Benhur Lee may have discovered a medical silver bullet that can disable pandemic HIV, exotic Ebola, the common flu and possibly every kind of enveloped virus on the planet. An added bonus is that those viruses likely are unable to develop resistance to the compound.

If this sounds too good to be true, you are not alone. Lee was skeptical himself, and that is why it took four years of detailed work by his lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, (U.C.L.A.), along with collaborators spread across the country before the first paper was published on the potentially revolutionary discovery, on February 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lee is an expert on the viral envelope, the dynamic outside surface of a virus that latches onto a cell, then changes its shape to let the ... Read more »

Over half of adults living in the European Union countries are now overweight or obese according to a report.

The rate of obesity has more than doubled over the past 20 years in most EU member states, international experts say.

The UK comes out worst, shortly followed by Ireland and Malta, where a quarter of the population is obese.

World experts meet this week to discuss how to reverse the "worrying trend".

The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) who compiled the Health at a Glance Europe 2010 report believe the key to success is encouraging children to adopt healthy habits.

Currently, one in seven children in the EU is overweight or obese - and the figures are set to rise even further.

Only one in five children in the EU exercise regularly. Physical activity tends to fall between the ages of 11 and 15 in most EU Member States.

Children who are obese or overweight ar ... Read more »

(Reuters Health) - People who get married appear to enjoy better health overall -- and may even be more likely to receive a kidney transplant when they need one, a new study reports.

Researchers found that people with kidney failure who were married or divorced (or separated) were more than 50 percent as likely to be placed on a waitlist for a new kidney as never-married people. Those who were married were also 28 percent more likely to receive the organ, relative to single people on the waitlist.

These findings make sense, Dr. Laura Taylor of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing told Reuters Health -- "being married tends to give you team support."

Many people on the waitlist for a new kidney are on dialysis, she said, which means they have to follow a complicated diet and medication regime ... Read more »

Members of the ancient Jarawa tribe have emerged from their forest habitat for the first time since the December 26 tsunami ravaged the isolated Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In a rare interaction with outsiders, they announced yesterday that all 250 of their tribespeople had survived.

"We are all safe after the earthquake. We are in the forest in Balughat," Jarawa member Ashu said in broken Hindi through an interpreter in a restricted forest area in the northern reaches of South Andaman island.

According to varying estimates, there are only 400 to 1000 members alive today from the Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Onges, Sentinelese and Shompens.

Some anthropological DNA studies indicate the generations may go back 70,000 years.

They originated in Africa and migrated to India through Indonesia, anthropologists say.

Seven men emerged from the forest carrying bows and arrows and wearing only underwear, amulets and coloured headbands with leaves.

... Read more »

Experts in the safety of genetically modified (GM) organisms have expressed concern over the release of GM mosquitoes into the wild on the Cayman Islands, which was publicised internationally only last month — a year after their initial release.

The trial of the OX513A strain of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, developed by UK biotechnology company Oxitec, was carried out on Grand Cayman island by the Cayman Islands' Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) in 2009, followed by a bigger release between May and October this year. Together they represent the first known release of GM mosquitoes anywhere in the world.

Unpublished results of the trials, showing that the GM male mosquitoes competed with wild males, were presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in the United States, last week (4 November).

The male GM mosquitoes mate with normal females to produce larvae that die unless the antibiotic tetracycline is ... Read more »

Eflornithine (α-difluoromethylornithine or DFMO) is a drug found to be effective in the treatment of facial hirsutism (excessive hair growth) as well as in African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) . Eflornithine hydrochloride cream, which is for topical administration in women suffering from facial hirsutism, is marketed under the brand name Vaniqa by Almirall in Europe, CSL in Australia, Triton in Canada, Medison in Israel and SkinMedica in the USA.Eflornithine for injection against sleeping sickness is manufactured by Sanofi Aventis and sold under the brand name Ornidyl in the USA.Both are prescription drugs.

History

Eflornithine was initially developed for cancer treatment at Merrell Dow Research Institute in the late 1970s, but, while having little use in treating malignancies, it was found to be highly effective in reducing hair growth , as well as in treatment of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) , especially the West African form (Tryp ... Read more »

China is set to expand its ambitious scheme to attract the cream of the scientific diaspora back to the country so it includes young scientists as well.

Li Zhiyong, vice-minister of the Organisation Department of the Central Committee, told a conference of the High-level Overseas Talents and National Development Strategy in Beijing last month (28 September) that under-35-year-olds will be targeted to return to China. This issue was also a focus of discussions at the conference organised by the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA).

China's Medium- and Long-Term Talent Development Plan (2010–2020), which was announced earlier this year, involves offering resources to established scientists from the United States or Europe who return to China under a scheme known as the Qianren plan, or Thousand Talent Plan.

Although the budget is unknown, each scientist who works under ... Read more »

Excessive focus on the Millennium Development Goals risks undermining the long-term investment required for building scientific capacity.

We are now two-thirds of the way through the task that members of the UN set themselves in 2000 as a device to spur their anti-poverty efforts — the achievement of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. And it has become clear that the overall verdict on this strategy remains as divided as success in achieving the goals themselves.

World leaders meeting at the UN headquarters in New York last week heard that substantial progress in meeting some of the goals — such as reducing mortality rates among children under the age of five — gives legitimate cause for congratulation.

Other MDG targets, however, remain far from being achieved, such as reducing overall levels of hunger, particularly in Africa. A ... Read more »

Imagine plugging your location into the Internet to find out, not just the likelihood of an earthquake or tsunami, but also the damage it might cause and its probable knock-on social and economic effects where you live.

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is the first global effort to map not just the likelihood of earthquakes but also the risks, based on the local population, quality of construction and numerous other factors.

It is a global effort focused on establishing uniform and open standards, so that risks can be calculated and communicated worldwide.

The GEM committee began work in 2009 and presented its pilot phase results this summer (3−4 June) at a meeting in Washington, United States, and then online last month. The ambition is to present a first version of the Global Earthquake Model in 2013.

SciDev.Net caught up with Rui Pinho, secretary general of GEM, based in Italy, to f ... Read more »

The impact of global warming on the metabolism of mosquitoes could further complicate predictions of how climate change will affect malaria, according to scientists.

Scientists have for the first time estimated how warmer climate will affect the metabolism of cold-blooded animals, such as mosquitoes, on a global scale. Such animals depend on outside temperature to regulate their body's metabolism. 

The study, published today (7 October) in Nature, says that the effect of temperature on metabolism is non-linear, affecting animals in warm regions disproportionately more than those in cold regions.

"At high temperatures, very small [temperature] changes have huge effects," said lead researcher Michael Dillon, an assistant professor of zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming, United States.

Although the temperature has so far risen less rapidly in the tropical reg ... Read more »