Hyaluronan: next big thing after Botox
NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Some doctors say that the sugar molecule called hyaluronan, discovered by New York City researchers, will be the next big thing after Botox.
Already, hyaluronan is used to protect the eye during surgery, reduce inflammation in arthritic knees and prevent postsurgery scar tissue. It's recently become known, however, as the latest treatment for plumping up facial wrinkles, the New York Times reported.
Hyaluronan, discovered in 1934 by Karl Meyer in an ophthalmology lab at Columbia University in New York, was found in cows' eyes, but harvesting bovine eyes was not commercially feasible. But another Columbia scientist, Dr. Endre Balazs, found the same molecule in the red combs of roosters.
The combs are plentiful because they are removed at slaughter and currently thrown away.
Recently, researchers have also found the molecule influences the way that cells act, and it has the potential to heal wounds, prevent scarring and deliver slowly released drugs to precise areas, according to Balazs.
Sundials will operate on Mars rovers
PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Identical sundials, each about 3-inches square, are being carried by the two roving vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity bound for Mars.
Bill Nye, who used to appear in the 1990s on PBS's "Bill Nye the Science Guy," has turned a age-old piece of calibration equipment into a state-of-the-art scientific instrument.
As Nye was looking over the designs for instruments to be carried to Mars, he noticed that the solar-panel calibration device for the lander's Pancam panoramic camera looked familiar.
"I said, 'Hey you guys, this has got to be a sundial. It'll be great.' They said, 'Bill, this is a space program. We have a lot of clocks. Thanks for your input.' Everybody was skeptical at first but later thought it would be kind of cool," Nye recalled.
Unlike ordinary sundials, the Mars sundials have no hour marks -- the rovers carrying them will be changing position frequently, rendering permanent hour lines meaningless, according to Nye. Instead, the rover science team will add hour marks electronically onto Pancam photos of the sundial.
One full day of the mission will be devoted to sundial observation.
HSUS protests use of downed animals
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The Humane Society of the United States Wednesday is demanding Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman ban the processing of "downed farm animals" for food.
Downed animals, according to the animal protection group, are those too sick or ill to walk on their own.
HSUS Senior Vice President Wayne Pacelle asked Veneman to exercise her authority to prohibit the practice of processing of sick animals for human consumption.
"To allow the continued processing of downed and diseased animals for human consumption is reckless and irresponsible," Pacelle said.
The Agriculture Department reports that there are perhaps 130,000-190,000 animals that go down ever year and cannot stand again and that are presented at slaughterhouses, the HSUS said. Nearly three-quarters of those animals are processed for human food, often on the basis of only a visual inspection at slaughterhouses.
