News Home/Archives

If you would like to promote your product in any news iterm, call 828-254-6620

Asheville Magazine

See
Zeitgeist
A DVD exposing Christianity, the Banking System and 9/11

If you would like to promote your product in any news iterm, call 828-254-6620

Travel Makes People Smarter
from UTNE Reader --
Travel is a pain. Few people would say that packing, schlepping to the airport, stripping down in front of strangers for security, and wedging yourself into a miniscule and uncomfortable airplane seat for hours is exactly the paragon of relaxation. Every day, though, people spend valuable vacation hours traveling.

Huge Waterworld Planet Discovered
from AOL News --
Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth. While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets.

"The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature.

The planet, named GJ 1214b, is 2.7 times as large as Earth and orbits a star much smaller and less luminous than our sun. That's significant, Charbonneau said, because for many years, astronomers assumed that planets only would be found orbiting stars that are similar in size to the sun. Because of that assumption, researchers didn't spend much time looking for planets circling small stars, he said. The discovery of this "watery world" helps debunk the notion that Earth-like planets could form only in conditions similar to those in our solar system. "Nature is just far more inventive in making planets than we were imagining," he said.

In a way, the newly discovered planet was sitting right in front of astronomers' faces, just waiting for them to look. Instead of using high-powered telescopes attached to satellites, they spotted the planet using an amateur-sized, 16-inch telescope on the ground.

Human Protein Prevents Infection by
H1N1 Influenza and Other Viruses
from ScienceDaily --
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a naturally occurring human protein that helps prevent infection by H1N1 influenza and other viruses, including West Nile and dengue virus. A research team led by investigator Stephen J. Elledge and his colleague, Abraham Brass, discovered that human cells respond to infection by the H1N1 influenza virus by ramping up production of proteins that have unexpectedly powerful antiviral effects. In cultured human cells, those proteins, whose functions were previously unknown, block the replication of H1N1 influenza virus, West Nile virus, and dengue virus. The findings, reported this past Thursday, in an online article in the journal Cell, is the result of a collaborative effort by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Yale Medical School, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK.

The unexpected discovery could lead to the development of more effective antiviral drugs, including prophylactic drugs that could be used to slow influenza transmission.

As with other viruses, the influenza virus has only a few genes of its own, and must commandeer proteins produced by its host cell to complete its life cycle. The current study began when Elledge and his colleagues set out to identify the host proteins that the H1N1 virus needs to enter cells and replicate inside them. Elledge is convinced that the proteins represent a major part of the body's innate immune response to viruses. "This work shows the power of comprehensive screens to identify cellular proteins that are involved in viral replication," said HHMI investigator Robert A. Lamb, a virologist at Northwestern University who was not involved in the study reported in Cell.

Scientists Crack Killer Cancer Code
from London’s Telegraph --
The genetic code of two of the most deadly cancers has been cracked by British scientists in a world first that opens up a whole new era in the treatment for the disease.

All the mutations that turn healthy cells cancerous in both lung and skin tumors have been identified in what researchers described as a "transforming moment" in the search for preventions, treatments and cures for both terminal illnesses.

Such a detailed picture of the fundamental causes of the disease will lead to earlier detection, new breeds of drugs and better understanding of what causes the disease, they claim.

Eventually a simple blood test will lead to accurate "made to measure" treatments that can identify, attack and kill the causes of each patient's own individual cancer, they claim.

If you read or hear of some interesting news for us, let us know.
Call 828-254-6620, or go to our website, viratolive.com and contact us.