Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

German and American researchers have for the first time identified complete gene sequences and function of two proteins in mussels that play a key defensive role against environmental toxicants. These proteins form part of an active, physiological barrier in mussel gills that protects them against environmental toxins, researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research and Stanford University in California report in the “American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology”.

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A new gene that may confer susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis has been identified. First time that gene, toll-like receptor 8, linked to bacterial infections.

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Researchers at Yale University have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic and could one day be used to power tiny medical implants.

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A novel therapy using a miniature nerve stimulator instead of medication for the treatment of profoundly disabling headache disorders improved the experience of pain by 80-95 percent, according to a new study from UCSF and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

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Stabilizing force for good communication between neurons and muscle cells foundYou can’t raise a finger without your brain directing muscle cells, and scientists have figured out another reason that usually works so well.

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Scientists from the Universities of Bath and Exeter have developed a rapid new way of checking for toxic genes in disease-causing bacteria which infect insects and humans. Their findings could in the future lead to new vaccines and antibacterial drugs.

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Patient using solifenacin reported that their overactive bladder problems improved by 70 percent. Improvements were noted as early as 3 days in the double-blind randomized study which involved 863 patients from 14 countries. The results appear in the November issue of BJU International.

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An international team has developed a wireless virtual reality environment that can help promote language learning and let students practice. The researchers have demonstrated their Collaborative Virtual Reality Environment with Mexican engineering students carrying out listening comprehension practice in English as a foreign language.

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Over the past several decades, many laboratories have studied the communication between nerve cells and muscle fibers that are crucial to form and maintain neuromuscular synapses. Now, researchers at the at the NYU Langone Medical Center have found that a protein named Lrp4 is the missing link that allows communication between two crucial molecules — one derived from the nerve and the other from muscle — that enables the formation of the synapse.

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Although the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat exhibits cycles of eruption and quiet, an international team of researchers found that magma is continuously supplied from deep in the crust but that a valve acts below a shallower magma chamber, releasing lava to the surface periodically.

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