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One team has cloned a mouse using mature olfactory neurons as the genetic donor. The scientists credit the idea for the experiments to Woody Allen whose classic comedy "Sleeper" depicted scientists who try to clone a dead dictator from his nose. The research was performed in the laboratories of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Richard Axel, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Columbia University. Co-lead authors on the paper were Kevin Eggan in Jaenisch's laboratory and Kristin Baldwin in Axel's laboratory. The researchers were seeking to determine whether a single mature olfactory neuron, when introduced into an egg, or oocyte, depleted of its nucleus, could revert to an undifferentiated state in which it could give rise to an adult mouse possessing the full range of olfactory receptors. Indeed, the resulting mice exhibited an array of well organized odorant receptors that were indistinguishable from those of normal mice, the researchers reported on Sunday in an article published in an advance online publication in the journal "Nature." “Our study demonstrates for the first time that animals can be derived from the nucleus of mature neurons following transfer into the oocyte. Because the cloned animals are normal, our experiment also shows that [some] brain functions do not involve genetic alterations of the neuron's genome,” said Jaenisch. According to the researchers, previous cloning efforts had failed to clone animals from the nuclei of any mature cells that had ceased dividing to produce new cells. A central question, said the scientists, was whether mature cells had undergone certain irreversible genetic processes, such as gene rearrangements, that would prevent them from reprogramming their nuclei. According to Axel, the cloning achievement eliminates one potential mechanism and narrows the possible ways in which a cell chooses one of thousands of receptor genes. The findings also demonstrate that the developmental changes are reversible. Axel emphasized that their experiments had no application to the newly announced achievement by South Korean scientists in cloning human embryos. “Our experiments were performed largely to address problems in neuronal diversity,” he said. In an Idaho lab scientists have cloned three mules, an achievement that is important to the horse industry and to human health, a University of Idaho (UI) scientist said today in Seattle. Dr. Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and veterinary science, said the work helps scientists to understand the role of calcium in cell signaling and possibly in the progression of human disease. Woods, who directs the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory at UI, said increasing calcium levels in the fluid surrounding cloned equine embryos proved the key to equine cloning. The birth of the mule foal Idaho Gem on May 4, 2003, marked the first successful equine cloning. The births June 9 of Utah Pioneer and July 27 of Idaho Star, two more mules cloned from the same fetal mule skin cell line, added to the success of the University of Idaho-Utah State University project. All three mule foals were born unassisted after prototypical pregnancies. All three are vigorous, healthy and developing normally. The triplets were displayed in Seattle during Family Science Day Sunday at the AAAS annual meeting. Calcium was the key to these mule clones. Woods began to focus on calcium after becoming interested in why horses appear to be more resistant to some forms of cancer. It is not unusual for light-colored horses to develop melanomas or skin cancers that do not metastasize. Woods found the veterinary literature was devoid of a report of a stallion with prostate cancer. The cancer mortality rate for horses is approximately eight percent for horses and 24 percent for humans, he said. "There are electrifying similarities between cancer metastasis and embryo division," said Woods. Woods and his team stimulated embryonic development by increasing calcium concentrations in the medium surrounding the cloned cells. The results were immediate, Woods said, generating a seven fold increase in the two week pregnancy rate of transferred clone embryos. Three mule pregnancies lasted past 60 days, and all of them survived full term and resulted in normal births. The cloning project provided insight into calcium's role in cell signaling. As some human diseases progress, calcium levels escalate. "The connection between calcium and many forms of human disease is well documented," Woods said. Calcium functions as a universal intracellular messenger, controlling processes as diverse as gene transcription and cell proliferation, Woods observed. A breakdown in calcium regulation is implicated in diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes, heart disease and neurological disorders.
Energy Secretary Defends Bush Climate Policy WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - "Those who question the administration's commitment to addressing global climate change do not fully appreciate the global benefit of the scientific and technological investments the U.S. has made and is making," U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday."The U.S. takes the issue of global climate change very seriously and is leading the world in investments, several billions of dollars each year, to understand and address it," Abraham said. With about four percent of the world's population, the United States emits roughly 22 percent of global greenhouse gases, which trap the Sun's heat close to the planet. Attacked by environmental groups, conservation minded legislators, and Democratic Presidential hopefuls for backing out of the Kyoto Protocol signed by President Bill Clinton, Abraham defended the Bush administration by citing its support for the use of hydrogen fuel, carbon sequestration, Generation IV uclear systems, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is an experiment in nuclear fusion. "The United States is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has the ultimate goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous human interference with the climate system," said the secretary. "This can be accomplished in one of two ways - through short-term excessive regulations like those that would be required for U.S. compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, or through the development of new low or zero emissions energy technologies that will allow us to make larger long-term reductions in emissions while maintaining economic growth," he said. "We have chosen the latter approach: the Bush administration will spend approximately $4 billion during this fiscal year on climate change science and technology R&D and has requested increases in key investments in FY 2005. President Bush also supports more than $4 billion in tax incentives to spur the use of clean, renewable energy and energy efficient technologies." Abraham makes it clear that the Bush administration's definition of "clean renewable energy" is based on hydrogen and nuclear energy. "For FY 2005, the Bush Administration has requested increases of $115 million, or 50 percent, for U.S. participation in four international climate change technology initiatives: the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, Carbon Sequestration, Generation IV Nuclear Systems, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor," he said. The nation is making progress towards the Bush administration goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity 18 percent by 2012, is Abroham said. Greenhouse gas intensity is a measure of gas emission as it relates to economic production. Abraham said nearly 60 federal programs are underway to reduce gas emissions including the Energy Department's Climate VISION program, which involves voluntary industry wide commitments to reduce emissions in 12 energy intensive sectors, and EPA's Climate Leaders, which involves 50 major companies that have developed comprehensive climate change strategies with corporate-wide emissions reduction goals. The Agriculture Department has modified its farm conservation programs to encourage farmers to set aside farmland for carbon sequestration, said Abraham. On Thursday, the Energy Department’s Office of Science unveiled its Strategic Plan for the next 20 years - a scientific roadmap for federally funded research that includes a continuing investment in nuclear fusion. This is the process by which the Sun emits light and heat, by fusing atomic nucleii, rather than splitting the nucleus of an atom as today's nuclear power reactors do. The plan sets seven short term, five to 10 year, scientific priorities - the ITER fusion science experiment, scientific discovery through advanced scientific computing, using nanoscale science for new materials and processes, microbial genomics, physics to explore the basic forces of creation, exploring new forms of nuclear matter, and developing the facilities for the future of science. The plan also sets seven long term, 10 to 20 year, scientific goals in the areas of - science for energy; harnessing biology for energy and environment; fusion; fundamentals of energy, matter and time; nuclear physics research from quarks to the stars; computation for the frontiers of science; and, building resource foundations for new science. While nuclear power reactors do not emit climate warming gases, issues of nuclear waste disposal and the possibility of catastropic accidents still plague the industry. The ITER is an international effort to build the first electricity generating power station based on magnetic confinement of high temperature plasma - in other words, to capture and use the power of the Sun on Earth. China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States are developing the ITER. Canada dropped out of the development group in December 2003. The ITER group is currently decided whether to site the reactor in France or in Japan. Once that decision is reached, the international ITER Organization will be established in late 2004 to oversee all aspects of the project. Operation is expected to begin in 2014 and last 20 years, and if all goes as planned, commercially available fusion power would be generated by mid-centurr. "Major advances in science including new materials, advanced computational simulations and new ways to produce energy, underpin all of the Department of Energy's missions,” Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. “DOE’s Office of Science has developed a bold Strategic Plan that holds the promise of leapfrogging our current capabilities and keeping the United States in a leadership position in the international competition for new ideas and technologies.”
Federal Funds Go to States for Endangered Marine Species WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - For the first time in the history of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Congress has provided funding to NOAA Fisheries for a program to foster state cooperation in national conservation efforts. Sea turtles, sturgeon and sawfish will benefit from the conservation program.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) has awarded more than $900,000 to six Atlantic coast states and two territories to conserve and protect threatened and endangered marine species under the The funds, which will be matched in a 3:1 cost-share arrangement of state to federal funding, will be used for water borne conservation and research efforts on marine species listed under the act as endangered or threatened along the Atlantic coast and U.S. Caribbean Territories. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will receive funding for work on shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon, smalltooth sawfish, and leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley and green sea turtles. Projects range from gathering information on habitat use, understanding distribution of and tracking movements for sturgeon and sawfish to determining habitat preference, identifying interactions with gillnet fisheries and tracking of sea turtles. Locally based conservation efforts are an integral part of conserving threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, the agency says. Education of the public about species conservation is a primary component of many projects. The grants were made available under Section 6 of the act, a mechanism for the federal government to encourage states to further national goals of conserving and protecting marine species. Currently, seven states and two territories are eligible for Section 6 grants. To submit a grant proposal, the states entered into a cooperative agreement with NOAA Fisheries that demonstrates a commitment to conservation, and an ability to implement and monitor such programs. The funding of these projects was conducted through a competitive proposal process. The projects receiving funding this year will be completed by researchers familiar with conservation issues in their states. NOAA Fisheries plans to continue and expand the Section 6 program in the future, and welcomes agreements with any state interested in conserving its marine species.
Governor Granholm Proposes Certification for Michigan Forests BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, has proposed that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) move forward on an effort to certify all state forestland in Michigan under a forest certification system that uses environmental and sustainability standards – ISO 14001, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).Granholm's plan was proposed by Matt Johnson, director of the governor’s northern Michigan office at the "Governors Summit: Forest Industry Sustainability in the Great Lakes Region." Held February 11 and 12, the joint conference between Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Province of Ontario was hosted by the Great Lakes Forest Alliance, Inc. Currently, 99 million acres of forestland worldwide has been certified. Michigan would have the nation’s largest certified forest once its four million acres of state owned forestland are certified, Granholm said. Johnson also announced that Granholm would revive the Forestry Advisory Council to work within the state to ensure that Michigan’s timber and wood fiber products can compete in the global marketplace. The council would focus on recreation, wildlife habitat, biodiversity concerns, and multiple use issues. The council had existed in the administration of former Governor James Blanchard, a Democrat, but was eliminated in 1991 through an executive order issued by his successor, former Governor John Engler, a Republican. Forest certification will help retain Michigan jobs in the timber and wood fiber industry because more and more major consumers of paper and wood, such as AOL Time Warner, are demanding that wood producers be certified in environmentally-friendly and sustainable forestry practices, Johnson observed. Certification ensures Michigan is managing its state forests to preserve habitats, protect water quality, reduce erosion, and protect environmentally sensitive areas. "The governor wants to send a clear message to wood product consumers that the products they purchase are produced in an environmentally friendly and sustainable process," Johnson said. "This proposal will make Michigan a national leader in forest management practices and a model for other states." The Governors Summit had goal of developing short and long term action plans to make the Great Lakes a desirable environment to sustain the ecological, economic and social benefits from the forest industry and spark interest in long term commitment from the industry. Only half of the world’s original forests still exist, and of that, only eight percent are protected according to the Forest Certification Resource Center. The Center notes that 64 acres of forestland are destroyed each minute by illegal or irresponsible logging practices, land clearance for agriculture, or development or forest fires.
Sutton Brook Landfill Polluters Held Responsible BOSTON, Massachusetts, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - Praising a local citizens group for its patience and diligence, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Friday announced a settlement agreement with 25 parties potentially responsible for contamination of a 100 acre landfill in Tewksbury, Massachusetts known as the Sutton Brook Disposal Area Superfund site. The EPA originally sought liability agreements with 43 potentially responsible parties who all received letters from the agency in May 2002.The agreement reached Friday calls for the 25 remaining parties to conduct extensive studies to determine the nature and extent of contamination at the site and evaluate alternatives for remediating contaminated areas. It also requires that EPA be reimbursed for its oversight costs. To date, the agency has spent $4.25 million at the site. "This settlement with the responsible parties is an important step forward in this cleanup project," said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "This agreement will ensure that we fully understand environmental problems at the site so that a comprehensive cleanup plan can be developed." Varney praised the citizen group Townspeople Organized Against Illness and Contamination (T.O.X.I.C.), for its role so far in the project. "EPA owes a debt of gratitude to the Townspeople Organized Against Illness and Contamination, a citizen group that has been diligent in keeping our feet to the fire on this project and patient while we took the necessary time to negotiate this agreement. We look forward to working with the community as this project moves forward." The studies will include investigation of site soils, sediment, surface water and groundwater; characterization of the risks posed to public health and the environment by the site; and development of cleanup alternatives for all areas that exceed risk-based cleanup levels. After reviewing the results of these and other studies, EPA will determine a cleanup plan for the site, which is bounded by a former railroad grade to the north, beyond which is a former piggery and a forested area; residential properties to the west; undeveloped woodland and wetlands to the south; and the Tewksbury/Wilmington Town Line and agricultural land to the east. The former landfill operated between the early 1950s and the 1980s, accepting municipal, commercial and industrial wastes. The site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 2001. It includes the parcel of about 100 acres on which the landfill and an adjacent drum disposal area are located. The drum disposal area was the location of a removal action performed in 2000-2002 by the EPA and several potentially responsible parties to excavate and dispose of crushed drums and associated soils contaminated with volatile organic and semi-volatile organic compounds. Inspectors have also found pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and inorganic elements in on-site and off-site ground water, surface water, sediment, soil, as well as volatile organic and semi-volatile organic compounds in air samples. From 1957 through 1966, both the Tewksbury Board of Health and the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health ordered the operators to use the sanitary landfill method. Yet even after 1966, there were documented occurrences of landfill burning, uncovered waste areas, the filling in of on-site wetlands, wastes disposed below the water table, and landfill slopes which exceeded operation plans. Due to these violations, Massachusetts ordered the closure of the landfill in 1979. At the time of its closure, the landfill was accepting in excess of 250 tons of waste per day. Despite the closure order, landfill operations continued until 1982, when official landfill operations were suspended, yet waste acceptance continued through 1988. Groundwater analytical data suggest that there is contamination discharging to groundwater flowing into Sutton Brook.
Detroit School Engineer Charged With Spreading Mercury in Halls DETROIT, Michigan, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - George Carl Bush, an engineer at Finney High School in Detroit, was indicted on February 4 in Wayne County Superior Court on charges that he deliberately spread the toxic chemical mercury in two corridors at the school because he was angry about his overtime hours.Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said the felony charges were brought against Bush for violating a seldom used statute enacted as a result of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Bush has been charged in a single count complaint with “either manufacturing delivering, possessing, transporting, placing, using or releasing mercury, a harmful chemical substance, said act being for an unlawful purpose,” a felony that carries 15 years and/or a fine of not more than $10,000. Law enforcement officials allege that on October 11, 2001, the defendant was angry about the allocation of school overtime hours and threatened to close the school if his union issues were not immediately addressed. A few hours later mercury was found spread in two corridors of the school and the building had to be shut down for several days for decontamination. The clothing and/or shoes of a number of students also tested positive for the presence of mercury. When liquid mercury is spilled, it forms mercury vapors in the air and contaminates surfaces. “I will not tolerate anyone willfully harming a child, especially in the sanctity of a school,” Cox said in announcing the complaint. “To do so and for vain, selfish reasons is diabolical.” When people breathe vapors, or have direct skin contact with mercury or consume contaminated food or water, health problems, including neurological damage, can result. The case was investigated by the Detroit Police Department, the Cleveland Area Office of EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality-Office of Criminal Investigations with the assistance of EPA's National Enforcement Investigations Center and the EPA Region 5 Emergency Response Branch.
First Annual Artivist Film Festival Features Environment HOLLYWOOD, California, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - Environmental issues, animal rights, human rights, and children's advocacy will be in the spotlight at the First Annual Artivist Film Festival which premieres on Earth Day April 22, 2004. This is the first festival dedicated to addressing social, global, political, animal rights and environmental issues through film, visual arts and music.This year, the festival will be held for six days at the Egyptian Theater in the heart of Hollywood, culminating in an Awards Gala for Artivists and selected charities. The 2004 Artivist Awards premieres on April 27. Among the honorees are Tippi Hedren, accepting her award for Animal Rights Advocacy, and Ed Begley Jr., accepting for Environmental Advocacy. Greenpeace is one of four non-profit organizations being honored at the film festival for efforts to protect and promote activism in the United States. Greenpeace USA is defending itself against criminal charges laid by the Justice Department for boarding a ship outside of Miami that was loaded with cargo the organization claims was illegal timber and flying a banner protesting the shipment. Other organizations honored are The Humane Society, Witness Forum and the Child Welfare League of America Forum. Greenpeace will convene a panel of experts who can talk about the impact of, and current threats to, environmental activism in the United States. The panel will follow a day of screenings on subjects related to environmental activism. The discussion will be open to the public attending the festival, including artists, media, students and activists. "Response from the creative community has been overwhelming," Diaky Diaz, founder and executive producer of the Artivist Film Festival, told the "Jewish Observer" last week. "I cannot express how many times I have been told that the concept is long overdue. People from all walks of life have temporarily put their lives on hold to work on the festival," Diaz said. "We are expecting over 10,000 participants over the course of the event."
Hubble, Hawaiian Telescopes Find Most Distant Galaxy KAMUELA, Hawaii, February 16, 2004 (ENS) - The most distant galaxy in the universe ever seen by astronomers has been sighted by a team that has combined the power of the Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Telescopes on the top of Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii.Located an estimated 13 billion light-years away, the object is being viewed at a time only 750 million years after the big bang, when the universe was barely five percent of its current age. "We are looking at the first evidence of our ancestors on the evolutionary tree of the entire universe," said Dr. Frederic Chaffee, director of the W. M. Keck Observatory, home to the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes that confirmed the discovery. "Telescopes are virtual time machines, allowing our astronomers to look back to the early history of the cosmos, and these marvelous observations are of the earliest time yet." The new galaxy was detected in a long exposure of the nearby cluster of galaxies Abell 2218, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. This cluster is so massive that the light of distant objects passing through the cluster actually bends and is amplified, much as a magnifying glass bends and magnifies objects seen through it. Such natural gravitational “telescopes” allow astronomers to see extremely distant and faint objects that could otherwise not be seen. The extremely faint galaxy is so far away its visible light has been stretched into infrared wavelengths, making the observations particularly difficult, astronomers said. "As we were searching for distant galaxies magnified by Abell 2218, we detected a pair of strikingly similar images whose arrangement and color indicate a very distant object," said California Institute of Technology astronomer Jean-Paul Kneib, who is lead author reporting the discovery in a forthcoming article in the "Astrophysical Journal." "The galaxy we have discovered is extremely faint, and verifying its distance has been an extraordinarily challenging adventure," said Dr. Kneib. "Without the magnification of 25 afforded by the foreground cluster, this early object could simply not have been identified or studied in any detail at all with the present telescopes available. Even with aid of the cosmic lens, the discovery has only been possible by pushing our current observatories to the limits of their capabilities!" Analysis of a sequence of Hubble images indicate the object lies in between a redshift of 6.6 and 7.1, making it the most distant source currently known. Redshift is a measure of how much the wavelengths of light are shifted to longer wavelengths. The greater the shift in wavelength toward the redder regions of the spectrum, the more distant the object is. Using the combination of the high resolution of Hubble and the large magnification of the cosmic lens, the astronomers estimate that this object, although very small - only 2,000 light-years across - is forming stars. Two intriguing properties of the new source are the apparent lack of the typically bright hydrogen emission line and its intense ultraviolet light which is much stronger than that seen in star-forming galaxies closer by. "The properties of this distant source are very exciting because, if verified by further study, they could represent the hallmark of a truly young stellar system, that ended the Dark Ages,” added Dr. Richard Ellis, Steele Professor of Astronomy at Caltech, and a co-author in the article. The newly discovered galaxy is likely to be a young galaxy shining during the end of the so-called Dark Ages, the period in cosmic history which ended with the first galaxies and quasars transforming opaque, molecular hydrogen into the transparent, ionized universe we see today. The team is encouraged by the success of their technique and plans to continue the search for more examples by looking through other cosmic lenses in the sky. The W.M. Keck Observatory is operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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