April 26, 1997

Does the Cosmos Have a Direction?

A highly controversial study suggests that the universe has a preferred direction or axis, a finding that flies in the face of basic tenets of the Big Bang and other cosmological models.

Sources:

Borge Nodland
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
Web site: http://www.rochester.edu/college/rtc/Borge/aniso.html

Flu and HIV wield common viral harpoon

The structure of an HIV protein indicates that the mechanism by which HIV invades human cells resembles that used by flu viruses.

Sources:

Peter S. Kim
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Cambridge, MA 02142

Don C. Wiley
Harvard University
1350 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138

Panel backs widening net of genetic test

Couples anticipating a pregnancy should be offered a genetic test to determine whether they may pass on cystic fibrosis, says a panel convened by the National Institutes of Health.

Sources:

American Society of Human Genetics
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814

Norman Fost
243 Corwin Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544

R. Rodney Howell
Department of Pediatrics
School of Medicine
University of Miami
Miami, FL 33124

Peter T. Rowley
Division of Genetics
University of Rochester
School of Medicine
Rochester, NY 14642

Material gives bacterial films the heave-ho

A plastic that stops bacteria from binding to it may help prevent the potentially deadly infections that can develop around medical implants.

Sources:

James D. Bryers
Center for Biofilm Engineering
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
Web site: http://www.erc.montana.edu/

Thomas A. Horbett
Bioengineering Program
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195

Hormone mimics get harder to pigeonhole

By imitating aspects of the behavior of both estrogens and androgens, some hormonelike pollutants may increase their apparent potency.

Sources:

Benjamin J. Danzo
Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biochemistry
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
1161 21st Avenue, S.
Nashville, TN 37232-2633

Devra Lee Davis
Program on Health, Environment & Development
World Resources Institute
1709 New York Avenue, N.W.
7th Floor
Washington, DC 20006

Nira Ben-Jonathan
Department of Cell Biology
University of Cincinnati Medical School
231 Bethesda Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45267-0521

Node emerges on brain's emotional network

A small section of the brain's cortex exhibits a decline in activity during periods of severe depression.

Sources:

Antonio R. Damasio
Department of Neurology
University of Iowa College of Medicine
200 Hawkins Drive
Iowa City, IA 52242-1053

Wayne C. Drevets
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
3811 O'Hara Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2593

Helen S. Mayberg
Research Imaging Center
University of Texas Health Science Center
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio, TX 78284-6240

Sticky solution to bladder infections?

The discovery of a protein used by bacteria to attach themselves to bladder cells has raised hopes of developing a vaccine to protect women from some urinary tract infections.

Sources:

Scott J. Hultgren
Department of Molecular Microbiology
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63110

Quantum collapse of an atomic cluster

A clump of lithium atoms at temperatures near absolute zero may collapse into a dense state, then explode in a process resembling the collapse of a giant star to produce a supernova.

Sources:

Randall G. Hulet
Department of Physics
Rice University
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251

Research Notes:

Biology

Where in the brain is working memory?

The memory tasks of holding and relating several pieces of information may be more closely related and involve more parts of the brain than previously realized.

Sources:

Jonathan D. Cohen
Department of Psychology
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Susan M. Courtney
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition
10 Center Drive, MSC 1366
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892-1366

Patricia Goldman-Rakic
Section of Neurobiology
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, CT 06510

Biomedicine

Obesity drug takes a different strategy

A compound that stimulates fat burning may one day become a drug to treat obesity.

Sources:

Robert L. Dow
Central Research Division
Pfizer, Inc.
Groton, CT 06340

How UV light causes cancer and wrinkles

The physical properties of two substances, melanin and urocanic acid, may explain effects of ultraviolet light on skin.

Sources:

Susan E. Forest
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0341

Kerry M. Hanson
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0341

Articles:

Getting Physical with DNA

Manipulating individual molecules of DNA provides insights into the physical basis of fundamental biological processes.

Sources:

Carlos Bustamante
Department of Chemistry
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403

Paul Hansma
Physics Department
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9530

Randall D. Kamien
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 9104

Gil Lee
Chemistry Division
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, DC 20375

David R. Nelson
Physics Department
Harvard University
17 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 01238

Philip Nelson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 9104

Helmut H. Strey
National Institutes of Health
DCRT/LSB, Building 12A
Bethesda, MD 20892-5626

After Hubble: The Next Generation

As a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have begun designing an instrument having a 6- to 8-meter primary mirror and potentially the capability to record the first rays of starlight in the universe.

Sources:

John C. Mather
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771