Week In Science

A news story about gigantic stellar flares detected on a star that is smaller than our sun appeared in a news release at the NASA website. The article is entitled 'Monster Stellar Flare Seen by NASA Scientists Dwarfs All Others.'

The Salk Institute posted an article, 'When the going gets tough, stress response genes can make do with less,' which has implications for cancer breakthoughs. The discussed discovery relates to a cellular process known as transcription. Gene expression involves transcribing genetic information contained in DNA to a messenger RNA or mRNA for short.

A news release of the Carnegie Institution entitled 'Minerals go “dark” near Earth’s core' details information that may lead to changes in geophysical earth models.

'RNA interference wins Nobel prize,' the title of an article at the linked site, mentions that American Professors Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Their discovery of RNA interference brought this about. Hailed as a new biotechnology breakthough, having great potential as a medical treatment tool, RNA interference also has the potential to make great theoretical advances possible due to its capacity to disable gene expression. The concept has already spawned a new biotechnology industry.

An atavism is a very unusual feature that an individual of a species is found to have which

• Is extremely rare or even non-existent amongst other representatives of the same species
• Is found commonly in fossil or living species in a broader taxon (a higher grouping of similar organisms in the general hierarchy of living things as classified by taxonomists)

For readers interested in brief accounts of recent scientific discoveries here are three items and their links.

The first one is entitled 'Elephants' jumbo mirror ability' and tells of a discovery that adds elephants to the company of humans, apes and dolphins with respect to a common ability to recognize their own mirror reflection and by doing so show a capacity for self-awareness.

A press release of the Max Planck Society entitled
'Discovery of Gamma Rays from the Edge of a Black Hole' provides data from a study of the giant elliptical galaxy known as M 87. Gamma rays have been detected from what is thought to be a super-massive black hole at the center of M 87. These gamma ray photons have been described as having energy that is a million million times more than that of visible light. Surprisingly, "gamma-ray flux variations" were observed in intervals of only a few days; a strong clue as to the black hole nature of the source. Two informative paragraphs from the linked article:

A news story of the Medical College of Georgia entitled 'Receptor that enables clear corneas is identified' cites the function of a receptor protein known as sflt-1 which has been identified as an inhibitor of blood vessel growth in corneas.

"Intra-cellular trafficking" discoveries of University of Illinois at Chicago researchers were revealed in a UIC News Release entitled 'Molecular Mechanism Provides Intra-Cellular Traffic Signal.' The cellular traffic management process is well coordinated so as to allow for "maximum flow through cellular compartments." Yeast cells were used in the study however it is believed that the discovered mechanisms have counterparts in other mammalian cells including humans.

A news story, 'U of M Identifies Cell Line That is Resistant to Retroviruses, Including HIV,' about a protein and a potential strategy against HIV comes out of the University of Minnesota. My comments appear with the italicized news story.