Nobel medicine prize slated for Monday
Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:19:48 GMTBy KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - American scientists who discovered an enzyme that broke new ground in research on cancer and aging are among potential candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine, the first of six prestigious awards to be announced by the Nobel committees.
Another possible winner of Monday's $1.54 million medicine prize is a British researcher who discovered genetic fingerprinting that has helped solve crimes and settle paternity disputes.
The secretive Nobel committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute will announce the winner after a final vote Monday morning, but won't even say who's on the short list before then.
"We have been working on this since February," said Hans Jornvall, secretary of the Nobel committee that reviews research nominated for the award.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering RNA interference, a process that can silence specific genes.
American researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak have figured prominently in Nobel speculation in recent years for predicting and discovering an enzyme called telomerase.
Their work set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in age-related illnesses.
Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester also is often mentioned by experts as a possible candidate. Jeffreys found in 1984 that a DNA sample could be linked to the person it came from — a finding that has come into play in court cases in which DNA evidence has exonerated convicted murderers.
It has also been used to help identify the victims of mass disasters, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington.
Karin Bojs, science editor at the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter — who correctly guessed two of last year's Nobel Prizes — predicted that the medicine award would go to American David Julius and Israeli Baruch Minke for research on how the human body reacts to heat and pain.
Thomson Scientific, a unit of the U.S.-based Thomson Corp., singled out five possible candidates, including neuroscientist Fred H. Gage, who discovered that humans can develop new brain cells as adults.
Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden's central bank.
The prizes are handed out every year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
Nobel left few instructions on how to select winners, only that the prizes should honor those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
Jornvall said medicine winners must have made an important discovery — they are not awarded for a body of research.
"If it's not possible to define what the discovery is, then it's going to be hard," he said.
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On the Net:
Nobel Foundation: http://nobelprize.org/
New prototype phone gives fitness check
Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:17:57 GMTBy HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer
CHIBA, Japan - It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.
The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita.
The phone, unveiled this week at the CEATEC electronics show outside Tokyo, has an inbuilt motion sensor that detects body movement and calculates how many calories you burn.
The sensor can tell whether you're walking, running, climbing stairs, or resting, and counts the calories accordingly to tally daily totals, Tobita said.
"It's with you wherever you go, like a portable personal trainer," he said.
Like Nike Inc.'s +Nike technology, the handset also keeps track of jogs, letting users set targets and keeping track of time, distance, and calories burnt — all while listening to music through headphones.
Hold the phone with outstretched arms, and it turns into a mini body fat calculator. A sensor at the top of the phone takes your pulse from your fingertip.
Worried about bad breath? Use the phone's breathalyzer. After Tobita blew on a tiny hole on the side of the handset for about three seconds, the screen flashed, "Not too bad."
The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also asks questions to assesses stress levels and offers advice.
When the busy spokesman answered "Yes" to a series of questions — including "Do you feel lethargic?" and "Do you go to bed after midnight?" — a message appeared on the screen warning he was under a lot of stress.
"Don't worry, tomorrow's a fresh new day," the phone then flashed. "Keep your chin up!"
NTT DoCoMo is still testing some of the phone's other technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a networking capacity to let users share data, Tobita said.
Japan has some of the world's most advanced cell phones, enabling users to surf the Web, check in at airports and play motion games.
DoCoMo has not set a release date or price for the Wellness phone. The Tokyo-based company's phones are not sold overseas.
