Study suggests apes can 'plan ahead'
LUND, Sweden, June 17 (UPI) -- Swedish scientists say they've discovered conclusive evidence that apes can "plan ahead" by using imagination and self-control.
Mathias and Helena Osvath of Lund University said their findings are the first to provide conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities in a non-human species.
In a series of four experiments, the researchers investigated whether chimpanzees and orangutans could override immediate drives in favor of future needs, therefore demonstrating both self-control and the ability to plan ahead, rather than simply fulfilling immediate needs through impulsive behavior.
The researchers said their experiments strongly suggest great apes engage in planning for the future. "The results of this study entail that capacities central to humans evolved much earlier than previously believed," they said
The findings are reported in the online issue of the journal Animal Cognition.
Syphilis study yields important findings
ATLANTA, June 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists studying syphilis bacteria say they have found genetic variations that could have significant clinical and epidemiological importance.
Emory University researchers said sequence variations they identified in the acidic repeat protein gene allow straightforward differentiation of venereal syphilis from non-venereal Treponema pallidum subspecies.
"This finding can lead to improved diagnoses of cases, enabling doctors to prescribe the right treatment and public health workers to determine the best prevention strategies," said Kristin Harper, who led the research team as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute pre-doctoral fellow.
The family of Treponema bacteria causes venereal syphilis and the non-venereal diseases of yaws and bejel, which are transmitted through skin-to-skin or oral contact. Public health workers in parts of Africa have reported difficulty in distinguishing yaws from syphilis in children, leaving open the question of whether the child might have contracted a venereal disease either congenitally or through sexual abuse.
"As yaws eradication efforts near their goal and case diagnosis becomes more difficult due to the relative rarity of yaws, a molecular means of determining whether the infection is venereal or non-venereal becomes essential," Harper said
The study appears online in the journal Immunology and Medical Microbiology.
Wilkins Ice Shelf still vanishing
PARIS, June 17 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency says the Antarctic's Wilkins Ice Shelf continued to breakup with a 100-mile area breaking away at the end of May.
The ice shelf event May 30-31 is the first documented episode to occur during the Antarctic winter, the ESA said.
Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of floating ice south of South America on the Antarctic Peninsula, is connected to two islands, Charcot and Latady. In February, an area of about 250 miles broke free of the ice shelf, narrowing the connection to a 4-mile strip. The latest event reduced that strip to 1.6 miles.
The ESA's Envisat satellite observes the rapidly dwindling strip of ice that is protecting thousands of miles of the ice shelf from further destruction.
Matthias Braun of Bonn University's Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces and Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics at Munster University said the remaining plate has an arched fracture at its narrowest point, making it very likely the connection will soon completely break.
The ESA said Antarctic ice shelves are important indicators of climate change because they are sandwiched by extraordinarily rising surface air temperatures and a warming ocean.
Computer predicts anti-cancer molecules
ATLANTA, June 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a computerized method of analyzing cellular activity that correctly predicts the anti-tumor activity of several molecules.
Researchers Jeffrey Skolnick and John McDonald led a Georgia Institute of Technology team in developing the tool, called CoMet, that studies the integrated machinery of the cell, predicting which components can have an effect on cancer.
"This opens up the possibility of novel therapeutics for cancer and develops our understanding of why such metabolites work," said Skolnick.
He said metabolites are small molecules that are naturally produced in cells. Enzymes, the biological catalysts that produce and consume the metabolites, are created according to a cell's genetic blueprints. Importantly, however, he said metabolites can also affect the expression of genes.
"By comparing the gene expression levels of cancer cells relative to normal cells and converting that information into the enzymes that produce metabolites, CoMet predicts metabolites that have lower concentrations in cancer relative to normal cells," the scientists said, adding their findings prove that by adding such putatively depleted metabolites to cancer cells, they exhibit anti-cancer properties.
The research that included Adrian Arakaki, Roman Mezencev, Nathan Bowen and Ying Huang appears in the open access journal Molecular Cancer.
