A study published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts, but the highest concentration has been reported in wines prepared from Pinot Noir grapes.

However, eating grapes may not be a cure for Alzheimer's disease. It is difficult to know whether the anti-amyloidogenic effect of resveratrol observed in cell culture systems can support the beneficial effect of specific diets such as eating grapes, may never reach the concentrations required to obtain the effect observed in the studies. Grapes and wine however contain more than 600 different components, including well-characterized antioxidant molecules. Therefore, possibility exists that several compounds work in synergy with small amounts of resveratrol to slow down the progression of the neurodegenerative process in humans.

Researchers have deciphered a key part of the regulatory code that governs how motor neurons in the spinal cord connect to specific target muscles in the limbs. understanding this code may help guide progress in restoring motor neuron function in people whose spinal cords have been damaged by trauma or disease. The studies suggest that the code could also govern the establishment of other spinal cord circuits. This circuitry includes interneurons that control motor neuron firing patterns and sensory neurons that transmit feedback information on muscle action.

The code involves members of the family of transcription factors encoded by the Hox genes, which had been known to regulate aspects of brain development, but few people had paid attention to the fact that these genes are also expressed in the spinal cord. Earlier work established that certain Hox proteins control the differentiation of motor neurons into columns in the spinal cord. That initial phase of motor neuron organization determines whether motor neurons grow to the limbs or to other targets. Analysis revealed a Hox coding hierarchy that appears to govern three levels of motor neuron organization.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, an expert in the study of how the brain is wired and a senior vice president for research at Genentech, said the study represents “a technical tour-de-force” and provides a key conceptual advance for the field. “The discovery of this molecular code shows how the nervous system can generate the huge diversity of neurons necessary for a complex task like locomotion.” Deciphering the entire Hox code could provide crucial insights into the organization of the complex circuitry that the spinal cord uses to control muscle action.

Understanding how Hox proteins control circuit formation in the spinal cord should provide an important basic framework for approaching the clinical issues of developing ways to recover from spinal cord injuries.

Political pressure has finally slashed prices of antiretroviral therapy for HIV in poorer countries. But a lack of cheap, simple diagnostics to enable doctors to use these complex treatments remains a stumbling block. Now scientists from two New York universities believe they have the solution: a hand-held sensor that checks the health of a patient's immune system in seconds. At the moment it can take a week to get the same results back from the lab, if they don't get lost.

The sensor measures the quantity of key immune cells called CD4+ cells in the blood. A gradual depletion of CD4+ cells, which orchestrate the immune response to tumours and infections, is a sure sign that HIV is damaging a person's health: some clinical definitions of AIDS say that once a person's CD4+ count falls below 200 cells per microlitre of blood, he or she has developed the condition. Doctors rely on CD4+ measurements to decide when to start drug treatments and to gauge whether a patient is responding to them.

To make the device, researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca and the University at Albany coated electrodes with antibodies specific to CD4+ cells. When a small sample of blood is put onto a chip bearing these electrodes, the antibodies grab hold of the CD4+ cells. Density of the cells is calculated, making this "first step towards a hand-held, simple, inexpensive device that will measure the number of CD4+ cells in human blood without the need for extensive infrastructure."

Fake flu shots were given out last week at a health fair at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown complex and an investigation was under way. Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Treacy A. Roberts said Thursday that the FBI told the company that what was administered "definitely not the flu vaccine."

It doesn't appear that the fake shots were harmful, but steps were being taken to ensure workers' safety. The FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating what was in the syringes and whether others might have received the fake vaccine.

FBI officials did not explain how they found out about the potential fraud, Roberts said.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation - essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance. NTT says the feature may be used in video games and amusement park rides, although there are no plans so far for a commercial product.

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head. I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced - mistakenly - that this was the only way to maintain my balance. The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.

Another program had the electric current timed to music. My head was pulsating against my will, getting jerked around on my neck. I became so dizzy I could barely stand. I had to turn it off. NTT researchers suggested this may be a reflection of my lack of musical abilities. People in tune with freely expressing themselves love the sensation, they said. James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, has studied using the technology to prevent the elderly from falling and to help people with an impaired sense of balance. But he also believes the effect is suited for games and other entertainment.

Timothy Hullar, assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., believes finding the right way to deliver an electromagnetic field to the ear at a distance could turn the technology into a weapon for situations where "killing isn't the best solution." "This would be the most logical situation for a nonlethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy," he said via e-mail. "If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance."

Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon Inc., is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them. And it may also help people dodge oncoming cars or direct a rescue worker in a dark tunnel, NTT researchers say. They maintain that the point is not to control people against their will. If you're determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't move. But from my experience, if the currents persist, you'd probably be persuaded to follow their orders. And I didn't like that sensation. At all.

A new technology that will allow you to use your body as a network transmitter is being developed in Japan. Called RedTacton, the Human Area Networking technology uses the minute electric field emitted on the surface of the human body to transmit data from one device to another. According to the makers using the system means touching, gripping, sitting, walking, stepping and other human movements can be the triggers for unlocking or locking, starting or stopping equipment, or obtaining data.

The system works by creating a transmission path at the moment a part of the human body comes in contact with a RedTacton transceiver. Physically separating ends the contact and thus ends communication. Using RedTacton, communication starts when terminals carried by the user or embedded in devices are linked in various combinations according to the user's natural, physical movements. Communication is possible using any body surfaces, such as the hands, fingers, arms, feet, face, legs or torso. RedTacton even works through shoes and clothing as well.

One suggestion for the technology is for the system to be embedded into medicine bottles that would then transmit information on the medicines' attributes. If the user touches the wrong medicine, an alarm will trigger on the terminal he or she is carrying. The alarm sounds only if the user actually touches the medicine bottle, reducing false alarms common with passive wireless ID tags, which can trigger simply by proximity. NTT, who is developing the technology plans to Commercialise the technology once testing has been completed, although currently there is no firm date as to when this might be.

Outrage overflowed on Capitol Hill this summer when members of Congress learned that Halliburton's dining halls in Iraq had repeatedly served spoiled food to unsuspecting troops. "This happened quite a bit," testified Rory Mayberry, a former food manager with Halliburton's KBR subsidiary. But the outrage apparently doesn't end with spoiled food. Former KBR employees and water quality specialists, Ben Carter and Ken May, told HalliburtonWatch that KBR knowingly exposes troops and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq's Euphrates River. One internal KBR email provided to HalliburtonWatch says that, for "possibly a year," the level of contamination at one camp was two times the normal level for untreated water.

Chlorination is not enough to remedy the problem since raw sewage is routinely dumped less than two miles from the water intake location, in violation of military policy and procedure. "Chlorination of water tanks, while certainly beneficial, is not sufficient protection from parasitic exposure." Granger has refused to comply with a company gag order and is convinced his employment will be terminated soon.

Federal investigators and Harvard University officials are probing whether a Harvard professor buried research suggesting a link between fluoridated tap water and bone cancer in adolescent boys.

Chester Douglass told federal officials he found no significant correlation between fluoridated water and osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Douglass, who serves as editor in chief for the industry-funded Colgate Oral Care Report, supervised research for a 2001 doctoral thesis that concluded boys exposed to fluoridated water at a young age were more likely to get the cancer.

But in 2001, Douglass's doctoral student, Elise Bassin, published a thesis using his data that concluded: "Among males, exposure to fluoride at or above the target level was associated with an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma. The association was most apparent between ages 5-10, with a peak at six to eight years of age."

"Fluoride safety is a major public health issue, and a Harvard professor potentially falsifying public research results has huge public health implications," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group. He added that Douglass's role in editing a newsletter funded by Colgate-Palmolive Co. "creates the appearance of a conflict of interest."