UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

ISS home improvements begin

HOUSTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. astronauts performed a maintenance chores -- cleaning here, lubing there -- Tuesday at the International Space Station.

Mission specialists Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Brown began their 6 1/2-hour space walk shortly after 1 p.m. as space shuttle astronaut Shane Kimbrough guided them through their tasks, NASA.gov reported.

The space shuttle Endeavour began its mission Thursday when it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

On the mission specialists' to-do list is the replacement of a nitrogen tank assembly, various station assembly tasks and starting the cleaning and lubrication of the starboard solar alpha rotary joint.

Inside the space station, mission specialist Don Pettit and flight engineer Sandra Magnus will operate the station's robotic arm for several tasks. Among other things, the ISS is being expanded to accommodate more visitors.

Four spacewalks are scheduled, NASA said.

Oldest known nuclear family was killed

ADELAIDE, Austria, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The oldest known nuclear family was killed in a violent struggle, an analysis of the 4,600-year-old remains buried in Germany indicate.

In fact, the oldest genetically identifiable family "were definitely murdered, there are big holes in their heads, fingers and wrists are broken," Alistair Pike from Bristol University told the BBC.

The researchers, whose report was published in the PNAS scientific journal, said comparisons of DNA extracted from bones found in one grave confirmed it entombed a mother, father and their two children. The son and daughter were buried in the arms of their parents.

"We're really sure, based on hard biological facts not just supposing or assuming," said Wolfgang Haak of The Australian Center for Ancient DNA in Adelaide, conducted the DNA analysis.

The four graves held 13 bodies, eight children and five adults. In two graves, DNA was preserved enough to allow comparisons among the occupants, researchers said.

One of the graves contained the nuclear family, while the other grave contained three related children and an unrelated woman, the British broadcaster said.

Birth defects, fertility techniques linked

ATLANTA, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Infants conceived using fertility clinic techniques are more likely to have certain birth defects than infants conceived naturally, a U.S. study indicates.

The findings applied to single births only and included heart problems, cleft lip or palate, and abnormalities in the esophagus or rectum, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The conditions are rare, generally occurring no more than once in 700 births, so the risk was still low even with fertility treatments, the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta indicated.

The procedures that increased the risk were techniques, such as in vitro fertilization, that require working with sperm and eggs outside of the body, researchers said. The study did not include women who only took fertility drugs.

"I think it is important for couples to consider the fact that there may be a risk for birth defects," said Jennita Reefhuis, a CDC epidemiologist and lead author of the study.

Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, March of Dimes vice president and medical director, said Reefhuis's work was "confirmatory of the direction we have been concerned about, an increase in some structural birth defects in babies born with assisted reproductive techniques compared to those born without such. And yet the numbers are still small, the risks are low."

Steroids can cause infant brain cell death

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Some drugs used in premature babies and in pregnant women at risk for preterm deliveries can kill infant brain cells, research by U.S. scientists shows.

The study indicated the class of steroid drugs, glucocorticoids, often used to help underdeveloped lungs in premature infants, irreversibly damaged baby mice's brain cells in the cerebellum, the area responsible for coordination and balance, USA Today reported.

In the study, brain cells in mice died after treatments administered four to 10 days after birth, said study author Kevin Noguchi, a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University School of Medicine. In human babies, the period would be from about 20 weeks in the womb to six weeks after birth, he said.

Noguchi said other studies indicate a synthetic steroid -- dexamethasone -- causes motor and cognitive problems in children.

The authors said the toxic effects don't seem to affect the brains of older babies, children and adults, USA Today reported.

"Our studies in mice suggest that once a human infant is a few months old, these drugs -- which are used for other medical conditions, too -- don't appear to have this type of toxic effect," co-author Nuri Farber said.