Word: gehrig
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
PAGES ARE BEING ADDED TO THE BOOK OF GENETICS at an accelerating pace these days. Researchers announced that they have identified a defective gene that appears to cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. About 30,000 Americans suffer from the disorder, which causes degeneration of the nerves that carry signals to muscles. The trouble in some cases, scientists reported in Nature, apparently lies in the gene that directs production of an enzyme that mops up free radicals. These substances are metabolism's nasty residue...
...event at Cold Spring Harbor was proceeding, news came that a collaborative group of scientists from 13 institutions had identified the gene that, when faulty, is responsible for at least some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, the untreatable degenerative nerve disorder that crippled and eventually killed Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankee first baseman. Victims of "Lou Gehrig's disease" usually die because of fast-spreading paralysis in as little as three to five years. A small percentage of ALS sufferers, including famed British physicist Stephen Hawking, manage to survive for decades, mentally alert but trapped...
...group of Medical School researchers has found an altered gene that may be responsible for Lou Gehrig's disease, suggesting that doctors should start looking for ways to attack dangerous free elements left to roam in the central nervous systems of patients with the fatal disorder...
...language and show how it might describe both the origins and the end of the universe. His millions of readers may not have fully comprehended his ideas, but all of us did come to understand Hawking as a brave and inspiring figure. Stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), he is completely immobilized, uses a wheelchair and can speak only by punching letters and words into a voice-synthesizing computer. His achievements in the face of this handicap have greatly enhanced his appeal and his celebrity, even among those who haven't tried to read his book...
...well as for science. Rejecting the urging of his physician father to study medicine, Hawking chose instead to concentrate on math and theoretical physics, first at Oxford and then at Cambridge. But at age 21 he developed the first symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- also known as Lou Gehrig's disease -- a disorder that would inevitably render him paralyzed and incapable of performing most kinds of work. As the authors note, theoretical physics was "one of the very few jobs for which his mind was the only real tool he needed...