With individuals afflicted with Kennedy's disease, muscle cells and motor neurons die over the years because they accumulate a protein that is mutated. Researchers have discovered that this protein has a self-protective mechanism through which the effects of the mutation are delayed.
Biomedicine & Biotech
Muhammad Ali has been lauded for his oratorical skill, his activism and certainly his boxing. Yet for decades it's been believed that even one of the greatest boxers could not beat back the head trauma that led to the Parkinson's disease he suffered from since the 1980s. Yet was it really boxing that caused it? We are inching closer to learning the truth, but some questions remain.
The neurotransmitter dopamine -- which is most famously associated with the "reward system" in the brain -- is also linked to eye blink rate and time perception, both of which are in constant flux. Immediately after a blink, time is perceived to go by a little more slowly.
While consumers across the U.S. have embraced, and are enjoying, the benefits of genetically-modified products, papaya-loving Hawaiians had less of a choice when an agricultural crisis struck the state in the 1990s. But by using a cell-inserting device, plant specialists eradicated a deadly virus and saved a vital industry.