Two IU scientists ranked among top U.S. AAAS fellows\nAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science selected two IU scientists to add to the elite list of fellows in its Washington, D.C.-based society. Of the 308 selected this year, organic chemist David R. Williams and evolutionary biologist Curtis Lively bring Bloomington's total number of living AAAS fellows to 42 -- a number greater than that of any other Indiana institution.\nFellows are selected because of their efforts to advance science or its applications, particularly in areas deemed socially or scientifically significant. Lively's work in host-parasite co-evolution suggests new theories about parasite reproduction patterns, while William's synthesis of complex antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor agents have led to the development of new pharmaceuticals. \nThe new fellows will be honored at the AAAS's annual meeting on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C.
'Lazy eyes' targeted by new research\nTreatment for children with amblyopia, a condition more commonly called "lazy eye," might become easier because research conducted in part by optometrists at IU's School of Optometry. The study, conducted by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group, found that children with moderate amblyopia benefit as much from receiving atropine eye drops twice a week as they do with standard treatments of receiving daily atropine drops. The School of Optometry was one of 30 PEDIG sites throughout North America that participated in the study. \nThis finding is expected to lead to higher levels of compliance with treatment, less expensive treatment and an overall improved quality of life for children with this visual condition.\nAmblyopia is the most common cause of monocular vision, an impairment where one eye does the work of both, among children and young and middle-aged adults. The condition exists because the brain learns to favor the dominant eye.\nComplete, detailed results appear in the November issue of Ophthalmology.
Georgia girl cannot feel pain -- literally \nPATTERSON, Ga. -- Ashlyn Blocker's parents and kindergarten teachers all describe her the same way: fearless. So they nervously watch her plunge full-tilt into a childhood deprived of natural alarms.\nIn the school cafeteria, teachers put ice in 5-year-old Ashlyn's chili. If her lunch is scalding hot, she'll gulp it down anyway.\nAshlyn is among a tiny number of people in the world known to have congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, or CIPA -- a rare genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel physical pain.\nThe untreatable disease also makes Ashlyn incapable of sensing extreme temperatures disabling her body's ability to cool itself by sweating. Otherwise, her senses are normal.\nAshlyn can feel the texture of nickels and dimes she sorts into piles on her bedroom floor, the heft of the pink backpack she totes to school and the embrace of a hug. She feels hunger cravings for her favorite after-school snack, pickles and strawberry milk.\nThat's because the genetic mutation that causes CIPA only disrupts the development of the small nerve fibers that carry sensations of pain, heat and cold to the brain.\nIn Patterson, a rural town of 800 people in southeast Georgia, John and Tara Blocker had no idea the disorder existed before they took Ashlyn to the doctor for a bloodshot, swollen left eye when she was 8 months old.\nThe doctor put drops in Ashlyn's eye to stain any particles that might be irritating it. The infant smiled and bounced in her mother's lap while the dye revealed a massive scratch across her cornea.\n"They put the dye in her eye and I remember the look of puzzlement on all their faces," Ashlyn's mother says. "She was not fazed by it by any means"
