"The do-gooders are also seen as deviant rule breakers. It's as if they're giving away Monopoly money so someone can stay in the game, irking other players no end," said, Professor Craig Parks who led the study.
Full story in the Daily Telegraph
---------------
search this section
