Haemoglobin S (HbS) is known to cause sickle cell disease and it is usually fatal if untreated so shouldn't natural selection have eliminated it?    

Instead, the sickle cell gene is common in people of African, Mediterranean and Indian origin, areas with historically high levels of malaria.    A new study says such geographical adds to the hypothesis that the gene, though deadly, avoids disappearing through natural selection by providing protection against malaria.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.   But since cancer is a mutation, risk factors for it can never be eliminated.   However, risk factors can be made less risky so a group of researchers built on previous research that found black raspberries have antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory properties to see if they might also help to prevent colon cancer.

Their study found that black raspberries were highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease.

There are three key factors associated with what gerontologists call "successful aging" - avoiding disease, maintaining physical and cognitive function, and continuing social engagement in late life.  But why do some groups clearly have those factors more than others?

The US is supposedly the leader in terms of scientific output. However, there is supposedly also "a threat" of losing this position. To counter this, there are suggestions such as giving out more visas to foreign scientists and engineers. Even “don’t make Americans scientists, make scientists American” passes as valid argumentation.

Just an anecdote for today.  With luck, my French connection will have 'the goods' for me shortly.  I will slip him payment, and 20 beauties will be mine.

Back when I fabricated my PCBs, I thought the next step was to buy the electronics.  What could go wrong?  Most components such as resistors and capacitors are ubiquitous and nearly fungible.  You can swap out manufacturers and minor specs as long as the main desired value (resistance, capacitance, etc) is fulfilled-- and as long as the part is the same form factor.  The latter means "it needs to fit onto your PCB in the holes provided."

“England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies.”

So wrote George Santayana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana in 1922.

Boise State University's football team is smoking, and some have wondered whether their blue football field may help explain their success...so much so that, a couple months back, Oregon State painted their practice field blue to help them prepare for playing on it.

Could practicing and playing on blue really give the Broncos a leg up? It seems unlikely.

Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) was the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to be approved by the FDA for Prostate cancers. Sipuleucel-T consists of Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) including Antigen presenting cells (APCs) was developed by Dendreon. The APCs that have been activated for a definite period in cell culture with recombinant protein containing Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and Granuocyle macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF).

The number of times the common cold has been cured, or prevented, is far too long a list for this site - though recently those claims have been overtaken by the kookier segments of homeopathy.

But researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge say they are onto something.   

Astronomers say they have found evidence of an intense warming period in the Universe’s early history, which they describe as a form of 'cosmic climate change'.

The findings were made by researchers measuring the temperature of gas that lies in between galaxies and they say they found a clear indication that the temperature of this 'intergalactic medium' had increased steadily between the period when the Universe was one tenth of its current age and the point at which it reached one quarter of its current age.

They speculate that the effect was caused by quasars; giant accreting black holes at the heart of galaxies which emit ultraviolet light and triggered a series of reactions in the gas clouds that caused the temperature to rise.