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A new treatment may be able to REVERSE Mad Cow Disease in humans. It works in mice.

Blocking the production of certain proteins in the brains of diseased mice completely reverses the memory loss caused by Mad Cow. Will it do the same thing for humans? The human form of Mad Cow is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Animals and humans both produce normal prion proteins in our nervous systems. Mad Cow and vCJD produce abnormal, “folded” prions that disrupt the functioning of our normal prions. The resulting brain damage leads to loss of coordination, dementia and eventually to death.
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The February 2nd report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that human activities, in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, are the cause of global warming. Some scientists think we only have a decade left to try to fix the problem. Meanwhile, major oil companies are trying desperately to debunk the study.

CNN reports that an Exxon-Mobil think tank sent letters to scientists offering them $10,000 if they would criticize the findings of the new UN study. Is this the type of “think tank” that will be attached to President Bush’s proposed $500 billion presidential library?
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We’re afraid of poisonous snakes, but most snakes have no venom and therefore are not dangerous. What can a non-poisonous snake do to ward off predators? One type of snake has developed its own version of the “poison ring” that certain Medieval ladies wore in case they wanted to pour a lethal substance into someone’s drink.

Herpetologists Deborah Hutchinson and Alan Savitzky discovered an Asian snake that eats poisonous toads, so it can use the toad toxin as a defensive weapon. It stores the toad poison in its neck glands, where it can be released during an attack. Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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We’ve posted many news stories over the years about trying to discover the identity of the builders of Stonehenge. Now archeologists have found a entire workers’ village of about 25 houses buried about 2 miles away from the prehistoric observatory. It may also have been a kind of hotel where festival-goers could stay, where there was once a wooden version of the Stonehenge circle.

The village has been carbon dated to about 2600 BC, which is the same time that Stonehenge was built. LiveScience.com quotes UK archeologist Parker Pearson as saying that the Great Pyramid in Egypt was built around the same time.
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