|  Genome offers clues on thwarting reviled, disease-carrying ticks  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unlocked the genetic secrets of one of the least-loved creatures around, the tick species that spreads Lyme disease, in research that may lead to new methods to control these diminutive arachnids that dine on blood. The researchers said on Tuesday they have sequenced the genome of Ixodes scapularis, known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick, which transmits Lyme and other diseases by chomping through the skin of people and animals and releasing infected saliva as they devour blood. "They are so persistent, resilient and tenacious," said Purdue University entomologist Catherine Hill, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
| Read More » Genome offers clues on thwarting reviled, disease-carrying ticks  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unlocked the genetic secrets of one of the least-loved creatures around, the tick species that spreads Lyme disease, in research that may lead to new methods to control these diminutive arachnids that dine on blood. The researchers said on Tuesday they have sequenced the genome of Ixodes scapularis, known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick, which transmits Lyme and other diseases by chomping through the skin of people and animals and releasing infected saliva as they devour blood. "They are so persistent, resilient and tenacious," said Purdue University entomologist Catherine Hill, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
| Read More » Potent Pot: Marijuana Is Stronger Now Than It Was 20 Years Ago When the researchers looked at the ratio of THC to CBD, they found that marijuana in 1995 had a THC level that was 14 times its CBD level. "We can see that the ratio of THC to CBD has really, really increased and climbed so much higher," said lead study author Mahmoud A. ElSohly, a professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi. The researchers also found that, among the cannabis plant material seized over the last four years of the study, there had been an increase in the samples of sinsemilla, which is a type of cannabis that is much more potent than other types of the drug, according to the study, published Jan. 19 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Read More » Your Brain May Work Differently in Winter Than Summer Researchers found that when people in the study did certain cognitive tasks, the ways that the brain utilizes its resources to complete those tasks changed with the seasons. Although people's actual performance on the cognitive tasks did not change with the seasons, "the brain activity for the ongoing process varie[d]," said study author Gilles Vandewalle, of the University of Liege in Belgium. Read More » 5 Things to Know About Zika Virus  | The outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus throughout parts of the Americas has raised international concern because of the virus's possible connection to a neurological birth defect called microcephaly. In response to the outbreak, two doctors writing today (Feb. 8) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal have compiled a concise list of things that people should know about the virus, which is carried by certain mosquitoes in the Aedes group — mainly, the species Aedes aegypti. "The spread of this virus is highly dependent upon the mosquito population — we know that this Aedes aegypti is really distributed through really large swaths of the Americas," Dr. Derek MacFadden, one of the authors of the article and an infectious-disease physician at the University Health Network in Toronto, said in a podcast posted on the journal's website.
| Read More » Indian scientists express doubt over meteorite death attribution By Andrew MacAskill NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian scientists have expressed doubt that a man in Tamil Nadu was the first person to have been confirmed killed by a meteorite strike, as the state's top official has declared. "It is highly improbable, but we will only be absolutely sure after a chemical analysis," said V. Adimurthy, a senior scientist at India's space agency. The mysterious event has triggered an international debate about whether a meteorite, space debris, leftover explosives or even frozen waste from a plane passing overhead may have killed the man. Read More » Indian scientists express doubt over meteorite death attribution By Andrew MacAskill NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian scientists have expressed doubt that a man in the southern state of Tamil Nadu was the first person to have been confirmed killed by a meteorite strike, as the state's top official has declared. "It cannot be a meteorite," he said. Read More » Maths link to future locust dispersal A mathematical model of locust swarms could help in the development of new strategies to control their devastating migration, according to British researchers. Mathematicians at the universities of Bath, Warwick, and Manchester analyzed the movements of different group sizes of locusts that had been filmed by colleagues at the University of Adelaide. By studying the interactions between individual locusts they were able to create a mathematical model mimicking the pest's collective behavior. Read More » What Caused This Weird Crack to Appear in Michigan?  | A strange and sudden buckling of the earth in Michigan five years ago is now being explained as a limestone bulge, researchers reported today (Feb. 9). The upheaved rock and soil was discovered after a deep boom thundered through the forest near Birch Creek on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, north of Menominee.
| Read More » Asian scientists race to make Zika test kit, but lack of live sample a challenge  | By Aditya Kalra and Rujun Shen NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists in Asia are racing to put together detection kits for the Zika virus, with China on Thursday confirming its first case, but the researchers are challenged by the lack of a crucial element - a live sample of the virus. Zika, suspected of causing brain defects in more than 4,000 newborns in Brazil after spreading through much of the Americas, is a particular worry in South and Southeast Asia, where mosquito-borne tropical diseases such as dengue fever are a constant threat. India is working on diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the world's second populous country, but the lack of a live virus sample is hindering its efforts.
| Read More » Asian scientists race to make Zika test kit, but lack of live sample a challenge  | By Aditya Kalra and Rujun Shen NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists in Asia are racing to put together detection kits for the Zika virus, with China on Thursday confirming its first case, but the researchers are challenged by the lack of a crucial element - a live sample of the virus. Zika, suspected of causing brain defects in more than 4,000 newborns in Brazil after spreading through much of the Americas, is a particular worry in South and Southeast Asia, where mosquito-borne tropical diseases such as dengue fever are a constant threat. India is working on diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the world's second populous country, but the lack of a live virus sample is hindering its efforts.
| Read More » India, Singapore scientists race to make Zika test kit, but lack of live sample a challenge  | By Aditya Kalra and Rujun Shen NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists in Asia are racing to put together detection kits for the Zika virus, with China on Thursday confirming its first case, but the researchers are challenged by the lack of a crucial element - a live sample of the virus. Zika, suspected of causing brain defects in more than 4,000 newborns in Brazil after spreading through much of the Americas, is a particular worry in South and Southeast Asia, where mosquito-borne tropical diseases such as dengue fever are a constant threat. India is working on diagnostic kits for the virus, as there is no testing kit commercially available in the world's second populous country, but the lack of a live virus sample is hindering its efforts.
| Read More » World's top scientists pledge to share all findings to fight Zika  | By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Thirty of the world's leading scientific research institutions, journals and funders pledged on Wednesday to share for free all data and expertise on the Zika virus as soon as they have it. "The arguments for sharing data and the consequences of not doing so (have been) ... thrown into stark relief by the Ebola and Zika outbreaks," the agreement by an unprecedented number of signatories in the Americas, Japan, Europe and elsewhere said. "In the context of a public health emergency of international concern, there is an imperative on all parties to make any information available that might have value in combatting the crisis," the signatories wrote.
| Read More » | |
