Articles by Philip Hunter

US researchers have evidence that damage to mammalian male fertility caused by transient exposure of embryos to endocrine-disrupting environmental toxins can be passed down to subsequent generations.1 "The endocrine disruptors appear to have altered the remethylation and permanently reprogrammed the germ line, that is, sperm," explains study coauthor Michael Skinner of Washington State University in Pullman.Skinner and colleagues exposed female rats in mid gestation to high doses of two endocrin

Epigenetic effects of endocrine disruptors pass down four generations in rats

An influential committee of British politicians recently advised the government to allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) purely for sex selection, as part of a package of fertility regulation reforms.

IVF debate foreshadows wider rethink of ethics regulation in Britain

Researchers create compounds from small clusters of atoms acting like single atoms

Women's greater longevity may partly be linked to stem cells acquired during pregnancy, according to a team from Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College London.1 Fetal stem cells acquired during the first trimester and harbored in the bone marrow wait to migrate to sites of tissue injury or disease, says Nicholas Fisk, professor of reproductive and developmental biology at Imperial College. "The numbers [of fetal stem cells] we found were very small, [one in 70,000 to one in 450,000], but thes

suggests a bigger at-risk population

A MUTANT MAP:Courtesy of Michael ConnAbove are the loci for all known naturally occurring mutants of the human gonadotropin releasing hormone receptor (GnRHR) identified from patients with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH). The vast majority of point mutations can be functionally rescued through the use of a pharmacological chaperone. Some others had not been attempted. Twelve mutations identified in yellow letters result in modest charge changes. A smaller number result in other changes to the

Taxation of fat, an idea that has been kicked around on both sides of the Atlantic for a few years, has suddenly been elevated to the forefront of government consciousness in the United Kingdom. The premise, which is dubious at best, is that a fat tax might make the population healthier and happier, and simultaneously reduce the financial burden of healthcare. Here I examine this compulsion to legislate the populace towards health. Can it possibly be good for us?PROBLEM 1The confusion of a mixed

Government urged to act after construction firm pulls out of Oxford animal lab

Study of 14,000 children attempts to nail down causes and definition of autism

Director Roger Pedersen expects to lure top US researchers for embryonic stem cell work

FISHING FOR A HEALTHY BABY:Courtesy of the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, http://www.rscbayarea.comMulticolor Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (FISH) can detect chromosomal abnormalities, such as aneuploidy, in cells removed from a developing embryo.Fast improving techniques for detecting genetic and chromosomal abnormalities via preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) may boost the success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Some clinics report a twofold to three

Courtesy of Imperial College UnionAndras Dinnyes runs the first nuclear-cell-transfer technology lab in Eastern Europe, at the Agricultural Biotechnology Center near Budapest. Amply accoutered with high-tech equipment, the lab is designed to eventually provide knockout mice for scientists across the continent. It has also attracted funding from outside sources, including the Wellcome Trust and the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme.Like a smattering of research labs with connections to W

When James Joyce, the great Irish novelist and self-proclaimed artist of life, settled in Zurich in 1915 to escape the War, he little imagined that almost 90 years later people would flock to a pub there bearing his name, to smoke. Joyce wrote most of Ulysses in Zurich and became quite fond of the city, precisely because it seemed the polar opposite, in attitude, of his native Dublin. It was spotlessly clean and homogeneously handsome without any notable landmark or character. Joyce described th