The suggestion that famous athletes serve as role models for underage fans is "rubbish," say researchers writing in Drug and Alcohol Review. The authors found that the loutish and drunken behavior of some pro athletes – routinely reported in the media – has little or no effect on the drinking habits of young people.

The research team asked more than 1,000 young sportspeople at elite and amateur level and non-sportspeople to report the perceived drinking behavior of high-profile sport stars compared with their friends, and then report their own drinking behavior using the World Health Organizations Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test.

A team of virologists have discovered important details about a genetic mechanism pathogenic viruses use to evade the immune systems of their hosts. They say their results could point the way to new treatments that use the viruses' own trick against them. The research is detailed in Cell Host and Microbe.

The mechanism is based on the production of short RNA molecules (microRNAs) by the virus. RNA is chemically related to the genetic material DNA, and full-length RNA copies of gene sequences specify the structures of all cell proteins. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), on the other hand, play a crucial role in regulating gene expression.

Researchers studying the differential expression of microRNA say they may have discovered a way to treat autism by reversing the effects of the disease.

Taken together with recently published research regarding “DNA tagging” by methylation, they say their new study in Genome medicine illustrates two different “epigenetic” mechanisms controlling gene activity in autism that lie beyond genetic mutations. While methylation inhibits gene expression at the level of DNA, microRNA inhibits at the level of RNA.

MicroRNA are snippets of RNA, each of which can inhibit the expression of hundreds to more than a thousand genes. The effects of microRNA are also reversible by treatment with complementary “anti-sense” RNA.

Osteoporosis is a risk factor for hip fractures, and a study published in BMC Research Notes has found that martial arts training is a suitable way to teach seniors with osteoporosis how to fall down safely, avoiding injury.

Working with six healthy adults, scientists measured the force of their falls and compared it to known information about the amount of impact a patient with osteoporosis could withstand. The falls taught in this study all involved turning a fall into a rolling movement by bending and twisting the trunk and neck, and researchers believe it is possible for older people to learn these impact-reducing techniques.

In the field of regenerative medicine, embryonic stem cells are considered the “mother cells” that can replace virtually any type of tissue that are damaged or lost as a result of injury of degenerative diseases[1, 2]. This could be attributed to the ability of ES cells to differentiate into a wide range of cellular lineages that make up organs and tissues of the entire body.

Although this has caused much excitement in the field of regenerative medicine, a sobering fact is that ES cells are very scarce as they can only be obtained in the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo[1]. Moreover, the quest for ES cells in humans also raise ethical concerns that have driven ES cell research to a standstill.

Lasers can do many things for us, from scanning barcodes at the grocery checkout to searching for life on the surface of Mars. And, according to chemists at Idaho National Laboratory, lasers might be able to help the nation respond in the case of a possible chemical or radiological attack.

Lasers, the INL scientists say, could play a big cleanup role. Lasers could help scrub chemical- or radiation-contaminated buildings clean, returning life to normal as safely and smoothly as possible.

"Lasers could be an important tool in our toolbox," says INL chemist Bob Fox.

Neutralizing dirty bombs: weapons of mass disruption