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Test-tube baby pioneer wins medicine Nobel
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Quick victory eludes Dilma Brazil Poll: President Lula’s favourite faces runoff against Jose Serra on October 31Brasilia, October 4 Dilma Rousseff, the woman President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants to succeed him in office, faces a runoff vote after falling unexpectedly short of an outright victory in Brazil’s presidential election. Brazilian presidential candidates Dilma Rousseff (left) for the ruling Worker’s Party and Jose Serra for the PSDB party after voting at their respective polling stations in Porto Alegre (Rousseff) and Sao Paulo (Serra), on Sunday. — Reuters
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Test-tube baby pioneer wins medicine Nobel
Stockholm, October 4 Edwards, an 85-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, started working on IVF as early as the 1950s. He developed the technique, in which egg cells are fertilized outside the body and then implanted in the womb, together with gynocologist surgeon Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988. On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown in Britain became the first baby born through the groundbreaking procedure, marking a revolution in fertility treatment. “(Edwards’) achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity, including more than 10 per cent of all couples worldwide,” the medicine prize committee in Stockholm said in its citation. “Approximately 4 million individuals have been born thanks to IVF,” the citation said. “Today, Robert Edwards’ vision is a reality and brings joy to infertile people all over the world.” The probability of an infertile couple taking home a baby after a cycle of IVF today is 1 in 5, about the same that healthy couples have of conceiving naturally. Steptoe and Edwards founded the first IVF clinic at Bourn Hall in Cambridge. In a statement, Bourn Hall said one of Edwards’ proudest moments was discovering that 1,000 IVF babies had been born at the clinic since Brown, and relaying that information to a seriously ill Steptoe shortly before his death. “I’ll never forget the look of joy in his eyes,” Edwards said. The statement said Edwards was “not well enough to give interviews” on Monday. Brown, 32, reportedly is a postal worker in the English coastal city of Bristol. In 2007 she gave birth to her first child _ a boy named Cameron. She said the child was conceived naturally. Aleksander Giwercman, head of reproduction research at the University of Lund in Sweden, said Edward’s achievements also have been important for other areas, including cancer and stem cell research. “We received a tool that could be used for many other areas,” Giwercman said. “Many of the illnesses that develop when we are adults have their origin early on in life, during conception.” The medicine award was the first of the 2010 Nobel Prizes to be announced.
— AP
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Quick victory eludes Dilma
Brasilia, October 4 The official tally for yesterday’s vote showed that Rousseff, Lula’s former cabinet chief, with 47 per cent of the vote against 33 per cent for her nearest rival, former Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra. That was short of the 50-per cent-plus-one-ballot threshold Rousseff needed to avoid an October 31 knockout round against Serra-a vote all pre-election surveys said Rousseff should have been able to avoid. Serra’s attempt to tar Rousseff with scandals swirling in her camp and the ruling Workers Party in the days before the election appeared to pay off. But the real benefactor was Green Party candidate Marina Silva, Lula’s former environment minister, whose 19 per cent share put her in third place, far higher than the 14 per cent she was forecast to win.“We defended a victorious idea and Brazil heard our cry,” Silva, 52, told reporters after the vote. Silva is seen as a kingmaker because her votes could prove decisive to either Rousseff or Serra in the runoff election. “I go into this second round with courage and energy because it gives me a chance to better lay out my proposals and plans,” Rousseff told disappointed supporters in Brasilia, flanked by Worker’s Party officials with deflated looks. Pre-vote surveys predicted Rousseff would win 50 to 52 per cent of the ballots. They also suggested Rousseff would handily beat Serra in the second round to become Brazil’s first woman president. At a noisy post-vote event Serra thanked his supporters. “We’re heading towards victory and the presidency!” he told his cheering supporters. — AFP
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Rare Gandhi photos go under hammer today 3D Titanic to release in 2012 4,000-yr-old Aryan city discovered
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