There is controversy about evolution among scientists?

At present no because evidence in its favor are overwhelming, their simple functioning and because the arguments against them are wrong in their bases or have been resolved earlier.

But if evolution is accepted in the scientific field not all scientists accept the same mechanism by which it works and how it does. For example, the best known and accepted is the natural selection, but there are other mechanisms such as accidental mutations, so the classical Darwinian theory of natural selection had to be combined with Mendelian genetics and the accidental mutations as methods for the diversity of which natural selection just as its name says selects the best adapted individuals. Thus was born the modern synthesis, also now evolutionary theories continue to improve and change, so that while evolutionary theories have changed and scientific discussions around it are commonplace does not mean that there is disagreement on whether or not an evolutionary process as assume his detractors, They are usually people with poor education or with studies that have little to do with the subject and are often less interested in the true scientific discussions about evolution.

Vaccine does cure prostate cancer in mice

A virus with DNA fragments were injected into the blood of the animal that produced high levels of antibodies that destroy the tumor

ADVANCE. After this successful experiment, the scientists plan to attack the first tests for the disease in humans (Foto: Archivo EL UNIVERSAL )

Sunday June 19, 2011 GDA / El Mercurio | El Universal21:30

An important progress in the creation of genetic vaccines conducted by researchers at the University of Leeds, UK, and of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, United States.
This is the use of a virus containing DNA fragments that are the cause of prostate cancer, which when injected in the blood of diseased mice produce large amounts of antibodies that end up destroying the tumor. The hopeful results are published in the latest edition of Nature Medicine.
Until now, researchers feared that a vaccine with several genes could cause a real explosion immune system, which could get out of control and cause death.
So they were surprised to see that the current vaccine works smoothly and has the desired effects are to destroy malignant cells. 
The next step is to test its efficacy in humansAfter this successful experiment, the scientists plan to design several other vaccines that target specific tumors in various organs.
You only need to be identified genes in each tumor malignant, place in a special virus and inject millions of these viruses in the patient's blood to cause the destruction of cancer.
As several genes used, several attack routes that open into the tumor, which ensures the success of this therapy.
"This is the first time we succeed by using various genes in a vaccine, without damaging any other organ, except that is affected by the tumor," says Dr. Alan Melcher of the University of Leeds and co-author of the study.
To have these results, the key was that all the genes were specific to the prostate.
For Professor Peter Johnson, head of the Center for Clinical Cancer Research UK, this is an interesting study that could expand the use of vaccines to treat various tumors.

Create implant that recovers memory

Researchers at the University of Southern California tested a brain implant that is capable of duplicating the learning process

DEVICE TO REMEMBER. The work focused on the hippocampus, the part of the brain where memories are formed (Foto: Especial )

Sunday June 19, 2011 GDA / El Mercurio | El Universal22:44

U.S. scientists announced the development of a "switch" on-off memory that allowed lab rats to remember a forgotten behavior, an encouraging achievement for people with dementia.
This is the first time researchers are able to duplicate the learning process of the brain, the rats recovered memories had been forced to forget by drugs.
The trial conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California was published by Journal of Neuroengineering an Rehabilitation.
The work focused on the hippocampus, the part of the brain where memories are formed.
Communication between two regions of the hippocampus causes a short-term memory becomes long-term one.
When scientists drugged rats to stop the neural signals between the two regions, they forgot their long-term memory.
But when they implanted a brain prosthesis doubled electronic signals between the two regions, the rats were able to recall.

Mathematical modeling study brain network

UNAM researchers designed a method for measuring brain connectivity related to knowledge and behavior

Saturday June 18, 2011 Notimex | El Universal23:24

Federico Zertuche Mones mathematician studying brain connectivity with a method partially shaped by electronic circuits, where the behavior of a network of many parts offers a range of functions and lends itself to statistical issue.
The Cuernavaca Unit investigator of the Mathematics Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), studying discrete complex dynamic systems, known as neural networks, and uses techniques of statistical physics in the asymptotic mathematical analysis
In their study of brain connectivity is an efficient method, partly shaped by electronic circuits and other scientific disciplines, where the behavior of a network of many parts offers a wide range of features and lends itself to statistical issue.
Zertuche Mones explains that the human brain consists of a complex network of neurons, in the order of 100 billion, and connections that lead to a robust cognitive system.
Abounded that neurons are cells that contain a series receptors called dendrites and receptors have a long termination known as the axon, in turn, has issuers called synapses, which connect to the dendrites of another neuron, and so on.
"The source of human knowledge does not reside in one of these cells or in several, but their synaptic connections, is something that neurophysiologists have understood," explained the academic.
"In fact, in childhood and adolescence that these form the basis of learning, hence the importance of this process early. Mathematical models have been developed from studies of neurophysiologists agree with this," raised .
The robustness of the human brain is such that a person can work even if you have a damaged as a result, for example, a car accident, he said.
He noted that the subject may lose mobility if the affected area is related to that function, but the intellect can keep going, exemplified the physicist graduated from the UNAM, doctor of science from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy and member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences

Humans may come and go of Africa

A mountainous region between Europe and Asia was occupied by early humans makes a maximum of 1.85 million years ago, much earlier than the previous estimate of 1.7 million years

The team discovered more than 100 stone artifacts in deep layers of the site. Previously been found fossil bones at the site of a later period (Foto: AP y El Mundo.es )

Monday June 6, 2011 AP | El Universal21:38

Scientists have traditionally described the expansion of early humans around the world started in Africa, but a tantalizing new evidence suggests that the flow may have been either way.
A mountainous region between Europe and Asia was occupied by early humans makes a maximum of 1.85 million years ago, much earlier than the previous estimate of 1.7 million years, according to researchers cited in Tuesday's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
The new evidence was found at an archaeological site that has been long studied: Dmanisi in the republic of Georgia today.
It was known that the first Homo erectus occupied the site, but investigators say they believe they have discovered stone tools and materials from a much earlier date, which would raise the possibility that Homo erectus may have evolved in Eurasia and migrated back to Africa. They added that more studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
"The cumulative evidence shows Eurasian populations growing old and primitive," said Reid Ferring, University of North Texas.
"The data show that newly discovered Dmanisi was occupied while the first appearance of Homo erectus in East Africa or even earlier," the team led by David Lordkipanidze Ferring, the National Museum of Georgia.
The team discovered more than 100 stone artifacts in deep layers of the site. Previously they had found the fossil bones of a site post.
The new discovery shows that the Caucasus region was inhabited by a constant population, not only for transient visitors.
"We do not know what they looked like the first occupants, but the implication is that similar or even more primitive than those represented by the Dmanisi fossils," said Ferring.
"The occupants of Dmanisi are the first representatives of our own genus outside Africa and represent the most primitive population of the species Homo erectus known to date," said Lordkipanidze.
Remains unknown geographical origin of Homo Erectus. The first humans to Dmanisi could be ancestors of all Homo erectus populations that were later, which would suggest a Eurasian origin of Homo erectus, Lordkipanidze said.
However, there is another theory that Homo erectus originated in Africa and Dmanisi group may represent their first migration out of Africa.
Wil Roebroeks, professor of archeology at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, said that future studies will be expected to test the hypothesis.
Richard Potts, director of human origins program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, was more skeptical.
"The new Dmanisi evidence consists of stone tools, no fossil bones. So I really do not really know who made the tools in the interval from 1.85 to 1.77 million ago years," he said.
"We can not know for sure until we have fossils that come from this level of seniority," he said.

Decode genome of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Spanish researchers identified mutations that provide new clues about the disease

Sunday June 5, 2011 EFE | El Universal13:19

MADRID .- Spanish researchers sequenced the entire genome of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and identified mutations that provide new clues about the disease, the most common type of leukemia in Western countries.
The study is led by researchers Elias Campo, Hospital Clínic and University of Barcelona, ​​and Carlos López-Otin, of Oviedo, and is a "milestone" in the investigation in Spain and a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer, said the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation in a statement.

The study, published in the journal Nature, has had the participation of more than 60 Spanish Consortium researchers Genome CLL.
It represents the first contribution of Spain to the International Consortium Cancer Genome (ICGC), the largest research project against the disease in history involving scientists from 11 countries to sequence the 50 most important cancers.
Although it is known that the cause of chronic lymphocytic leukemia is the uncontrolled proliferation of B lymphocytes of patients is not known which mutations cause the disease, according to Elias Campo.
The human genome consists of more than three billion chemical units called nucleotides.
By sequencing the genome, each nucleotide is read at least 30 times to verify that the reading is correct, so we can assign with certainty the mutations identified.

In this work, researchers have used advanced technology to sequence the 3 billion nucleotides of the entire genome of tumor cells from four patients and have compared the sequence of the genome of healthy cells from the same individuals.
"This approach has allowed us to verify that each tumor has suffered a thousand mutations in their genome," says Carlos Lopez-Otin.
"Further analysis of the mutated genes in a group of more than 300 patients identified four genes whose mutations cause the development of CLL," reveals the researcher.
Advances in knowledge of cancer molecular biology in recent decades have established that it is a disease caused by the accumulation of genetic damage in normal cells, but until now the identification of these changes was a slow and laborious .
However, thanks to the latest equipment for the sequencing of genomes, such as those available to scientists at the National Center for Genome Analysis, this process has accelerated, and this center can be sequenced at present to six human genomes in one day.
The analysis of the extraordinary volume of data generated in this project has required the creation of specialized programs.
Sidrón is the name of the tool developed at the University of Oviedo (northern Spain) and has been essential to identify the mutations present in tumor genomes.
The work of several decades in the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (northeast) in CLL has allowed the consortium to have DNA and clinical data from hundreds of patients, who have provided an additional clinical dimension to this genomic study.
Spanish Consortium for the Study of Genome chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL Genome www.cllgenome.es) is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
Is part of the International Genomics Consortium Cancer led by Dr. Tom Hudson of the Institute of Cancer Research Ontario (Canada).