Penn State University scientists are to first to untangle the genetic code of an extinct animal, using a ball of woolly mammoth hair purchased on eBay for $130. First, they had to make sure the brownish-red hair really comes from a woolly mammoth. After that, they washed and bleached it and, from the sterilized hair shafts of the mammal, they obtained genetic material bearing clues about why mammoths died out and a guide for saving other near-extinct animals. The study is reported in today’s...
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Ginkgo biloba has been used medicinally for thousands of
years. Today, it is one of the top selling herbs in the United States. It is not clear how
many people take the drug, but its sales exceeded $249 million in 2006.
Ginkgo is used for the treatment of numerous conditions,
many of which are under scientific investigation. Available evidence
demonstrates ginkgo’s efficacy in the management of intermittent claudication,
and “cerebral insufficiency” (a syndrome thought to be...
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The STS-126 and Expedition 18 crews worked Wednesday to
prepare the station for larger crews. They also prepared for the second
spacewalk of the mission.
Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough will camp out
overnight in the station’s Quest Airlock in preparation for the second
spacewalk of the mission.
Expedition 18 flight engineer Sandra Magnus and her
predecessor Greg Chamitoff installed two new bedrooms in the Harmony node.
Meanwhile, STS-126 mission specialist Don Pettit...
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An article in the Nov. 19 online issue of the journal The
Lancet tells that story of a Colombian woman who got her life back thanks to a
surgery that gave her a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells,
thus eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.
Claudia Castillo, 30, a mother of two living in Barcelona had been
suffering from tuberculosis for years. The disease destroyed part of her
trachea, the windpipe connected to the lungs. In March, her left lung...
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Sydney - Australia's east coast received its biggest downpours in decades Thursday, confounding efforts to clean up after weekend storms that tore off roofs, downed trees and left thousands of homes without power.
Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, was again in the eye of the storm, with rainfall of up to 250 millimetres prompting thousands of householders to call emergency services for help.
Crews were out in boats, paddling along flooded highways and taking stranded motorists...
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