Sony refreshed many of its mainstreamCyber-shotcameras at CES. Now that we're on the cusp of spring, the company is giving equal love to a trio of more specialized shooters arriving in the US. The 20.4-megapixel Cyber-shot HX300 superzoom easily bests its HX200V ancestor in the optics department with a 50X, 24-1,200mm equivalent lens that sports better stabilization, but the real allure is its autofocus speed: it can lock in twice as quickly at telephoto distances, giving us more reason to use all that extra reach. The WX300 compact zoom isn't quite as alluring on paper with its 18.2-megapixel sensor and 20X (25-50mm equivalent) lens, although it carries autofocus about 3.6 times speedier than the old HX30 while stuffing in WiFi for simpler photo sharing.
These two are joined by the TX30, an all-around improvement for last year's waterproof TX20 camera. While there isn't quite a revolution on the outside, the TX30 can survive twice the depth at 33 feet, carries a longer-zoomed 5X (26-130mm) lens and bumps the resolution to 18.2 megapixels. Both the TX30 and the HX300 will come first, hitting American shops in March at respective $350 and $500 prices. The WX300 will miss March break with its April release, but it will be the cheapest of the pack at $330.
Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening horse meat scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in the furniture giant's frozen meatballs. Ikea sold the meatballs, labeled as beef and pork, in 13 countries across Europe.?
By Karl Ritter,?Associated Press / February 25, 2013
Advertising for Ikea meatballs at the parking area at an Ikea store in Malmo Sweden Monday Feb. 25, 2012. The furniture retailer says it has halted all sales of meat balls in Sweden after Czech authorities detected horse meat in frozen meatballs that were labeled as beef and pork.
Johannes Cleris/AP/File
Enlarge
Swedish furniture giant?Ikea?was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries across the continent.
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The Czech State Veterinary Administration said that horse meat was found in one-kilogram packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in?Ikea?stores there. A total of 760 kilograms (1,675 pounds) of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.
Ikea?spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in?Ikea?stores in all those countries. Other shipments of meatballs were not affected, she added.
However, the company's Swedish branch announced on its Facebook page that it won't sell or serve any meatballs at its stores in Sweden out of concern for "potential worries among our customers."
Magnusson said?Ikea?saw no reason to extend that guidance globally. She said?Ikea?was conducting its own tests of the affected batch. She also said that two weeks ago?Ikea?tested a range of frozen food products, including meatballs, and found no traces of horse meat.
Ikea's?stores feature restaurants and also sell typical Swedish food, including the so-called Kottbullar meatballs.
European Union officials were meeting Monday to discuss tougher food labeling rules after the discovery of horse meat in a range of frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna that were supposed to contain beef or pork.
The Czech authority also announced Monday that it found horse meat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.
Spanish authorities, meanwhile, announced that traces of horse meat were found in a beef cannelloni product by one of the brands of Nestle, a Switzerland-based food giant. The Agriculture Ministry said it was a case of fraudulent labeling but represented no health threat.
In a statement on its website, Nestle Spain said that after carrying out tests on meat supplied to its factories in Spain it was withdrawing six "La Cocinera" products and one "Buitoni" product from store shelves.
It said it was taking the action after the traces of horse meat were found in beef bought from a supplier in central Spain. Nestle said it was taking legal action against the company, adding that the products would be replaced by ones with 100 percent beef.
Some EU member states are pressing for tougher labeling rules to regain consumer confidence.
The 27-nation bloc must agree on binding origin disclosures for food product ingredients, starting with a better labeling of meat products, German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner said.
"Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," she insisted.
Austria backs the German initiative; but others like Ireland say existing rules are sufficient although Europe-wide controls must be strengthened to address the problem of fraudulent labeling.
The scandal has created a split between nations like Britain who see further rules as a protectionist hindrance of free trade under the bloc's single market, and those calling for tougher regulation.
Processed food products ? a business segment with traditionally low margins that often leads producers to hunt for the cheapest suppliers ? often contain ingredients from multiple suppliers in different countries, who themselves at time subcontract production to others, making it hard to monitor every link in the production chain.
Standardized DNA checks with meat suppliers and more stringent labeling rules will add costs that producers will most likely hand down to consumers, making food more expensive.
The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country's announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.
Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labeled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves.
More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnas, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.
If you?re in the market for a business opportunity, the chances are good that you?ve explored a variety of ways to make money online and work from home. In truth, there are so many Internet business opportunities out there that it?s almost impossible to tell the best from the rest. And the grim reality is that, while thousands of people launch online businesses in the hope of achieving financial freedom, the majority end up making very little money at all, or worse, paying out more money to their uplines than they?re ever able to recoup.
The good news is that, with the right partnership, you can promote your existing business while multiplying your revenue streams. That way, you don?t have to rely on a single, make-or-break source of income. It?s a bit like planting a garden. It would never cross your mind to plant a single seed in the spring and count on that to feed your family throughout the summer. Instead, you?d plant many varieties of seeds, knowing that one or more will bear fruit as the seasons progress.
The Internet business partner you choose should be one that can provide you the one thing that is the downfall of most work from home opportunities: training. All too often, people who intend to succeed come up against their own limitations and fail to properly market their products. In our garden analogy, that?s like planting your seeds in a drought ? why bother? The company you select should have a proven track record of Internet marketing success, and give you the water spigot and hose you need to tend to your business garden.
So, make sure to look for a company that provides you with training on topics ranging from online and offline marketing to back office functionality and goal setting. They should also be equipped to provide you with tutorials on a wide variety of powerful marketing techniques. After all, there?s stiff competition on the Internet, and in order to successfully compete, you need to know all there is to know about methods such as article marketing, blogging, email marketing, banner advertising, press releases, pay-per-click advertising, and viral marketing ? just to name a few.
At the same time, being knowledgeable about Internet marketing doesn?t mean that you need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, look for a business opportunity that provides you with tools like professional lead capture pages, automated follow-up, a sales center, and a secure website. Ideally, they should also provide you with highly sought after products that you can re-sell ? items like audios, videos, software, templates, and guides. This way, you can increase those revenue streams by earning a healthy commission on every sale, and still have the professional infrastructure in place to promote your existing business.
When you know what to look for, it?s not difficult to separate the best Internet business opportunities from the dregs. In no time at all, your seeds will have sprouted, your plants will bloom, and you?ll be reaping a bountiful harvest.
Seems like you can make calls from everywhere these days, so really, why not one's browser? Mozilla, AT&T and Ericsson are using MWC to launch their new WebRTC-based proof of concept that'll bring plugin-free phone functionality to Firefox, letting users make voice calls, video calls, share files and access things like their address book through the comfort of their browser. Ericsson and Mozilla will be showing the proof of concept off this week at MWC -- if you're not in Barcelona, you can live vicariously through the press release after the break.
Many gamers keeping up with the rumors of the next generation consoles feared the worst- used games being denied access when put into another machine. However, we can all stop hyperventilating as Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed this will not be the case. In an interview with Eurogamer, Yoshida responded to the blatant question with a flat out "So, used games can play on PS4. How is that?" Doesn?t get more concrete than that, huh? Remember, these rumors also applied to the next Xbox, so we all still need to keep our fingers crossed on that one...Gamestop especially.
Customer support tool Zendesk announced in a blog post Friday that it had been hacked earlier this week. The hack affected users of three services that use Zendesk: Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter.
"We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines," Zendesk said in the post. It did not name the three customers publicly, but subsequent e-mails from Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter to their customers confirmed the breach.
"We recently learned that the vendor we use to answer support requests and other emails (Zendesk) experienced a security breach," said Pinterest in an email. The pinboard-style photosharing social network site said it was only sending the e-mail to people who had used Zendesk and were possibly compromised.
It urged users to take measures to keep their accounts secure by not sharing their passwords and using strong passwords.
Tumblr told its customers to review any e-mail conversations they had with Zendesk to make sure there was no account information that could be used in phishing attacks.
They sell an iPod touch at a profit for $199, why not an iPhone? Reduce memory to 8GB instead of 16GB, smaller screen back down to 3.5" along with a plastic exterior and it could be done. Basically an updated, slimmed down 3GS with lightning connector in multiple colors. I am not saying Apple will or should do this, but I can at least see that it is feasible if they so chose. I think a much more likely price would be $249 to as high as $299 for such a phone. Even in this cheaper market segment Apple would still rather be the premium brand.
There are valid reasons for and against this move but I tend to side with Gene on this one. No reason to completely abandon a $135B market. Many of those people buying cheap phones today will buy flagship models in the future so why not get them into the Apple ecosystem and familiar with iOS now. It would also be popular for children and people without contracts or subsidies in developed countries as well. The shuffle didn't destroy the iPod brand, the mini didn't cause irreparable harm to Macintosh line and neither would a more affordable iPhone.
I agree with most of what you're saying here. ?but I think the Nano hurt the iPod Classic quite a bit. ?And it's going to be tough to design and iPhone that is a lot less expensive yet not completely cannibalize the flagship iPhone like the Nano did to the Classic. ?I know Apple doesn't care about cannibalization from their own line, but the iPhone is the cash cow. ?The only way they can do this is to rethink the iPhone for the emerging markets. ?Maybe not by reducing build/material costs, but to rethink it in a way that just not as feature rich. ?I've argued it your way and the opposite on other thread yet neither argument seems feasible for both an the flagship device to stick around and a less expensive version to emerge.
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when I travel to China the most common phones i see in the subways and out are the 4"-5" smartphones, and the older crackberry candy-bar feature phones. ?And the later is what Apple needs to re-imagine. ?Not the Smartphones. ?I don't think it's going to happen by just reducing the build-costs and material costs alone. ?THe form-factor and features are going to have to be re-thought in order to find a less expensive solution without totally cannibalizing their flagship device. ?And I DON'T think its going to be an iWatch or any other kind of wearable device.
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Addition: I think the reason Apple hasn't come out with a lower cost, feature-light, device yet is even they can't figure out how to make a less expensive iPhone that doesn't take away from the flagship model. ?I think they are probably spending a LOT of time trying to figure out how to do this, but coming up short. ?How do you make an iPhone less expensive and give the same iPhone-like experience, but not completely obliterate the flagship device? ?Ask yourself. ?If you had the choice of an iPhone experience that was encased in Plastic or some other less expensive material, yet it does everything the flagship model does and is subsidy-free and $700 cheaper, why would you even consider the flagship model? ?because you like to throw away money on something you'll replace in 1-2 years? ?No, you'll buy the cheaper one, knowing it didn't cost you anything and it's easier to replace. ?So then why keep the flagship model around?
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It's going to have to be non-retina, smaller SDD, less expensive materials, lesser components. ?and probably reduce the amount of Apps or even drop the App store all together. ?But then, why buy it or even build one at that point? ?So i think that's the problem Apple sees, and that's why I think they are going to have to NOT rethink a cheaper iPhone, but rethink a feature Phone.
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I think this strategy could also work in the Western markets too. ?Because in those markets. ?Everyone that wants a smartphone has already made their choice. ?It's saturated. ?So those people now have moved to the iPad or Mini iPad for their secondary option. ?THose (like me) now might be thinking: ?"Well, I used to use my phone for everything, I have my iPad and/or Mini. ?So no I use my phone for only a few things. ?I don't need all of what my iPad does when i'm out. ?I only use phone, sms, email and maps...maybe the occasional web browsing and games on the train...and this damn phone is costing me $90-$120/mo. ?that's crazy!!!"
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There needs to be some very distinguishing factors that clearly separate the flagship iPhone to this rumored less-expensive iPhone. ?there has to be a compromise without sacrificing user experience. ?If you simply just make the iPhone less expensive but put the same iOS in it, there will be no reason for anyone to buy the more expensive version. ?Every Apple product line has clear separations between the models. ?LIke the Nano to the Classic. ?Much smaller, lighter, but very limited SDD. ?The iPad Mini to the Classic, it's lighter, thinner, same?experience, but no retina and slightly lesser processor. ?The same goes with the MBP+r and the MBA. ?Lighter, slower, no retina. ?THey could go this way with the iPhone, but then they would have to drop the other iPhone models being sold.
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So yes, the argument of keeping the same OS but reducing materials (lighter, thinner, lesser materials, processing power and lower quality components) could work, but in the case of the iPhone, I think it will go the same as the iPod Nano did to the classic. ?Nobody bought the classic after the Nano came out. ?the nano was almost the expendable iPod model. ?If it broke, throw it for a new one. ?I think it's going to have to be more than just materials and components that are the compromise. ?At the price points we're talking about (the $99-$199 range) people replace these kinds of phones almost annually, sometimes quicker. ?And really gives no reason to upgrade to something better. ?IT's going to have to be like an updated iPhone Gen 1 for $199 vs. the iPhone 5 for $699.
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What if...Apple made a phone that took away the traditional voice functionality and re-designed the Phone App to Data-only phone App with a iCloud phone number that could connect just like a voice phone App? ?Google Voice basically does this already. ?It works with Phone and SMS. ?This could change everything. ?Then there would be no need for the iPod Touch and the iPhone to both co-exist. ?That might get some major push-back from the Cell industry, but it would be a bold move to the future of phones. ?All Data. ?No more Voice/Text. ?Then, they could drop the Touch line and just have an iPhone line. ?They could even update the iPod Nano with a mic. and speaker and there's your iPhone Nano.
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I think now that more and more Cell companies (in the western world) are dropping the subsidies, the future is looking more an more to the All Data plan.
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Think of disaster recovery plans as your company?s insurance policy against the loss of data and services due to a disaster or hardware failure. Your company most likely has insurance plans for other aspects of operating the business, but why not one for IT data and services?
While it might sound like a complicated process, with the right tools it doesn?t have to be. The most effective plans place a copy of your critical data and applications onsite for a quick restore if there?s an IT issue, but also place a copy at an offsite location many miles away from the original data center (also known as ?in the cloud?) so if your primary site is inoperable, your data is still intact and accessible.
One of the lessons many companies learned from Hurricane Sandy is this data stored to an offsite location must be geographically dispersed. Many companies in New York thought they were safe because their data was stored offsite, but the offsite locations ended up being too close, and in the hurricane?s path as well.
According to a 2012 study (2012 Coleman Parkes Research, Ltd), every North American business loses an average of $159,331 per year due to IT downtime and data loss. In addition, the average SMB suffers 10 hours of downtime per year. The difference between just minutes of downtime and days can impact the bottom line by tens of thousands of dollars.
As for SMBs, a study by Applied Research in 2011 found that for SMB?s with fewer than 100 employees, a single day of downtime for a single server costs an average of $12,500.
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Axcient?s innovations in cloud-based backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery give you the peace of mind that important records are always available, from anywhere, no matter what happens.
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Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk definitely isn't the best guy to try to pull a fast one on. The visionary entrepreneur set Twitter a titter when he claimed earlier this week that New York Times writer John Broder had fudged details about the Tesla Models S car's range in cold weather, resulting in what he termed a "fake" article. Musk promised evidence, and now he has delivered, via the official Tesla blog.
????PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 15, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia's Music Director is the composer behind the music of new television mini-series, Parade's End, which premieres on HBO on Tuesday, February 26. Maestro Dirk Brosse's score encapsulates the period of World War I, in addition to the romance and drama of the core relationships in the story.
Parade's End is a five-part television mini-series, made in collaboration by HBO, BBC and VRT. Based on the best-selling tetralogy of novels of the same name by Ford Madox Ford, it tells the story of an eradicative love triangle between an English aristocrat, his cruel socialite wife, and a young suffragette during the First World War. The series premiered on BBC Two on August 24, 2012 and has already received favorable reviews. Parade's End will premiere on HBO on February 26, 2013.
Dirk Brosse is a multi-faceted composer, and a respected conductor on the international music scene. Aside from being the Music Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, he is also the professor of conductor and composition at the School of Arts/Royal Conservatory of Music in Ghent. He has conducted major symphony orchestras across the globe, including the Brussels Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. As a composer, he has written more than 200 works, which have been performed all over the world, and have been recorded in more than 40 countries.
The soundtrack to Parade's End, and the video to the mini-series is available on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray, on Amazon.com. The trailer to Parade's End is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0v7Ck8_Ic
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is a founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and performs from September through May in its home, the intimate Perelman Theater. For information, please contact The Chamber Orchestra at 215.545.5451 or visit www.chamberorchestra.org.
--- Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
Top Talkers: Reeva Steenkamp, a model said to be dating Olympic and Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius, has been found shot dead in Pistorious' home, police said.
By John Newland, Jason Cumming and Cecile Antonie, NBC News
Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius?was charged with murder Thursday after his girlfriend was shot dead at his South African home.
South African Police spokeswoman Denise Beukes said that Pistorius, 26, and the victim were the only people present when the shooting took place.?The woman had been shot at least twice, police said.
Numerous media outlets reported that the sprinter -- who is nicknamed "Blade Runner" because he races wearing carbon fiber prosthetic blades --?may have mistaken the woman for an intruder.?
Beukes would not confirm the victim's identity, but said investigators were "very surprised" to hear media reports that the shooting was possibly a case of mistaken identity.?
A publicist for Reeva Steenkemp, a model whom Pistorius was dating, confirmed to NBC's TODAY that her client was dead. She described the incident as a "huge loss for everyone and too shocking for words."
Chris Collingridge / AP
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday.
Beukes said there were no signs of forced entry to the home and said that police would oppose any application Pistorius might make to be released on bail.?
Beukes said there had been reports about previous problems at Pistorius' home which were "allegations of a domestic nature." When a reporter asked if she meant domestic violence, she nodded and said "yes".
"There are witnesses and we have interviewed them," she added. "We're talking about neighbors and people who heard things earlier in the evening and when the shooting took place."
The Associated Press reported that a 9mm handgun had been found at his home in the?luxurious Silver Woods gated community.
More on this story from NBC Sports
Sarit Tomlinson, who is?Steenkemp's publicist, told Britains' Sky News that the the pair had been together for a couple months.
"She was a rising star ... a very bright young girl," Tomlinson said. She noted that "no one knows what happened" but said "we are in communication with the people on the scene."
The Silver Woods Country Estate released a statement on its website early Thursday: "We are deeply?saddened?by the tragic cir?cum?stances that occurred today at Sil?ver Woods. Our?sincere?con?do?lences, thoughts and prayers go out to Reeva Steenkamp?s fam?ily and friends."
Steenkamp, a 30-year-old law school graduate, gushed about Valentine's Day on Twitter Wednesday, posting "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow???" and "It should be a day of love for everyone."
Pistorius was born?without a fibula in both legs and battled for years to be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes.?
'National hero' He was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics. He qualified for the 400-meter semi-finals and 4 x 400-meter final at the London 2012 Summer Games.?
His website highlighted that Pistorius ran in 11 races?during the London 2012 Olympics and Paralymics and returned home with "two Paralympic gold medals, Paralympic silver, two world records, a Paralympic record, an Olympic individual semi-final and an Olympic final."
Pistorius, a double amputee born without fibulas in his legs, has trained hard to participate in the Olympics despite having to wear prosthetic legs. NBC's Mary Carillo reports.
He earned headlines after qualifying for the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, and is widely considered the world's most famous disabled athelete.
Speaking to Sky News, South African journalist Kribani Pillay described Pistorius as a "national hero and national icon."
Violent crime is major issue in South Africa and many homeowners own guns.
In a January 2012?New York Times?article,?Pistorius described his reaction to a security alarm going off in his home:
He mentioned that a security alarm in the house had gone off the previous night, and he had grabbed his gun and tiptoed downstairs. (It turned out to be nothing.)
I asked what kind of gun he owned ...??He fetched his 9-millimeter handgun and two boxes of ammunition. We got back in the car and drove to a nearby firing range, where he instructed me on proper technique. Pistorius was a good coach. ... I asked him how often he came to the range. ?Just sometimes when I can?t sleep,? he said.
The U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security warns of the danger of Pretoria and other South African cities: "On a rating scale of low, medium, high, and critical, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town are rated 'critical' for crime."
Citing South African Police Service 2011 crime statistics, the agency pointed out home invasion as a particularly violent crime that occurs "at an alarmingly high rate."
In Gauteng Province, which includes Pretoria and Johannesburg, there were 7,039 home invasions reported in 2011, according South African police statistics.
Artist Melinda Bam of Pretoria, who was Miss South Africa 2011, expressed her sadness on Twitter and mentioned "how unsafe most South Africans feel because of crime."
South Africa's Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee declined to discuss the shooting.?
"SASCOC ... knows no more than what is in the public domain, which is there has been an alleged fatal shooting on the basis of a mistaken identity and an apparent assumption of a burglary," it said. "The organization is in no position to comment on the incident other than to say our deepest sympathy and condolences have been expressed to the families of all concerned."?
Oscar Pistorius may soon make history as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. The South African sprinter's emergence as one of the world's fastest runners has generated controversy over whether his carbon fiber prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage, something he vehemently denies. NBC Sports' Mary Carillo reports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
Pistorius sorry for timing of outburst at Paralympics -- but is brand destroyed?
'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage
Full coverage of London 2012
This story was originally published on Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:14 AM EST
? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
United Nations nuclear agency inspectors concluded a one-day visit to Tehran without a solution for restarting stalled inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities and without concrete plans for another meeting to discuss a deal.
The team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) most immediately seeks access to the Parchin military complex outside Tehran, where Iran is suspected by the IAEA to be working toward nuclear weapon capability, but left with no guarantees it would be allowed to do so.
?We will work hard now to try and resolve the remaining differences, but time is needed to reflect on a way forward,? IAEA chief inspector Herman Nackaerts said today, after arriving back in Vienna, Bloomberg reports.
However, his Iranian counterpart, IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh, made a somewhat more optimistic pronouncement. ?Some differences were overcome and we agreed on certain points," he said. He also alluded to a future meeting. Meanwhile, a headline from Press TV, Iran's English-language news service, read: "Iran, IAEA reach basic agreement."
RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Iran? Take our quiz to find out.
Iran's nuclear program has been surrounded by mixed signals in recent weeks. As the Monitor's Scott Peterson reported yesterday, Iran has taken a number of steps lately that seem to indicate it is slowing down its nuclear progress, possibly to avoid reaching the point at which Israel would feel compelled to retaliate. It has converted some of its higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel, taking it out of the mix for use in potential nuclear weapons, and seems to have made no strides forward in its development of longer-range weapons that could carry a nuclear warhead.
But it also announced yesterday, as Iranian officials met with IAEA inspectors, the installation of a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium, which could "significantly speed up its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used to develop a nuclear weapon," Reuters reports.
Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, or, if refined to a high degree, provide material for bombs, which the West suspects is Tehran's real purpose - something Iran strenuously denies.
If deployed successfully, new-generation centrifuges could refine uranium several times faster than the model Iran now has.
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[Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization] said the new machines were specifically for lower-grade enrichment of uranium to below 5 percent purity.
Nuclear proliferation expert Mark Hibbs at the Carnegie Endowment told Reuters that the centrifuge announcement may be less a sign of a leap forward and more about gathering "bargaining chips" before the next round of negotiations.
According to The New York Times, Iran's Fars News Agency reported that the new centrifuges would only enrich uranium to a 5-percent purity level ? shy of the 20-percent level that alarms the international community because of the ease with which it can then be further enriched to a nuclear weapons-grade level.
The outcome of yesterday's talks are surely being parsed for signs of how talks later this month will go. On Feb. 26, Iran will meet in Kazakhstan with the so-called P5+1 ? the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany ? to resume multilateral talks on its nuclear work that ground to a halt last year. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been in attendance at P5+1 talks, yesterday urged Iran to come to the talks open to negotiation, Reuters reports.
"We hope that Iran will come to this negotiation with flexibility and that we can make substantial progress," Ms. Ashton said at a UN meeting. The Iranian envoys in attendance retorted that the "dual track" being pursued by the international community ? simultaneous negotiations and harsh sanctions ? was "a futile exercise in the sense that ... exerting pressure on Iran will definitely derail the efforts on the diplomatic track."
RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Iran? Take our quiz to find out.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called in to ?On Air with Ryan Seacrest? Wednesday to give Angelenos an update on the recent developments of the Christopher Dorner manhunt in Big Bear.
Is The Body Christopher Dorner or Not? ?At this point it may take days or even longer to determine if it is Christopher Dorner. There is a high likelihood, but at this point we are not absolutely certain.?
ROUND 2: What?s The Best 90?s Song of All-Time?
Does The LAPD Remain On High Alert? ?Absolutely. We won?t be on a tactical alert any longer, but we will still make sure the families who are targeted have police protection until we are absolutely certain that this body is Christopher Dorner.?
comments about the movie Jurassic Park? by peter303
The 20th anniversary enhanced version will return to theaters in a few weeks. Supposedly Crichton modeled the Sam Neill character partly after you. What positive and negative things did this movie do for dinosaur paleontology? I would have thought it got a few more children interested in the subject.
Horner: I don't really know of anything negative the movie did, but yes, it certainly got more people interested in dinosaurs. Especially students who wanted to become paleontologists. I went from having 3 graduate students before the movie to 18 after it came out!!
Your degree by onyxruby
You're famous for not having earned your degree, yet you persevered and your reputation for your work goes far outside your field. How hard was it to be taken seriously in your field without the required degree? I ask as someone who also works in a University at a senior level without a degree.
Horner: It took a while to show people that I had the education, just not the paper degree. I would say that was all there was to it except that when I first arrived here at MSU, there were several things I was not allowed to do including writing federal grants, teaching classes and advising graduate students. All were allowed after a few years, but some of that might have been on account of me getting a MacArthur Fellowship.
The Evolution of Paleontology by eldavojohn
Something that's always made me curious about Paleontology is how far the study has come. If we look back historically at how dinosaur bones were exhumed and treated, some of the methods were actually a little bit destructive. So I've always wondered how paleontologists today cope with the fact that 100 years in the future we will likely have technology beyond our wildest dreams that will be able to scan the ground and find fossils in their original preserved intact positions and when they are excavated the process will surely be much more refined and exact measurements will be taken to better understand dinosaurs. I'm sure preservation techniques and materials science will allow us to even better handle finds. How do you cope with this idea that hundreds of years from now your efforts might be seen as crude or arcane? Do you ever wish that some paleontologists of the past had just left the specimens lying there for a future paleontologist to properly handle? Or do you just see this as a necessary way to move forward? Building on that, is there an end-game for paleontologists where the entire Earth has been inspected/surveyed and how many years out is that (I understand that sensor technology would have to come a very long way)?
Horner: Let me answer that question by stating that most really famous dinosaur collections from the early days in famous museums such as the Yale Peabody, the American Museum, the Smithsonian, and so on are virtually useless even for our questions today. Without the precise location, both geographically and stratigraphically (geologically), let alone taphonomically (the kind of sediments it resided in), there is really no data to allow paleobiological questions to be answered accurately. I think most of those old specimens should be packed up and put in storage, and new specimens with good data should be collected to fill those museums. As for the future, I think we are working as if we are already there if we do collect all the data I refer to as a specimens unified frames of reference in time (UFR), which means geographic stratigraphic, taphonomic, phylogenetic and ontogenetic (growth stage). Any less information is simply inadequate for paleobiological studies. As for the future, yes, we may well get new kinds of equipment to find specimens easier, but we will still need the UFR information. As for preparation, CT scanners will be useful so that we wont have to risk damage by physical preparation, but this technology is useful even now, so it will undoubtedly just get better.
How will science be funded in the US next? by damn_registrars
For a long time the primary source of money for scientific research has been the federal granting agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE in particular). All three of them are facing either budget cuts, budget stalls, or increases in their budgets that do not match inflation. This does not seem to fare well for new scientists or established ones who are looking to further their careers. Where do you see research money coming from next? Alternately, are we looking ahead to a time where fewer people will be doing science because the funding just won't exist to pay even their meager wages any more?
Horner: Like most researchers in the early part of their careers, I relied on writing grants to NSF, but as these government agencies became more stringent and stingy with funding for dinosaurs and other purely scientific endeavors, I moved away from government funding to private funding, and I think this is where most all research funds for dinosaurs will eventually come from. Private people who have the financial where-with-all and interest in the field currently fund most of the dinosaur collecting, research and exhibitions in the United States. It is up to us paleontologists to make sure we engage the public in all venues, and keep their interest high, if we expect to continue these kinds of studies. The government is much more interested in practical sciences (renewable energy, climate change, medical) these days, a trend I would expect to continue for quite some time.
Which one is your favorite? by nherm
Which is your favorite dinosaur, and why?
Horner: I am very partial to Maiasaura, a dinosaur my friend Bob Makela and I named back in 1979. It was one of the first dinosaurs to reveal social behaviors, and thus help change the public's view of dinosaurs as social creatures, and not the big lumbering, green, cold blooded monsters of old movies.
Undig-scovered country? by Anonymous Coward
What , if any, locations on Earth would you like to see a dig start up ? Are there places you cannot dig , for physical or political reasons that you are fairly sure are rich sites?
Horner: I have worked all over the world, and although there are some interesting areas, some of which I'm sure will eventually yield new species or new biological data, I am convinced that the best information we can get is right here in Montana and Alberta, where we have access to great quantities of specimens of particular species. There are many paleontologists who are looking for new species, and I think that is good, and it will help fill in the dinosaur family tree, but this is not my interest. My interests are in acquiring as many specimens of specific species as possible so we can do population studies, and understand their growth and behaviors and ecologies. I am currently amassing quantities of Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus, and we have enormous collections of Maiasaura and Hypacrosaurus from embryos to adults, so we know more about these dinosaurs than we know of most any other fossil vertebrate animal.
How many more dinosaurs to discover? by bill_mcgonigle
This one is from my 6-year-old boy, Will. We're currently reading a book about dinosaurs (he gets three per bedtime). He wants to know, "how many dinosaurs haven't been discovered yet?" One of his favorites is one that was discovered in China fairly recently (many of the famous ones seem to come from the US midwest from the early part of last century). While his question is impossible to answer on its own, do paleontologists have a sense of whether the types of soils likely to hold fossils have been well explored, or if we've merely scratched the surface [sic] of what's to come?
Horner: My colleague Peter Dodson at Penn has estimated that we name a new dinosaur every 7 weeks or so, suggesting that we have many more to find than we have found to date, although I do think many more are named than should be on account of some being unrecognized juveniles of already named species. But, yes, there are many, many places that will yield dinosaur specimens that haven't even been explored! When your 6 year-old is my age there will still be plenty of dinosaurs to be discovered.
Paleocene dinosaurs by niado
So, first of all this is hands-down the best Slashdot interview ever! On to my actual question: what do you think about the possible existence of Paleocene dinosaurs? I understand that any current fossil evidence for their existence is likely caused by reworked fossils. How likely do you believe it is that a particular dinosaur taxon survived a few million years after the extinction event, and what would be the implications of this occurring?
Horner: Yes, I think that a good argument can be made to the effect that every so called Paleocene specimen that has been reported has been reworked from older Mesozoic sediments, but I personally have no problem with Paleocene dinosaurs, and am amazed that we haven't found any as yet. I really don't care what killed the dinosaurs, so don't have a dog in the fight so to speak, but none of the extinction scenarios really work for me. The meteor theory certainly seems to be a good one, yet we have very good evidence that there was a decline in species prior to that event, so its puzzling. The lack of Paleocene dinosaurs is equally puzzling as one would think that regardless of the event, it couldn't possibly have gotten all of them when their descendants the birds made it through. So, as many people now days think, since birds are in fact dinosaurs, we do have Paleocene dinosaurs, and no need for a discussion.
Things That We Don't Even Know We Don't Know? by eldavojohn
In science (even computer science) I have a lot of interest in what we know we don't know and what we don't know we don't know. With paleontology and it's subdomains -- specifically your specialty of dinosaur growth -- how do you deal with what must be an unbound realm of what we don't know we don't know? For example, isn't it possible that growth was regulated completely differently in dinosaurs than it is in modern day lizards and birds? Couldn't modern day hormones and endocrine system be much different than what was present in dinosaurs? When you publish research is it all based on assumptions? How do you overcome such an open system of possibilities?
Horner: Yes, it is true, that there may very well be unknown possibilities, but if we are to learn anything, we have to have a process of learning that is consistent, and that is science. Science is the process of observation or data gathering, followed by the formulation of hypotheses that are testable, in other words either repeatable or falsifiable. As we cannot repeat the evolution of dinosaurs we have to formulate falsifiable hypotheses. We also rely on related species to reveal characteristics. For example, when we study dinosaur growth we make comparisons with living taxa that we know to be most closely related, and these are crocodilians and birds. But, crocs and birds do grow differently, and in fact crocs are ectotherms while birds are endotherms, so their physiologies are different. In an attempt to discover the physiology of a dinosaur we compare the parts we have to compare which is only the skeleton. We cut the bones open to reveal microscopic features that we know to be produced by one physiology or another. Dinosaur baby bones are histologically identical to those of birds, and extremely different from those of crocs, so our hypothesis is that the physiology of dinosaurs (and concurrently their growth) was closest to birds, but that doesn't mean it was exactly the same. Using bone structures to construct the hypothesis, it is testable, and possibly falsified by finding a living animal that has bone tissues identical to birds and dinosaurs, and is an ectotherm. If you believe in the notion that everything could have been different in the past, you run the risk of never knowing anything in the present!
K-T Extinction Event by niado
So, let's pretend the K-T event never happened and dinosaurs survived into the Holocene. What do you think the world's fauna would be like now? How would dinosaur evolution have progressed? Assuming humans had still come onto the scene (because it would be so cool) would we have driven the dinosaurs to extinction by now?
Horner: Yes, I'm sure humans would have driven dinosaurs to extinction had they evolved, but mammal evolution seems very much tied to the extinction of dinosaurs, so I would speculate that mammals would have remained insignificant compared to dinosaurs and their descendants the birds. I think mammals would have occupied the nocturnal world whereas dinosaurs and birds would have occupied the diurnal world. Early primates would have been gobbled up long before they had a chance to evolve the capacity to cause an extinction!!! : )
The market for fossils by Swisslemur
I hope this comment isn't out of place, but I was wondering on what your opinion is of the market for fossils? It has become so easy to buy and sell fossils - eBay and the Internet - I was wondering if you see this as a threat to palaeontology? I think a lot of people collect fossils as a hobby or as a tangible way to forge a connection with science, so it can generate a lot of interest - which must be a good thing. However, is there a danger when auction houses market fossils as art or decoration, or perhaps investment items? I think there a potential for a lot of parallels with the market for antiquities which has caused a great deal of grief for archaeologists. Has the market got anything to offer palaeontolgy?
Horner: Unfortunately, the fossil trade is primarily a bunch of people who simply want to make money, so data, the information that comes with a specimen, is not generally retrieved, and the specimens are therefore useless to science. Amateur paleontologists or concerned landowners who are actively collecting to help science, donate important specimens or guide paleontologists to particular sites so the specimens and their data can be retrieved. In my opinion, any museum that buys vertebrate fossils that do not have associated data with them are not science museums, but rather show cases to show off pretty trinkets. Most scientific museums do not buy or sell fossils under any circumstance. For the most part, the current fossil market, particularly the eBay market and such, has nothing to offer paleontology.
Thanks! by eternaldoctorwho
Dr. Horner, you have inspired me to engage in the sciences ever since I was a little kid. Although I didn't go into the field of paleontology, I did study computer science and became a software developer for an education company. In my field, we are always trying to find ways to engage kids in the STEM fields to help develop the next generation of engineers, programmers, biologists, and even paleontologists. In your opinion, how do you see the future of your field within the next generation of scientists, and what steps should we take to help kids become more interested in the sciences?
Horner: I personally think that paleontology is a field that needs revitalization, and one way to do this is to incorporate other fields of science. Paleontology reveals evolution and therefore gives us an historic record of our biological past. But, in order to actually understand how these evolutionary changes took place we can incorporate developmental biology and make attempts to retro-engineer some extinct characteristics. This is the aim of our Chickenosaurus Project, in which I'm hoping to create a dinosaur like animal from a bird (chicken). Integrating paleontology with evolutionary developmental biology has very interesting potential, both in pure science and in practical science. I am now encouraging kids to learn more about developmental biology and genetics if they are interested in paleontology.
China?s Foreign Ministry has summoned North Korea?s ambassador today to deliver a public statement of condemnation for their Monday night nuclear test. China?s state media had warned against such a test and raised the prospect of cutting aid if they followed through.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn?t address the aid directly today, but said they delivered a message of ?strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition? to the nuclear test, urging North Korea to abandon the program and return to peace talks.
Other nations of course were just as loud in their condemnations but as materially North Korea?s only ally China?s comments count for much more, and the threats by other nations for sanctions are extremely limited, as those sanctions are by and large already in place.
The UN Security Council was quick to approve a statement of strong condemnation for last night?s North Korean nuclear weapons test, with several nations following that with further statements of criticism.
The Obama Administration termed the test a ?highly provocative act,? while Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called it a ?serious threat? to the United States. Russian officials demanded the North Korean program be immediately ended.
Even Israel chimed in, declaring their ?grave concerns? that North Korea?s development of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated. Israel is one of only a handful of nations that have refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and have developed nuclear weapons on their own.
The Google Search Android app has been updated to include a new Google Now widget that shows small versions of important cards on the home screen, and adds new options for Google Now search cards.
A Google Now widget has been added to the home screen. The widget can take up an entire screen and showcase current weather, upcoming appointments, stocks, news, and more. It can be resized to show just the basic information about current weather and the forecast for the following day.
Android 4.1 or later devices can now download the updated Google Search application, which includes support for Movie passes from Fandango. Google Now already provided search options and movie times on films, but users can now set it to provide notifications when near a theatre or on "Movie Days" and get tickets from Fandango. Movies have also been updated to include ratings from film critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Other features include Zillow real estate listings, the ability to add collegiate sports, and a button that can listen to identify music being played in the background. It's easy to access the music button by tapping the blue music note when launching a Voice search, but it works only in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The makers of a popular carbonated alcoholic drink guzzled on college campuses are going to be changing the look of its Four Loko cans to settle the government's charges of deceptive marketing.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that Chicago-based Phusion Projects will be required to put an "alcohol facts panel" on the back of flavored malt beverage cans containing more than two servings of alcohol. The panel, similar to "nutritional facts" labels found on foods, would disclose the alcohol by volume and the number of servings in the container.
Phusion also will have to redesign cans of drinks containing more than 2.5 servings of alcohol so they can be resealed and the drink wouldn't have to be consumed in one sitting.
The FTC had accused Phusion of implying in ads that its supersized 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko was equal to one or two regular 12-ounce beers. In fact, the agency says, the can ? which contains up to 12 percent alcohol ? is really more like four to five beers.
The commission had initially proposed a deal with Phusion requiring new label disclosures on products with more than 2.5 servings of alcohol. But the agency was flooded with complaints about the dangers of the supersized drinks, especially with underage drinkers ? so it lowered the disclosure trigger to more than two servings of alcohol.
The FTC also was going to require a label on the front of the can with an alcohol comparison to a regular beer, but some public commenters worried that might lead to binge drinking ? by suggesting Four Loko was a quick, cheap way to get drunk.
Four Loko gained national attention in 2010 after the hospitalization of college students in New Jersey and Washington state. Some states banned the drink, worried about the caffeine in Four Loko and its potential to mask how much alcohol one could safely consume. Amid a crackdown by the Food and Drug Administration, the drink's makers removed the caffeine and started selling Four Loko without the energy kick but still with plenty of alcohol.
In a number of public comments, the commission was urged to ban the drink altogether. But the FTC says it has no jurisdiction to force the product off the market.
Contact: Julie Langelier julie.langelier@ircm.qc.ca 514-987-5555 Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal
An international study coordinated at the IRCM finds a possible alternative treatment to significantly reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy
An international research team coordinated at the IRCM in Montral found a possible alternative treatment for lymphoid leukemia. Led by Dr. Tarik Mry, the IRCM's President and Scientific Director, the team discovered a molecule that represents the disease's "Achilles' heel" and could be targeted to develop a new approach that would reduce the adverse effects of current treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The study's results are being published today in the prestigious scientific journal Cancer Cell.
The researchers' results have direct implications for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), one of the four most common types of leukemia. ALL is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood that progresses rapidly without treatment. Current treatments consist of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which are both highly toxic and non-specific, meaning that they damage healthy cells as well as tumour tissues.
"Even when effective, patients can suffer dramatic side effects from these treatments," says Dr. Mry, who is also Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer research unit at the IRCM and corresponding author of the study. "Therefore, they would directly benefit from an improved therapy that could reduce the necessary dose of radiation or chemotherapy, and thus their side effects, while maintaining the treatments' efficacy. Therapies that target specific molecules have shown great promise. This is why, for the past 20 years, I have been studying a molecule called Gfi1, which plays an important role in the development of blood cells and cancer."
When normal cells are transformed into tumour cells, the body responds by activating a tumour suppressor protein that induces cell death. Tumour cells must therefore counteract cell death in order to survive.
"With this study, we found that leukemic cells depend on the Gfi1 molecule for their survival," explains Dr. Cyrus Khandanpour, co-first author of the study and University Hospital physician at University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. "In fact, this molecule helps the malignant cells avoid death by hindering the activity of the tumour suppressor protein. Our results show that when Gfi1 is removed in mice that suffer from T-cell leukemia, the tumour disappears and the animals survive."
"Following this discovery, we wanted to test whether it could be used as a viable approach to treat leukemia in humans," adds Dr. Mry. "We transplanted cells from a patient with T-cell leukemia into a mouse. We then inhibited the Gfi1 molecule using a commercially-available agent, and noticed that it stopped the expansion of human leukemia in the bone marrow, peripheral blood and spleen, without leading to adverse effects."
"These results are a significant indication that therapies targeting the molecule Gfi1 would work in human patients," says Dr. H. Leighton Grimes, co-corresponding author of the study from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "In fact, if our results translate to patients, they could improve the prognosis of people suffering from lymphoid malignancies," adds Dr. James Phelan, the study's co-first author and recent PhD graduate in Dr. Grimes' laboratory.
"Our study suggests that a molecular-based therapy targeting Gfi1 would not only significantly improve response rates, but may also lower effective doses of chemotherapy agents or radiation, thereby reducing harmful side effects," concludes Dr. Khandanpour, who is also a visiting scientist at the IRCM. "Gfi1 represents an Achilles' heel for lymphoid leukemia and we are continuing to work so that our approach may soon move to clinical trials."
###
About acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the four most common types of leukemia and affects blood cells and the immune system. The disease develops when immature white blood cells are overproduced in the bone marrow, crowd out normal cells, and eventually spread to other organs. Acute refers to the relatively short time course of the disease, as it can be fatal in as little as a few weeks if untreated.
According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, ALL is the most common type of cancer in children from one to seven years old, and the most common type of leukemia in children from infancy up to age 19. Four out of five children with ALL are cured of their disease after treatment. The number of adults and their remission lengths have grown significantly over the past 30 years. An estimated 4,800 people in Canada were expected to develop leukemia in 2010.
About the study
The article published in Cancer Cell was a collaborative project between Tarik Mry's team in Montral, Cyrus Khandanpour in Germany, H. Leighton Grimes and James Phelan from Cincinnati in the United States, and Bertie Gttgens from Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Collaborators from Dr. Mry's IRCM laboratory include Lothar Vassen, Riyan Chen, Marie-Claude Gaudreau and Joseph Krongold. Research at the IRCM was funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canada Research Chair program, the IRCM and the Cole Foundation.
For more information on this discovery, please refer to the article summary published online by Cancer Cell: http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/abstract/S1535-6108(13)00036-6.
About Tarik Mry
Tarik Mry obtained a PhD in biochemistry from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. He is the IRCM's President and Scientific Director, Full IRCM Research Professor and Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer research unit. Dr. Mry is also Full professor-researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (accreditation in biochemistry) at the Universit de Montral, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Experimental Medicine) and the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University. Dr. Mry holds the Canada Research Chair in Hematopoiesis and Immune Cell Differentiation. For more information, visit www.ircm.qc.ca/moroy.
About the IRCM
Founded in 1967, the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral (www.ircm.qc.ca) is currently comprised of 36 research units in various fields, namely immunity and viral infections, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer, neurobiology and development, systems biology and medicinal chemistry. It also houses three specialized research clinics, eight core facilities and three research platforms with state-of-the-art equipment. The IRCM employs 425 people and is an independent institution affiliated with the Universit de Montral. The IRCM Clinic is associated to the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral (CHUM). The IRCM also maintains a long-standing association with McGill University.
About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
CIHR is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and enable its translation into better health, more effective health services and products, and a stronger Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Julie Langelier julie.langelier@ircm.qc.ca 514-987-5555 Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal
An international study coordinated at the IRCM finds a possible alternative treatment to significantly reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy
An international research team coordinated at the IRCM in Montral found a possible alternative treatment for lymphoid leukemia. Led by Dr. Tarik Mry, the IRCM's President and Scientific Director, the team discovered a molecule that represents the disease's "Achilles' heel" and could be targeted to develop a new approach that would reduce the adverse effects of current treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The study's results are being published today in the prestigious scientific journal Cancer Cell.
The researchers' results have direct implications for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), one of the four most common types of leukemia. ALL is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood that progresses rapidly without treatment. Current treatments consist of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which are both highly toxic and non-specific, meaning that they damage healthy cells as well as tumour tissues.
"Even when effective, patients can suffer dramatic side effects from these treatments," says Dr. Mry, who is also Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer research unit at the IRCM and corresponding author of the study. "Therefore, they would directly benefit from an improved therapy that could reduce the necessary dose of radiation or chemotherapy, and thus their side effects, while maintaining the treatments' efficacy. Therapies that target specific molecules have shown great promise. This is why, for the past 20 years, I have been studying a molecule called Gfi1, which plays an important role in the development of blood cells and cancer."
When normal cells are transformed into tumour cells, the body responds by activating a tumour suppressor protein that induces cell death. Tumour cells must therefore counteract cell death in order to survive.
"With this study, we found that leukemic cells depend on the Gfi1 molecule for their survival," explains Dr. Cyrus Khandanpour, co-first author of the study and University Hospital physician at University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. "In fact, this molecule helps the malignant cells avoid death by hindering the activity of the tumour suppressor protein. Our results show that when Gfi1 is removed in mice that suffer from T-cell leukemia, the tumour disappears and the animals survive."
"Following this discovery, we wanted to test whether it could be used as a viable approach to treat leukemia in humans," adds Dr. Mry. "We transplanted cells from a patient with T-cell leukemia into a mouse. We then inhibited the Gfi1 molecule using a commercially-available agent, and noticed that it stopped the expansion of human leukemia in the bone marrow, peripheral blood and spleen, without leading to adverse effects."
"These results are a significant indication that therapies targeting the molecule Gfi1 would work in human patients," says Dr. H. Leighton Grimes, co-corresponding author of the study from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "In fact, if our results translate to patients, they could improve the prognosis of people suffering from lymphoid malignancies," adds Dr. James Phelan, the study's co-first author and recent PhD graduate in Dr. Grimes' laboratory.
"Our study suggests that a molecular-based therapy targeting Gfi1 would not only significantly improve response rates, but may also lower effective doses of chemotherapy agents or radiation, thereby reducing harmful side effects," concludes Dr. Khandanpour, who is also a visiting scientist at the IRCM. "Gfi1 represents an Achilles' heel for lymphoid leukemia and we are continuing to work so that our approach may soon move to clinical trials."
###
About acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the four most common types of leukemia and affects blood cells and the immune system. The disease develops when immature white blood cells are overproduced in the bone marrow, crowd out normal cells, and eventually spread to other organs. Acute refers to the relatively short time course of the disease, as it can be fatal in as little as a few weeks if untreated.
According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, ALL is the most common type of cancer in children from one to seven years old, and the most common type of leukemia in children from infancy up to age 19. Four out of five children with ALL are cured of their disease after treatment. The number of adults and their remission lengths have grown significantly over the past 30 years. An estimated 4,800 people in Canada were expected to develop leukemia in 2010.
About the study
The article published in Cancer Cell was a collaborative project between Tarik Mry's team in Montral, Cyrus Khandanpour in Germany, H. Leighton Grimes and James Phelan from Cincinnati in the United States, and Bertie Gttgens from Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Collaborators from Dr. Mry's IRCM laboratory include Lothar Vassen, Riyan Chen, Marie-Claude Gaudreau and Joseph Krongold. Research at the IRCM was funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canada Research Chair program, the IRCM and the Cole Foundation.
For more information on this discovery, please refer to the article summary published online by Cancer Cell: http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/abstract/S1535-6108(13)00036-6.
About Tarik Mry
Tarik Mry obtained a PhD in biochemistry from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. He is the IRCM's President and Scientific Director, Full IRCM Research Professor and Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer research unit. Dr. Mry is also Full professor-researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (accreditation in biochemistry) at the Universit de Montral, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Experimental Medicine) and the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University. Dr. Mry holds the Canada Research Chair in Hematopoiesis and Immune Cell Differentiation. For more information, visit www.ircm.qc.ca/moroy.
About the IRCM
Founded in 1967, the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral (www.ircm.qc.ca) is currently comprised of 36 research units in various fields, namely immunity and viral infections, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer, neurobiology and development, systems biology and medicinal chemistry. It also houses three specialized research clinics, eight core facilities and three research platforms with state-of-the-art equipment. The IRCM employs 425 people and is an independent institution affiliated with the Universit de Montral. The IRCM Clinic is associated to the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral (CHUM). The IRCM also maintains a long-standing association with McGill University.
About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
CIHR is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and enable its translation into better health, more effective health services and products, and a stronger Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk definitely isn't the best guy to try to pull a fast one on. The visionary entrepreneur set Twitter a titter when he claimed earlier this week that New York Times writer John Broder had fudged details about the Tesla Models S car's range in cold weather, resulting in what he termed a "fake" article. Musk promised evidence, and now he has delivered, via the official Tesla blog.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn?t address the aid directly today, but said they delivered a message of ?strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition? to the nuclear test, urging North Korea to abandon the program and return to peace talks.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 11-Feb-2013
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