Scientists' sobering find: drinking gene
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Scientists say they have found the genetic secret of how alcohol makes us drunk, clearing the way for some sobering research.
The discovery, they say, will lead to the development of new drugs for treating alcoholism, according to the Times of London.
Research by a team from the University of California at San Francisco has revealed the lowered inhibitions, unsteady legs and slurred speech that follow a drink too many can all be blamed on a gene called appropriately slo-1, and the protein it produces.
Known as the BK channel, the protein combines with alcohol to slow down the firing of neurons in the brain, lowering its performance and setting off all the familiar symptoms of intoxication.
The findings suggest it will eventually be possible to design drugs that stop the BK channel from working in that way. Several drug companies are actively pursuing similar research, as the potential market is huge.
Scientists: 'snowbirds' hurting real birds
KINGSTON, Ontario, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers have found southern vacation resorts encroach on key winter habitats crucial to the success of migratory birds.
The destruction of tropical forests to create vacation resorts for human "snowbirds" who fly south from Canada and the northern United States every winter is creating serious breeding problems for real migratory birds, biologists at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, said Friday.
A new study, headed by doctoral candidate Ryan Norris and his adviser, Laurene Ratcliffe, shows for the first time declining winter habitats of migratory songbirds significantly affect their ability to reproduce when they return north in the spring, and the evidence is found in tiny drops of their blood.
The study, highlighted recently in the journal Science, and co-authored by Dr. Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Institute, appears online in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences.
Wright wannabes struggling to fly
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C., Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The Wright brothers made it look easy when they made their flights 100 years ago in North Carolina, but doing it now with the same equipment just won't fly.
Some of today's most experienced pilots and craftsmen are struggling to replicate that feat, the Kansas City Star says.
They've taken decades to build a plane that the brothers assembled in a year, spent more than $1 million compared with the Wrights' equivalent of $20,000 and either failed to get off the ground or quickly crashed, netting broken bones and bruised egos.
At least six modern-day teams have taken up the Wright brothers replica challenge. What they've shown, largely through their crashes, is how remarkable it was that Orville and Wilbur Wright were able to coax that first 605-pound spruce Wright Flyer into the air four straight times on Dec. 17, 1903.
"How the Wright brothers flew it without breaking their necks is a miracle," said John Haire, a retired military pilot.
Ebola in Congo may be stabilizing
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo says the country's Ebola outbreak is stabilizing, the U.N.'s Integrated Regional Information Networks reported Friday.
The acute hemorrhagic fever has already claimed 29 lives of the 42 cases reported to date.
According to Damaze Bozongo, director-general of the health ministry, since Dec. 2, no further deaths had been registered in either Mbomo or Mbanza, two villages that were among the worst-affected in Cuvette Ouest, north of the capital, Brazzaville.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported that other suspect cases were still under investigation, while 47 people who came into contact with infected individuals were being monitored. It added that surveillance and social mobilization activities were also continuing.
The WHO said the current outbreak originated in Mbanza, near Mbomo, when a family consumed a dead wild boar they had found in the forest, with the first death occurring on Oct. 16.
