UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Life on Earth: Quicker start than thought?

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered Earth's climate was much cooler than thought billions of years ago, which may mean life developed earlier than thought.

Researchers from Texas A&M, Yale and Stanford universities say their findings could change current ideas about the formation of the earliest life on the planet. The scientists say they've determined the Earth's climate was perhaps more than 50 degrees cooler than thought billions of years ago. That means conditions for life were much easier, and that life existing at that time was not under as much stress as previously believed.

Texas A&M geobiologist Mike Tice said the team examined rocks from South Africa that are known to be about 3.4 billion years old -- among the oldest ever discovered. They found features in the rocks consistent with formation at water temperatures significantly lower than previous studies suggested.

"Our research shows the water temperature 3.4 billion years ago was at most 105 degrees, and while that's potentially very warm, it's far below the temperatures of 155 degrees or more that previous research has implied," Tice said. "It means more organisms may have been around that were not necessarily heat-loving ones."

The study appears in the journal Nature.

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Post breast cancer treatment pain common

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Almost 50 percent of women with breast cancer reported pain two to three years after treatment, researchers in Denmark said.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found younger women who had received supplemental radiation therapy were the more likely to have pain.

Dr. Rune Gartner of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues questioned 3,754 women ages 18-70 about pain after an average of 26 months after surgery for breast cancer and found 1,543 patients reported pain in one or more areas.

Of these, 13 percent reported severe pain, 39 percent reported moderate pain and 48 percent reported light pain. Adjuvant radiation therapy or axillary lymph node dissection -- rather than sentinel lymph node dissection -- were among factors associated with an increased likelihood of pain, the study also found.

"There was a significant association of age on reporting pain, where young age was associated with higher risk, especially for patients receiving breast-conserving surgery, the risk being highest for those women ages 18-39 receiving breast-conserving surgery compared with women ages 60-69," the study authors said in a statement.

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Brown pelican no longer endangered

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. officials Wednesday removed the brown pelican from the list of threatened and endangered species.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton made the announcement.

"At a time when so many species of wildlife are threatened, we once in a while have an opportunity to celebrate an amazing success story," Salazar said. "Today is such a day. The brown pelican is back!"

The brown pelican was first declared endangered in 1970. But since then, thanks to a ban on DDT and efforts by states, conservation organizations, private citizens and many other partners, the bird has recovered, officials said.

There are now more than 650,000 brown pelicans found across Florida and the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Fish and Wildlife Service removed the brown pelican in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and northward along the Atlantic Coast states from the list of endangered species in 1985. Wednesday's action removes the remaining population from the list.

Federal officials said the pelican's recovery is largely due to the 1971 federal ban on the general use of the pesticide DDT. That action followed former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" that alerted the nation to the widespread dangers associated with unrestricted pesticide use.

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HIV vaccine research takes new direction

DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists seeking a vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus say a study of HIV antibodies is leading them in a new direction.

The Duke University Medical Center-led researchers said that new direction came from a detailed study of how the most robust antibodies work to block the HIV as it seeks entry into healthy cells.

"Our study clearly showed that we've been overlooking a very important component of antibody function," said S. Munir Alam, associate professor of medicine and lead author of the study.

Alam and Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Bing Chen said they studied two potentially powerful antibodies against HIV, 2F5 and 4E10. Both of are rare, broadly neutralizing antibodies, meaning they can block a number of strains of HIV, the scientists said.

The researchers found successful docking of the antibody to the HIV outer coat membrane region required antibody attachment to the virus's membrane, which contains lipid.

"This two-step mechanism, not previously appreciated, might extend to antibodies that protect against other viruses," said study co-author Stephen Harrison of Harvard Medical School.

The researchers said they are now designing a vaccine that incorporates a lipid component and design trials are now being conducted on animals.

The findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.