N Nitrogen

Some dreams feel so revelatory--if only returning to sleep would take us back there. It turns out, however, that our ability to shape our dreams is better than mere chance. In the blockbuster movie Inception , Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his compatriots use drugs and psychological profiles to trigger specific dreams in people. Although the heavy sedation and level of detail incited are far-fetched, dream control isn't entirely a Hollywood fantasy. [More]



Leonardo DiCaprio - Dream - Psychology - Inception - Lucid dream

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Mental health - Health - Oceania - Australia - Policy and Advocacy

We are always telling stories about the world, the universe, ourselves. It helps to make sense of things. But sometimes, through familiarity or neglect, we get lost. We forget where a story really starts, losing sight of where it’s headed. What is biodiversity? Are electric cars new? Even the well-worn tale of human origins is missing a key chapter: how a small band of hunter-gatherers survived a climate disaster, becoming ancestors of us all. Here we provide the surprising origins of some strange and familiar things.

All In The Family [More]



Hunter-gatherer - Biodiversity - Human evolution - Fiction - Arts

A deadly infectious disease once thought to be exclusively tropical has gained a toehold in the Pacific Northwest, and health experts suspect climate change is partially to blame.

Illegal trade in endangered species continues to grow around the world. How big is the problem? Here are 10 major cases that have hit the media in just the past week: [More]



EndangeredSpecies - Wildlife - Illegal drug trade - Environment - Conservation and Endangered Species

A vaginal microbicide can cut HIV infection rates by 39 percent in women, researchers announced Monday. And female study participants who inserted the gel as directed reduced their chances of contracting HIV by more than half (54 percent). The news is a stunning, positive development, especially for women at risk for sexual transmission, in a field that has been plagued by two decades of failed and aborted trials . [More]



HIV - Health - AIDS - Conditions and Diseases - Sexually transmitted disease

In a head-to-head competition held 10 years ago, scientists at the National Institutes of Health tested two promising new types of vaccine to see which might offer the strongest protection against one of the deadliest viruses on earth, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. One vaccine consisted of DNA rings called plasmids, each carrying a gene for one of five HIV proteins. Its goal was to get the recipient’s own cells to make the viral proteins in the hope they would provoke protective reactions by immune cells. Instead of plasmids, the second vaccine used another virus called an adenovirus as a carrier for a single HIV gene encoding a viral protein. The rationale for this combination was to employ a “safe” virus to catch the attention of immune cells while getting them to direct their responses against the HIV protein.

One of us (Weiner) had already been working on DNA vaccines for eight years and was hoping for a major demonstration of the plasmids’ ability to induce immunity against a dreaded pathogen. Instead the test results dealt a major blow to believers in this first generation of DNA vaccines. The DNA recipients displayed only weak immune responses to the five HIV proteins or no response at all, whereas recipients of the adenovirus-based vaccine had robust reactions. To academic and pharmaceutical company researchers, adenoviruses clearly looked like the stronger candidates to take forward in developing HIV vaccines.

As many as one third of the world's 6,260 known amphibian species are in danger of going extinct. The main killer--outside of ongoing destruction of habitat--is a fungal disease known as chytrid ( Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ). Now researchers in California and Virginia have identified symbiotic bacteria living on amphibians' skins that protects them from the deadly fungal disease, and later this summer the scientists will collect some of the microbial samples, culture them in the lab, and use the product to inoculate some frogs in California's Sierra Nevada to see if the approach stops chytrid in the wild. If a management plan can be developed, "creating a self-disseminating system [to fight chytrid] will be revolutionary," says Reid Harris, a biologist at James Madison University (J.M.U.) in Harrisonburg, Va., and one of the scientists whose research led to isolating and identifying this bacteria group in a telephone interview. [More]



California - Sierra Nevada - James Madison University - Virginia - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Scientists at the Federal Institutes of Haleness have identified long-sought and impalpable broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV in a marry of papers published in the July 9 publish of Principles. These proteins produced by the untouched combination are decisive for creating a inhibition vaccine , and could also cause medical uses developed in the coming years or decades.



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Scientists at the Federal Institutes of Haleness make identified long-sought and transitory broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV in a double of papers published in the July 9 go forth of Field. These proteins produced by the exempt system are crucial for creating a restraining vaccine , and could also have healing uses developed in the coming years or decades.



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