Nature News Blog : Archive for 2012

#Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini dies at 103
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/12/nobel-laureate-rita-levi-montalcini-dies-at-103.html

Yesterday the world lost one of its most extraordinary scientists when Rita Levi-Montalcini died at her home in Rome at the age of 103.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/12/rita2-196x300.jpg

profil :
►http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/full/458564a.html

Born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Turin in 1909, Levi-Montalcini fought hard for her career from the beginning. First there was her domineering father, who didn’t believe in higher education for #women. Then there were Benito Mussolini’s race laws, which ejected Jews from universities and forced her into hiding. And after that there was the scientific establishment, which refused to believe in the existence of nerve growth factor (NGF), the discovery of which eventually won Levi-Montalcini a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/images/458564a-i2.0.jpg

#recherche #femmes

Big News From Mars ? Rover Scientists Mum For Now
►http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

It wasn’t scientific caution that kept Zare from announcing his results. It was a rule many scientific journals enforce that says scientists are not allowed to talk about their research until the day it’s officially published. Zare had to follow the rules if he wanted his paper to come out.

He did break down and tell his family. “I remember at the dinner table with great excitement explaining to my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Bethany, what it was we were doing,” says Zare.

“Bethany looked at me and said, ’pass the ketchup.’”

l’anecdote mise à part, voici l’info sérieuse : on aurait trouvé du carbone sur Mars ; mais est-ce que ce carbone a été emporté par Curiosity, par une météorite terrestre ou est d’origine martienne, c’est trop tôt pour le savoir.

Mars rover finds carbon in its first soil sample analysis
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/12/mars-rover-finds-carbon-in-its-first-soil-sample-analysis.html

#espace #mars #recherche #carbone #vie

Ruth’s Reviews – “The Information” - James Gleick : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/ruths-reviews-the-information.html

It is charming to read the excitement and fear these advances engender. The excitement of being able to send text at speed was met by a fear that this would mean the death of newspapers. One journalist is quoted, worrying that “intelligence, thus hastily gathered, and transmitted, has also its drawbacks, and is not so trustworthy as the news which starts later and travels slower”. This will sound familiar to anyone concerned with the rise of the internet and citizen reporting today.

ah oui là il s’agissait du télégraphe…

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/The-Information.jpg

#journalisme #internet #histoire

Leaky pipelines for Canadian women in research : Nature News Blog
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/leaky-pipelines-for-canadian-women-in-research.html

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/women-graph2.png

They call it a leaky pipeline. But the leaks are women, not oil. A substantial number of young women enter into potential research careers but drop-off at various stages, says a report released this week by the Canadian Council of Academies analyzing the gender gap amongst Canada’s University researchers.

#recherche #femmes

#Malaria programme gets kiss of death from #Global_Fund : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/malaria-medicines-venture-gets-kiss-of-death-from-global-fund.html

The Global Fund’s press release detailing its plans is entitled “Board Approves Integration of AMF-m into Core Global Fund Grant Processes“, and much of its soothingly reassuring content would perhaps have many thinking that the AMF-m’s integration into the Global Fund’s core grants system is good news. But it is in effect being killed. There’s will be no new money ringfenced for the AMF-m once it runs through it’s current funding up to the end of 2013, which means that any countries wanting to set aside cash for the private sector will be required to take this from their country grants from the Global Fund. In reality, that will likely translate into AMF-m activities simply being terminated in most countries, leading to local price rises in ACTs, and the drugs disappearing off the shelves of local pharmacies. AMF-m’s clout in negotiating bulk pricing deals internationally will also likely be weakened.

#santé #paludisme

Vegetative patient free of pain : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/vegetative-patient-free-of-pain.html

A man thought to have been in a vegetative state for twelve years told doctors he is not in pain.

The patient communicated through a question-and-answer technique using fMRI imaging developed by University of Western Ontario’s Adrian Owen.

#santé #recherche #médecine #coma

Desertec et Medgrid : « nouveau colonialisme solaire » ? (Survie France)
►http://survie.org/billets-d-afrique/2012/218-novembre-2012/article/desertec-et-medgrid-nouveau

Depuis 2009, un groupe de financiers et d’industriels, mené par le premier réassureur mondial, l’allemand Munich Re, a entamé le projet Desertec pour exploiter l’énergie solaire et éolienne du Sahara et alimenter l’Europe en électricité. Rêve ou cauchemar ? (...) Source : Survie France

UK research funders announce grants for #open-access publishing : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/uk-research-funders-announce-grants-for-open-access-publishing.html

The UK’s research-funding agencies will together spend more than £100 million over the next five years to help pay for taxpayer-funded research papers to be free to read, they announced today.

#open-publishing #recherche

Le poisson radioactif de #Fukushima | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/10/fukushima-fish-still-hot.html

plots of radioactivity in fish around the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant (...)
There’s a couple of things the graph tell us: first, there is enough radioactivity in the fish in Fukushima prefecture to seriously hinder commercial fishing. Second, the radioactivity doesn’t seem to have declined in the first year after the accident.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/10/Fukushima-fish-large.jpg

#nucléaire #japon #alimentation #santé

German research minister on plagiarism charge : Nature News Blog
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/10/german-research-minister-under-pressure.html

ça ça va plaire à @reka

A confidential report of evaluaters examining the PhD thesis of Annette Schavan, German’s research and education minister, has apparently confirmed charges of plagiarism. Copies of the 75-page report were leaked to the press on 12 October.

According to accounts in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel, the evaluators’ report claims that Schavan had intended to deceive in her 1980 thesis, on aspects of education, by paraphrasing the work of others without appropriate citation and passing it off as her own.

#recherche #plagiat

Nature News Blog: Buddhist ‘Iron Man’ found by #Nazis is from space : Nature News Blog
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/09/buddhist-iron-man-found-by-nazis-is-from-space.html

A Buddhist statue brought to Germany from Tibet by a Nazi-backed expedition has been confirmed as having an extraterrestrial origin.

Known as the ‘iron man’, the 24-centimetre-high sculpture may represent the god Vaiśravaṇa and was likely created from a piece of the Chinga meteorite that was strewn across the border region between Russia and Mongolia between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, according to Elmar Buchner, of the University of Stuttgart in Germany, and his colleagues.

Prosecution asks for four-year sentence in Italian seismology trial : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/09/porsecution-asks-for-four-year-sentence-in-italian-seismology-trial.ht

the scientists were supposed to evaluate whether the seismic sequence could be considered a precursor event, to assess what damages had already happened at that point, to discuss how to mitigate risks.” Picuti said the panel members did not fulfill these commitments, and that their risk analysis was “flawed, inadequate, negligent and deceptive”, resulting in wrong information being given to citizens.

#Pharma comes together over clinical trials : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/09/pharma-comes-together-over-clinical-trials.html

companies announced the launch of TransCelerate BioPharma, a nonprofit organization to be located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its mission will be to overcome the inefficiencies in clinical trials that contribute to the 10- to 15-year-long, $1.2 billion journey that a drug makes from discovery to market.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/09/graph3.jpg

Europe improves oversight of medicines : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/09/europe-improves-oversight-of-medicines.html

The European Union (EU) has tightened oversight rules for drugs, in response to the scandal over anti-diabetic medicine Mediator that erupted in France two years ago (press release).

The European Parliament and EU council of ministers yesterday agreed amendments to a regulation and directive making evaluation and possible market withdrawal of a drug automatic throughout the EU if a safety alert is issued in one of the 27 member states.

#santé #pharma #sécurité #médicaments

Researchers step up fight against wheat pathogens : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/researchers-step-up-fight-against-wheat-pathogens.html

Planting just 5% of a nation’s wheat fields with seed from resistant varieties is sufficient to provide enough seeds to replace the nation’s crop within a year if #Ug99 should appear, he explains.

The eight countries are expected to pass the 5% mark in the 2012-13 growing season.

But Central Asian nations, including China, are paying insufficient attention to wheat pathogens leaving themselves open to attack, Coffman warns.

#agriculture #écologie #cdp

India to expand expert base for drug reviews | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/india-to-expand-expert-base-for-drug-reviews.html

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is looking for experts in multiple areas, including cancer, immunology, pharmacology and vaccines, to help “bring more transparency, consistency and accountability” to drugs approvals in India, according to a letter posted on its website yesterday.

As well as providing advice on potential new drugs and devices, these experts may be asked to draw up guidelines for industry and create a ‘roadmap’ for the development of drugs relevant to the Indian population.

#inde #pharma #experts #recherche #santé #essais_cliniques

tout lien avec ►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2007/05/SHAH/14712 n’est pas à écarter

Hepatitis C drug trial halted after patient death | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/hepatitis-c-drug-trial-halted-after-patient-death.html

Bristol-Myers Squibb has halted development of a potential hepatitis C drug after nine participants in a clinical trial of the therapy were hospitalised and one died (see press release).
(...)
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) acquired the rights to the drug BMS-986094 (formerly known as INX-189) when it bought Inhibitex of Alpharetta, Georgia for US$2.5 billion in January (see ‘Pharma giants buy up hepatitis C hopefuls’).
(...) Abandoning the drug amounts to writing off about $1.8 billion of what BMS paid for Inhibitex. After the news of the safety crisis broke, shares in BMS fell, reducing its market value by billions (see Fierce Biotech).

#pharma #essais #finance

Gates Foundation backs toilet pioneers | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/gates-foundation-backs-toilet-pioneers.html

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the winners of this year’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, handing over a US$100,000 first prize to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for work on a solar-powered toilet (right) that recycles water and generates hydrogen and electricity

The Reinvent the Toilet Fair brought together participants from 29 countries, including researchers, designers, investors and representatives of the communities who will ultimately use the new inventions. At the event, Loughborough University, UK, was awarded the $60,000 second-place prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water, while the University of Toronto in Canada won the third place prize of $40,000 for a toilet that sanitizes faeces and urine, while transforming waste products into resources and clean water.

#toilettes #développement #santé

US court sides with gene patents | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/us-court-sides-with-gene-patents.html

The lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, a diagnostic company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that holds patents on the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, has bounced from court to court since 2010. In a 2-1 decision today, a federal appeals court reaffirmed their latest decision that genes represent patent-eligible matter.

#brevets #médecine #biologie #santé

D-Wave #quantum computer solves protein folding problem | Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/d-wave-quantum-computer-solves-protein-folding-problem.html

The D-Wave One quantum computer (which bears more than a passing resemblance to the monolith) consists of 128 superconducting quantum bits or ‘qubits’.

#informatique

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/08/d_wave_one_system.jpg