Date:14.05.2011
The sickle-cell mutation leads to higher production of a protein called heme oxygenase-1, which makes carbon monoxide gas. The gas helps reduce inflammation and protects against death in mice with malaria infection in their brains, the team reports in the April 29 Cell.
Using mice genetically engineered to make human hemoglobin with the sickle-cell mutation, Soares and his colleagues discovered that the mutation primes the body to deal with the red blood cellshredding activities of the malaria parasite.
Hemoglobin breaks down more easily in people with the sickle mutation, Soares says, releasing a toxic compound called heme. To compensate, the body makes more of the heme oxygenase-1 enzyme, leading to more carbon monoxide production. The carbon monoxide then latches on to hemoglobin and prevents heme from popping off and causing more trouble.
“Before you get infected, sickle hemoglobin is releasing tiny amounts of heme. Your body looks at it and says, 'This could be very dangerous, so I'm going to shut it down,'” Soares says.
Priming the body to deal with the extra heme also means that cells are prepared for the effects of the malaria parasite. The parasite can still infect cells, but the host doesn't get as sick, allowing more time for the immune system to deal with the infection. “It's a politician's approach; you open a dialog with it while you're still fighting it.”
GOD PARTICLE DETECTED
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A rumor is floating around the physics community that the world's largest atom smasher may have detected a long-sought subatomic particle called the higgs boson, also known as the ''God particle.''
The controversial rumor is based on what appears to be a leaked internal note from physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17 mile long particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland It's not entirely clear at this point if the memo is authentic, or what the data it refers to might mean but the note already has researches talking.
The buzz started when an anonymous commenter recently posted an abstract of the note on Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit's blog, Not Even Wrong.
Some physicists say the note may be a hoax, while others believe the "detection" is likely a statistical anomaly that will disappear upon further study. But the find would be a huge particle-physics breakthrough, if it holds up.
"If it were to be real, it would be really exciting," said physicist Sheldon Stone of Syracuse University.
The Higgs boson is predicted to exist by prevailing particle-physics theory, which is known as the Standard Model. Physicists think the Higgs bestows mass on all the other particles but they have yet to confirm its existence.
Huge atom smashers like the LHC and the Tevatron, at Fermilab in Illinois are searching for the Higgs and other subatomic bits of matter. These accelerators slam particles together at enormous speeds, generating a shower of other particles that could include the Higgs or other elemental pieces predicted by theory but yet to be detected. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
The leaked note suggests that the LHC's ATLAS particle-detection experiment may have picked up a signature of the elusive Higgs. The signal is consistent, in mass and other characteristics, with what the Higgs is expected to produce, according to the note.
However, some other aspects of the signal don't match predictions.
"Its production rate is much higher than that expected for the Higgs boson in the Standard Model," Stone told SPACE.com in an email interview. So the signal may be evidence of some other particle, Stone added, "which in some sense would be even more interesting, or it could be the result of new physics beyond the Standard Model."
Too soon to tell
Stone was quick to point out that the note is not an official result of the ATLAS research team. Therefore, speculating about its validity or implications is decidedly preliminary.
"It is actually quite illegitimate and unscientific to talk publicly about internal collaboration material before it is approved," Stone said. "So this 'result' is not a result until the collaboration officially releases it."
Other researchers joined Stone in urging patience and caution before getting too excited about the possible discovery.
"Don't worry, Higgs boson! I would never spread scurrilous rumors about you. Unlike some people," Caltech physicist Sean Carroll tweeted today (April 22).
While it's still early, some researchers have already begun to cast doubt on the possible detection. For example, Tommaso Dorigo a particle physicist at Fermilab and CERN, which operates the LHC thinks the signal is false and will fade upon closer inspection.
Dorigo who said he doesn't have access to the full ATLAS memo gives several reasons for this viewpoint. He points out, for example, that scientists at Fermilab didn't see the putative Higgs signal in their Tevatron data, which covered similar ground as the ATLAS experiment.
Dorigo feels strongly enough, in fact, to put his money where his mouth is.
"I bet $1,000 with whomever has a name and a reputation in particle physics (this is a necessary specification, because I need to be sure that the person taking the bet will honor it) that the signal is not due to Higgs boson decays," he wrote on his blog today. "I am willing to bet that this is NO NEW PARTICLE. Clear enough?
Dry ice, wetter Mars
Newfound reservoir of frozen CO2 at Mars' south polar cap (blue)
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A newfound reservoir of dry ice on Mars suggests that the planet's surface has been wetter in the relatively recent past, though not necessarily warmer than it is today.
The new study adds to evidence that Mars once had a carbon dioxide atmosphere thick enough to keep liquid water on the surface from evaporating. It's unclear whether the planet would have been hospitable for life, however, because temperatures on Mars may actually have been slightly colder during times when the atmosphere had a greater amount of carbon dioxide.
Roger Phillips of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and his colleagues base their findings on radar studies by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the layered deposits at Mars' south polar cap. Earlier studies had indicated that a veneer of frozen carbon dioxide sits atop part of the cap with a thin layer of water ice beneath it. But a detailed analysis of radar reflected from different layers of the cap reveals that beneath the frozen water lies a volume of carbon dioxide ice 30 times greater than previously estimated, the team reports online April 21 in Science.
This unexpected reservoir of dry ice is intriguing, Phillips says, because about every 100,000 years Mars is known to dramatically tilt its spin axis. During these periods of high polar tilt, enough sunlight falls on the poles to vaporize the frozen carbon dioxide and release it into the atmosphere, roughly doubling the atmospheric pressure on the Red Planet. With a denser atmosphere, liquid water could persist on the surface rather than evaporating, and might account for some of the features on Mars that appear to have carved by water, such as channels and gullies, Phillips notes.
What the heck is this? 
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If you guessed it's from an episode of "The Hole in the Wall," your experiencing an optical illusion.
While the image might seem to show a hole, it actually shows a lagoon within an atoll surrounded by an ocean, all viewed from space. The photo was taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.
Bassas da India is an uninhabited atoll in the Indian Ocean. It's made of volcanic rock surrounded by coral reefs, all 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter.
Sunlight glinting off the water is what creates the very unusual appearance. Darker patches and streaks are caused by currents in the water.
