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Earliest Evidence Of Hereditary Genetic Disorder Discovered By Hebrew University Researchers
June 28, 2004The discovery of what is believed to be the oldest evidence yet found of a human hereditary genetic disorder has been announced by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The researchers are Dr. Uri Zilberman and Patricia Smith, the Joel Wilbush Professor of Medical Anthropology, both of the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Hebrew University and Dr. Silvana Condemi a senior researcher at the French Research Institute in Jerusalem. They are among the authors of an article in the June issue of the Journal of Human Evolution that details the finding of a disease known as amelogenesis imperfecta in the teeth of a fossil found in archaeological excavations in Ethiopia. The fossil is dated as 1.5 million years old and is from a two-year-old Homo erectus child. Homo erectus was a precursor of modern man.
According to Dr.Zilberman, this is the first recorded evidence from such an early prehistoric period of a hereditary disorder in which the specific genes responsible have been identified. Undoubtedly, he said, there are other hereditary diseases that have come down to us from prehistoric ancestors and which are yet to be discovered in fossil remains.
Amelogenesis imperfecta is a hereditary disorder that manifests itself in tooth enamel that is abnormal in structure, low in mineral content and hence subject to rapid wear and chipping. The Hebrew University researchers confirmed the clear presence of the disease in the fossil sample through x-ray and scanning electron microscope analyses. The disease appears relatively rarely today (one in 14,000 people in Israel, one in 8,000 in the U.S.). It is much more common in one area of Sweden (one in 700).
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Research team reports how, when life on Earth became so big
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No quick or easy technological fix for climate change, researchers say
Global warming, some have argued, can be reversed with a large-scale "geoengineering" fix, such as having a giant blimp spray liquefied sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere or building tens of millions of chemical filter systems in the atmosphere to filter out carbon dioxide.
'Hobbit' fossils represent a new species, concludes University of Minnesota anthropologist
University of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history -- that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical "hobbit" creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.
Study: Did early climate impact divert a new glacial age?
The common wisdom is that the invention of the steam engine and the advent of the coal-fueled industrial age marked the beginning of human influence on global climate.
U.N. Climate Change Conference considers ancient soil replenishment technique in battle against global warming
Former inhabitants of the Amazon Basin enriched their fields with charred organic materials-biochar-and transformed one of the earth's most infertile soils into one of the most productive.
New Satellite Data Reveal Impact of Olympic Pollution Controls
Chinese government regulators had clearer skies and easier breathing in mind in the summer of 2008 when they temporarily shuttered some factories and banished many cars in a pre-Olympic sprint to clean up Beijing's air. And that's what they got.
Engineering algae to make fuel instead of sugar
In pursuing cleaner energy there is such a thing as being too green. Unicellular microalgae, for instance, can be considered too green.
Wind, water and sun beat biofuels, nuclear and coal for clean energy, Stanford researcher says
The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.
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