High-fructose corn syrup is a hot topic in the national debate on diet, with opponents attacking it, as Daniel Engber has suggested, as unhealthy, unnatural and unappetizing, while corn refiners have volleyed back that it's safe, natural and tasty. Now the food additive has been implicated in the decline of another maker of sweeteners — honeybees. Although researcher Blaise W. LeBlanc agrees that colony collapse disorder in honeybees probably results from a variety of environmental stresses such as mites, pesticides and infections (like Nosema ceranae), his recent, published experiments ... Read More
Teaching an Old Immune System New Tricks
February 11, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
Researchers from Germany's Hemholtz Centre for Infection Research may have discovered a treatment to make old immune systems young again. Their results, published in the Journal of Pathology, suggest that a growth protein may have a "fountain of youth" effect on the immune system. The scientists, led by Eva Medina, examined the immune system decline associated with aging. By comparing immune system responses of young mice (2 to 3 months old) and old mice (equivalent of 70- and 80-year-old humans) to bacterial infections, the researchers discovered that as mice age, they lose ... Read More
Pictures From a Poster Session
February 10, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The final block of speakers at UTEP's Building Partnerships and Pathways to Address Engineering Grand Challenges Conference are managers of federal science and engineering programs from agencies like NASA, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, Sandia National Laboratories and — gulp — the Missile Defense Agency. Many of the presentations cover the how-tos of applying for federal research grants and contracts, while some also address programs for student internships. But a few of the managers share intriguing facts about what their agencies ... Read More
Snowmaggedon Backs All Climate Change Views
February 10, 2010 • By • 4 Comments
Federal government offices in Washington, D.C., closed for the third straight day today as back-to-back winter storms pushed the region toward the heaviest single season of snowfall on record. The U.S. House of Representatives has bailed on the entire week of legislating. The Postal Service has given up delivering the mail. And in the streets, officials have started rationing salt. Amid the chaos — "Snowmaggedon," residents are calling it — opposing camps of the climate debate have finally found something they can agree on: Here it is, the evidence we've been talking about! Never ... Read More
Changing the Equations for Carbon, Biomedicine
February 9, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The puzzles and promise of life in a carbon-constrained world continue with a presentation given by Charles Cook, principal associate director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. His theme is "Game Changers," the kinds of over-the-horizon technologies that could transform the whole carbon/climate change equation. Cook sees five major approaches that could have a big impact — if they can be realized. The first is carbon capture and sequestration (discussed extensively this morning), which Cook sees as "doable," although "costs are a major impediment." A ... Read More