Brief Points, January 2006

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▪ Scientists have discovered another appetite hormone called obestatin. Though closely related to the hunger hormone ghrelin, obestatin has the opposite effect and offers a new target in the fight against fatness.

Science, November 11, 2005

▪ Emotional stress hampers problem solving, but propranolol, a beta blocker sometimes used to treat panic attacks, reversed the decline by interfering with the action of the stress hormone norepinephrine.

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Society for Neuroscience meeting, November 2005

▪ Where to put the cupholders? Rice University researchers made a single-molecule “car”—complete with a chassis, axles and buckyball wheels—that rolled on a gold surface when heated. At about four nanometers long, it is slightly wider than a strand of DNA.

Nano Letters, November 2005

▪ A blood test can detect fragments of the mutant genes from cells of colon cancer at a stage when the disease can be treated, providing a possible alternative to colonoscopy.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, November 8, 2005

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