|  U.S. scientists develop mouse model to test Zika vaccines, drugs  | By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have identified a genetically modified strain of mice that develop Zika, an important tool needed for testing vaccines and medicines to treat the virus that is rapidly spreading across the Americas and the Caribbean. "We are going to do experiments to see if we can produce sexual transmission" in these mice, said Scott Weaver, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston who worked on the study published on Monday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Weaver said the Zika mouse model will provide a critical tool to allow companies and scientists to test vaccines and antiviral drugs against Zika, which has been linked with thousands of cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect marked by unusually small head size and possible developmental problems.
| Read More » Arctic Sea Ice Is at Near Record Lows, NASA Says  | The ice covering the Arctic is at near record lows this year, and this icy deficit may impact weather around the world, NASA reports. Every March, the Arctic's sea ice reaches its maximum cover, both in area and thickness, before it recedes to its yearly minimum in September. Live Science spoke with NASA scientist Walt Meier yesterday (March 25) to learn more about the low sea-ice level and what it means for the rest of the planet.
| Read More » Sanofi poaches AstraZeneca scientist as new research head  | French drugmaker Sanofi has poached one of AstraZeneca's top scientists to be its new research head in another high-profile departure for the British drugmaker. Sanofi said on Tuesday that Yong-Jun Liu had been appointed as head of research with effect from April 1, reporting to Elias Zerhouni, the group's president of global research and development. Liu, a specialist in immunology with more than 250 published articles in leading academic journals, currently heads up research at AstraZeneca's MedImmune biotechnology division, a position he has held since 2014.
| Read More » This Negative Facial Expression Is 'Universal'  | The facial expression indicating disagreement is universal, researchers say. A furrowed brow, lifted chin and pressed-together lips — a mix of anger, disgust and contempt — are used to show negative moral judgment among speakers of English, Spanish, Mandarin and American Sign Language (ASL), according to a new study published in the May issue of the journal Cognition. In ASL, speakers sometimes use this "not face" alone, without any other negative sign, to indicate disagreement in a sentence.
| Read More » Women Could Lower Fracture Risk with Mediterranean Diet Older women who eat a diet full of produce, fish and nuts, may have a slightly lower risk of hip fractures, a new study finds. The researchers found that the risk of hip fracture among the women in the study who adhered most closely to this kind of diet, sometimes called the Mediterranean diet, was very slightly reduced. The finding is important mainly because it shows that following the Mediterranean diet and other related diets, which do not emphasize the intake of dairy foods,is not linked with a higher risk of hip fractures, said Dr. Bernhard Haring, who led the study and is a physician at the University of Wu?rzburg in Germany. Read More » Old Vaccine, New Tricks: Revive Early Pertussis Shot, Study Says Newer isn't always better — some researchers are proposing to bring back an older version of the whooping cough vaccine, because multiple studies show that today's version doesn't protect as well as the earlier kind. In a new study, researchers suggest vaccinating children with one dose of the older whooping cough vaccine — called the whole-cell pertussis vaccine — and then giving them four doses of the current whooping cough vaccine in early childhood. Using a mathematical model, the researchers found that this "combined" vaccination strategy could reduce the rate of whooping cough infections by up to 95 percent, and save millions of dollars in health care costs. Read More » Sanofi poaches AstraZeneca scientist as new research head  | By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi has poached one of AstraZeneca's top scientists to be its new research head in another high-profile departure for the British drugmaker. Sanofi said on Tuesday that Yong-Jun Liu had been appointed as head of research with effect from April 1, reporting to Elias Zerhouni, the group's president of global research and development. Liu, a specialist in immunology with more than 250 published articles in leading academic journals, currently heads up research at AstraZeneca's MedImmune biotechnology division, a position he has held since 2014.
| Read More » 12 Supereruptions Pockmark Path of Yellowstone Hotspot  | Up to 12 massive volcanic blasts occurred between 8 million and 12 million years ago in Idaho's Snake River Plain, leading up to today's Yellowstone supervolcano, new research reveals.
| Read More » Colon Cancer Found in 18th-Century Hungarian Mummy Tissue samples from a Hungarian mummy have revealed that people in the early 17th and 18th centuries suffered from colon cancer, long before the modern plagues of obesity, physical inactivity and processed food were established as causes of the disease, according to new research. In a new study of 18th-century Hungarian mummies, scientists found that the genetic predisposition to colon cancer predates modern impacts on health. One of the mummies in the study carried a mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, which physicians now know raises the risk of colon cancer, said lead study author Michal Feldman, a research assistant formerly at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Read More » U.S. firms target investment in Israeli cannabis R&D  | By Maayan Lubell TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Already a pioneer in high-tech and cutting-edge agriculture, Israel is starting to attract American companies looking to bring medical marijuana know-how to a booming market back home. Since 2014, U.S. firms have invested about $50 million in licensing Israeli medical marijuana patents, cannabis agro-tech startups and firms developing delivery devices such as inhalers, said Saul Kaye, CEO of iCAN, a private cannabis research hub. "I expect it to grow to $100 million in the coming year," Kaye said at iCAN's CannaTech conference in Tel Aviv this month, one of the largest gatherings of medical marijuana experts.
| Read More » Man-Made Earthquake Hotspot Revealed: Oklahoma  | The chances of a damaging earthquake occurring in parts of Oklahoma and some neighboring states are just as likely as they are in temblor-heavy California, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Man-made activities related to oil and gas production are creating the shaky conditions in a region of the central and eastern U.S., the USGS seismologists say. USGS scientists just released their first map that includes earthquake risks from both natural and human-induced causes for the coming year.
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