“People with the Duffy protein carry on their red cells and in their circulatory system a larger amount of immune molecules known as chemokines, which confers protection against HIV. In addition, the Duffy protein can act as a sponge and soak up infectious HIV particles, providing additional protection against the virus. People who have a variation of the gene – which includes a large proportion of people of African descent – don’t carry the Duffy protein, and are therefore at higher risk of getting infected when exposed to HIV.”
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Wired Science
- Video: The Chemistry of Thanksgiving November 26, 2009If you want to arm yourself with some nice science trivia for tonight’s dinner conversation, check out this lecture by Diane Bunce, a professor of chemistry at The Catholic University in Washington, DC. She gets off to a slow start, so you may want to skip the first two minutes. See Also: Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos Top [...]Aaron Rowe
- Industrial Thanksgiving: Science Takes Mom’s Recipes to the Assembly Line November 25, 2009Thanksgiving is about eating, and though local, organic food might be what the cool kids are eating, most people are still eating products of the industrial food system. Whether you’re talking turkey, cranberries or potatoes, industrial-scale processes have been developed to drive down food costs, drive up corporate profits and feed America’s inc […]Alexis Madrigal
- DIY Botox Seller Busted by Texas Attorney General November 25, 2009The Texas attorney general filed charges Monday against Laurie D’Alleva for allegedly selling prescription drugs like Botox from websites she owned, including discountmedspa.com. Agents descended on her Mansfield, Texas home and carried out boxes, computers, and other possible evidence for the case, according to local news reports. The lawsuit comes af […]Alexis Madrigal
- Pacific Northwest Earthquakes Could Strike Closer to Home November 25, 2009Major earthquakes occurring along the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Washington state could strike closer to the state’s urban areas than some models have suggested, a new study notes. GPS data gathered at dozens of sites throughout western Washington hint that slippage along the interface between the North American and Juan de Fuca tectonic [...] […]Sid Perkins, Science News
- The Gruesome Power of Raptor Talons November 25, 2009The most thorough study to date of raptor talons reveals their feet to be extraordinarily specialized hunting tools, perfectly suited to their gruesomely amazing killing strategies. “Despite the ubiquity of raptors in terrestrial ecosystems, many aspects of their predatory behavior remain poorly understood,” wrote ornithologists in a paper publis […]Brandon Keim
