Radio Liberty - Science News

In the laboratories of the Swiss Biotechnology Corporation, the ARes-Serono International corporation, experiments are being conducted that promise to expand the possibilities of medicine in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases . Claudio Soto and his employees act on the brain through peptides - short chains of amino acids that make up protein molecules. Scientists have already discovered a number of peptides that slow down the damage to brain tissue caused by deformed cell proteins - primals. Experiments on mice showed that such peptides are able to destroy defective proteins or even return a normal shape to them. Researchers believe that peptide therapy can also become a promising tool for treating Alzheimer's disease. Swiss scientists presented their results in the article, which is printed in the London magazine Lancet.

In the January issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution, an article of anthropologists from the United States and Japan has been published, which analyzed and summarized the latest geological, genetic and anatomical data on the origin of man . John Hawks and his co -authors came to the conclusion that the evolutionary process, which led to the emergence of homo sapiens, began on the African continent about two million years ago. Initially, he covered the relatively small group of Australopithecus, who, for some reason, separated from their relatives. The members of this isolated population underwent a genetic revolution, which not only changed their size and appearance, but also led to progressive changes in the central nervous system and the complication of behavioral reactions.

A group of authoritative experts from the United States and Great Britain confirmed the reality of the process of universal warming, which covered all the twentieth century . The commission of eleven experts, convened by the US National Research Council, came to the conclusion that over the past hundred years, increasing the temperature of the earth's surface has been from four to eight tenths of Celsius. During the 80s and 90s, the temperature increase has significantly accelerated compared to previous decades and in general amounted to almost three tenths.

The leading automobile companies in Japan begin serial production of machines with improved engines that provide an extremely low concentration of environmentally hazardous impurities in exhaust gases . At the end of January, the Honda Corporation will release the first car of this type - Accord Ex with a four -cylid engine of two and four tenths. In February, Nissan will offer customers a Sentra CA subcompact with a working volume of one and eight tenths. The Toyota Corporation no later than 2003 will begin to produce a new model of the Camry medium -sized car with a low toxic exhaust. This message is printed in the Wall Street Journal.