Queen Seshestet

Mummy thought to be Queen Seshestet found in Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists found a mummy that thought to be that of Queen Seshestet (the mother of a pharaoh) who ruled Egypt in 24th century BC.

"After 5 hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen & ancient pottery. They also found gold wrappings which would have been put on the fingers of the mummified person. Grave robbers ransacked the burial chamber in ancient times and stole the other objects."

Although they did not find the name of the queen buried in the pyramid, all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet, the mother of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty. Teti ruled Egypt for at least 10 years around the year 2300 BC & is buried nearby. While archaeologists have found many royal mummies from ancient Egypt, most of them are from the New Kingdom, which began 500 years after Teti's time.

Adamo laptop

Dell shows Adamo laptop, 10-inch netbook at CES

Dell Inc is going to introduce a new 10 inch netbook which will called a new ultra thin laptop pc for this generation. This new laptop which is named "Adamo" have a great meaning in Latin language it called To Fall In Love With. They hopeful it will be available within this first half year.

The black "ADAMO" will be the most prestigious Dell's brand said by vice president of consumer sales and marketing at Dell. The Round Rock, Texas-based company also unveiled a 10-inch netbook to join its 9-inch and 12-inch netbook. The main functional features of this laptop obviously have more affordable and fastest growing part in the market and comfortable to carry in comparison of Lenovo or Sony etc.

Many expertise see Dell as vulnerable to the global economic slowdown due to its exposure to the weakening PC market. Dell said on Thursday it would move its European manufacturing base from Ireland to Poland and cut 1,900 of 3,000 jobs at its Limerick plant, as part of a $3 billion cost-reduction plan announced last year.

Dell cut more than 8,000 jobs in 2008 and has struggled to regain market share it lost to market leader HP. Falling demand for computers is hitting the entire industry; Lenovo forecast a quarterly loss on Thursday and said it would cut 2,500 jobs.

Pink iguanas

Pink iguanas unseen by Darwin offer evolution clue

Researchers said, pink iguanas unknown to Charles Darwin during his visits to the Galapagos islands may provide evidence of species divergence far earlier than the English naturalist's famous finches. The findings describe the black striped reptiles first seen in 1986 and only a few more times since as a new species.

To understanding of the evolution of species on the remote islands, which remain much as they were millions of years ago and which inspired Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Many of its species are found nowhere else. So far, this species is the only evidence of ancient diversification along the Galapagos land iguana lineage and documents one of the oldest events of divergence ever recorded in the Galapagos.

During Darwin's visit to the Galapagos in 1835 his observations of finch varieties with different shaped beaks scattered across the archipelago's some 100 islands were a key element in his formulation of the principles of evolution. As the finches spread around the islands and their populations became cut off from each other, the birds adapted to the food locally available by developing beaks of a shape most suitable to harvest it, his research showed. Darwin did not visit areas inhabited by the pink land iguana and so missed the species, whose existence suggests diversification in the Galapagos happened some five million years ago.

The researchers said, a genetic analysis showed that the pink reptile likely originated in the Galapagos and split from other iguana populations some 5 million years ago when the archipelago was still forming. The creatures only seem to live near a single volcano at most 350,000 years old, which means the reptiles that grow longer than a meter and up to 12 kilograms must have at one time existed elsewhere in the Galapagos, Gentile said.

The researchers documented fewer than 40 of the iguanas over two years and Gentile said conservation efforts and funds are urgently needed to keep the species from dying off.

sleep apnea

Study shows how sleep apnea may cause stroke

Researchers reported, a dangerous type of snoring known as sleep apnea can cause stroke by decreasing blood flow and raising blood pressure and even harming the brain's ability to modulate these changes.

Vahid Mohsenin of Yale University in Connecticut said, The study help to understand why people with sleep apnea are more likely to have strokes and to die in their sleep. An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, which is characterized by repeated episodes in which someone who is sleeping stops breathing.

Writing in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Mohsenin and colleagues said they tested 48 middle-aged men and women, 22 of whom had sleep apnea but who were otherwise healthy. They checked blood pressure and used ultrasound to monitor blood flow in the brain.

They had the volunteers do a blood pressure test in which they squatted and then stood suddenly.

"We found that patients with sleep apnea had difficulty compensating for the change in blood pressure," Mohsenin said. "They actually had decreased blood flow to brain." He said this showed the damage caused by sleep apnea continues throughout the day.

"When you are up and around and experience changes in your blood pressure, or during the night when you have fluctuations in blood pressure due to apnea, they have a hard time compensating for that," Mohsenin said.

"It is a carryover effect." Now, Mohsenin said, his team will test whether statin drugs, known to reduce inflammation, can restore the lost brain function in sleep apnea sufferers. The patients will also later be treated using airway pressurization masks, or CPAP. "The important thing is to recognize sleep apnea early on so there won't be any significant damage to the brain," he said.

During sleep apnea episodes, the upper airway becomes blocked, hindering or stopping breathing and causing blood oxygen levels to drop and blood pressure to rise. The person eventually awakens and begins breathing, restoring normal blood oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Symptoms of sleep apnea include feeling tired and needing a nap even after eight hours of sleep, loud snoring that disturbs others and snorting that indicates breathing has stopped. Using an
airway pressurization mask can help the brain restore normal function, Mohsenin said, although no study has shown it lowers the rate of strokes.

Related links:

• American Sleep Apnea Association
• British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association
• Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, and Treatment
• Mayo Clinic Discovers New Type of Sleep Apnea, Mayo Clinic.
• UK Sleep Apnoea Trust Association
• Merck: Sleep Apnea

Scientists find a gene

Scientists find a gene that makes cancer spread

US researchers said, a single gene appears to play a vital role in deadly breast cancers, increasing the chances the cancer will spread & making it resistant to chemotherapy. They found people with aggressive breast cancers have abnormal genetic alterations in a gene called MTDH & drugs that block the gene could keep local tumors from metastasizing or spreading, increasing a woman's chances for survival.

Dr. Michael Reiss of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick said, "Not only has a new metastasis gene been identified, but this also is one of a few such genes for which the exact mode of action has been elucidated." That gives us a real shot at developing a drug that will inhibit metastasis

Stopping cancer's spread is important while more than 98% of patients with breast cancer that has not spread live five years or more, only 27% of patients whose cancer has spread to other organs survive.

To get them in the right general area, they used big computer databases of breast tumors and found that a small segment of human chromosome 8 was repeated many times in people with aggressive breast tumors. While most normal DNA sequences contain only two copies of a gene, they found some breast tumors had as many as eight copies of this gene segment.

The team then turned to human breast tumor samples taken from 250 patients to look for these genetic abnormalities and found the gene MTDH was overly active or expressed in aggressive tumors.

• "This gene exists in every one of our cells," Kang said in a telephone interview. "Somehow the tumor gains extra copies and overexpresses them. We saw 30 to 40 percent of them
  overexpressed this gene.
  

The researchers then injected lab mice with tumor cells from patients who had this genetic alteration and found the mice formed tumors that were more likely to spread. They also were more likely to resist treatment with traditional chemotherapy drugs, such as paclitaxel. But when they genetically altered these tumors, inhibiting the MTDH gene, the tumor cells were less able to spread and were more vulnerable to chemotherapy.

• Kang said he is hopeful the finding will lead to drugs that not only keep breast cancer from spreading, but also make it more responsive to treatment. "If we have a drug to inhibit this type of gene, one stone hits two birds."
  


• He said MTDH may also play a role in other types of cancers, including prostate cancer. "It's likely to be a broad influence gene," he said.
  
  Kang said he thinks it would be possible to develop an antibody to neutralize the activity of the gene.

Blog

Blog: Revolutionary pill anyone

So, communism survives intact after 50 years in one little corner of the globe. A small island in terms of geography, but Cuba is a delicious intrigue that continues to fascinate the world. And, we love it! Every bit of it!

Read gigantic American cars from the fifties, palm trees, stretches of spotless white sand, exotic cocktails, absence of high tech gadgets, economic embargo, cigars, unnervingly beautiful women and the charisma of Che and Castro and, honestly, tell me that you want Cuba to emerge from the aura that has made it an enduring enigma.

As Cuba celebrates 50 years this year of the revolution that overthrew the American backed Batista government on Jan 1 1959, we find that, though there is a call out there for the country to come out of a self-imposed isolation, in our hearts we admire the way it lingers on with ideals that, on the surface, seems to have lost much of its luster.

As Cuba survives despite heavy embargoes and moves on leaving behind the history of repeated assassination efforts on Castro and failed invasions, the mystique surrounding it grows.

Maybe there is a need for such a country that still flies the flag of the revolution for the people and by the people. Why? Well, let's just say that beyond our astutely preserved materialistic facade there is a side that is romantic; that wants to lead guerillas against imperial forces and proudly stand in front of all odds to deliver lines line: shoot, you are only going to kill a man or condemn me, but history will absolve me.

Realistically, Cuba is but a tale of quixotic romance that managed to hold on though other tales like it ended long time ago, not with bangs, but with whimpers.

However, as we step into a new year and a world struggling with recession, the failure of the seemingly invulnerable ideology of capitalism makes Cuba, revolution and romanticism, topics of interest. Though, Cuba is not outside the global web of economic woes, there is fear that the island's economy, already weakened by US embargoes, may face acute worries and problems in the days to come.

But, when we look at the country, the revolution that succeeded and, its stubborn stance, we cannot but wonder about the miracle that helped it to go on despite so many odds. In fact, from the revolution movement in the Cuban mountains by a rag tag band of 200 men led by Castro to the present day, the mere existence of a socialist state so near the USA seems hard to digest.


Even the revolution did not have the features for a success. It was a movement of a handful of men against 30,000 trained troops, yet it managed to become a success. Interestingly, Batista regime, supported by the Americans, never had sophisticated weapons and their air force could not be used to thwart rebel attack as spare parts of aircrafts could not brought from the US due to an embargo. Now, this information can open a lot of alleys for debate. Did the US tacitly support the overthrow of Batista believing that Castro can be roped in later on?

Even the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba that aimed to end the Castro rule and kill the leader, was ill planned.

The invasion was nipped in the bud and the myth of Cuba, Castro and Che Guevara became a fiery ideology. And, till today, it survives and shows no sign of evaporating.

• But why would anyone think that the trademark Cuban revolutionary philosophy will peter out when proponents of it are running Venezuela and Bolivia. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has openly expressed his admiration for Che and the revolutionary zeal and, today, in Latin America there is a resurgence of a new model of socialism. This may not be a copy of what Che or Castro believed and espoused, but this is respectful of the ideology that led a group of men to dream of Utopia where equality will be the power and not the power given by social divisions.
  

• The vision of Castro, Che and others does not fit in the template of modern day liberal views in any way but the dream survived and inspired millions.
  

• In Bangladesh, the 80's and the 90's saw a huge Che following in the public universities and there was talk of a social revolution. No, the kind where guerillas come down from mountains with guns and embrace the common people did not happen but Bangladesh did underwent a social revolution where young people learned to question age old ideas and think beyond propaganda.
  

• Cuba is still an isolated country, but with decades of US embargo, fall of the Soviet Union, its main benefactor, and an unwillingness to allow modern technology have also allowed an economic malaise to take form.
  

  Yes, the country still manages to uphold that charm of something exotic; but if it aims to survive, there needs to be some subtle compromises made. Computers must be made available to all, the tourism infrastructure must be
  made stronger to attract foreign currency and interestingly, the revolution that isolated it can be used as a marketing commodity. Vietnam's main tourist and historic attractions are the preserved war zones that feature shot down helicopters, planes, machine gun outposts to secret bunkers.
  
  

• But will this trivialize the zeal that motivated 200 men back in 1959? Well, the answer is no. Cuba, Castro, Che and revolution are firmly entrenched in the global psyche. Yes, some people may find it amusing but the bottom line is – people still think and talk about it. And, as the saying goes – what we talk about is what we believe, if not openly then in our hearts. So, are you still saying that a revolution is impossible? Well, a surviving Cuba with its never ending veneration for Che seems to say otherwise. Venezuela and Bolivia have already paid respect to the spirit of the 1959 revolution and, if there are others, hell, yes, that old man in Cuba, holding a cigar and looking at his dead comrade and friend's image will have the last laugh. He will die one day believing in a revolution and, that's his achievement. Unfortunately, many people die seeing most of their beliefs proved wrong or evaporating into nothingness.

Infection cuts mosquitoes

Infection cuts mosquitoes' lives short

Australian researchers reported, infecting mosquitoes with a common bacteria can cut their lives short and reduce the likelihood they will transmit dengue & other diseases. They genetically engineered bacteria known as Wolbachia so they would infect the Aedes aegypti mosquito species that carry the dengue virus, and found infected mosquitoes lived half as long as uninfected mosquitoes. This could reduce the chances they will transmit the virus to people, as the virus takes about two weeks to mature and become infectious inside a mosquito's body, they report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Scott O'Neill, head of University of Queensland's School of Biological Science said, "Dengue virus and the disease it causes is only transmitted to humans by the older female Aedes aegypti mosquito."

"If we can introduced this into populations it should move the management of dengue fever from an outbreak management paradigm to a prevention aradigm," O'Neill said in a telephone interview.

Wolbachia bacteria, which occur naturally in fruit flies, allowed the mosquito to live long enough to reproduce and spread to its young, but not to mature to the stage when it is capable of transmitting dengue. There is no vaccine or cure for dengue fever, which is a painful and debilitating disease also known as breakbone fever. When it takes on a hemorrhagic form it can kill, and dengue kills 22,000 people a year.

His team hopes to infect a caged population of mosquitoes in Australia's tropical Queensland state. More than 50 cases of dengue have been confirmed in northern Queensland since November.

"If that proves successful we hope to deploy this new dengue control measure in other parts of Australia, as well as Thailand and Vietnam," O'Neill said.

"Ultimately we would like to see if it could be applied to other diseases transmission systems like malaria, which we are currently working on as well," he said.

The researchers now need to show that Wolbachia will spread naturally among mosquitoes the way they do among fruit flies, Andrew Read and Matthew Thomas of Pennsylvania State University said in a commentary. And then it is possible that dengue viruses would evolve the ability to multiply more quickly inside a mosquito's body, they noted.

Diamonds

Diamonds suggest comets caused killer cold spell

Scientists reported, tiny diamonds sprinkled across North America suggest a `swarm' of comets hit the Earth around 13,000 years ago, kicking up enough disruption to send the planet into a cold spell and drive mammoths and other creatures into extinction. They suggest an event that would transcend anything Biblical a series of blinding explosions in the atmosphere equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs.

The so called nano diamonds are made under high temperature, high pressure conditions created by cosmic impacts, similar to an explosion over Tunguska in Siberia that flattened trees for miles in 1908.

They are buried at a level that corresponds to the beginning 12,900 years ago of the Younger Dryas, a 1,300-year long cold spell during which North American mammoths, saber-toothed cats, camels and giant sloths became extinct. The Clovis culture of American Indians also appears to
have fallen apart during this time.

Bones of these animals, and Clovis artifacts, are abundant before this time. Excavations show a dark "mat" of carbon-rich material separates the bones and artifacts from emptier and younger layers.

Writing in the journal Science, Kennett and colleagues report they have evidence of the nanodiamonds from six sites across North America, fitting in with the hypothesis that a giant explosion, or multiple explosions, above the Earth's surface cause widespread fire and pressure.

There is evidence these minerals can be found in other sediments, too, they said, and help explain the "black mat". These data support the hypothesis that a swarm of comets or carbonaceous chondrites (a type of meteorite) produced multiple air shocks and possible surface impacts at 12,900 (years ago).

The heat and pressure could have melted part of the Greenland ice sheet, causing currents to change and affecting climate. Any impacts would have kicked up dust that would have shrouded the sun and lowered temperatures, endangering plants and animals.

The nano-diamonds that we found at all six locations exist only in sediments associated with the Younger Dryas Boundary layers, not above it or below it. These discoveries provide strong evidence for a cosmic impact event at approximately 12,900 years ago that would have had enormous environmental consequences for plants, animals and humans across North America.