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First, surgeons remove the uterus and part of the vagina from the donor - in this case, one who was deceased, since it is a risky surgery that involves separating uterine blood vessels that are tightly wrapped around the tubes from the bladder. Next, the uterus is transferred to the living recipient. Surgeons connect an artery and a vein on either side of the uterus to connect it to the recipient's blood supply. A piece of the donor's vaginal tissue is attached to the recipient's vagina, and supporting tissue is attached to the pelvis to secure the organ in place. It's not necessary to connect any nerves.

The woman in this case had cachexia, a metabolic disorder that affects some 9 million people worldwide, including as many as 80% of people with advanced cancer. It typically involves extreme weight- and muscle-loss, makes routine activities difficult and increases the risk of deadly complications such as infections. Adding calories doesn't reverse cachexia, and McClement says that the disorder sometimes provokes extreme reactions from family members because it serves as visual confirmation of their worst fears. "It's a constant reminder that the person is sick and is not going to get better," says McClement.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind drug that uses the herpes virus to infiltrate deadly skin cancer tumours, reducing their size in some cases.

The war against malaria has a new ally: a controversial technology for spreading genes throughout a population of animals. Researchers report today that they have harnessed a so-called gene drive to efficiently endow mosquitoes with genes that should make them immune to the malaria parasite-and unable to spread it. On its own, gene drive won't get rid of malaria, but if successfully applied in the wild the method could help wipe out the disease, at least in some corners of the world. The approach "can bring us to zero [cases]," says Nora Besansky, a geneticist at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, who specializes in malaria-carrying mosquitoes. "The mosquitos do their own work [and] reach places we can't afford to go or get to."

WASHINGTON - The National Institutes of Health is sending its last remaining research chimpanzees into retirement - as soon as a federal sanctuary has room for them. The government already had declared that the use of humans' closest relative as a test subject was coming to an end. In 2013, the NIH said it would retire most of the several hundred government-owned chimps still living at research laboratories. But it set aside 50 animals to be on standby just in case they still were needed for a public-health emergency or some other extreme situation. Wednesday, the agency said those chimps' lab days are over, too.

4:51 video What's tasty, abundant and high in protein? Bugs! Although less common outside the tropics, entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs, was once extremely widespread throughout cultures. You may feel icky about munching on insects, but they feed about 2 billion people each day (Mmm, fried tarantulas). They also hold promise for food security and the environment. Emma Bryce makes a compelling case for dining on bugs.

Ebola is an infectious disease, which has become a pandemic crisis causing around 5000 deaths in 2014, with a 50% mortality rate among those who have contracted the virus. The outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and every natural case of Ebola has been in Sub-Saharan Africa with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea at the epicentre of the crisis. This key stage 3-5 resource, produced by GA Consultant and Secondary Phase Committee Co-Chair Stephen Schwab, includes classroom activities and teaching ideas, and explores geographical facts, concepts and the impact the virus has had on the communities affected.

hat is color blindness? A color festival. No. Color blindness or color deficiency is a vision problem. Now, our eyes have light sensitive cells called rods and cones. Can I put ice cream on these cones? You are just unbelievable. Rods are responsible for black and white vision. They do not detect color. Whereas, cones detect color. There are three types of cones. One cone perceives red light, another perceives green and the third perceives blue. Together, these cones help us to see the whole spectrum of colors. Now in some cases, when one or more types of cones do not work properly, it causes color blindness. People with such deficiency have difficulty in distinguishing between certain colors or shades. For example, in red-green color blindness, the apple tree may appear like this.

This activity complements the video Virus Hunter: Monitoring Nipah Virus in Bat Populations. Students explore cases of Nipah virus infection, analyze evidence, and make calculations and predictions based on data. Students assume the role of epidemiologists analyzing real data from an outbreak of Nipah virus in Malaysia, attempting to identify the reservoir of the virus and curtail the outbreak. Students will make predictions, perform calculations, adapt to new information, and make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Meiosis, the form of cell division unique to egg and sperm production, sets the stage for sex determination by creating sperm that carry either an X or a Y sex chromosome. But what is it about the X or Y that determines sex? Before a meiotic cell divides, its two sets of chromosomes come together and cross over, or swap, segments. The first animation shows normal crossing over, where the X and Y chromosomes exchange pieces only at their tips. The second animation shows a rare mistake in which the Y chromosome transfers a gene called SRY to the X chromosome, resulting in sex-reversed babies. Studies of sex-reversed individuals led researchers to identify the master switch for sex determination, the SRY gene, which tells a fetus to become a boy.

Meiosis, the form of cell division unique to egg and sperm production, sets the stage for sex determination by creating sperm that carry either an X or a Y sex chromosome. But what is it about the X or Y that determines sex? Before a meiotic cell divides, its two sets of chromosomes come together and cross over, or swap, segments. The first animation shows normal crossing over, where the X and Y chromosomes exchange pieces only at their tips. The second animation shows a rare mistake in which the Y chromosome transfers a gene called SRY to the X chromosome, resulting in sex-reversed babies. Studies of sex-reversed individuals led researchers to identify the master switch for sex determination, the SRY gene, which tells a fetus to become a boy.

Four talks focus on sex determination-the molecular and genetic mechanisms that determine whether an organism will be male, female or a hermaphrodite.

Four talks focus on sex determination-the molecular and genetic mechanisms that determine whether an organism will be male, female or a hermaphrodite. Meisosis animation 49:00-53:00 53:21 SRY animation Y to X crossing over 53:30 SRY transfer 54:45

 This session will showcase several PBL lessons and units that incorporate multiple Common Instructional Framework Strategies and authentic inquiry experiences in order to facilitate mastery of science concepts.  

National Science Digital Library 

interesting approach to evolution

Online activity: imagine you are an investigator looking for genes that influence niicotene addiction.  View video interviews, written surveys, and official records for the Marshall family and trace their pedigree.

curricular unit on genetic testing

In the past decade, the US honeybee population has been decreasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. While this is obviously bad news for honeypots everywhere, bees also help feed us in a bigger way -- by pollinating our nation's crops. Emma Bryce investigates potential causes for this widespread colony collapse disorder.

This web site provides tools and resources that support ambitious science instruction at the middle school and high school levels. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to get students of all racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds to understand science ideas, participate in the discourses of the discipline, and solve authentic problems. We describe 4 core instructional strategies that support this kind of teaching. These "high-leverage" practices make up the Science Learning Framework (below), and have been selected based on extensive research of how young people learn science, on authentic forms of science activity, and how teachers learn to appropriate new practices.

Evolutionary biologists have developed many techniques to analyze how male and female mating preferences have co-evolved. These studies combine animal behavior, sensory biology, phylogenetics, and neurobiology to observe the effects of male trait biases based on female receiver systems; that is, the "attractiveness" of the male trait to potential female mating partners.