Medicine Award Kicks off Nobel Prize Announcements Two scientists who have won praise for research into the growth of cancer cells could be candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presented on Monday, kicking off six days of Nobel announcements. Australian-born U. S. citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won a series of medical honors for their enzyme research and experts say they could be among the front-runners for a Nobel. Only seven women have won the medicine prize since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901. The last female winner was U. S. researcher Linda Buck in 2004, who shared the prize with Richard Axel. Among the pair’s possible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans and Elwood Jensen, who opened up the field of studying proteins called nuclear hormone receptors. As usual, the award committee is giving no hints about who is in the running before presenting its decision in a news conference at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute. Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden’s central bank. Nobel left few instructions on how to select winners, but medicine winners are typically awarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research. Hans Jornvall, secretary of the medicine prize committee, said the 10 million kronor (US $1.3 million) prize encourages groundbreaking research but he did not think winning it was the primary goal for scientists. “Individual researchers probably don’t look at themselves as potential Nobel Prize winners when they’re at work,“ Jornvatl told The Associated Press. “They get their kicks from their research and their interest in how life functions.“ In 2006, Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Greider, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, shared the Lasker prize for basic medical research with Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School. Their work set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth.Who is NOT a likely candidate for this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine? Elizabeth Blackburn. Carol Greider. Linda Buck: Pierre Chambon.

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New Attempts to Eradicate AIDS Virus A high-profile attempt to eradicate the AIDS virus in a few patients continues to show promise. But researchers won’t know for a year or more whether it will work, scientist David Ho told journalists here Wednesday for the Fourth Conference in Viruses and Infections. “This is a study that’s in progress,“ says Ho, head of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York. The study involves 20 people who started combinations of anti-HIV drugs very early in the course of the disease, within 90 days of their infections. They’ve been treated for up to 18 months. Four others have dropped out because of side effects or problems complying with the exacting drug system. The drugs have knocked the AIDS virus down to undetectable levels in the blood of all remaining patients, s And, in the latest development6, scientists have now tested lymph nodes and semen from a few patients and found no virus reproducing there, Ho says. “Bear in mind that? undetectable does not equal absent,“ Ho says. Ho has calculated that the drugs should be able to wipe out remaining viruses -- at least from known reservoirs throughout the body -- in two to three years. But the only way to prove eradication would be to stop the drugs and see if the virus comes back8. On Wednesday, Ho said he wouldn’t ask any patient to consider that step before 2years of treatment. And he emphasized that he is not urging widespread adoption of such early, aggressive treatment outside of trials9. No one knows the long-term risks. But other scientists are looking at similar experiments. A federally funded study will put 300 patients on triple-drug treatments and then see if some responding well after six months can continue to suppress the virus on just one or two drugs, says researcher Douglas Richman of the University of California, San Diego. Some patients in that study also may be offered the chance to stop therapy after 18 months or more, he says.According to the passage, the attempt to eradicate the AIDS virus continues to be hopeful. will be successful in a year. will be successful in future. will stop being hopeful.

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Obesity: the Scourge of the Western World Obesity is rapidly becoming a new scourge of the western world, delegates agreed at the 11th European Conference on the issue in Vienna Wednesday to Saturday. According to statements before the opening of the conference -- of 2,000 specialists from more than 50 countries -- 1.2 billion people worldwide are overweight, and 250 million are obese. Professor Bernhard Ludvik of Vienna General Hospital said, “Obesity is a chronic illness, fin Germany, 20 per cent of the people are already affected, but in Japan only one per cent.“ But he said that there was hope for sufferers thanks to the new scientific discoveries and medication. Professor Friedrich Hopichler of Salzberg said, “We are living in the new age (but) with the metabolism of a stone-age man.“ “I have just been to the United States. It is really terrible. A pizza shop is springing up on every corner. We have been overrun by fast food and Coca-Cola-ization. “ Many of the experts stressed that obesity was a potential killer. Hopichler said, “Eighty percent of all diabetics are obese, also fifty per cent of all. patients with high blood pressure and fifty per cent with adipose tissue complaints.“ “Ten per cent more weight means thirteen per cent more risk of heart disease. Reducing one’s weight by ten per cent leads to thirteen per cent lower blood pressure.“ Another expert Hermann Toplak said that the state health services should improve their financing of preventive programs. “Though the health insurance pays for surgery (such as reducing the size of the stomach) when the body-mass index5 is more than 40. That is equivalent to a weight of 116 kilograms for a height of 1.70 meters. One should start earlier.“ Ludvik said that prevention should begin in school. “Child obesity ( fat deposits) correlates with the time which children spend in front of TV sets.“ The consequences were only apparent later on. No more than fifteen per cent of obese people lived to the average life expectancy for their population group.It is estimated that there are ______ people suffering from obesity in the world. 250,000,000 1,200,000,000 1,450,000,000 950,000,000

Reinventing the Table An earth scientist has rejigged the periodic table to make chemistry simpler to teach to students. (46)But Bruce Railsback from the University of Georgia3 says he is the first to create a table that breaks with tradition and shows the ions of each element rather than just the elements themselves. “I got tired of breaking my arms trying to explain the periodic table to earth students,“ he says, criss-crossing his hands in the air and pointing to different bits of a traditional table.(47)But he has added contour lines to charge density, helping to explain which ions react with which. “Geochemists just want an intuitive sense of what’s going on with the elements,“ says Albert Galy from the University of Cambridge4,(48). (49)He explains that sulphur, for example, shows up in three different spots -- one for sulphide, which is found in minerals, one for sulphite, and one for sulphate, which is found in sea salt, for instance. He has also included symbols to show which ions are nutrients, and which are common in soil or water.(50). A. There have been many attempts to redesign the periodic table since Dmitri Mendeleev2 drew it up in 1871. B. Railsback has still ordered the elements according to the number of protons they have. C. “I imagine this would be good for undergraduates.“ D. Railsback has listed some elements more than once. E And the size of element’s symbol reflects how much of it is found in the Earth’s crust. F The traditional periodic table was well drawn.

Charter Schools American public education has changed in recent years. One change is that increasing numbers of American parents and teachers are starting independent public schools called charter schools. In 1991, there were(51)charter schools in the United States. Today, more than 2,300 charter schools(52)in 34 states and the District of Columbia2. 575,000 students(53)these schools. The students are from 5 years(54)age through 18 or older. A charter school is created by groups of parents, teachers and community members. It is similar(55)some ways to a traditional public school. It receives tax money to operate just as(56)public schools do. The amount it receives depends(57)the number of students. The charter school must prove(58)local or state governments that its students are learning. These governments provide the school(59)the agreement, or charter that permits it to operate. Unlike a traditional public school,(60), the charter school does not have to obey most laws governing public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell it what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to(61)those goals. Class sizes usually are smaller than in many traditional public schools. Many students and parents say teachers in charter schools can be more creative. However, state education agencies3, local education-governing committees and unions often(62)charter schools. They say these schools may receive money badly needed by traditional public schools. Experts say some charter schools are doing well while others are struggling. Congress provided 200 million dollars for establishing charter schools in the 2002 federal budget.(63), often the schools say they lack enough money for their programs. Many also lack needed space. (64), many of the 36 charter schools in the District of Columbia hold classes in crowded buildings. These schools have almost 11,000 students. District officials say they have provided 14 former school buildings(65)charter education. Yet, charter-school supporters say officials should try harder to find more space. not little no none

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Which was NOT originally one of the Nobel Prizes?