The research team found that the absence of a gene known as Sox21 – which it said is shared by humans and mice – can lead to early hair loss.
The scientists biologically engineered mice by blocking the gene and found that the rodents started losing hair on their heads about 15 days after birth and became completely naked a week later.
The Sox21 gene has in the past been shown to be linked to the formation of nerve cells but the Japanese study was the first to indicate its function in ensuring hair retention.
The study, jointly conducted with Hideyuki Okano, professor at the School of Medicine at Tokyo’s Keio University, found that the lack of the gene leads to the improper formation of cuticles, the outer layer of hair.
THE US Government has warned that the worldwide network of satellites that makes up the Global Positioning System could fail by next year, affecting millions of people around the globe.
Many depend on the satellite navigation network to beam precise directions from A to B into users’ cars or on their mobile phones.
But mismanagement and a lack of investment means the 20-year-old system could lead consumers into nothing but trouble.
The first replacement satellite was supposed to be launched into space in 2007, but won’t be ready until November – nearly three years too late.
And it is unclear whether the satellites in orbit will be able to keep the system running until their replacements arrive.
The satnav system could begin to fail as early as next year, according to a US Government Accountability Office study.
One in three motorists is already being sent the wrong way by satnav.
SCIENTISTS have unveiled new DVD technology that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2000 movies onto a single disc.
A team of researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, have used nanotechnology to boost the storage potential nearly 10,000-fold compared to standard DVDs, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
Discs currently have three spatial dimensions. By using gold nanorods Gu and colleagues were able to add two additional dimensions, one based on the colour spectrum, and the other on polarisation.
Because nanoparticles react to light depending on their shape, it was possible to record information in a range of different colour’s wavelengths at the same physical location on the disc.
ASTRONAUTS are giving a behind-the-scenes look at the space shuttle Atlantis’s high-risk mission to service the Hubble telescope, thanks to Twitter.
Mike Massimino, 47, blasted off into space today with six other crew members. But thanks to Twitter, the space veteran is keeping his promise to stay posted, even from space.
“Next stop: Earth Orbit!!” Massimino – whose Twitter account is Astro_Mike – wrote in his most recent tweet, posted just hours before takeoff.
Massimino, one of the mission’s specialists, already has 221,119 followers and had given Twitter updates during training last month in Houston.
“I’ll tweet when I can from orbit, but it might not be much,” Massimino said in an earlier tweet.
The current mission, STS-125, is Massimino’s second space flight. He had previously participated in a Hubble maintenance mission in 2002 (STS-109) during which he performed two spacewalks.
VENEZUELA is to start selling in May a mobile phone it is billing as one of the world’s cheapest: a $US14 ($21.57) handset that includes an mp3 player, radio and camera.
President Hugo Chavez unveiled the phone – named “El Vergatario” – today, saying it would be produced by a joint Venezuelan-Chinese firm and marketed across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The firm, Vetelca, is 85 per cent controlled by Mr Chavez’s government, with the remainder owned by ZTE of China.
Vetelca plans to make four million of the units per year in association with another Chinese company, Huawei.
Other cheap handsets are being developed around the world aimed at the huge market of poorer consumers unable to afford the iPhones and Nokias favoured in wealthier countries.
India already has a device it calls the “people’s phone” sold at around the same price as El Vergatario.
