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Autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, fibromyalgia and some types of asthma, are among the most mysterious of human maladies. Why do our bodies suddenly attack and destroy themselves?

Scientists now say that the trigger may be two generations of “foreign” cells in a mother’s body, and that this may explain why these diseases attack three times as many women as men.

The first foreign cells are picked up when a fetus shares blood with its mother. When that fetus is born, grows up and becomes pregnant herself, a second set of cells infiltrates her body from her own unborn baby.
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A new interpretation of light emissions from stars has led scientists to the conclusion that there may be vast numbers of earthlike planets in the universe.

Norman Murray of the University of Toronto claims that the presence of iron in the starlight of more than half the stars in a sample of our galaxy indicates that they may have rocky planets in orbit around them.

Professor Murray says, “if there are bodies in orbit around these stars, at least the probability that there is life–similar to what we consider to be life–has to be more likely than it would have been before we discovered this evidence.”
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The Rubber Research Institute of Maylasia in Kuala Lumpur has successfully produced genetically modified rubber plants that produce human proteins.

Human serum albumin, which is a nutrient given to patients on intensive care, is now being produced in steady quantities from rubber plants into which the appropriate human genes have been implanted. According to Hoong-Yeet Yeang of the Institute, “we’re getting continuous production simply by tapping it for milk.”

The yield is high enough to make the human proteins very cheaply, and the rubber left over can still be used for tires.

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British cattle feed in all probability contaminated with Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis prions was exported to third world countries for years after its exportation was banned to the European Union by the British government.

The first two cases of humans with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the disease caused by BSE prions in human beings, have been confirmed in Thailand. Before 1996, Thailand was a major importer of British livestock feed.

Other suspected cases in South Korea and Spain, both of which were importers of British cattle feed, are waiting for confirmation.
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