World AIDS Day Marks Progress Toward Prevention

Wednesday marks the 22nd annual World AIDS Day. In the past year, several scientific advances have helped rekindle convictions that progress is being made against the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Last week researchers presented findings in The New England Journal of Medicine that prophylactic antiretrovirals—along with counseling and other prevention services—reduced HIV infection rates in men who have sex with men by about 44 percent.

For women, a vaginal gel containing tenofovir cut one South African study group's risk of becoming infected by 54 percent, according to a July report in Science.

Another study, published this September in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that a cheaper drug regime (using neviraprine rather than protease inhibitors) kept children born to HIV-positive mothers disease free. And prophylactic antiretrovirals helped those HIV-infected mothers who breastfed their infants reduce transmission to their children to just 1.1 percent, according to a June study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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But, like the 2009 Thai trail findings that a vaccine reduced infection rates, none of these new promising prevention advances has reduced the transmission rates to the true target: zero.

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Some 33.4 million people across the globe have HIV, about two thirds of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. A November 29 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that by 2020 the number of Africans with the disease will increase to 30 million—but access to sustaining antiretrovirals will not likely be able to keep pace. "Already in Uganda and a few other nations, we don't have enough health care workers or [antiretroviral therapy] to meet demands, and health centers are increasingly turning away patients who need these drugs to survive," David Serwadda, a professor at the School of Public Health at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and co-chair of the IOM committee, said in a prepared statement.
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In the meantime, innovative approaches are helping infected individuals that have access to antiretrovirals manage their disease. A trial published last month in The Lancet found that a simple weekly text message helped HIV-positive people keep viral levels low.

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And more basic research on the disease is helping scientists understand what it does inside the body. One recent study found three ways that the infection develops in the male genital tract, and another showed how evolutionary biology could be used to trace an infection back to a source—results which have held up in U.S. federal courts.

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And elevating HIV from health scourge to artistic inspiration, a clever composer has used the HIV genome—sequenced in 2009—to create a lyrical album of the retrovirus' code as transcribed into hosts' cells.

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Read more about advances in AIDS research—and the challenges that remain—in our in-depth report: What's Next for AIDS.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto/JuSun

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Was Tycho Brahe poisoned? 16th-century astronomer exhumed--again

There is no shortage of lore surrounding Tycho Brahe. For starters, the 16th-century Danish astronomer famously lost part of his nose at age 20 in a duel with another nobleman and thereafter wore a metal prosthesis on his face. Then, take this bizarre snippet from an eponymous 1890 biography of Brahe by J.L.E. Dreyer:

Two other inmates of Tycho's house may also be mentioned here. One was a maid of the name of Live (or Liuva) Lauridsdatter, who afterwards lived with Tycho's sister, Sophia, and later was a sort of quack-doctor at Copenhagen where she also practised astrology, &c. She died unmarried in 1693, when she is said to have reached the ripe age of 124. The other was his fool or jester, a dwarf called Jeppe or Jep, who sat at Tycho's feet when he was at table, and got a morsel now and then from his hand. He chattered incessantly and, according to [Brahe's assistant] Longomontanus, was supposed to be gifted with second-sight, and his utterances were therefore listened to with some attention.

Later in his life, as court astronomer to Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, Brahe collected some of the best observations of his day for the positions of celestial bodies in the sky, which his successor, Johannes Kepler, would later publish as The Rudolphine Tables. To top it off, Brahe died at age 54 after, as the story goes, he stayed at the table too long without relieving himself during a formal dinner, possibly bursting his bladder in the process.

That last legend may soon be challenged, as Brahe is being disinterred starting November 15 for analysis for the second time since he was buried in Prague in 1601. Testing on hair samples taken from Brahe's tomb the first time, in 1901, showed an abnormally high mercury content in the astronomer's body, raising the possibility that he had been poisoned. But Brahe may well have met his fate by less malicious means; for centuries medical practitioners applied mercury as a treatment for maladies such as syphilis. The 1890 biography of Brahe—written before the mercury test—noted that rumors of Brahe's poisoning swirled after his death. But Dreyer dismissed such "silly" talk as "scarcely worth mentioning."

The poison angle got a new look in 2004 in the book Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries. Not only was Brahe poisoned, contended Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, but all signs point to his famed protégé, Johannes Kepler, as the culprit. (Kepler's motive would have been to get hold of Brahe's tightly kept treasure of data.) But the astronomical community hardly turned on the esteemed Kepler—in a review of the book, Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth College wrote that the accusation "verges on the preposterous."

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The new exhumation is being led by medieval archaeologist Jens Vellev of Aarhus University in Denmark. Vellev told the Associated Press that he hoped to not only analyze Brahe's mustache and hair, but also his bones. The group aims to learn more about Brahe's health and medicinal intake and, just maybe, to find some new information about his untimely demise.

"Perhaps we will be able to come close to an answer," Vellev told the BBC, "but I don't think we will get a final answer to that question."
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Photo of Brahe's tombstone: Robert Scarth/Flickr

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Tracking a rare tortoise? There's an app for that

Smartphones have increasingly become valuable tools in the conservation of rare species around the world. The latest example is an iPhone app called Mojave Desert Tortoise, which people can use to help researchers preserve the endangered species it is named after.

With the app, visitors to the Mojave Desert (which stretches between California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona) can take photos of any desert tortoises they happen to encounter. The app adds GPS data to the photo and sends it to researchers at the Mojave Desert Ecosystem Program (MDEP) and Desert Managers Group. The information will then be used to track the turtles' movements and habits. The data will also eventually be made public online.

The app also offers users information about the Mojave desert tortoise and warns users that touching the animals or otherwise disturbing them is against the law.

MDEP project manager Fon Duke told California's Daily Press that the app will save money compared with the paper surveys previously used.

The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii ), which is listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, has been one of the most expensive animals to protect in the U.S. According to the Associated Press, $93 million was spent on Mojave desert tortoise conservation between 1996 and 2006. The species' population has dropped 80 to 90 percent since the 1980s because of urbanization and predation by ravens and coyotes (which have increased in the region because they tend to follow humans coming to the area). They also face a new wave of respiratory diseases that were not seen in desert tortoises before 1980 and were probably brought to the area with people's pet tortoises.

In early October, more than 100 biologists and other contract workers rounded up several desert tortoises whose presence was blocking construction of a massive solar energy plant to be built in California's Ivanpah Valley. The 3,280-acre site was believed to be the home to at least 36 adult tortoises and an unknown number of hatchlings, although only a few adults were located. The captured tortoises will be held for several months until a new, predator- and disease-free habitat is located for them.

Photo: Mojave Desert Turtle app screen shot, courtesy of Mojave Desert Ecosystem Program.

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Winners of the World Changing Ideas Video Contest

Radical wheelchairs and windmills are among the winning concepts in the 2010 World Changing Ideas Video Contest, sponsored by Scientific American and SciVee, the online science video site. In videos running two to five minutes, entrants showcased innovative ways to build a cleaner, healthier or safer world—simple yet powerful visions of a better future.

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Some of the submissions revealed new inventions or processes, others offered ingenious ideas. A panel of five judges determined the winners based on an idea's ability to change the world, its scientific content, and its originality.

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See for yourself. Note: the pause/play buttom may only function when the video is played in full-screen mode.

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The Leveraged Freedom Chair

Video: Amos Winter and MIT News Office

A wheelchair with a hand-powered, geared drivetrain that travels effectively over sand, dirt and other terrain often confronted in developing countries. The user changes gears and propels the chair simply by moving his hands on a set of levers, allowing him to travel fast on hard ground or to go offroad.

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"Ingenious, simple, doable now. It could change one person's whole world."

"Nice, simple design."

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Idea and video: Leonardo Bonanni

A crowdsourced Web site that tracks the environmental footprint of product supply chains. Visualizations and calculators allow consumers to estimate the impact of products, foods and events.

Judges' comments:

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"A powerful meme; this kind of information inspires people to change behavior."

"Great educational tool."

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A low-cost wind turbine for suburban backyards and city rooftops that operates in slow and fast winds. Electricity is generated using uncommon aerodynamic principles.

"Good compatibility with the built environment."

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"Figured it out by experimenting in his backyard."

Judges

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Davide Castelvecchi, board of editors, Scientific American

Mark Fischetti, board of editors, Scientific American

Stephen Kyle, professor of applied economics, Cornell University

John Pavlus, writer and independent science filmmaker

Michael Webber, professor of mechanical engineering, University

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http://www.gamescore.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=121436 of Texas at Austin

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' Paranormal activity 2' takes hold of top box office spot

' Paranormal activity 2' fear competition, pulls away in $ 41.5 million in its opening weekend.

In the meantime, gross manages the Jackass 3D stunt comedy to an another $21.The action comedy was 6 Millionen.Kommenden No. 3 "red,' starring Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Mary-Louise Parker, $15 million make."

New father Matt Damon's film grossed 'Hereafter,' under the direction of Hollywood weekend, rounded drag heavyweight Clint Eastwood, $12 million during 'The social network' from the top five films at the box office in $7.3 million.

88% 127 Hours

tomatometer88 average rating: 8 / 10
Counted reviews: 16
Fresh: 14 |Rotten: 2 no score yet...Average rating: n/A
Critics Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 |Rotten: 0audience92 want to find you under
Want to see: 1411
Didn't care: 121

Genre: Drama

Synopsis: A climber is under a Boulder while canyoning near the town of Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures to survive alone gefangen.Ein climbers is caught under a Boulder while canyoning located near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures to survive alone.[More]

Rating: R [see full rating] for language and some disturbing violent content, bloody pictures

Runtime: 1 hours 33 minutes

In theater: November 5, 2010 limited

Click on the button "SAVE" to this movie in your Netflix stored queue.

Grip strength and surprisingly lively account of sawsjatyj Aron Ralston's torture while caught in a Utah Canyon.James Franco excels in this virtual a man show.

Get the triumph of human survival without the brutal reality of Aron Opfer.Seien is don't be afraid to suchen.Es good for you.

It is a coming of age story-dull, mythical, gut-wrenching.

It's a shame that admittedly concerned hypersensitivity, Boyle about audience, because this constant feeling that the movie is much more intense gets are, and it simply never happened.

The manner in which Boyle stages and Franco portrays his eventual March to the first people he has seen reminds in five days to George Bailey's triumphant run by Bedford falls, it's a wonderful life no less powerful.

Proves that Danny Boyle is one of our best work directors and James Franco of one of our best work actor is.

There?s reason never much for Aron Ralston, if root You?re, just in the hope of a happy ending.

...a technically impressive piece of work, this is not simply to consistently captivating as one might expect.

Danny Boyle dramatization of nature boy Aron Ralston has real life spoiled on the nature of the conceptual discount rate, the Director cachet to combat only, we say, a 21.00 best picture Oscar winner has deployment.

Franco challenge is transitioning from clownish outdoor and party boy to introspective chronicler of his own impending doom and a visionary of lunatic up every bit of Boyle's collection of Aron.

127 Hours combined to frighten the power of cinema with a great history and moving in same Maße.Einfach said, is wonderful.

Another great film by Danny Boyle with a potentially Oscar worthy performance of James Franco.

127 Hours is a powerful film experience, and you owe it to yourself theatrical see it for the full unforgettable impact.

What could have been static and blunt will to survive is blazingly deadly to life in this powerful and compelling story of a man.

It is a testament to the Supreme craftsmanship and professionalism of Danny Boyle and his crew just 127 hours feels a bit like with operation; the kind that you are asking to bite down on something.

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WATCH: Dwayne Johnson seeks revenge in 'Faster'

Dwayne Johnson is looking for revenge in 'Faster', and ET has a sneak peek at the upcoming thrill ride a movie!

'Faster,' plays an ex-con Johnson, has a mission after he behind bars for 10 years-to avenge his brother's murder.

The only what standing in its way is the fact that two police officers on its track played by Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton and newcomer Oliver Jackson Cohen.

"Faster" hits theatres November 24.