Rochester, NY, USA. Bladder cancer is much more likely to be deadly for women and African-Americans, but the reasons long believed to explain the phenomenon account for only part of the differences for such patients compared to their white and male counterparts, according to results published in the journal Cancer.

 

The results present a stark question for doctors and patients: If age, tumor type, and stage of the disease upon diagnosis don't account for all the increased lethality of the disease in women and African-Americans, then what does?

 

It's a gaping question facing researchers who have long confronted an irony of bladder cancer, the fifth-most-common type of cancer in America. The disease is more lethal in those patients who are less likely to get it.

 

Lancaster, PA, USA. Tis the season for lists--all kinds of lists — including the best movies, top celebrities, most successful sports figures, even the dumbest utterances of the year.

 

In the political world, Time Magazine jumped the gun in August with its list of the 15 worst vice presidents. Not to be out done, Vice President-elect Joe Biden recently leaped into the fray with his provocative, but typical Biden-like assessment that Dick Cheney was the worst vice president in American history. Subsequently a CNN poll, notwithstanding the spirit of this holiday season, found that almost one quarter of Americans agreed with Biden.

 

We are content to let historians debate Cheney’s tenure, but not so willing to leave unchallenged some of the earlier lists. What lands a particular vice president on our short worst list is less what they did in office than what they did to the office.

Washington, DC, USA. While experts reported that the November elections went off with hardly a hitch, questions are being raised about whether all of the hundreds of thousands of military voters serving abroad were able to cast their ballots with the rest of the country.

 

This issue arose during the 2008 election when the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) sued Virginia, contending that the state mailed its overseas ballots too late for service members to receive and return them in time to be counted.

 

The likelihood of a ballot being counted in time depends on which state a soldier is from, and whether a state’s process relies more on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) or electronic means, such as fax or e-mail. These differences were highlighted in a report released Jan. 6 that concluded that half the states could improve their systems to make sure overseas military can vote.

Washington, DC, USA. Research biologists have discovered the atomic structure of the powerful nanomotor that packages DNA into the head segment of some viruses during their assembly.

 

The findings have implications for developing a new weapon is in the fight against dangerous microbes, medical inteventions for repairs to head off potentially deleterious birth conditions, and expedited delivery of needed medications.

 

Peering at structures only atoms across, the work is an essential step in understanding how viruses multiply and infect new host organisms. Because a number of virus types may possess a similar motor, including viruses that cause common infections, the results may also provide new methods to sabotage virus machinery, leading to advanced cell embyo therapies and pharmaceuticals. 

 

Previous research had determined that the T4 molecular motor is the strongest yet discovered in viruses and, proportionately, twice as powerful as an automotive engine. The motors generate 20 times the force produced by the protein myosin, one of two proteins responsible for the contraction and strength of muscles. The current investigators have described the structure and mechanism that drives the motor. The new findings could inspire engineers designing sophisticated nanomachines.

Washington, DC, USA. The $200 billion in deficits that states face over the next two years will put the brakes on most big-ticket items in governors’ 2009 wish lists as the new legislative year gets under way amid the bleakest economy in a generation.

 

Republican Gov. John Hoeven of North Dakota kicked off this year’s round of governors’ “state of the state” addresses, warning that even his state that has in the past seemed recession-proof could find this year tougher.

 

“The state of our state is strong,” Hoeven said, as this year’s round of governors’ addresses lay out the top executives’ visions for the coming year. But he noted that as many as 41 other states face budget deficits this year and next.

 

Waltham, MA, USA. The stereotypes of medical education from the student perspective is by now very familiar: grueling hours, little recognition, and even less glory. Now a new study that appears in Academic Medicine documents the dominant environment of academic medicine from the perspective of faculty, the providers of medical education in medical schools.

 

Brandeis University senior scientist Dr. Linda Pololi and her colleagues conducted in-depth one-on-one interviews with faculty members in a variety of specialty areas at five prominent medical schools across the country. While the study determined that positive relational aspects of the culture in academic medicine exist, it found that faculty often experienced disconnection, competitive individualism, undervaluing of humanistic qualities, deprecation, disrespect, and the erosion of trust.

Washington, DC, USA. Nanotechnology is one of the most important developments to emerge from science and engineering in recent years. Exploiting discoveries from studies at the atomic and molecular scale, nanotechnology has produced very strong and often non-reactive materials, affecting the manufacture of over 1,000 consumer products.

 

Consumers can buy products with nanotech content that range from solar panels and scratch-resistant automobile paint to enhanced golf clubs. Estimates place the worlwide nanotechnology industry at a likely value of US$3.1 trillion by 2015.

 

Even though the technology is transformative, processing existing materials to obtain new (or better) outcomes, an uneasy public has increasingly raised ethical concerns. Some commentators and representatives of public advocacy groups increasingly refer to nanotechnology as nature-altering, changing the fundamental characteristics of matter. 

London, UK. This poem, The Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot, is an enduring meditation on the intersection of uncertainty and resolve during a time of change. [N1] 

 

The poem was the first in a series that T. S. Eliot later grouped together as the Ariel Poems (1927), a cycle that emanates Eliot's spirituality and emerging religious convictions. [N2] However, it was not a smooth transition; Eliot insisted on an accounting of the facts of the world and relegation of belief to the realm of what is unknown (or unknowable).

 

The Journey of the Magi begins with lines adapted and modified from a Nativity Sermon by Lancelot Andrewes in 1622, which places it at the beginning of a crucial period in literary and religious history. [N3]

 

However, this beginning is experiential, A cold coming we had of it, the past was hard, a word in its times that was nearly interchangeable with cold, and realistic. The poem ends with that cold and hard realism, and a glimmer of, perhaps, hope.

 

Fairfax, VA, USA. Whenever someone at TS-Si makes a distinction between men and women born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS or True Transsexuality) and the transgendered, we always anticipate that a male transgender or a male cross-dresser will send us a whiny email.

 

Any discussion of the medical differences between being born with HBS and being transgendered is immediately met with ad hominem attacks on the writer, misstatement or lack of knowledge of current scientific research, and, in the worst cases. outright scientific illiteracy. Charges of hate and elitism often follow.

 

Sharon Gaughan’s rational, non-judgmental column, What About Non-op Transsexuals? A No-op Notion [N1], has always received comment both here and around the internet, often during the winter holidays. We were not disappointed this year, reconfirming that some things never change.

Coral Gables, FL, USA. Self-control is critical for success in life, and a new study finds that religious people have more self-control than do their less religious counterparts.

 

These findings imply that religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them and their religious groups. This, in turn, might help explain why religious people tend to have lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, less delinquency, better health behaviors, less depression, and longer lives.

 

Michael McCullough, professor of Psychology at the University of Miami (UM), evaluated 8 decades worth of research on religion, which has been conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world. He found persuasive evidence that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to exercise self-control and to more effectively regulate their emotions and behaviors, so that they can pursue valued goals.

Texas, USA. Forty years ago in the early morning hours of December 31 I took the first step in the process of coming out. 1968 was a year of turmoil, police beatings, and random arrests on trumped up charges, a jailhouse rape, an assault in the street for looking too queer.

 

I took heavy doses of LSD and journeyed deep within myself and realized I couldn’t suppress who I really was. Yet I was afraid. I was afraid even though I had faced police with clubs and military with bayonets.

 

In 1967, I had met a queen (possibly transsexual like me) in Greenwich Village. She had spoken of San Francisco as the place to go, a place where people like us went to find doctors and others like ourselves.

 

After I had been raped a sister helped me get transferred to the queen tank and in meeting others I lost the excuse that it was impossible for me to be Suzy.

Washington, DC, USA. Some war veterans in Oklahoma will no longer pay property taxes and others in New York will have an advantage in getting civil service jobs under new provisions that take effect in 2009. Veterans in California, meanwhile, have had help buying a home since November, under a new law there.

 

Voters in each of these states overwhelmingly supported ballot measures on Nov. 4 to approve these benefits by amending their state constitutions.

Southampton, UK. Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past. In the 17th and 18th centuries, nostalgia was viewed as a medical disease, complete with symptoms that included weeping, irregular heartbeat and anorexia. By the 20th century, nostalgia was regarded as a psychiatric disorder, with symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety and depression. It was thought to be a characteristic of just a few groups (e.g., first year boarding students and immigrants).

 

Only recently have psychologists begun focusing on the positive and potentially therapeutic aspects of nostalgia, thought to play a crucial part to play in combating feelings of isolation and loneliness. So report oncestigators from the University of Southampton and Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangzhou, China). Their findings appear in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Fairfax, VA, USA. One of the problems with growing older is that everyone you have ever known is growing older with you. Eventually, some of them die and a piece of your life that has been there birth is gone forever.

 

My grandfather told me that one of the hardest things about being 95 (other than the arthritis) is not watching all your friends die but watching their children die, the ones you saw come into the world. When Grandpa’s own daughter (my mother) slowly died from Alzheimer’s, his life-long faith in an all wise and good god was severely tested.

 

A number of people who have affected my life were buried in 2008 — not close friends, not blood relatives, but those public figures who I have read, or watched, or study. Their accomplishments have influenced my life and without them, I would be someone else.

Sydney, NSW, AUS. Of the thousands of decisions that a couple must make before a wedding, one of the more political ones is what to do about surnames. For my brother and his fiancée, the issue is more loaded than for most. The reason? His surname is "Funnell". Her surname is "Webb". I kid you not.

 

Already the surname situation has caused trouble. When Mr Funnell and Ms Webb turned up to a home auction, the auctioneer though it was a hoax.

 

On the plus side, the best man's speech is shaping up as an absolute corker. Aside from the jokes about the mating rituals of funnel-web spiders, I'm expecting to hear best wishes for the happy couple and high hopes that one day soon they will have their own little nest of Funnell-Webbs, crawling all over them.

 

Even more amusing is the fact that my brother works as an academic scientist under a man named Merlin meaning that if the couple chooses to hyphenate then next year the Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering Department at The University of Sydney will be headed up by Professor Merlin and his trusty side-kick, Dr Funnell-Webb.

Indianapolis, IN, USA. Ordinarily, a myth is a sacred story that includes a creation story accounting for the origins of the world and/or its creatures. Most of them are placed in a storied past before the bginnings of recorded history.

 

However, popular culture has downgraded the word to include everyday systems of ignorance and superstition. Very often the narratives simply reflect miseducation and the lack of factual data. Even so, the story gets around and is accepted as true. Some adherents may even be impervious to evidence.

 

In this more popular usage, a myth can be a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact. Hopefully, that does not include you.

Ann Arbor, MI, USA. A new study shows that women more than doubled their fruit and vegetable intakes and dramatically increased their consumption of "good" fats when they were counseled by registered dietitians and provided with a list of guidelines on the amount of certain foods they should eat each day.

 

The six-month study divided 69 women into two groups. In one group, registered dietitians used an "exchange list" of foods that are common in a Mediterranean diet to make a plan for each participant. The new plan maintained the caloric and total fat intakes that the participants consumed at the beginning of the study.

Montréal, Quebec, CAN. If a group of organisms have a common ancestor, evolutionary biologists say they have common descent. Charles Darwin had proposed a theory of universal common descent based on evolutionary principles in the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871). 

 

This is part of a general consensus that all living organisms on Earth descend from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool).

 

There is an important work underway to understand the evolutionary chain of being that connects us, as individual human beings, our embryonic development, and the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA or LUA).

 

Our common ancestor is believed to have appeared about 3.5-3.9 billion years ago, sometime between the Basin Groups and Paleoarchean eras. An evolutionary geneticist from the Université de Montréal, together with researchers from Lyon and Montpellier, have published a study in Nature that illuminates ideas of early life on Earth and characterizes the ancient LUCA organism.

Montreal, Quebec, CAN. Life on Earth didn't originate from a preexisting blueprint, but living things do have a basic architecture. Recent studies have shown that a great deal of the genome — inluding the non-coded ("junk") DNA — is transcribed into RNA. But how do proteins interact within cells?

 

Our answers so far are very incomplete. A more detailed understanding could offer new pathways to understanding standard human development and pinpointing the causes of exceptional cases.

 

Stephen Michnick, a biochemistry researcher from the Université de Montréal has developed some novel technologies for protein examination. Michnick is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Genomics who tries to understand the fundamental chemistry of life, pinpointing where the exceptions begin and mapping out where they can be stopped.

Chicago, IL, USA. Two factors that limit the effectiveness of standard mammography and MRI are breast density and a woman's hormonal status, including cancer. 

 

However, as shown in the accompanying image, a new technique called positron emission mammography (PEM), is not affected by either factor. The image is one of a left breast taken using PEM, depicting an index lesion and additional lesion missed by mammography.

 

Dr. Kathy Schilling, M.D.,  notes that PEM is "… ideal for those patients whose MRI is difficult to interpret due to hormonal influences, women with implants, patients with metal in their bodies, or patients who suffer from claustrophobia." Potential applications also inlude a variety of situations where scans are impeded by surrounding dense tissues, such as penile implants and other reconstructions.  

Nashville, TN, USA. When someone is accused of committing a crime, it is the responsibility of impartial third parties, generally jurors and judges, to determine if that person is guilty and, if so, how much he or she should be punished. But how does one’s brain actually make these decisions?

In a new study that combines expertise from law and neuroscience, Vanderbilt University researchers observed changes in the brain when people think about crime and punishment. The team scanned the brains of subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see how the brain activated when a person judged whether or not someone should be punished for a harmful act — and how severely the individual should be punished. 

 

The findings, reported in the journal Neuron, show that two distinct areas of the brain assess guilt and decide penalty.

St. Louis, MO, USA. For years, scientists have struggled to decipher the genetic instruction book that details where and when the 20,000 genes in a human cell will be turned on or off. Different genes operate in each cell type at different times, and this careful orchestration is what ultimately distinguishes a brain cell from a liver or skin cell.

 

Now, scientists at the School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis report they have developed a model of gene expression in yeast that predicts with a high degree of accuracy whether a gene will be switched on or off. The study appears in the journal Nature.

 

Since the discovery of DNA's double helical structure more than a half century ago, scientists have focused much of their attention on understanding the 2 percent of the genome that is made up of classic genes, which code for the production of proteins. However, the instructions for turning these genes on or off are generally not in the genes themselves. Rather, they are buried in the 98 percent of the genome that was once cast aside as little more than genetic "junk."

Adana, Turkey and Cambridge, UK. Scientists have long been known that a specific hormonal signal from the hypothalamus switches on the system that controls sex hormone production from the ovaries and testis. Turning on the system is essential to enter puberty and maintain sexual function in adults. But what is the mechanism?

 

Solving this puzzle could lead to a better understanding of the maturation process, with implications for intersex conditions, children with delayed or abnormal puberty, sex hormone dependent diseases like prostate cancer, and new approaches to contraception.

 

A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Çukurova University in Turkey have identified the hormone Neurokinin B as a critical part of the control system that switches on the master regulator of human puberty. This is a major step to understanding how the brain controls the onset of puberty. Their research findings appear in the journal Nature Genetics.