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Scientists decode the bedbug's genes to help kill it
Just the very thought of bedbugs probably makes your skin crawl, and that's made all the worse by their ability to adapt to new threats. Like it or not, that pesticide you used years ago probably doesn't work any more. What to do? Genetics might just come to the rescue. Scientists have created the first full genome sequence for the bedbug in hopes of defeating its resistance to sprays and other attempts at extermination. You'd think this would have been easy (humans can sequence woolly mammoths, for goodness' sake), but it wasn't -- the team had to compare bedbug genes from 1973 with present-day samples, and even the differences before and after the bugs had their blood meals.
Artificial retina reconstructs normal vision in mice, human trials next
Scientists have been working on artificial retinas for years, and while the main focus of research has been to increase the amount of light captured, a study led by Sheila Nirenberg, PhD, has taken a different tack. The new system being devised at Weill Cornell Medical College better mimics frontline photoreceptor cells, making it easier for the ganglion cells to output a more accurate image. "If you want to really restore normal vision, you have to know the retina's code," Nirenberg said. "Once you have that, the door is open to the possibility of restoring normal vision." When researchers performed tests with mice, they found that those with the new system reconstructed more details (the second image, above) than those without (image three, above). "Incorporating the [more accurate] code jumped the system's performance up to normal levels - that is, there was enough information to reconstruct faces, newsprint, landscapes, essentially anything," Nirenberg said. The next step? Coordinating with other researchers to test the technology on human participants.
