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Five years after the high-profile withdrawal of Merck & Co's arthritis drug Vioxx from the market, French pharmaceutical company NicOx is trying to wow the regulators with its first-in-class anti-inflammatory drug naproxcinod. The Sophia Antipolis-based firm has submitted a new drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its cyclooxygenase (Cox)-inhibiting nitric oxide-donating osteoarthritis drug, which it hopes will be the first anti-inflammatory to be given the regulatory thumbs up since the Vioxx withdrawal. Traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as aspirin work by blocking both the Cox-1 and Cox-2 enzymes, and for a time it was believed that while...

Microwave reactions in silicon carbide vials - which are heated by microwaves but shield the contents from radiation - have confirmed that most of the benefits seen in microwave-assisted chemistry are purely due to heating, Austrian chemists say.1 Oliver Kappe and his group, from the University of Graz, used custom-made sintered silicon carbide (SiC) reaction vessels to separate the heating effects of microwave radiation from so-called 'non-thermal' or 'specific' microwave effects, whereby enhancements in reaction rate, yield or selectivity are attributed to some direct interaction of the reaction mixture with the microwave radiation. Silicon carbide is ideal for this purpose because it completely absorbs...

Researchers have established the conditions that foster formation of potentially dangerous levels of a toxic substance in the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) often fed to honey bees. Their study, which appears in the current issue of ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, could also help keep the substance out of soft drinks and dozens of other human foods that contain HFCS. The substance, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), forms mainly from heating fructose. In the new study, Blaise LeBlanc and Gillian Eggleston and colleagues note HFCS's ubiquitous usage as a sweetener in beverages and processed foods. Some commercial beekeepers also feed...

Under the knife Doctoring broken bones in the future could be easier and simpler – thanks to a metallic glass material that can be used to make dissolvable screws, pins or plates. Bone fractures or breaks are routinely fixed in place with metal implants to encourage healing. These are usually made from corrosion-resistant steel or titanium, but have to be removed in a second operation once the bones have mended. In an effort to make this extra surgery a thing of the past, materials scientists led by Jörg Löffler at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have designed a metallic glass...

Contrary to what had been thought, young people with autism recognize and compare relationships among objects in scenes Children with autism have difficulty forming social relationships. But they discern relationships among objects in visual scenes surprisingly well, indicating a fundamental grasp of analogical reasoning, according to a new study. Youngsters diagnosed with autism, or autistic disorder, reason about the relations between objects and people on a par with kids free of any developmental problems, psychology graduate student Kinga Morsanyi of the University of Plymouth, England, and psychologist Keith Holyoak of the University of California, Los Angeles report in an upcoming...

If birds hosting flu virus are exposed to the waterborne pollutant, they might develop drug-resistant strains, chemists worry The premier flu-fighting drug is contaminating rivers downstream of sewage-treatment facilities, researchers in Japan confirm. The source: urinary excretion by people taking oseltamivir phosphate, best known as Tamiflu. Concerns are now building that birds, which are natural influenza carriers, are being exposed to waterborne residues of Tamiflu’s active form and might develop and spread drug-resistant strains of seasonal and avian flu. For their new study, Gopal Ghosh and his colleagues at Kyoto University sampled water discharged from three local sewage treatment plants...

Study: Women With Diabetes May Be 26% More Likely Than Other Women to Develop Atrial Fibrillation Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MDWomen with diabetes may be 26% more likely than other women to develop a heart rhythm problem called atrial fibrillation.Researchers report that news in the October edition of Diabetes Care.Data came from more than 34,000 adults who got their health care through Kaiser Permanente Northwest. The group included 17,000 diabetes patients.When the study started, atrial fibrillation was more common in diabetes patients than in people without diabetes, affecting 3.6% of the diabetes patients, compared to 2.5% of those without...

Poor bone fracture healing could be next on the list of conditions linked to diabetes, U.S. researchers say. The report, published in the American Journal of Pathology, suggests those with diabetes may have increased production of an inflammatory molecule known as TNF that causes bone fractures to heal more slowly and less satisfactorily. Dr. Dana Graves and colleagues of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark and the Boston University School of Medicine looked at bone repair in a mouse model of diabetes. The researchers find increased levels of inflammatory molecules, particularly TNF-alpha and a mediator...

Enlarge ImagePeer pressure. Magnetic domains in steel (vertical bans) arise when neighboring electrons point their magnetic poles in the same direction. Credit: Zureks, Chris Vardon/Wikimedia It would be tough to stick it to your refrigerator, but an ultra-cold gas magnetizes itself just as do metals such as iron or nickel, a team of atomic physicists reports. That cool trick shows that the messy physics within solids can be modeled with pristine gases, the researchers say. But others are skeptical that the team has actually seen what they claim. Condensed matter physicists can tell you essentially all there is to...

You shouldn't stay up all night worrying about it, but a new study has found a connection between a lack of sleep and a biomolecule thought to be important in the development of Alzheimer's disease. In both humans and mice, levels of a peptide called amyloid-β rise during waking hours and decline during sleep, researchers have found. They also report that sleep-deprived mice are more prone to developing deposits of amyloid-β, called plaques, like those found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Although far from proven, the finding suggests that sleep disorders could be a risk factor for Alzheimer's. On...

Enlarge ImageTiny bubbles. Ancient air samples trapped in ice cores helped solve a CO2 mystery. Credit: British Antarctic Survey/EPICA There's no doubt that the burning of fossil fuels over the past 2 centuries has caused a huge spike in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But CO2 levels increased gradually over the preceding millennia, too, and scientists did not know how much of that rise was caused by human activity. Now, an isotopic analysis of ancient air trapped in Antarctic ice shows that humans caused little if any of the preindustrial buildup of CO2. The findings negate...

Two popular treatments lower blood sugar but may not prevent heart disease Tightly controlling blood sugar in people with diabetes doesn’t relieve inflammation that can lead to heart disease, a new study shows. A study of 500 people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes shows that a drug called metformin and a once-daily injection of insulin are both effective in controlling blood sugar levels. But the drugs, either alone or in combination, don’t lower levels of three markers of inflammation any more than a placebo does, Aruna Pradhan, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues report...

Chemistry may help scientists improve control of invasive fire ants A fire ant’s weapon is also its weakness. The insect’s venom attracts parasitic flies, which bring about a slow ant death that ends in decapitation, scientists report in an upcoming Naturwissenschaften. By identifying venom alkaloids that attract the flies, researchers may be able to better monitor populations of the pests and their enemies and to design improved fire ant control strategies. Fire ants were imported from South America in the early 20th century and, with little competition and no natural enemies, quickly became a major pest in the southeastern United...

CHICAGO — Although Hispanics are grossly underrepresented in heart failure trials, emerging evidence suggests they have unique risk factors and heart failure outcomes that must be taken into clinical consideration. The evidence also underscores the importance of recognizing the vast heterogeneity of Hispanics, Dr. Ileana Piña said at a meeting sponsored by the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks. “Hispanics represent a cultural group, not a racially identifiable group,” said the Cuban-born cardiologist. “You can't lump them all together.” But that's exactly what has happened. Until the Medicare enrollment files were changed in 1994, Hispanics or Native Americans were simply...

Dalton, a squirrel monkey treated with gene therapy, enjoys his new colour sense.Neitz Laboratory Researchers have used gene therapy to restore colour vision in two adult monkeys that have been unable to distinguish between red and green hues since birth — raising the hope of curing colour blindness and other visual disorders in humans."This is a truly amazing study," says András Komáromy, a vision researcher and veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the research. "If we can target gene expression specifically to cones [in humans] then this has a tremendous implication."About 1...

Stem cells have a unique ability: when they divide, they can either give rise to more stem cells, or to a variety of specialised cell types. In both mice and humans, a layer of cells at the base of the skin contains stem cells that can develop into the specialised cells in the layers above. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT) in Madrid, have discovered two proteins that control when and how these stem cells switch to being skin cells. The findings,...

Manuka honey may kill bacteria by destroying key bacterial proteins. Dr Rowena Jenkins and colleagues from the University of Wales Institute - Cardiff investigated the mechanisms of manuka honey action and found that its anti-bacterial properties were not due solely to the sugars present in the honey. The work was presented this week (7-10 September), at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was grown in the laboratory and treated with and without manuka honey for four hours. The experiment was repeated with sugar syrup to determine if the effects seen were...

Findings yield deep insights into the pathogen’s remarkable adaptability, suggest a “two-speed” genomic strategy that enables it to outwit plant hosts A large international research team has decoded the genome of the notorious organism that triggered the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century and now threatens this season’s tomato and potato crops across much of the US. Published in the September 9 online issue of the journal Nature, the study reveals that the organism boasts an unusually large genome size — more than twice that of closely related species — and an extraordinary genome structure, which together appear to...

Carbon nanotubes are increasingly being used in everyday products such as sporting equipment, biomedical devices and aeroplanes. But questions remain as to how safe these nanotubes really are. A main factor in nanotube toxicity are the metal contaminants that remain from manufacture, which are typically one to ten per cent by weight, say Martin Pumera and Yuji Miyahara at the National Institute for Materials Science, Ibaraki, Japan. 'Carbon nanotubes are often viewed as homogenous materials, which is of course incorrect - they often contain impurities which are not even listed by the manufacturers,'  says Pumera.  The pair have used an electrochemical...

Juice extracted from North American lowbush blueberries, biotransformed with bacteria from the skin of the fruit, holds great promise as an anti-obesity and anti-diabetic agent. The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, was conducted by researchers from the Université de Montréal, the Institut Armand-Frappier and the Université de Moncton who tested the effects of biotransformed juices compared to regular blueberry drinks on mice. "Results of this study clearly show that biotransformed blueberry juice has strong anti-obesity and anti-diabetic potential," says senior author Pierre S. Haddad, a pharmacology professor at the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine. "Biotransformed blueberry...

The number of car-to-house-sized meteoroids whizzing through the Earth’s neighborhood is about 10 times higher than Earth-based telescopic surveys suggest, a new study reveals. That finding, reported online August 28 and in an upcoming Journal of Geophysical Research–Planets, comes from analyses of recently declassified data on infrasonic waves in the atmosphere detected between November 1960 and April 1972. The network of instruments collecting the data was originally designed to detect low-frequency sound waves produced by aboveground nuclear tests, says Elizabeth Silber, a planetary physicist at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. But during the 13-year period, the instruments...

Enlarge ImageDramatic but transient. Within 2 months, a novel drug candidate shriveled a man's metastasized cancer (center). One month later, the cancer, now resistant, resurged. Credit: C. M. Rudin et al., NEJM (2009) © Massachusetts Medical Society In the first clinical proof of its kind, a drug has dramatically shrunk cancerous tumors by disrupting a key genetic pathway. But a study targeting one deadly brain cancer, medulloblastoma, ended in disappointment as the patient's once-tamed tumor quickly developed resistance to the drug and killed him. The drug, GDC-0449, was developed at Genentech in South San Francisco, California. It locks onto...

The latest school grades released by the city's Education Department are bogus. An astonishing 84% of 1,058 elementary and middle schools received an A (compared with 38% last year and 23% in 2007). Another 13% got a B. Only seven schools rated a D or an F. Four schools labeled "persistently dangerous" by the state got an A from the city, and three of these deeply troubled schools got a B. Three schools that the city wants to close because of low performance got an A. Every school that got an F last year got an A or B this...

Two cans of fizzy drink a day could cause long term liver damage, resulting in the need for a transplant, according to new research. Researchers are now urging parents to cut back on their children’s consumption of fizzy drinks as well as reducing fresh fruit juices substituting them for water. Liver damage is normally associated with alcohol abuse but the new study has found that non-alcoholic drinks with a high sugar content can cause a condition called fatty liver disease. Related Articles Artificial sweeteners 'do nothing to help weight loss' Scientists from Israel found that people who drank a litre...

A gene that controls the way the body responds to the hormone insulin has been identified, marking a breakthrough in the fight against diabetes. Scientists believe a variation in the gene's DNA promotes insulin resistance, the primary cause of type 2 diabetes. The disease is the most common form of diabetes, affecting around two million people in the UK. The discovery could lead to new drug treatments that target the genetic fault and prevent the body failing to respond to insulin. The hormone controls the way cells absorb glucose from the blood and use it to generate energy. In type...

Leg size may be a more accurate indicator of risks than the waistline. We know having a large waistline is unhealthy. But larger thighs, it appears, may protect against heart disease and premature death. A study published on BMJ.com, the website of the British Medical Journal, found that men and women whose thighs are less than 23.6 inches have a higher risk of premature death and heart disease compared with those with thighs exceeding that size. Having thighs that are even bigger, however, confers no added benefit. The study is the first to suggest that thigh size matters. The measurement...

A team of scientists in the US has discovered two new antibodies that could lead to an HIV vaccine. Researchers from the Scripps Institute in California, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and US-based biotech companies Theraclone Sciences and Monogram Biosciences discovered these two broadly neutralising antibodies using high-throughput screening of serum from patients infected with HIV.When people are first infected with HIV, they produce antibodies that are specific to the infected strain, but a few years later some start to make antibodies active against other strains of the virus - known as broadly neutralising antibodies. 'There is a huge variability in...

BOSTON — Proponents of the Atkins low-carbohydrate/high saturated fat diet say that you can have your steak and eat it, too, and still lose weight. But the adverse metabolic consequences are too heavy a price to pay, Australian investigators reported at a symposium sponsored by the International Atherosclerosis Society. After 1 year, overweight and obese patients randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or to a low-saturated-fat, high-carbohydrate diet lost similar amounts of weight. But patients on the Atkins diet had a deterioration in flow-mediated arterial dilatation, a marker for cardiovascular disease, and higher levels of LDL cholesterol than at baseline,...

Enlarge ImageGood catch. Using zebrafish, researchers were able to track down the gene that causes this giant mirror carp to have few, large scales. Credit: Oliver Hasselhoff A long-standing question in biology is how evolution tinkers with genes without mucking things up. The prevailing theory is that the genome has copies of critical genes, so that if mutations spoil one, there's a backup. Now researchers have new proof that evolution can work this way. The scientists tracked down a duplicated gene that made possible so-called mirror fish, which have large, reflective scales. "This is a valuable proof of concept...

TORONTO -- The lungs of people who have died from swine flu look more like those of the victims of H5N1 avian influenza than those of people who succumb to regular flu, the chief of infectious diseases pathology at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says. Study of about 70 fatal H1N1 cases so far also reveals there may be more incidences of co-infections with bacteria than was earlier thought, Dr. Sherif Zaki told The Canadian Press in an interview. The damage to lung tissue is consistent with that inflicted by ARDS or acute respiratory distress symptom, Zaki says, referring...

German researchers have used standard circular dichroism spectroscopy to probe interactions between drug molecules and DNA within living cells. This avoids the need for fluorescent or radionuclide labelling, allowing easy insight into potential mechanisms of drug action.Birgit Krewer, Lutz Tietze and colleagues from the Georg-August-University of Göttingen were trying to understand the anti-cancer action of a series of molecules based on a natural antibiotic called CC-1065, which are thought to bind to DNA and prevent its replication. 'CC-1065 is very toxic,' explains Krewer, 'so our approach was to synthesise some pro-drugs with reduced toxicity that could be activated inside the...

Report hints at the existence of a new and massive elementary particle In a weak moment, researchers have found an unexpected asymmetry in particle production that could hint at exotic physics. The tentative evidence, announced August 21, could be the fingerprint of a massive elementary particle that would help unify three of the four known forces in nature. The physicists collected data for nearly a decade at the Belle particle accelerator experiment in Tsukuba, Japan. In the experiment, known as a B factory, beams of electrons and positrons collide to produce millions of pairs of B mesons and anti-B mesons....

Attorney General Eric Holder warned his Scottish counterpart in June that the man convicted of blowing US-bound Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky could get a hero’s welcome if allowed to return to Libya, according to the head of a group representing the families of victims. Holder’s warning to Scotland’s justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, came nearly two months before the bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison and greeted by a cheering crowd on his arrival in Libya last week. Notes prepared ahead of Holder’s June 26 conversation with MacAskill were provided to the Associated...

A deficiency of the sunshine vitamin may worsen plaque accumulation in vessels of diabetes patients Vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate the excess heart disease risk that people with type 2 diabetes face, a new study in the Aug. 25 Circulation suggests. In lab tests, researchers demonstrate that immune cells with very low vitamin D levels turn into soggy, cholesterol-filled baggage that can become building blocks of arterial plaques. Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, an endocrinologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and his colleagues found that people with diabetes seem more susceptible than nondiabetics to the negative cardiovascular effects attributable...

People over 60 who consume moderate amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, according to a large review of studies. The analysis, which appeared in the July issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, reviewed 15 studies that together followed more than 28,000 subjects for at least two years. All the studies controlled for age, sex, smoking and other factors. The studies variously defined light to moderate drinking as 1 to 28 drinks per week. Compared with abstainers, male drinkers reduced their risk for dementia by 45 percent, and women by 27 percent...

Finding could offer insight into autism and other disorders Related Links: Dr. Ralph Adolphs Pasadena, Calif.—In a finding that sheds new light on the neural mechanisms involved in social behavior, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have pinpointed the brain structure responsible for our sense of personal space.The discovery, described in the August 30 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, could offer insight into autism and other disorders where social distance is an issue.The structure, the amygdala—a pair of almond-shaped regions located in the medial temporal lobes—was previously known to process strong negative emotions, such as anger and...

A small molecule earlier found to have both anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities works as a literal turnoff for fat-making genes, according to a new report in the August 28th issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology, a Cell Press journal. The chemical blocks a well known master controller of fat synthesis, a transcription factor known as SREBP. That action in mice that are genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner. It also lowers the amount of fat in their livers, along with their blood sugar and cholesterol levels. "We are frankly very excited about it," said Salih...

By John Gever, Senior Editor Military doctors can use a portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing device to diagnose novel H1N1 flu infections in troops overseas, the FDA announced. The emergency authorization was approved "to better protect our troops," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, in a statement. The device, called JBAIDS (Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System), is a rugged, suitcase-sized instrument that can run PCR-based molecular diagnostic tests. It has been under development for several years by a consortium of military health research centers, the CDC, and academic medical laboratories. The development program began in the...

Contact: Alisa Zapp Machalekalisa.machalek@nih.gov 301-496-7301NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences Gene variant linked to risk of stroke and heart attack for those on Plavix NIGMS media availability WHAT: A new study reports that a gene variant carried by about a third of the population plays a major role in this group's response to an anti-clotting medicine, clopidogrel (Plavix). People with the variant produce a defective version of the CYP2C19 enzyme and are less able to activate the drug.One of the world's best-selling medicines, Plavix prevents blood clots in people with heart disease by keeping platelets from sticking together. But about...

Beijing, ChinaA string of serious poisoning incidents caused by industrial pollution have triggered strong public protests across China, but experts say the events could represent an opportunity to improve the nation's environmental protection.A serious case of pollution in Fengxiang County in northwestern Shaanxi Province in early August led to 174 children from three villages being diagnosed with lead poisoning, with 851 of 1,016 children tested found to have abnormally high levels of lead in their blood.The poisoning, very likely caused by pollution from a nearby smelter, has led to violence among outraged parents, who reportedly smashed trucks and tore down fences...

Sensitive search fails to find ripples in space, but boosts hopes for future hunts.Supernovas, such as the one which created the Crab Nebula, should send out bursts of gravity waves.NASA The hunt for gravitational waves may not have found the elusive ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein, but the latest results from the most sensitive survey to date are providing clear insight into the origins and fabric of the Universe.General relativity predicts that gravitational waves are generated by accelerating masses. Violent yet rare events, such as a supernova explosion or the collision of two black holes, should make the...

An engineered bacterium can deliver a therapeutic protein straight to the gut when fed with xylan.Could genetically-engineered bacteria help to banish gastrointestinal woes?Punchstock A gut-dwelling bacterium has been genetically engineered to deliver a dose of therapeutic protein on demand.Protein production in the engineered bacterium is switched on only when its host eats the complex sugar xylan. Tests on mice that had colonies of the bacteria in their guts showed that the expressed protein can successfully treat an inflammatory bowel disease called colitis.The research, to be published in the journal Gut1, has potential as an alternative method for delivering drugs to...

Could nanoparticles cause some lung damage?C. Juste/Miami Herald/Newscom Claims that seven Chinese factory workers developed severe lung damage from inhaling nanoparticles are stoking the debate over the environmental-health effects of nanotechnology.A paper published in the European Respiratory Journal claims to be the first to document cases of ill health caused by nanoparticles in humans (Y. Song, X. Li and X. Du Eur. Respir. J. 34, 559 - 567; 2009). Other experts are sceptical as to whether nanoparticles are actually to blame, but the paper has triggered lively discussions."The study raises the bar for doing appropriate research as fast as possible to...

Mathematical model suggests that US experts got their priorities wrong.Vaccinating very young children against swine flu should not be the top priority, a study suggests.Alamy The US policy for which groups should be the first to receive influenza vaccines is not the most effective strategy to limit the spread of swine flu, according to a paper published online today in Science1.Last month, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel recommended that young people aged from 6 months to 24 years old should be placed at the front of the queue for flu jabs. But a new...

Gene-association studies hint at better ways of treating the leading cause of death, but capitalizing on them is proving to be a slow and difficult process. Erika Check Hayden reports. Cardiovascular conditions are the leading cause of death worldwide.A. MASSEE/SPL As personalized cancer treatment edges into the clinic, doctors and scientists are hoping that cardiovascular disease — the world's top killer — will be next to benefit from genomics.An avalanche of studies has linked genetic variants to various cardiovascular conditions and to patients' responses to commonly prescribed drugs. First up could be genetic guidance for the anti-clotting agents warfarin and...

People are less likely to get antibiotics for respiratory infections Since the mid-1990s, doctors have written fewer antibiotic prescriptions per year for respiratory infections, a new survey shows. The drop in these prescriptions in the United States per thousand people from 1995 to 2006 is 36 percent in children under age 5 and 18 percent among persons age 5 and up, researchers report in the Aug. 19 Journal of the American Medical Association. Many respiratory infections do not typically require antibiotics, including influenza, viral pneumonia, bronchitis, laryngitis, common colds and other infections caused by viruses. Infections more deserving of antibiotics...

In some patients, hormone typically seen as troublemaker can induce cancer cells to self-destruct In some breast cancer patients who have tried everything but chemotherapy, estrogen can stall tumor growth, a new study finds. The idea is counterintuitive since estrogen acts as a growth stimulant in most breast cancers. But using the hormone as an anticancer weapon is actually an old strategy that might offer a new treatment option, researchers report in the Aug. 19 Journal of the American Medical Association. They are cautiously optimistic because a screening test used in the new study can determine with considerable accuracy which...

PHILADELPHIA — The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say. The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees. The new program is to be introduced at two...

Human see. Human do. As with monkeys, it’s apparently the same for some nerve cells in the brain. Macaque monkeys have specialized brain cells — called mirror neurons — that activate when a monkey performs an action involving an object, such as picking up a grape, or when watching someone else do the same task. The discovery of these neurons in 1996 led to speculation that they could be involved in everything from simulating others’ actions to language development to autism. There was only one problem: no one had definite proof that such cells exist in humans. Now a new...

Global production of the feedstock for the leading medical-imaging isotope is low and erratic, putting health care in jeopardy. Within the next two weeks, the vast majority of radioactive-imaging medical tests could be delayed or replaced by less desirable procedures. The reason: temporary shutdowns of Canadian and Dutch reactors that together normally provide some 70 percent of the world’s supplies of the isotope molybdenum-99 and at least 80 percent of North American supplies. Each week, U.S. doctors prescribe some 300,000 medical-imaging tests that rely on technetium-99m, a radioactive isotope produced from molybdenum-99. About half of those tests measure heart function....