The news page

[Minimalist]

There's no oil in Darfur.

[Digit]

Monk and Charley. Further to the Mosquito news.
The report now says that when the parasite resistant Mosquito was placed with an equal number of normal ones in a unit with infected mice, within 9 generations the GMs one represented 70% of the total, showing what I posted earlier about natural selection working to select genetically resistant species.
This could, of course, over time remove the scurge of Malaria, but will we do it?

[Forum Monk]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03 ... index.html

Malaria resistant mosquitos.
We have the story on CNN this morning.

When they fed on malaria-infected mice, the resistant mosquitoes had a higher survival rate than nonresistant ones, meaning they could eventually replace the ones that can carry the disease, according to a report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jason Rasgon of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University cautioned that the research so far is only a proof of principle and any field tests remain far away.

....

Starting with the same number of resistant and nonresistant mosquitoes, they found that after nine generations the resistant type made up 70 percent of the population -- raising the possibility of replacing regular mosquitoes with resistant ones that don't spread disease.

However, Rasgon stressed that in the lab work the insects were infected with a higher amount of the parasite than occurs in nature, and a larger proportion of the mosquitoes were infected.

....

William C. Black IV, a professor of entomology at Colorado State University, noted that the work was done with Plasmodium berghei, which infects mice, rather than P. falciparum, which causes malaria in humans.

P. berghei is often used in laboratory work because it is easy to manipulate, but a lot of its properties are specific to that parasite and it is not always a good model for the human form, he said.

"On the other hand, finding a gene that confers resistance and is stable for a long period of time is significant," said Black, who was not part of the research team.

If they can repeat the work using the human parasite then there is a chance of taking it into the field, he said.

[Digit]

One of the problems with this type of research is the lack of consideration in many cases as to the full consequences of what happens if you remove a particular vector, such as the Mosiquito.
Until people's social attitudes change, in many areas where malaria is endemic, the immediate result would be a reduction in infant mortality and a rapid rise in the population, with all the undesirable results that would then accrue.

[Minimalist]

Science does have a predisposition to saving lives without considering the consequences.

[Beagle]

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_ ... 925C772088

Sarajevo/Mostar - A team of Bosnia-Herzegovina's archaeologists have discovered for the first time the remnants of fabled Illyrian ships in a marshland in southern Herzegovina, the team's head said on Tuesday.

Snjezana Vasilj told local media in Mostar that the ships were discovered about eight metres under the water of Hutovo blato, a marshland near the southern town of Capljina.

The Illyrian ships, believed to be more than 2 200 years old, had been known to historians only through Greek and Roman myths and legends, but their existence had never been physically proven, said Vasilj.

Another myth becomes fact.
From the News Section

[Forum Monk]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/20 ... index.html

I'm not saying what this teacher did is correct, but when I was young, no one would ever call learning something from the bible was "mind pollution".

[Minimalist]

Times change.

[kbs2244]

And not always for the better

[Beagle]

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_ ... 901C494506

Sydney - A 16th century maritime map in a Los Angeles library vault proves that Portuguese adventurers, not British or Dutch, were the first Europeans to discover Australia, says a new book which details the secret discovery of Australia.

The book "Beyond Capricorn" says the map, which accurately marks geographical sites along Australia's east coast in Portuguese, proves that Portuguese seafarer Christopher de Mendonca lead a fleet of four ships into Botany Bay in 1522 - almost 250 years before Britain's Captain James Cook.

Captain Cook did not discover Australia.
From Archaeologica News

[Digit]

No Beag, the Aborigines did!
And I still don't think they are HSS!
Pass my tin hat, again!

[kbs2244]

Come on!
Everybody knows we don't cout them.
They are black!

[Digit]

True KB, sad, but true!

[Cognito]

"...were the first Europeans to discover Australia"

Shouldn't that article read "...were the first Europeans to visit Australia" instead? What's up with the discovery crap, anyway? I'm sure the natives didn't think they were "discovered" when the Portugese showed up. They had already been there for over 50,000 years.

[Beagle]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 032207.php

team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of Almería has completed its second part of the "Proyecto La Puntilla", an archaeological expedition to the Peruvian province of Nazca, where last year it discovered a new type of construction. The latest findings show that a new political power based on the exercise of violence emerged on the south coast of Peru two thousand years ago. There was a State in which an aristocracy, based in Cahuachi, exercised its dominion on other, poorer communities in the Nazca Valley. The team has also observed practices such as cranial deformation.

The excavations at the necropolis of El Trigal have uncovered new information on the repercussions of the emergence of the State in southern Peru. The archaeologists have found that El Trigal graves are very simple, in contrast with the extravagant tombs of the aristocracy around Nazca.

From Archaeologica News