The international team of researchers was able to identify the location and defect in the coding region of the gene through analysis of genetic material (DNA) from members of a large Swiss family, the majority of whom suffered from autosomal dominant juvenile cataract. The corresponding protein belongs to a family of monocarboxylate transporters which move small molecules across cell mem-branes. Surprisingly, this genetic defect may also lead to the condition of renal glucosuria, a non-pathological kidney defect with elevated levels of glucose in the urine, but not in blood.

The search for the molecule that is carried by this new transporter across the membrane has now begun. The researchers suspect that this genetic defect interferes with homeostasis in the lens as well as in the kidney. Since the known environmental risk factors for age-related cataract point to physiological and oxidative damages accumulating over time within the lens, the researchers assume that defects in this newly discovered transporter may also be a cause of age-related cataract. Age-related cataract patients are now being screened to find mutations in this gene. Understanding the exact function of this transporter may open new venues for non-surgical treatment of cataract.

Cataract, the condition of altered refractive index in the lens of the eye, is the clouding of the eye's normally clear lens and results in blurry vision that frequently includes disturbing glare in the visual field. Successful treatment today involves surgical removal of the affected lens and replacement with an artificial one.

Age onset of cataract is the distinguishing characteristic between affliction in childhood or in later years. Whereas about 14% of blind children are affected, half of the adult population worldwide aged 60 and older suffers from age-related cataract. Various underlying defects cause its development. Research in molecular and genetic science has enabled identification of several genes that play an important role in structural or regulatory functions in lens cells. Although all cataract genes identified to date are known to affect children, genetic factors for age-related cataract continue to remain widely undiscovered.

Named Kryptops and Eocarcharia in a paper appearing this month in the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, the fossils were discovered in 2000 on an expedition led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno.

Sereno and co-author paleontologist Stephen Brusatte of the University of Bristol say the new fossils provide a glimpse of an earlier stage in the evolution of the bizarre meat-eaters of Gondwana, the southern landmass. "T-rex has become such a fixture of Cretaceous lore, most people don't realize that no tyrannosaur ever set foot on a southern continent," said Sereno. Instead, particularly distinctive meat-eaters arose, some of which bore no resemblance to the "tyrant king," beyond their appetites for fresh meat.

Short-snouted Kryptops palaios, or "old hidden face," was so named for the horny covering that appears to have covered nearly all of its face. "A fast, two-legged hyena gnawing and pulling apart a carcass," remarked even Brusatte, "is how we might best imagine Kryptops' dining habits." Like later members of its group (called abelisaurids) in South America and India, Kryptops had short, armored jaws with small teeth that would have been better at gobbling guts and gnawing on carcasses than snapping at live prey. About 25 feet in length, Kryptops was a voracious meat-eater.

A similar-sized contemporary, Eocarcharia dinops, or "fierce-eyed dawn shark," was so named for its blade-shaped teeth and prominent bony eyebrow. Unlike Kryptops, its teeth were designed for disabling live prey and severing body parts. Eocarcharia and kin (called carcharodontosaurids) gave rise to the largest predators on southern continents, matching or exceeding Tyrannosaurus in size. Eocarcharia's brow was swollen into a massive band of bone, giving it a menacing glare.

"Brow-beating may not be far from the truth," remarked Sereno. He and Brusatte suggest in the paper that the robust bony brow in Eocarcharia and kin may have been used as a battering ram against rivals for mating rights.

The fossil area, in present-day Niger, was home to a panoply of bizarre species. The hyena-like Kryptops, the shark-toothed Eocarcharia and the fish-eating, sail-backed Suchomimus ("crocodile mimic") constitute a meat-eating trio that characterizes the Cretaceous Period in Africa and possibly other southern landmasses.

They preyed upon the ground-grubbing, long-necked plant-eater Nigersaurus and lived alongside the enormous extinct crocodilian nicknamed "SuperCroc" (Sarcosuchus). Then, the African continent was part of Gondwana and just beginning to free itself of its land connection to South America.

The cultivating of fish and shellfish in artificial ponds has increased dramatically in the last few decades, apace with the ever greater depletion of fish stocks in the oceans. International aid organizations, working with local governments, have made major commitments to expanding aquaculture in the hope that such activities would alleviate poverty and spur economic growth in these areas. But the Swedish human geographer Daniel A. Bergquist has shown, using Sri Lanka and the Philippines as examples, that a major portion of the local population is excluded from these activities and continue to be just as poor as ever.

"The winners are the local elites," he says.

What's more, aquaculture entails serious consequences for the environment. When mangrove forests are cut down to make way for shrimp and fish ponds, the ecosystem is affected. These environmental problems, in turn, impact aquaculture, and entire harvests can be lost.

A large part of the explanation for today's situation, according to Daniel A. Bergquist, can be sought in the methods that are used to evaluate what it really costs to cultivate shrimp and fish. These methods are faulty, leading to underestimations of the input from people and nature and therefore to excessively low prices. By using methods that factor in all costs, he is able to show, for instance, that the price of tiger shrimp would need to be more than five times higher than it is today for the environment and the local population to receive fair compensation for their input.

"One contributory factor is found in the faulty global market mechanisms that lead to growing inequities in the distribution of resources, profits, and costs between the northern and southern hemispheres. Aquaculture is a clear example of how the colonization of the southern hemisphere is still going on, finding new avenues via globalization and international trade," says Daniel A. Berguist.

His study also shows how it is possible to use alternative methods to bring to light this unfair and unsustainable exchange, through interdisciplinary analysis, comparison, and visualization of the situations in Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

At a recent UN conference on migratory species, three iconic shark species -- whale sharks, great whites, and basking sharks -- were identified to be in urgent need of protection. Biologist and megafishes expert Zeb Hogan of the University of Nevada in Reno, on location in La Paz, Mexico, explains why the world's largest fish is in big trouble.

In an article appearing in the February 14th issue of the journal Nature, Rasmus Voss of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and Gijs Nelemans of Radboud University in the Netherlands searched Chandra images for evidence of a much sought after, but as yet unobserved binary system - one that was about to go supernova. Near the position of a recently detected supernova, they discovered an object in Chandra images taken more than four years before the explosion.

The supernova, known as SN 2007on, was identified as a Type Ia supernova. Astronomers generally agree that Type Ia supernovas are produced by the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary star system. However, the exact configuration and trigger for the explosion is unclear. Is the explosion caused by a collision between two white dwarfs, or because a white dwarf became unstable by pulling too much material off a companion star?

Answering such questions is a high priority because Type Ia supernovas are major sources of iron in the Universe. Also, because of their nearly uniform intrinsic brightness, Type Ia supernova are used as important tools by scientists to study the nature of dark energy and other cosmological issues.

"Right now these supernovas are used as black boxes to measure distances and derive the rate of expansion of the universe," said Nelemans. "What we're trying to do is look inside the box."

If the supernova explosion is caused by material being pulled off a companion star onto the white dwarf, fusion of this material on the surface of the star should heat the star and produce a strong source of X-radiation prior to the explosion. Once the supernova explosion occurs, the white dwarf is expected to be completely destroyed and then would be undetectable in X-rays. In the merger scenario, the intensity of X-ray emission prior to the explosion is expected to be much weaker.

Based on the detection of a fairly strong X-ray source at approximately the position of SN 2007on 4 years before the explosion, Voss and Nelemans conclude that the data support the scenario where matter is pulled off a companion star. The small number of X-ray sources in the field implies that there is only a small chance of an unrelated source being so close by coincidence. Also, the X-ray source has similar properties to those expected for fusion on a white dwarf, unlike most X-ray sources in the sky.

However, in follow-up studies, Voss, Nelemans and colleagues Gijs Roelofs (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.) and Cees Bassa (McGill University, Canada) used higher-quality optical images to better determine the supernova's position. This work, which is not yet published, shows a small, but significant difference in the measured positions of the supernova and the X-ray source, suggesting the source may not be the progenitor.

Follow-up Chandra observations hint that the X-ray object has disappeared, but further observations are needed to finally decide whether the source was the progenitor or not.

The team is also applying this new method to other supernovas and has high hopes that they will eventually succeed in identifying the elusive cause of at least some of these explosions.

"We're very excited about opening up a new way of studying supernovas, even though we're not sure that we've seen this particular stellar bomb before it exploded," said Gijs Roelofs. "We're very confident that we'll learn a lot more about these important supernovas in the future."

Voss agrees that, even if the X-ray source is not found to be the progenitor of SN 2007on, the hunt is worth the effort.

"Finding the progenitor to one of these Type Ia supernovas is a great chase in astronomy right now," he said. "These supernovas are great tools for studying dark energy, but if we knew more about how they form they might become even better tools."

Rasmus Voss receives support from the Excellence Cluster Universe in Garching, Germany. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass

The Wildlife Conservation Society and the Panthera Foundation announced plans to establish a 5,000 mile-long "genetic corridor" from Bhutan to Burma that would allow tiger populations to roam freely across landscapes. The corridor, first announced at the United Nations on January 30th, would span eight countries and represent the largest block of tiger habitat left on earth.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, director of Science and Exploration Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that genetic corridors, where tigers can travel with less risk of inbreeding, are crucial for their long-term survival in Asia. The proposed corridor includes extensive areas of Bhutan, northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, along with potential connectivity to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It has already been endorsed by the new King of Bhutan, his Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who requested other heads of state to support similar efforts.

Rabinowitz, the co-director of Tigers Forever - a WCS/Panthera Foundation collaboration - made a clear request at the recent UN meeting that he and other tiger conservationists would be seeking additional approval and assistance from other heads of state.

"While Asia's economic tigers are on the rise, wild tigers in Asia are in decline," Rabinowitz said. "Much like the call-out for global agreements on banning tiger parts in trade, a similar cross-border initiative for genetic corridors is key to the survival of the tiger. Tiger range states need to work together, as tigers do not observe political borders nor do they require a visa or passport to travel where habitat and prey remain."

Rabinowitz said corridors did not have to be pristine parkland but could in fact include agricultural areas, ranches, and other multi-use landscapes - just as long as tigers could use them to travel between wilderness areas.

"We're not asking countries to set aside new parks to make this corridor a success," Rabinowitz said. "This is more about changing regional zoning in tiger range states to allow tigers to move more freely between areas of good habitat."

Twelve of 13 tiger range states were represented by ambassadors and delegates at the UN meeting. Other organizations working to save the tiger came out in force, including representatives from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Save the Tiger Fund, Conservation International, Rare Conservation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Actress Glenn Close was in attendance and spoke at the event.

Tigers Forever was launched in 2006 as a bold plan to grow tiger numbers by 50 percent at key sites over a ten year period. This increase is being achieved through collecting baseline data and long-term scientific monitoring of tigers, their prey, and their threats, to ensure that the goals can be met. Key threats are the direct killing of tigers, poaching of tiger prey, and habitat loss - all of which are being targeted and mitigated.

The meeting, hosted by UN Under-Secretary General Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed, was opened with a welcoming statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and marked the first time government, business, and conservationists have come together at the United Nations for the sake of conserving a single iconic species.

The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth.

Panthera saves in situ populations of the world's 36 species of wild cats and the landscapes they inhabit in all regions of the world. We achieve this by collaborating with, supporting and fostering the world's leading wild felid conservationists in conducting rigorous scientific research, planning and implementing conservation actions, and working with local, national and international stakeholders to advance wild cat conservation. Panthera believes that large, contiguous populations of wild cats are important indicators of intact functioning ecosystems, and that the focused protection of wild cats furthers the conservation of a large number of other species present in those ecosystems.

A team of researchers led by Professor Claude de Tychey, from Universite Nancy 2, France, found that just under a third of the 181 women they studied four to eight weeks after delivery had PND.

Nine per cent of the women in the study - carried out in a French community where they didn't face cultural pressures over the sex of their baby - had severe PND and just over three-quarters of those had given birth to boys.

The team also discovered that, even if women didn't have postnatal depression, giving birth to a boy was significantly more likely to reduce their quality of life than delivering a girl.

"Post-natal depression is very common and poses a major public health problem, especially if it is not diagnosed and treated" stresses Professor de Tychey.

"When we launched our research, our main aim was to study the effect that gender has on PND. But the overwhelming finding of the study was the fact that gender appears to play a significant role in reduced quality of life as well as an increased chance of severe PND."

The researchers measured the women's quality of life using a validated questionnaire containing 36 questions. This asked the women to score eight dimensions of their health - physical functioning, physical role, bodily pain, mental health, emotional role, social functioning, vitality and general health - using a 100-point scale.

The results were then collated into male and female births and whether the woman had no, mild or severe PND. Scores were also calculated for their overall physical and mental health. This provided 60 separate quality of life scores.

When the researchers looked at overall results they discovered that:

* Women who had given birth to a boy reported lower quality of life scores in 70 per cent of cases compared with women who had delivered a girl, regardless of whether they suffered from PND.

* When the 10 quality of life scores were added together in each category, women who had no PND had the highest quality of life scores - 713 points for women who had given birth to girls and 648 for women who had delivered boys.

* When the researchers looked at women with PND, they found higher quality of life scores for women who had delivered girls - 567 if the PND was mild and 541 if it was severe. Women who had delivered boys scored lower totals of 539 if the PND was mild and 498 if it was severe.

The figures also enabled the researchers to compare the gender differences for women with no, mild and severe PND. This showed that:

* Gender differences were greatest in women who had no PND. If they had given birth to a boy they had lower quality of life scores in 90 per cent of categories than those who had delivered girls.

* Women with PND also reported lower quality of life scores if they had had a boy - these were lower in 50 per cent of categories if the PND was mild and in 70 per cent of categories if the PND was severe.

"These figures show very clearly that having a boy resulted in lower quality of life scores in all cases" says Professor de Tychey.

"We also discovered that being a first-time mother had no effect on quality of life scores. Women had the same general scores regardless of whether the recent birth was their first or second baby."

Just over half of the women who took part (52 per cent) had given birth to boys. 61 per cent of the babies included in the study were first babies (55 boys and 56 girls) and the remainder were second babies.

Women having their second baby were slightly more likely to have had a girl the first time around (59 per cent). The women's ages ranged from 19 to 40 and averaged 29.

"Post-natal depression can have a considerable impact on women as it can affect both their physical and mental health" stresses Professor de Tychey.

"Previous studies have shown that women who live in cultures where greater value is placed on sons are more likely to suffer from PND if they give birth to a girl.

"However, we believe that this study - carried out in a French community where women didn't face cultural pressures over the sex of their baby - is the first to show that women who give birth to boys are more likely to suffer from severe PND and reduced quality of life. Further research is needed to find out why this happens.

"We believe that our findings have important public health consequences, as they point to the need for developing prevention and early psychotherapeutic programmes for women giving birth to boys."

Tiger body parts, including canine teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on sale in 10 percent of the 326 retail outlets surveyed during 2006 in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra. Outlets included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops, and shops selling antique and precious stones.

The survey conservatively estimates that 23 tigers were killed to supply the products seen, based on the number of canine teeth on sale.

"This is down from an estimate of 52 killed per year in 1999-2002," said Julia Ng, program officer with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and lead author on The Tiger Trade Revisited in Sumatra, Indonesia. "Sadly, the decline in availability appears to be due to the dwindling number of tigers left in the wild."

All of TRAFFIC's surveys have indicated that Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, and Pancur Batu, a smaller town situated about nine miles away, are the main hubs for the trade of tiger parts.

Despite TRAFFIC providing authorities with details of traders involved it is not clear whether any serious enforcement action has been taken, apart from awareness-raising activities.

"Because of poor enforcement the Sumatran tiger is slipping through our fingers," said Leigh Henry, program officer for TRAFFIC North America. "There are only about 400 Sumatran tigers left and such a small population can't sustain this level of poaching. If enforcement and political will are not bolstered the Sumatran tiger will be wiped out just as the Javan and Bali tigers were."

The report recommends that resources and efforts should concentrate on effective enforcement to combat the trade by arresting dealers and suppliers. Trade hotspots should be continually monitored and all intelligence be passed to the enforcement authorities for action. Those found guilty of trading in tigers and other protected wildlife should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

"We have to deal with the trade. Currently we are facing many other crucial problems which, unfortunately, are causing the decline of Sumatran tiger populations," explained Dr. Tonny Soehartono, director for biodiversity conservation, Ministry of Forestry of Republic of Indonesia. "We have been struggling with the issues of land use changes, habitat fragmentation, human-tiger conflicts and poverty in Sumatra. Land use changes and habitat fragmentation are driving the tiger closer to humans and thus creating human-tiger conflicts."

As a recent show of commitment, the President of the Republic of Indonesia launched the Conservation Strategy and Action Plan of Sumatran Tiger 2007-2017 during the 2007 Climate Change Convention in Bali.

Sumatra's few remaining tigers are also under threat from rampant deforestation by the pulp and paper and palm oil industries. The combined threats of habitat loss and illegal trade-unless tackled immediately-will be the death knell for Indonesian tigers.

"The Sumatran tiger is already listed as Critically Endangered on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, the highest category of threat before extinction in the wild," said Jane Smart, head of IUCN's Species Program. "We cannot afford to lose any more of these magnificent creatures."

As Indonesia currently chairs the ASEAN-Wildlife Enforcement Network, TRAFFIC National Coordinator Dr. Ani Mardiastuti suggested the country, "Demonstrate leadership to other ASEAN countries by taking action against illegal trade, including in tiger parts."

Buried underneath the troubled Darfur province in northwestern Sudan is an ancient mega-lake, satellite data shows. Scientists believe there may be an abundance of groundwater still buried there.

The extraction of groundwater could help alleviate the political conflict in Darfur, some experts say, because the fighting in the region stems in part from a battle over water.

Radar waves penetrating the fine-grained sand cover in the hot and dry eastern Sahara revealed buried features of a lake as large as Lake Erie, the tenth largest lake on Earth. Farouk El Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, says up to a dozen channels of water supplied the lake more than 5,000 years ago.

The discovery may help scientists expand their knowledge of continental climate change and regional paleohydrology. The ancient lake represents evidence of the past rainy conditions that existed in the eastern Sahara.

According to the researchers, mapping the site of the former lake, named the Northern Darfur Megalake, will help with groundwater exploration efforts in the Darfur region, where access to water is essential for refugee survival.

El-Baz says the ancient lake discovered in Darfur is similar to his earlier detection of the "East Uweinat" basin in southwestern Egypt -- where the groundwater rises to 25 meters below the surface -- and which resulted in the drilling of 500 wells to irrigate 100,000 acres of agricultural land.

According to the WWF, incidental capture -- known as bycatch -- also kills some 34,000 seabirds and 4,200 sea turtles every year in an area known as the Benguela ecosystem off the west coasts of South Africa, Namibia, and Angola.

The animals get caught on baited hooks put out on long lines by fishing boats targeting tuna and hake.