May is National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month

Each year, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) declares May to be "National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month." It's a peak season for asthma and allergy sufferers, and a perfect time to educate your patients, family, friends, co-workers and others about these diseases.

May is a great time to help raise awareness and funds for asthma and allergic diseases. To get involved this May, start raising funds and awareness for asthma and allergies today!

LifeScience Moment: The world's first cloned horse was born

The world's first cloned horse named Prometea was born May 28, 2003 at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy. Prometea was the successful outcome of 328 attempts to construct and implant a viable embryo.

To create Prometea, scientists took a skin cell from an adult mare which was fused with an empty equine egg. The mare then acted as a surrogate mother for Prometea - so giving birth to a carbon copy of herself.

Thoroughbred horseracing is strictly controlled and the regulatory associations do not permit artificial insemination or any kind of fertility treatment. The cloning technique could have a particular role in perpetuating the sporting success of male show and jump horses that have been castrated. Geldings, which have their testicles removed at an early age, have no ability to reproduce normally.

It's a Small World
	Flea (Yersinia Pestis Bacterium Carrier) (Photo: Courtesy Janice Haney Carr)

Science Quote

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living."