Briefs (9/28/06)

Atlas of a mouse brain may help understand its human counterpart

By Les Blumenthal,… Atlas of a mouse brain may help understand its human counterpart

By Les Blumenthal, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — He’s the fifth-richest man in America, worth $16 billion. He owns two professional sports teams, football’s Seattle Seahawks and basketball’s Portland Trailblazers. He’s a real estate developer, philanthropist, venture capitalist and the lead guitarist in the rock band Grown Men.

And now, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has a Web-based, three-dimensional atlas named for him, one that maps the genes in a mouse brain. The Allen Brain Atlas, unveiled Tuesday, may have life-changing implications for humans as scientists search for cures to such brain disorders as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism and even depression and addiction.

Humans and mice have in common more than 90 percent of their genes; the atlas represents a significant step in understanding the human brain, scientists say. Ultimately, they say, the atlas may also help unlock the mysteries of how people think, see, feel, hurt and experience other emotions and sensations that fly around the 1 quadrillion communication points in the brain.

Allen established an institute for brain science in Seattle and provided $100 million in seed money as researchers embarked on a three-year quest to map the 21,000 active genes in a mouse brain. The genes were detected in various sections of the brain, filled with a photogenic substance and then photographed by automated microscopes and uploaded into a computer.

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Artificial reef made of tires becomes ecological disaster

By Trenton Daniel, McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI — A plan in the early 1970s to create a massive artificial reef off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has turned into an environmental mess with the U.S. Navy, Broward County and others trying to figure out how to remove about two million tires covering 36 acres of ocean floor.

What was intended to lure game fish is now damaging sensitive coral reefs and littering Broward’s tourist-populated shoreline.

“They thought it would be a good fish habitat. It turned out to be a bad idea,” said William Nuckols, project coordinator and military liaison for Coastal America, a federal group involved in the cleanup. “It’s a coastal coral destruction machine.”

The tires dot the ocean bottom a mile and a half from the end of Sunrise Boulevard. Environmentalists say strong tides — especially during hurricanes and tropical storms — cause the loose tires to knock against coral reefs, disrupting the ecosystem. In some cases, tires have washed ashore.

Now, the U.S. Navy, Broward County and a few other groups are looking at a three-year plan to remove the tires.