BACK TO BASICS: How did life first evolve on Earth? According to Stanford professor of geophysics Norman Sleep, over and over and over again. Sleep hypothesizes that between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago, a series of infrequent but large asteroid impacts repeatedly decimated fledgling life on Earth. Only the hardiest subterranean heat-loving microbes survived—or maybe nothing did. In that case, Sleep says, perhaps life on Earth can be traced to invaders from Mars that traveled here on asteroids—Martian bacteria, that is.
THE NEXT WAVE: An improved form of minimally invasive breast cancer treatment may be on its way. Greig C. Scott, a research associate in electrical engineering, has received a grant from the Whitaker Foundation to refine a technique that reduces tumors using radio waves. He plans to combine the treatment with magnetic resonance imaging, improving doctors’ ability to visualize tumors and allowing them to target cancer cells without heating up healthy tissue. If successful, the technique will likely allow physicians to treat larger tumors than they now can with minimally invasive methods.
SIGH OF RELIEF: The 15 million people in the United States with asthma may soon be able to breathe a little easier. Researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and at Stanford, led by pediatrics research professor Rosemarie DeKruyff, have identified a gene family that appears critical to the development of the disease in mice. This group of genes, known as the Tim family, is also linked to hepatitis A, which may help explain why infection with hepatitis A protects against asthma. The researchers are now investigating whether the Tim family is connected to the development of asthma in humans. The discovery may have implications for asthma treatment and diagnosis.
