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Like Spain, Israel, the USA and some other countries, a survey of Danish citizens support using GM plants for production of pharmaceuticals - science Austria, Germany and Japan and some others do not accept.Isn't it 'against' nature?  Yes, Danes think that too, though clearly all medicine is against nature and they have a clear understand of what the word 'organic' means outside the political-social context.Using genetically modified plants and animals as production platforms for medicine allows pharmaceuticals to be produced faster, more flexibly and profitably. Examples of this form of medicine production is ATryn (antithrombin alfa), produced by genetically modfied goats. Atryn is used to treat blood clots. 

Not a week goes by in science that there isn't a new study related to synthetic biology or nanotechnology.   They are two of the hottest fields in science and there is discussion of either ethical or environmental concerns on a recurring basis.But the science is almost completely unaware of both, which human embryonic stem cell researchers may state would be a good thing but in reality a lack of buzz about newer areas of science mean it won't get funding, which will instead go to subsidizing old alternative energy technology policy that advisors in government like.

In an article reviewed by Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine, Faculty Members Robert Ruff, Brian Olshansky and Luis Ruilope say the blood-thinner dabigatran is shown to protect against stroke, blood clotting and major bleeding as effectively as warfarin, but with fewer side effects.The original paper, "Dabigatran versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation", by Neal Devaraj and Stuart Connolly et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine, said warfarin (also commonly used in rat poison) has several drawbacks; finding the correct dosage requires careful and laborious monitoring and the risk of major bleeding has led to it being under-used. 

Air pollutants which travel from a country like China, the world's top producer of CO2 who also happens to be exempt from  Kyoto because they insist they are a developing nation,  impact the USA and then on to Europe, says a new report by the National Research Council.Poor air quality is most strongly a result of local emissions but the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries. 

Should you use sand for stream restoration?    Common wisdom said no, because it disrupts salmon spawning, researchers have successfully built and maintained a scale model of a living meandering gravel-bed river in the lab and found that sand is indispensable for helping to build point bars and to block off cut-off channels and chutes--tributaries that might start and detract from the flow and health of the stream.The significance of vegetation for slowing erosion and reinforcing banks has been known for a long time, but this is the first time it has been scientifically demonstrated as a critical component in meandering.

Think shoes aren't important for women?   You would be wrong, though perhaps not for the reasons you want to believe.A recent Arthritis Care&Research study says that women who make poor shoe choices early in life are at greater risk for foot pain in later years. Apparently, men do not experience the same foot pain as women, though that could be because men never dance backward in heels.

If you were following actual science during the alternative energy debate of the 1990s and early 2000s, you were probably concerned about the irrational zeal of activists and politicians like Al Gore who wanted to embrace anything that meant fewer fossil fuels - specifically, ethanol.Billions of dollars in subsidies since 2005 and mandates on its usage have shown us that ethanol was wrong all along.  And it is apparently only beginning to be realized how wrong.Even more of the fertilizers and pesticides used to grow corn would find their way into nearby water sources if ethanol demands lead to planting more acres in corn, according to a Purdue University study.

Psychiatrist Szabolcs Kéri of Semmelweis University in Hungary looked into an urban legend about the link between creativity and mental illness and says there may be something to it.    He focused his research on neuregulin 1, a gene that normally plays a role in a variety of brain processes, including development and strengthening communication between neurons. However, a variant of this gene (or genotype) is associated with a greater risk of developing mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

An RNA-powered nanomotor has become the engine for an artificial pore able to transmit nanoscale material through a membrane, the next step in research on using nanomotors to package and deliver therapeutic agents directly to infected cells. Eventually this could enable use of nanoscale medical devices to diagnose and treat diseases.In a study led by University of Cincinnati (UC) biomedical engineering professor Peixuan Guo, PhD, members of the team inserted the modified core of a nanomotor, a microscopic biological machine, into a lipid membrane. The resulting channel enabled them to move both single- and double-stranded DNA through the membrane.  The engineered channel could have applications in nano-sensing, gene delivery, drug loading and DNA sequencing, says Guo.

University of Nottingham scientists have overcome a significant challenge for electrochemists - a way of probing right into the heart of an electrochemical reaction, a breakthrough that will help scientists understand how catalysts work and help create even better catalysts.They were able to study the reaction at the point where the solution touches the surface of the metal electrode bringing in the electricity using spectroscopy under ultra high vacuum. 

Spotted hyenas aren't smarter than chimpanzees but they cooperate better and it shows on cooperative problem-solving tests, says a new article about a very old study that just recently got some notice.Captive pairs of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) that needed to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward cooperated successfully and learned the maneuvers quickly with no training. Experienced hyenas even helped inexperienced partners do the trick.

New research says that sunspots provide an incomplete measure of changes in the sun's impact on Earth over the course of the 11-year solar cycle - good news for global warming proponents concerned that lower temperatures (and higher ones) may correspond to solar activity.The study led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Michigan found that Earth was bombarded last year with high levels of solar energy at a time when the sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.