Not enough apes and monkeys are being bred for scientific research, and the shortfall could be slowing ground-breaking advances into neurological disease, HIV, drug development and genetics.
What is more, critical information about individual animals and the conditions they are kept in is not being made publicly available. That makes it difficult to gauge the scientific validity of experiments done on the primates, and hard for researchers to know that they are accurately reproducing each other’s work.
These are the disturbing conclusions of the first ever global audit of non-human primates used in scientific research. The audit scoured the scientific literature to identify how many monkeys and apes, and of what species, were used in 2001.
Nearly 3000 research papers revealed that 4411 studies were conducted using primates that year, with experiments performed on more than 41,000 individual animals.
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department announced yesterday that more than 150 people had been arrested, charged or convicted in the last three months in a wide-ranging sweep of criminal activity on the Internet.
EVANSTON, Ill., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/—A report titled “Polymorphisms in the Trace Amine Receptor 4 (TRAR4) Gene on Chromosome 6q23.2 are Associated with Susceptibility to Schizophrenia,” was published online this week in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The study tested 827 individuals from 192 families and presents findings that indicate a trace amine receptor gene in the chromosome 6 may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Researchers believe their work could result in opportunities for better pharmacology and ultimately prevention.
The same material that makes golf balls tough may soon make bullet holes vanish in “self-healing” aircraft fuel tanks, say US navy researchers.
Recently, US scientists discovered that a commercially sold polymer – used to coat bowling pins, helmets, and golf balls – displays a curious property when shot at: it can immediately “pave over” the bullet holes.
A State Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday that the anti-Bush group organizing the largest protest around the Republican National Convention could not hold a rally on the Great Lawn of Central Park.
The decision casts uncertainty on whether United for Peace and Justice will protest Sunday. As of last night, the group did not have a permit from the city for either a march or a rally.
The US Department of Defense has admitted having contact with a former US soldier, Jonathan Idema, charged in Afghanistan with torturing civilians.
But it says it rejected Mr Idema’s offer to work together in capturing terror suspects in Afghanistan.
The air pollution emitted by cigarettes is 10 times greater than diesel car exhaust, a small Italian study finds.
Researchers compared the particulate matter in the exhaust fumes from a modern car engine, fuelled with low-sulphur diesel, and in cigarette smoke. Three smouldering cigarettes produced a 10-fold increase in air particles compared to those produced by the idling vehicle.
Synaesthesia, a condition in which people make weird sensory associations, may rely more on the plasticity of the brain than on any genetic predisposition. This might mean that all of us are capable of having a synaesthetic experience.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 25 ? Researchers in England have found a promising method for producing hydrogen from sunflower oil, a development that could lead to cleaner and more efficient hydrogen production for powering automobile fuel cells as well as homes, factories and offices. The development was described today at the 228th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
by Stuart Gaines
Some people just don?t know when to shut the hell up. Phish lots and Phish shows have long overflowed with legions of such people, with many of them populating various phan-based internet sites stocked to the hilt with endlessly picky drivel about every mind-numbing detail that was?but is no more?a band called Phish.
Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time. Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a “flame-spray” technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and could, say the team, be extended to other oxides (A Rosenflanz et al. 2004 Nature 430 761).
There has been a spate of judges’ rulings in recent weeks, ordering journalists to disclose the identities of their anonymous and confidential sources. Anyone who believes in and values the First Amendment and counts on the media to be their government watchdog should be concerned about this.
This summer, judges have thrown a number of reporters in jail and/or fined news organizations thousands of dollars for refusing to give up the names of sources.
UPPER LAKE For Eddy Lepp, who claims to have the largest acreage of legally grown marijuana in the country, it was a bitter harvest Wednesday as Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers, assisted by Lake County Sheriff’s deputies, destroyed 40 acres of plants and arrested him.
Truly decentralised peer-to-peer (P2P) software can’t be held accountable for its misuse, according to a US federal appeals court.
and attention is pointed elsewhere.
Expect posts to be few and far between during this chapter.
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