Life wasn't so 'Wonderful' for Zuzu actress

David Duprey / AP

Life wasn't so wonderful for Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the film "It's a Wonderful Life."

By Ree Hines

You know that heartwarming moment at the end of ?It?s a Wonderful Life? ? the one where George Bailey?s adorable daughter Zuzu tells her father that ?every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings?? It closes the tale of redemption and appreciation perfectly and leaves the audience feeling that it really is a pretty darned good life.

Well, get ready to have that warm feeling sucked away, because for the actress who played Zuzu, life wasn?t so wonderful at all. In fact, according to a report published in the Washington Post, much of Karolyn Grimes? life proved downright tragic.

"My mother died when I was 12, and right after my dad died in a car crash,??said Grimes, who was just 6 when she played Zuzu.??I was 15 and had no family. The court sent me to live with my uncle and aunt in Missouri. ? They were kind of nutso, religious fanatics who didn't believe in movies, dancing, singing, that kind of thing. I don't think they believed in laughing, either."

From there, things didn?t exactly improve for Grimes, as she later lost a husband to cancer and a son to suicide.

?My life has never been wonderful,? she said. ?Maybe when I was a child, but not after age 15.?

Those looking for a bright spot in the 71-year-old?s story, something that might make this year?s requisite TV trip to Bedford Falls a little more bearable when Zuzu hits the screen, can (sort of) find it in this tidbit: Despite her tough times ? or maybe because of them ? Grimes takes comfort in the very film in which?she starred.

?It?s not a Christmas movie, not a movie about Jesus or Bethlehem or anything religious like that,? she said. ?It?s about how we have to face life with a lot of uncertainty, and even though nobody hears it, most of us ask God to show us the way when things get really hard? and (like in the film) it can be in Martini?s (bar), not a church on Christmas.?

This year marks the 65th anniversary of ?It?s a Wonderful Life.?

Is "Wonderful Life" one of your holiday favorites? Tell us in the comments.

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Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9226891-life-wasnt-so-wonderful-for-zuzu-actress

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Breaking Dawn Wins Box Office Crown... Again!

Breaking Dawn is showing no signs of breaking down at the box office.

For the third consecutive weekend, this installment of the Twilight Saga earned more money than any other film, adding $16.9 million to its growing tally on Friday and Saturday.

Breaking Dawn Promo: The Life of Bella Swan

Breaking Dawn actually trails past franchise editions at this point in its run, as it's earned 247.3 million domestic dollars in 17 days.  By comparison, New Moon had brought in $255.4 million at this juncture, while Eclipse had collected $255.8 million.

Is there any doubt, however, that next November's Breaking Dawn Part 2 will own all Twilight records in the end?

Here is a look at the top five box office results from the weekend:

1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1: $16.9 mil
2. The Muppets: $11.2 mil
3. Hugo: $7.6 mil
4. Arthur Christmas: $7.4 mil
5. Happy Feet Two: $6.0 mil

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/breaking-dawn-wins-box-office-crown-again/

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Canada sees U.S. approving Keystone pipeline (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Canada believes the United States will ultimately approve TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which Washington put on hold last month for more than a year, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Friday.

Oliver said the project - which would carry crude from Alberta's oil sands to the Gulf of Mexico coast - still makes enormous economic sense for the United States.

"I think it will go through, but obviously later than we had hoped," he told a Reuters editorial board in Toronto.

A recent decision by the state of Nebraska to back changes to the pipeline's route was "a significant development", he added.

Oliver's comments were among the most bullish made by Canada's Conservative government since Washington announced a decision on whether to approve the $7 billion pipeline would be delayed at least until early 2013, after the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

"This delay is not a happy event for us but we're going to continue to talk about the advantages of the pipeline," Oliver said.

Washington's move followed protests by environmental campaigners and Hollywood celebrities, who say exploitation of the oil sands is causing a huge spike in the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Oliver said the delay meant it was important for Canada to diversify its oil exports, in particular by developing pipelines to the Pacific Coast, which would allow major shipments to Asia for the first time.

The idea is already sparking friction with aboriginal groups and environmental activists, who say such pipeline would present oil-spill risks in environmentally sensitive areas.

Aboriginal groups in the Pacific province of British Columbia said on Thursday they had formed a united front to oppose all exports of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands through their territories.

Such a ban would create a roadblock for Enbridge Inc's planned C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion) Northern Gateway oil pipeline, which would transport tar sands crude to the British Columbia coast.

Oliver would not speculate on what the legal implications for the government might be if native communities maintain their opposition to the Northern Gateway or subsequent proposals.

"It has to be built in a way that takes into account the environmental impact and the needs and the wishes of the aboriginal community," he said. "I think that can be done. I'm not saying it will be easy."

Oliver said that developing West Coast oil routes was "an enormous opportunity" for aboriginal groups, offering badly needed economic development, education and jobs.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/us_nm/us_minister_pipelines

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New switch could improve electronics

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have invented a new type of electronic switch that performs electronic logic functions within a single molecule. The incorporation of such single-molecule elements could enable smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronics.

The research findings, supported by a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, were published online in the Nov. 14 issue of Nano Letters.

"This new switch is superior to existing single-molecule concepts," said Hrvoje Petek, principal investigator and professor of physics and chemistry in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and codirector of the Petersen Institute for NanoScience and Engineering (PINSE) at Pitt. "We are learning how to reduce electronic circuit elements to single molecules for a new generation of enhanced and more sustainable technologies."

The switch was discovered by experimenting with the rotation of a triangular cluster of three metal atoms held together by a nitrogen atom, which is enclosed entirely within a cage made up entirely of carbon atoms. Petek and his team found that the metal clusters encapsulated within a hollow carbon cage could rotate between several structures under the stimulation of electrons. This rotation changes the molecule's ability to conduct an electric current, thereby switching among multiple logic states without changing the spherical shape of the carbon cage. Petek says this concept also protects the molecule so it can function without influence from outside chemicals.

Because of their constant spherical shape, the prototype molecular switches can be integrated as atom-like building blocks the size of one nanometer (100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair) into massively parallel computing architectures.

The prototype was demonstrated using an Sc3N@C80 molecule sandwiched between two electrodes consisting of an atomically flat copper oxide substrate and an atomically sharp tungsten tip. By applying a voltage pulse, the equilateral triangle-shaped Sc3N could be rotated predictably among six logic states.

The research was led by Petek in collaboration with chemists at the Leibnitz Institute for Solid State Research in Dresden, Germany, and theoreticians at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, People's Republic of China. The experiments were performed by postdoctoral researcher Tian Huang and research assistant professor Min Feng, both in Pitt's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Tian Huang, Jin Zhao, Min Feng, Alexey A. Popov, Shangfeng Yang, Lothar Dunsch, Hrvoje Petek. A Molecular Switch Based on Current-Driven Rotation of an Encapsulated Cluster within a Fullerene Cage. Nano Letters, 2011; 111123145903006 DOI: 10.1021/nl2028409

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201125402.htm

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Parental controls on embryonic development?

Thursday, December 1, 2011

When a sperm fertilizes an egg, each contributes a set of chromosomes to the resulting embryo, which at these very early stages is called a zygote. Early on, zygotic genes are inert, so embryonic development is largely controlled by parental factors. The activation of the zygotic genome therefore represents an important transition toward a more autonomous mode of embryonic development, and has been the subject of much speculation and scrutiny. Now, a new study published by Cell Press on December 1st in the journal Developmental Cell suggests that the reach of parental control in the embryo may be longer than we thought.

It is known that in sperm, certain DNA-binding proteins called histones are modified in special ways, at specific genes that are switched on in the embryo. Could these marks actually be passed on from sperm to embryo, to determine how genes are controlled in the offspring? Or are they erased for the zygote to start anew? In a collaborative effort between multiple institutions lead by Prof. Philippe Collas from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Research, scientists examined the marks on histones in fish zygotes before and after zygotic genome activation and found evidence that many of the same histone marks seen in sperm are also present in the zygote before genome activation? and these same marks appear to predict which genes will be activated later during development.

Thus, it seems that there is a "pre-pattern," made with direct input from the parents, guiding development even after zygotic genome activation. As suggested by Prof. Collas in the study, "early developmental instructions may be provided by specific marking of the sperm and egg genomes by modified histones, which may be transmitted to the embryo through fertilization."

This study was a collaboration between the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, the University of Birmingham, the Genome Institute of Singapore, the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Research.

###

Publishing in the Developmental Cell - December 13, 2011 print issue. Lindeman et al.: "Pre-patterning of Developmental Gene Expression by Modified Histones before Zygotic Genome Activation."

Cell Press: http://www.cellpress.com

Thanks to Cell Press for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115653/Parental_controls_on_embryonic_development_

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