PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

News package explores emerging issues for isolated tribes

2015-06-04
(Press-News.org) This news release is available in Japanese.

Some of the world's last isolated tribes are emerging from the Amazon rainforest, forcing scientists and policymakers in South America to reconsider their policies regarding contact with such people. In this special package of news, Science correspondents Andrew Lawler and Heather Pringle report from Peru and Brazil, respectively -- two countries that are dealing with a spate of first encounters. Lawler describes contact between isolated tribespeople emerging from the forest and indigenous Peruvian villagers, who themselves may have only recently made contact with the modern world. A main concern in this interaction is the spread of disease to the unimmunized tribespeople via loggers, miners, missionaries, drug traffickers, and even television crews. But these outsiders also threaten isolated tribes in other ways, he says. Lawler traveled by canoe deep into the rainforest to locate a man named Epa, who emerged a dozen years ago and straddles the worlds of the village and the forest. Anthropologists warn that the Peruvian government may not be prepared to protect emerging tribespeople -- for example, because officials do not have the necessary immunizations on hand -- and they call for more research to understand why so many tribes are choosing to emerge now. In a separate article, Pringle describes the vaunted protection system for isolated tribes created by Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) -- and how critics say it has eroded over time. Interviews with "frontiersmen," who helped establish FUNAI's no-contact policy to protect isolated people, highlight political and economic interests that may be weakening that policy now. Three smaller articles cover controversies, such as the construction of roads to remote villages and "attraction fronts" once used to draw isolated societies out of the forest. A related Editorial by Robert Walker and Kim Hill warns against current middle-ground approaches and "leave them alone" strategies, arguing instead for more planning to safely contact isolated tribes in some cases, or to work with those who seek contact. The package also features an online component, including a short video and a multimedia story on how current events fit into the history of contact since 1492. This special package of Science news received funding from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Your viral infection history in a single drop of blood

2015-06-04
New technology developed by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers makes it possible to test for current and past infections with any known human virus by analyzing a single drop of a person's blood. The method, called VirScan, is an efficient alternative to existing diagnostics that test for specific viruses one at a time. With VirScan, scientists can run a single test to determine which viruses have infected an individual, rather than limiting their analysis to particular viruses. That unbiased approach could uncover unexpected factors affecting individual ...

Vanishing friction

2015-06-04
Friction is all around us, working against the motion of tires on pavement, the scrawl of a pen across paper, and even the flow of proteins through the bloodstream. Whenever two surfaces come in contact, there is friction, except in very special cases where friction essentially vanishes -- a phenomenon, known as "superlubricity," in which surfaces simply slide over each other without resistance. Now physicists at MIT have developed an experimental technique to simulate friction at the nanoscale. Using their technique, the researchers are able to directly observe individual ...

Internet privacy manifesto calls for more consumer power

2015-06-04
A revolutionary power shift from internet giants such as Google to ordinary consumers is critically overdue, according to new research from a University of East Anglia (UEA) online privacy expert. In a manifesto that ranges from "the right to be treated fairly on the internet" to finding a better, more nuanced approach to using the internet as an archive, Dr Paul Bernal of UEA's School of Law delves deeper into his research on the so-called 'right to be forgotten.' His paper, called 'A right to be remembered? Or the internet, warts and all,' will be presented today at ...

Shh! Don't wake the sleeping virus!

2015-06-04
The red, itchy rash caused by varicella-zoster - the virus that causes chickenpox - usually disappears within a week or two. But once infection occurs, the varicella-zoster virus, or VZV, remains dormant in the nervous system, awaiting a signal that causes this "sleeper" virus to be re-activated in the form of an extremely unpleasant but common disease: herpes zoster, or shingles. In a study recently published in PLOS Pathogens, scientists at Bar-Ilan University report on a novel experimental model that, for the first time, successfully mimics the "sleeping" and "waking" ...

Panel recommends improvements in estrogen testing accuracy

2015-06-04
Washington, DC-Unreliable estrogen measurements have had a negative impact on the treatment of and research into many hormone-related cancers and chronic conditions. To improve patient care, a panel of medical experts has called for accurate, standardized estrogen testing methods in a statement published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The panel's recommendations are the first to address how improved testing methods can affect clinical care, and were developed based on discussions at an estrogen measurement workshop hosted ...

Moderate exercise helps prevent gestational diabetes and reduce weight gain during pregnancy

2015-06-04
Women who exercise during pregnancy are less likely to have gestational diabetes, and the exercise also helps to reduce maternal weight gain, finds a study published on 3 June 2015 in BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Gestational diabetes is one of the most frequent complications of pregnancy. It is associated with an increased risk of serious disorders such as pre-eclampsia, hypertension, preterm birth, and with induced or caesarean birth. It can have long term effects on the mother including long term impaired glucose tolerance and type ...

Forks colliding: How DNA breaks during re-replication

2015-06-04
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (June 4, 2015) - Leveraging a novel system designed to examine the double-strand DNA breaks that occur as a consequence of gene amplification during DNA replication, Whitehead Institute scientists are bringing new clarity to the causes of such genomic damage. Moreover, because errors arising during DNA replication and gene amplification result in chromosomal abnormalities often found in malignant cells, these new findings may bolster our understandings of certain drivers of cancer progression. At the core of system, developed in the lab of Whitehead ...

New species of horned dinosaur with 'bizarre' features revealed

New species of horned dinosaur with bizarre features revealed
2015-06-04
About 10 years ago, Peter Hews stumbled across some bones sticking out of a cliff along the Oldman River in southeastern Alberta, Canada. Now, scientists describe in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 4 that those bones belonged to a nearly intact skull of a very unusual horned dinosaur--a close relative of the familiar Triceratops that had been unknown to science until now. "The specimen comes from a geographic region of Alberta where we have not found horned dinosaurs before, so from the onset we knew it was important," says Dr. Caleb Brown of the Royal ...

Discovery of how bacteria survive antibiotics may improve treatment of infectious diseases

2015-06-04
Infectious diseases kill more people worldwide than any other single cause, but treatment often fails because a small fraction of bacterial cells can transiently survive antibiotics and recolonize the body. A study published June 4 in Molecular Cell reveals that these so-called persisters form in response to adverse conditions through the action of a molecule called Obg, which plays an important role in all major cellular processes in multiple bacterial species. By revealing a shared genetic mechanism underlying bacterial persistence, the study paves the way for novel diagnostic ...

Reprogramming of DNA observed in human germ cells for first time

2015-06-04
A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge has described for the first time in humans how the epigenome - the suite of molecules attached to our DNA that switch our genes on and off - is comprehensively erased in early primordial germ cells prior to the generation of egg and sperm. However, the study, published today in the journal Cell, shows some regions of our DNA - including those associated with conditions such as obesity and schizophrenia - resist complete reprogramming. Although our genetic information - the 'code of life' - is written in our DNA, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Forest trees and microbes choreograph their hunt for a ‘balanced diet’ under elevated CO2

Beyond health: The political effects of infectious disease outbreaks

For tastier and hardier citrus, researchers built a tool for probing plant metabolism

Stay hydrated: New sensor knows when you need a drink

Quantum internet meets space-time in this new ingenious idea

Soil erosion in mountain environments accelerated by agro-pastoral activities for 3,800 years

Optogenetic platform illuminates new antiviral strategies

A new theory explaining oscillations in tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR)

Early antibiotics alter immune function in infants

With the second grant to therapy

Research center developing digital twins for manufacturing

Colombia’s biofortified rice has untapped potential to improve nutrition. And consumers want it

Study shows pregnancy can significantly worsen risk of serious brain injury in women with arteriovenous malformations

Mapping important infrastructure could aid emergency response after hurricanes

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

Friendship promotes neural and behavioral similarity

Neural pathway for nicotine withdrawal symptoms

How your DNA reveals your true age with astonishing accuracy

First electronic–photonic quantum chip created in commercial foundry

High-performance scientific computing can compute molecule ground-state energy

Cryo-electron microscopy – Reaction cycle of an enzyme for CO2 fixation decoded

Feeling more extroverted? Study finds you may have learned how to handle daily stress better

Kindness counts—even to a five-day-old baby

Endocrine Society guideline calls for increased screening for common cause of high blood pressure

Macromolecular gene delivery systems: advancing non-viral therapeutics with synthetic and natural polymers

Study finds political instability, environmental conditions, and social inequality accelerate aging

New insights into malaria: Proteins in the blood can reveal the severity of the disease

Delayed hypertension diagnosis and its association with cardiovascular treatment and outcomes

GLP-1 receptor agonists in idiopathic intracranial hypertension

Integrating diet and physical activity when prescribing GLP-1s—lifestyle factors remain crucial

[Press-News.org] News package explores emerging issues for isolated tribes