Word: spreads
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...history of voting in competitive elections and were mobilized by the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist member of the communist leadership. China used maximum force relatively early; it contained the challenge within seven weeks. Iran's regime is losing momentum after seven months; demonstrations late last month spread to at least 10 major cities. China banned the foreign press and tightly controlled state media; Iran has been unable to prevent eyewitness accounts of citizen journalists from reaching the Internet, Facebook and Twitter...
...handle them - but of a peculiar, transmissible disease. Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) causes tumors to form in and around the mouth of infected devils; the tumors eventually grow so large that they prevent the animal from feeding and lead to starvation. First discovered in 1996, the cancer has spread swiftly through the Tasmanian devil population, killing more than 70% of the island's animals. If nothing is done to stop the disease, the devils could go extinct within 35 years. (See 10 species nearing extinction...
DFTD is a virtually unique cancer in that it is spread from animal to animal via biting or other physical contact - one of only three cancers that are thought to spread this way. While some human cancers can be linked to transmissible pathogens - such as cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papillomavirus - in DFTD, infected devils actually transmit the tumor itself to other devils when they bite. (See TIME's video "Saving the Tasmanian Devil...
Through genetic analysis, the Science team was able to confirm that the tumors being spread from devil to devil were the same - genetically identical, exact clonal copies. Using genetic sequencing technology, the team also uncovered the tumors' transcriptome, which means the set of genes that are activated in tumors. Those activated genes best matched those of Schwann cells, which gave the team a clue as to where the disease originated - that's important because devils are unusually susceptible to a number of different cancers, and a quick diagnosis before the facial tumors get out of control would be helpful...
Better diagnoses may lead to more targeted prevention efforts. Right now the only way to slow the spread of the disease is simply to separate healthy devils from infected ones. Naturalists are creating "devil's islands," cancer-free areas in Tasmania where healthy devils can live and breed. But that alone may not be enough to save the animal - the Tasmanian Conservation Trust recently warned that there were not enough healthy devils in captivity to ensure a viable population. "It's critical that we find something to help save them," Elizabeth Murchison, the lead author on the paper, told Science...