New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests an unexpected effect of global warming: a future expansion of the US “kidney stone belt”.
According to the research, increasing global temperatures will result in more cases dehydration and low urine production leading to kidney stones (calcium deposits).
The US already has a “kidney stone belt” in which occurences of the painful condition are twice as common as in the rest of the country. The research predicts:
“The fraction of the U.S. population living in high-risk zones for nephrolithiasis will grow from 40% in 2000 to 56% by 2050, and to 70% by 2095.”
If the research findings are correct then millions of Americans could literally feel the pain of global warming.
Photo Credit: Trevor Blake (Creative Commons)
July 15th, 2008
Posted by
trevor |
Health |
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No, don’t worry - this isn’t some kind of alternative history. We’re actually talking about being the first country back to the moon’s surface.
Nasa plans to launch a manned Orion lunar mission by 2020. However Nasa head Dr Michael Griffin told the BBC that China could get there first - if they wanted to. China has said that it currently has no plans for such a project but that an eventual Chinese manned lunar misison is “inevitable”.
The discussion reflects a possible future trend in space exploration. As public interest and spending decline in the West, countries such as China and India are advancing rapidly.
If a manned spacecraft ever does reach the stars, Americans and Europeans may have to be content to tag along as passengers.
Photo Credit: Rhys Jones (Creative Commons)
July 15th, 2008
Posted by
trevor |
Space |
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New research suggests that nanotechnology could give a “second chance” to drugs that had previously been abandoned.
Researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston have been investigating an angiogenesis inhibitor drug called TNP-470. Clinical trials in the 1990s found that TNP-470 “suppressed a surprisingly wide range of cancers, including metastatic cancers, and produced a few complete remissions”. However the drug was abandoned because of the neurological side-effects.
Using nanotehnology the researchers have produced a novel, slow-release version of the drug which is called Lodamin. In trials with mice, Lodamin “appears to retain TNP-470’s potency and broad spectrum of activity, but with no detectable neurotoxicity and greatly enhanced oral availability”.
Lodamin essentially takes TNP-470 and surrounds it with nanoparticle polymer strands. These hold the TNP-470 in and protect it from stomach acid until the Lodamin reaches the tumour and water breaks down the polymer strands.
It’s still early days yet - the new version of Lodamin has only been tested on mice. However if the technique turns out to be generally applicable then the future could see a greater choice of medication as older drugs have their side-effects removed.
The research was published in Nature Biotechnology and is dedicated to the memory of senior author Judah Folkman who died unexpectedly in January this year.
Picture Credit: Kristin Johnson
July 15th, 2008
Posted by
trevor |
Health, Nanotechnology |
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