>Man killed in Romania by drunken horse

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Traffic police tested a horse for being over the alcohol limit after it went out of control and killed an elderly man in the southwestern Romanian county of Gorj, the Ananova news agency said on Tuesday.

Police made the unusual request after an 86-year-old-man died from injuries sustained when he was hit by a cart, which was being pulled by a horse that “looked out of control.”

Ion Iliuta, head of the local veterinary authority, said: “We never had such a request before. Maybe to see what kind of blood it is, yes, but to find out if the animal was drunk, never.”

The blood test came back positive. The 56-year-old owner said he was returning home after having bought the horse earlier at a fair. Police believe the horse was given alcohol to make it appear stronger and healthier – rian

>Why Starving Cells Prolong Life

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Cellular damage due to stress is an important factor in ageing processes. It is, thus, amazing that starving, which is a stress factor per se, decelerates ageing processes and extends the lifespan of organisms. It has long been known that proteins from the sirtuin family contribute to this mechanism. To date, the exact function of the seven members of the sirtuin family in mammals has, however, not yet been clarified.

Results obtained in studies performed by protein research scientists in Bochum and Dortmund under the auspices of Assistant Professor Dr. Clemens Steegborn (Institute for Physiological Chemistry at RUB) have supplied first insights into this phenomenon. The scientists identified initial functions of the two human sirtuins Sirt3 and Sirt5 that reside in mitochondria, the energy supplying “cellular power stations.”

Influence on the cellular self-destruction program

The mitochondria within the cell are responsible for the provision of energy by utilizing food molecules. This fact suggests that sirtuins located at this site should be involved in the life-prolonging effect of nutritional deficiency. The scientists did, however, discover that Sirt5 is not only located within the mitochondria, but also within the so-called intermembrane space between the exterior and interior membrane of the mitochondria. At this site, Sirt5 can modify the protein cytochrome c, which plays a major role in both, energy generation and the cellular self-destruction program, i.e. apoptosis, the reaction to extreme cellular stress. Dr. Steegborn states “that malfunctioning of apoptosis could be an explanation for the presumed role of Sirt 5 in some forms of cancer, but that the precise function of Sirt5 and the modification of cytochrome c have not yet been finally clarified.”

Use of alternative sources of energy

The scientists were, however, able to identify a precisely defined function for Sirt3. They were able to show that two central metabolic enzymes are altered and thereby activated. This activation enables the cells, if subject to a lack of food, to make use of other sources of energy and to use these effectively. More specifically, Sirt3 activates special forms of these enzymes that simultaneously form NADPH, which is required for the regeneration of cellular anti-stress systems. This explains how increased Sirt3 activity during starvation can contribute to a prolonged lifespan.

Long-term target: healthy aging

Diverse research groups have been able to show that increased sirtuin activity can increase the lifespan of model organisms. The situation is, however, more complex in human beings because different sirtuins are located at diverse sites in the cell and all have specific functions. The current research work, performed by the scientists in Bochum and Dortmund, are a first step towards the comprehension of these processes. Exact understanding of the specific functions is however a prerequisite to enable utilization of the correct sirtuin as target molecule for the desired therapeutic effect. Dr. Steegborn assumes that this will probably not lead to a life-prolonging elixir. The scientists do, however, hope to be able to identify agents that enable the treatment of age-related diseases. This in turn would enable “healthy aging.” – sd

>Test explores if robots can think

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An experiment has been taking place in Berkshire to see if robots are capable of intelligent thought.

Scientists at the University of Reading tested five machines to see if they could pass themselves off as humans in text-based conversations with people. The test was devised in 1950 by British Mathematician Alan Turing, who said that if a machine was indistinguishable from a human, then it was “thinking”. One robot, Elbot, came close on Sunday by reaching 5% below the pass mark.

No robot has ever passed the Turing Test, which requires the robot to fool 30% of its human interrogators. During the experiment, five artificial conversational entities (ACEs) competed in a series of five-minute long, unrestricted conversational tests. …

“Where the machines were identified correctly by the human interrogators as machines, the conversational abilities of each machine was scored at 80% and 90%. “This demonstrates how close machines are getting to reaching the milestone of communicating with us in a way in which we are comfortable. “That eventual day will herald a new phase in our relationship with machines, bringing closer the time in which robots start to play an active role in our daily lives.”

This year’s winner was Elbot, despite failing the Turing Test. The programme’s developers were awarded a $3,000 (£1,760) prize. – bbc

Try Elbot here. I’m not sure if this is the same program that won the competition, but it was somewhat interesting to play with.

>Baldness Gene Discovered: 1 In 7 Men At Risk

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Researchers at McGill University, King’s College London and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. have identified two genetic variants in Caucasians that together produce an astounding sevenfold increase the risk of male pattern baldness.

About a third of all men are affected by male pattern baldness by age 45. The condition’s social and economic impact is considerable: expenditures for hair transplantation in the United States alone exceeded $115 million (U.S.) in 2007, while global revenues for medical therapy for male-pattern baldness recently surpassed $405 million. Male pattern baldness is the most common form of baldness, where hair is lost in a well-defined pattern beginning above both temples, and results in a distinctive M-shaped hairline. Estimates suggest more than 80 per cent of cases are hereditary.

This study was conducted by Dr. Vincent Mooser of GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Brent Richards of McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Jewish General Hospital (and formerly of King’s College), and Dr. Tim Spector of King’s College. Along with colleagues in Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the researchers conducted a genome-wide association study of 1,125 Caucasian men who had been assessed for male pattern baldness. They found two previously unknown genetic variants on chromosome 20 that substantially increased the risk of male pattern baldness. They then confirmed these findings in an additional 1,650 Caucasian men.

“I would presume male pattern baldness is caused by the same genetic variation in non-caucasians,” said Richards, an assistant professor in genetic epidemiology, “but we haven’t studied those populations, so we can’t say for certain.”

Though the researchers consider their discovery to be a scientific breakthrough, they caution that it does not mean a treatment or cure for male pattern baldness is imminent. – sd

>The antidote for terrorism and other extremes?

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… In his textbook on social psychology, David Myers writes, “Terrorism does not erupt suddenly. Rather, it arises among people whose shared grievances bring them together. As they interact in isolation from moderating influences, they become progressively more extreme. The social amplifier brings the signal in stronger. The result is violent acts that the individuals, apart from the group, would never have committed.”

It’s not just groups on the right that polarize, nor are Republicans the only people to gather in like-minded groups. For the past 30 years, Americans have been sorting themselves into politically like-minded neighborhoods, churches, and clubs. Matching like with like has been often been entirely intentional. Ministers have been taught to attract new members according to the “homogenous unit principle” of church growth. (One book in the church growth literature is titled Our Kind of People.) Subdivisions have designed for certain cultural types—a Christian school in one section, a Montessori school in another.

The antidote to group polarization is mixed company. Cass Sunstein and David Schkade reviewed the rulings from three panels from the U.S. Court of Appeals. They found that when the panels consisted of all Republican or all Democratic appointees, the rulings were more extreme than when the panels had members of both parties. Mixed panels produced more moderate judgments.

The lesson is pretty clear. Mixed company moderates; like-minded company polarizes. Heterogeneous communities restrain individual excesses. Homogeneous communities march toward the extremes. – slate

>Small asteroid strikes earth

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Tuesday, 07 October , 2008, 14:09
New Delhi: It was a spectacular show in the sky early Tuesday morning, when a small asteroid entered the earth’s atmosphere releasing a huge amount of light and energy before exploding.
The asteroid, 2008 TC3, entered the earth’s atmosphere at 2.46 am (GMT) in Sudan (Africa). The asteroid was also visible in Europe but not in Asia.

“Measuring only a few meters across, the space rock created a spectacular fireball, releasing huge energy as it disintegrated and exploded in the atmosphere,” Director of Nehru Planetarium N Rathnashree said.  The celestial activity holds significance for space scientists as for the first time they were able to predict in advance that asteroid of such small size will hit the earth surface Tuesday morning, Rathnashree said.

Turning down apprehensions of small asteroids causing an impact on people and property, Rathnashree said: “There is nothing to be panicky as after explosion in the atmosphere, only small pieces reach the ground as meteorites.” When a small asteroid enters the earth atmosphere, it compresses the air in front of it. That compression heats the air, which in turn heats the object, causing it to glow and vaporize, with small pieces reaching the earth.

Astronomers in Arizona in the US discovered the asteroid on October 5 as it was inching closer to the earth. – sify