Human blood may provide a cure for AIDS

BBC reports that German scientists at the University of Ulm have identified a natural ingredient of human blood that prevents the HIV virus from infecting immune cells and multiplying. The molecule, which they termed Virus-Inhibitory Peptide (VIRIP), could bring out new types of effective treatment for HIV in the future. Adjusting its amino acid components boosted its anti-HIV potency by two orders of magnitude. Tests also showed that some derivatives of the molecule are highly stable in human blood plasma, and non-toxic even at very high concentrations. A synthetic version of VIRIP also found effective in blocking HIV, excluding the possibility that some other factor was responsible. VIRIP targets a sugar molecule, which HIV uses to infect a host cell.

 

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Do animals need to sex to create variety?

The Times Online has an interesting article about an organism which survived 100 million years without sex.

Researchers say that their study "refutes the idea that sex is necessary for diversification into evolutionary species".

 

From the article:

 
"A tiny creature that has not had sex for 100 million years has overturned the theory that animals need to mate to create variety. Analysis of the jaw shapes of bdelloid rotifers, combined with genetic data, revealed that the animals have diversified under pressure of natural selection. Researchers say that their study "refutes the idea that sex is necessary for diversification into evolutionary species".

 
 

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Creature that has not had sex for 100m years

By:  Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

(From The Times, March 20, 2007)

Going on a 'mental time travel' ?!

If you thought memory was all about making a record of the past, think again!

Your brain is equipped with a time machine that can take you forwards and backwards at will.

 

Without paying a penny you can travel backwards or forwards in time in your mind's eye - what is known as "mental time travel". One of these visions - the backward travel - is about really happened things and the other -  the backward travel - is about fantasizing things.....but that too will have a time-line assigned by your mind which makes it both the instances very similar. In simple terms, you are able to 'recall' your future as you would normally do about your past!

 

You can recall what happened yesterday, like where you have been, what you ate, whom you have talked to in the morning, what you did in the evening. Same way you 'recall' your tomorrow like where you will be, what you will be eating, to whom all you will be talking in the morning, what you will be doing in the evening. That's what 'mental time travel' is all about. Now experiment with yourself, travel to the newer meadows of your future on your 'mental time machine', explore the future!

 

Happy journey!