Biotechnology. Disease group invests in do-it-yourself drugs

On 31 May, the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation of Bethesda, Maryland, announced that it will invest at least $30 million in a small biotech firm, Aurora Biosciences of San Diego, to identify compounds that might prove useful in treating CF. This project, fueled initially by a donation of $20 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, marks a new departure in the growing trend of patient groups taking charge of biomedical research.     

Changing climate: geothermal evidence from permafrost in the alaskan arctic

Temperature profiles measured in permafrost in northernmost Alaska usually have anomalous curvature in the upper 100 meters or so. When analyzed by heat-conduction theory, the profiles indicate a variable but widespread secular warming of the permafrost surface, generally in the range of 2 to 4 Celsius degrees during the last few decades to a century. Although details of the climatic change cannot be resolved with existing data, there is little doubt of its general magnitude and timing; alternative explanations are limited by the fact that heat transfer in cold permafrost is exclusively by conduction. Since models of greenhouse warming predict climatic change will be greatest in the Arctic and might already be in progress, it is prudent to attempt to understand the rapidly changing thermal regime in this region.     

Direct inhibition of maintenance respiration in western hemlock roots exposed to ambient soil carbon dioxide concentrations

Root respiration often exhibits a direct and immediate decline with increasing concentrations of ambient soil carbon dioxide concentration ([CO(2)]), and recent evidence suggests this decline may be attributable to a decline in maintenance respiration within the root. If true, this concept could provide a clue to the biochemical process underlying respiratory inhibition as well as improve our knowledge of the timing and degree to which this inhibition occurs in nature. To test the hypothesis that maintenance respiration exhibits a direct, negative response to increasing [CO(2)], we measured total respiration in intact root systems of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) seedlings grown at different relative growth rates and exposed to soil [CO(2)]s ranging from 91 to 7008 &mgr;mol mol(-1). Analysis of covariance was used to separate maintenance from total respiration. Total respiration declined exponentially with increasing [CO(2)]. Maintenance respiration, which comprised 85% of total respiration over all treatments, also declined exponentially with increasing [CO(2)]. Growth respiration was not inhibited at any [CO(2)]. These findings may explain why roots of some fast-growing species do not show [CO(2)] inhibition.