Their discovery that different memory center areas respond differently to such true and false memories will inspire further efforts to explore ever finer details of the neural machinery of memory, the scientists say. A treatment for infertility can leave the resulting babies with genetic material from two women and the father, a researcher said this weekend. The Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St. Barnabas Medical Center in West Orange, New Jersey, has used the technique to produce 15 healthy babies, the oldest of whom turns 4 years old in a month, said Dr. Jacques Cohen, scientific director of assisted reproduction at the institute. By the year 2008, another 450,000 nurses may be needed to meet demand, according to government projections. For more health related stories, click here.
Researchers are one step closer to being able to perform so-called therapeutic cloning in mice.
The research, which will be published in the April 27 issue of Science, is a joint effort between investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University. A variant in a gene involved in blood vessel narrowing seems to offer the Chuvash people, who live along Volga river in Russia, some protection against type 2 diabetes, Russian scientists said Thursday. But if carriers of the gene do develop the disease, they could have more serious diabetes-related complications, the researchers report. The ability to use genetic information to predict which diseases a person is likely to contract over a lifetime can serve as a valuable motivating tool to change unhealthy habits. People found to have an inherited risk for heart disease, for instance, might decide to get off the couch and onto the treadmill, or order fish instead of steak.