Here we show that telomerase activity does not coevolve with lifespan but instead coevolves with body mass: larger rodents repress telomerase activity in somatic cells. These results suggest that large body mass presents a greater risk of cancer than long lifespan, and large animals evolve repression of telomerase activity to mitigate that risk.

Läs mer: Blackwell Synergy: Aging Cell, Vol 0, Issue 0, pp. ???-???: Telomerase activity coevolves with body mass not lifespan (Abstract)

The results showed a large decrease in the brain response to threat as a function of spouse handholding, and a limited decrease in this response as a function of stranger handholding. Moreover, spouse handholding effects varied as a function of marital quality, with women in the very highest quality marriages benefiting from a very powerful decrease in threat-related brain activity, including a strong decrease in the emotional (affective) component of the brain’s pain processing circuits.

Läs mer: High-quality marriages help to calm nerves | Science Blog

We started to look at nervous system elements that seemed to play a role in Type 1 diabetes and found that specific sensory neurons are critical for islet immune attack in the pancreas,

Läs mer: Diabetes, A Neurological Disorder? - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com

The study revealed a huge rift in attitudes towards homosexuality, with the Dutch (82%) followed by the Swedes and the Danes (71% and 69%) strongly in favour of allowing gay marriages in the whole EU, while only 12 percent of Latvians and equally small percentages of Poles (17%) and Greeks (15%) said they back the idea.

Läs mer: EUobserver.com

Russia spy HQ has giant batman mural in floor

Läs mer: Boing Boing: Russia spy HQ has giant batman mural in floor

Societies of the future will rely on small, diversified and renewable sources of energy, ranging from windmills and solar photovoltaics to second-generation ethanol-and biodiesel-production facilities. Widely dispersed throughout the countryside, these streamlined facilities will make the industrialized world more secure and less dependent on unstable and threatening oil-producing nations.

Läs mer: My Turn: Al Gore on Climate Crisis and Global Power - Newsweek Enterprise - MSNBC.com

Fraudulent eBay users typically build up their online "reputation" by conducting transactions with accomplices who give them phony "positive" feedback. These accomplices, a research team at Carnegie Mellon has found, typically interact with many fraudsters. If an eBay user transacts with many known accomplices, who aren't themselves engaging in fraud but have given positive feedback to fraudsters, then they may be a fraudster themselves.

Läs mer: Cognitive Daily: Finding eBay fraudsters through social networks

One of Russia's main objections to the charter is the transit protocol, which discusses how foreign energy companies could obtain "third-party access." In practice, third-party access would allow companies to use Russia's pipeline network to transport, for example, gas purchased in Central Asia via Russia to markets in Europe.

Läs mer: Russia gets tough on energy sales to Europe - Europe - International Herald Tribune

Nasdaq officially announced a $5.3 billion hostile bid for the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, starting the takeover clock ticking on a combination that would create the first trans-Atlantic bourse.

Läs mer: Nasdaq begins a hostile bid for the London Stock Exchange - Business - International Herald Tribune

The EU Court of First Instance, the EU's 2nd highest level appellate court, has struck down the EU designation of a significant Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujaheddin (OMPI) on the ground that OMPI didn't have a fair hearing before its assets were frozen. This is a further sign of the growing effort to require judicial oversight of national security designations made by national governments in the area of economic sanctions against terrorism.

Läs mer: Counterterrorism Blog: EU Strikes Down Terrorist Finance Designation of Iranian Opposition

Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it. In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

Läs mer: So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet - New York Times

The practice of aborting female fetuses because of a preference for sons is becoming more widespread in India, a Unicef report revealed Tuesday, with an estimated 7,000 fewer girls born every day because of the spread of cheap, prenatal sex-determination technology.

Läs mer: More female fetuses being aborted in India, Unicef says - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune

Most of Central and Eastern Europe's former Communist countries tried to purge their societies of the Soviet-era secret police and informers in the aftermath of communism's collapse. But the closer they were to Russia, the less effective their purges were.

Läs mer: Communists are gone but not the spies - Europe - International Herald Tribune

It was a marathon case, beginning 12 years ago, and, along with Mengistu, more than 70 other high-ranking suspects were found guilty of genocide. The trial, held in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, was one of the rare instances of an African country trying its own former leader.

Läs mer: Ethiopian court convicts Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Belgium: This year's vintage was good. The bottle from 1997 was even better, with the flavors coalescing into something special. But it was the 1970 edition that really opened eyes to what aging a bottle can do.

Läs mer: Some beers really do get better with age - Travel & Dining - International Herald Tribune

To make room for more high- rise buildings, investors are doing what was once left to philanthropists: giving slum dwellers free apartments.

Läs mer: Free apartments in Mumbai, but not everyone is happy - Business - International Herald Tribune

Shadowed by peril as we are, you would think we'd get pretty good at distinguishing the risks likeliest to do us in from the ones that are statistical long shots. But you would be wrong. We agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the U.S., but have to be cajoled into getting vaccinated for the common flu, which contributes to the deaths of 36,000 Americans each year. We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might be (but almost certainly isn't) in our hamburger and worry far less about the cholesterol that contributes to the heart disease that kills 700,000 of us annually.

Läs mer: TIME.com: Why We Worry About The Things We Shouldn't... ...And Ignore The Things We Should -- Dec. 4, 2006 -- Page 1

Discovering this basic neural circuitry turned out to be a key breakthrough in understanding anxiety. It showed that the anxiety response isn't necessarily caused by an external threat; rather, it may be traced to a breakdown in the mechanism that signals the brain to stop responding. Just as a car can go out of control due to either a stuck accelerator or failed brakes, it's not always clear which part of the brain is at fault. It may turn out that some anxiety disorders are caused by an overactive amygdala (the accelerator) while others are caused by an underactive prefrontal cortex (call it the brake).

Läs mer: TIME.com: The Science Of Anxiety -- Jun. 10, 2002 -- Page 3

Mass hysteria is typically called 'mass sociogenic illness' in the research literature and was the subject of a fascinating 2002 article by sociologist Robert Bartholomew and psychiatrist Simon Wessley. This article was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and charts the history of mass sociogenic illness from the middle ages to the present day.

Läs mer: Mind Hacks: 'Mass hysteria' closes school

Nog har man hört mycket om det galna 60- och 70-talet men det här tar nog priset. Sverige hade ett mer eller mindre hemligt avtal med västmakterna om militärt bistånd i händelse av en attack från Sovjet och Warszawapakten. Jag minns från i alla fall 80-talet att det sades att detta avtal fanns, och det kändes lugnande. Det visat sig nu i en  ny bok av Robert Dalsjö på FOI att man avvecklade avtalet under tryck från den radikaliserade vänstern!

Robert Dalsjö beskriver utvecklingen så att man under 1950-talet kunde skriva om planerna på att begära hjälp västerifrån, att man på 60-talet kunde tala om dem, men att man under 70-talet inte ens fick tänka på saken.
Det ledde till att planläggningen bröts och förstördes på 80-talet.

Speciellt märkligt är följande ur artikeln i DN:

Stig Synnergrens efterträdare Lennart Ljung, som tillträdde 1978, gav klartecken till att planläggningen för västsamarbetet skulle förstöras, vilket skedde 1984 utan klara besked från regeringen eller försvarsministern Anders Thunborg.

Detta tycks innebära att det slutliga avvecklandet gjordes under en borgerlig regering. Med dess goda minne eller saknade de insyn i försvarsmakten?

Läs mer: DN - Nyheter - Nytt politiskt klimat stoppade Natosamarbete