Stealing for a Sting

Have you ever wondered how insects like wasps developed toxins that can sting, paralyze, or even kill their hapless victims? Well Annie Bezier of France's Université François Rabelais wondered the same thing. Her research of wasp ovaries led her to find multiple genes that encoded for producing the various polydnavirus that are injected into prey. These polynavirus particles aren't quite virus's, but they are pretty close.

The interesting part about all this is that when Annie Bezier compared the various genes responsible for making these polydnavirus in wasps to all other known virus's. Much to her surprise she found a pretty close match. Over 20 of the genes responsible for encoding these polydnavirus are near identical to a group of virus that prey on insects like moths.

By comparing various known species of wasps, Annies team was able to conclude that about 100 million years ago, the polydnavirus that wasps now use were once infecting them. Horizontal transfer of genes like this is very common in microbes where once germ will pass on a higher fitness gene to another, but is very rarely documented between animals and viruses.

While this knowledge doesn't cure diseases or solve any immediate problems facing man kind, it does however open Pandora’s Box into a more broad view of virus host relationships. Think of how many different chemicals we create with bacteria by inserting genetic material into them that alters the products they produce as bi-products. In what ways can we use viruses to our advantage? It's already possible to insert genes into animals that they are missing via viruses, but what about actually adding a new type of gene into something?

Do you think it is possible to tame virus's to do our bidding like an attack dog? Is it possible to ultimately absorb viral genetic material into our own bodies making us more evolutionarily fit? I hope so, it’s about time I got to use a stinger too.

Update:

So horizontal transfer of genes is commonly seen in bacteria when they sort of "trade" genetic info much like sexual recombination. For example, an E.cola cell could trade the info in its plasmid that codes for antibacterial resistance.
What they think happened between the virus and the wasp is that infected wasps would still reproduce and the virus's would pass on to their children. Much like how bacteria are becoming more resistant to antibiotics the wasps might have become slowly more capable of dealing with the virus but were incapable of actually ridding themselves of it. The article made a comparison to having a robber come in your house then stealing his gun and making him rob other people.

-Nick Cline (B)

Murder Mystery!

After all these years of believing that an asteroid killed our lovely dinosaurs 65 million years ago, new findings have shown that it may not be entirely true. In 1978, when scientists discovered a huge, 112 mile wide crater, called the Chicxulub crater, they figured this was the perfect answer to the mass extinction.

When asteroids strike, they typically leave a layer of iridium behind, which is an element not commonly found on earth. While scientists were examining a site near the crater they noticed that above the iridium layer in the sediments, there was a 30 foot deep section that contained some of the same fossils as below the layer. If the dinosaurs were brutally killed by the impact and after effects of the asteroid then there shouldn't be the same fossils.

Geoscientists then analyzed the fossils they found. They examined 52 species that were below the layer and surprisingly found the same 52 above the layer. It wasn't until they examined the top of the 30 foot sample, dated 300,000 years after the impact, that they found species dying off. Some say that land bridges could attribute to this, allowing animals with different diseases to enter new territories and infect others. Also, the geoscientists agree that the scary prehistoric beasts could have perished from haze in the atmosphere, but they say it is more possible that it was from all the active volcanoes at the time.

In the end, something must have happened to kill off all those species, but these scientists are throwing out the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater as the main cause.


Update:

When the ash cloud settles it leave behind that iridium layer. So finding fossils above that layer throughout shows that some species have survived that asteroid impact. It is possible that the immediate ones were killed and others moved in but from the old theory, it has been said that the impact killed all dinosaurs. These findings show that they dinosaurs as a whole did not go extinct from this one asteroid.

The idea of the volcanoes was that they spewed so much ash at the time that the atmosphere was too thick for the species to survive. So that volcanoes across the world could have helped the extinction and not just one single asteroid.

As for the scientists working on this, they say that they have many doubts of the asteroid killing all the dinosaurs. I don't think we need to necessarily throw out the whole idea, but definitely throw it as as the only cause of extinction. I think everything together caused the species to drop off. The asteroid definitely had to of killed the surrounding species, volcanoes, and other environmental changes pushed them closer to extinction.

-Katie Cyr [B/11]

More Females Born Near Equator

Every year there are more males born than females. However, new evidence shows that the ratio becomes much closer in populations that live near the equator. The findings holds true even when the data from some Asian and African countries are excluded. In these rare cases the data cannot be considered truly representative of the birth rate as the intentional abortion of female children is known to occur there.  The study, conducted at the University of Georgia, evaluated dozens of indicators to determine the socioeconomic status of each of the 202 countries. There seemed to be no real correlation between socioeconomic status and female birth rates, but there was a correlation between latitude and birth rates. Countries with national capitals closer to the equator showed a smaller gap in the birth ratio of boys and girls. The difference was greatest when going from the tropics (within the 23 degrees of the equator) to the temperate regions ( within 50 degrees from the equator).  The largest percent of females born occurs in Africa with 49.3% and the lowest occur in Asian and Europe with 48.6%. No one is really sure why this happens, but there are some possible reasons. There may be some correlation between temperature and birth rate or maybe sunlight affects the rate. There may be a genetic tool within humans that causes more female offspring to be produced during long, warm days just like in hamsters and mice. However, there is no explanation that seems to have hit the nail on the head yet. Why do you think less males and more females are born near the equator?

Update

There have been many comments about the fact that these percentages vary by too small of a degree, but we must remember the vast scale that these numbers represent. While the differences are only about .5%, there are over six billion people on earth, which makes that half a percent a lot more significant. The fact that both humans and mice give birth to more females during long, warm days may be an indication of a genetic trigger that is shared by all mammals. I think this was a really fascinating study that should be followed by more studies on other creatures to see if this really is a common trait among all mammals. 

-Calin Darabus 

  Group B

Scientists Create Fluorescent Puppy

A team of scientists in South Korea have created the world's first "glowing puppy." Ruppy, which is short for Ruby Puppy, was introduced to the public just this past week. In normal daylight, Ruppy looks like any other dog, but when the ultraviolet lights come out, she is anything but normal. Ruppy, when placed under these special lights, glows red.

Scientists created this weird effect by cloning cells that include the red fluorescent gene produced by sea anemones. This makes Ruppy one of only a few successfully created transgenics, meaning she has genes from another animal. The success in the genetics of creating Ruppy gives scientists hope that they will be able to pave the way to model human diseases in dogs, whose relatively long life-span could help to create better study subjects than the typically used ones.

As crazy as it is to see a glowing animal, Ruppy is surprisingly not the first glowing animal made. She is, though, the first glowing canine, along with 4 other beagles created by the scientist, all of whom share this same red glowing trait. The scientist who created Ruppy was also on the team who helped to create the first cloned dog, Snuppy. Such scientist and well accredited stem cell researcher, Woo Suk Hwang, hopes that the cloning and crossing of such genes between animals can show potential hope for increasing life span, disease resistance, and overall health for humans in the future.

Some feel the project of Ruppy was merely an expensive, flashy, pointless experiment, but hopes remain high by the team who feel Ruppy was a small, but necessary step towards stem cell development.

UPDATE 5/1/09: I agree, it is a completely flashy experiment. There was no harm caused to the dogs because it was done early in development. The actual fluorescent coloring causes no harm either. It just went to their paws, they had no predetermined location for it all. I hope it helps with disease development and prevention too!



-Alyssa Terestre

Primatologist Cooks Up New Evolution Theory

Richard Wrangham, a primatologist, anthropologist and Harvard professor spent 40 years of his life observing wild chimps in Africa. In May, he will publish the book, "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human". He has studied wild chimps because he believes their behavior will offer insights into prehistoric humans. He theorizes that cooking food and using fire were the main driving force behind the evolution from ape to human. For years, scientists have argued that tool making and meat eating are what facilitated human evolution. Wrangham agrees that these adaptations were key, however he argues that our large brain and body shape are the direct result of a diet that was only available to us after we started cooking our food. The chimps he's observed in the wild mostly sustain on a diet of extremely fibrous materials that must be chewed for hours. Once our early ancestors began cooking food about 1.8 million years ago, their diets became softer, more nutritious, calorie-rich, and less time-consuming. His theory also includes that once communal cooking fires were established, humans spent more time around them, allowing for social evolution and communication.

Wrangham's biggest criticism is of his lack of evidence, mainly, archeological proof of fire places as old as 1.8 million years. He cites the evidence of controlled fire 800,000 years ago in Israel, as well as ancient meat preparing tools of our distant ancestor Homo habilis. His theory relies mostly on the biological evidence, including smaller teeth and guts starting 1.8 million years ago, as well as the leaner, more human like bodies of Homo erectus.

As for humans today, Wrangham believes that our bodies have adapted to modern food by becoming even better at maximizing the energy we get from our diet. However, we take in more than we need, which is not adaptive.

Update:
Another bit of biological evidence Wrangham uses to support his claim is the sexual dimorphism of males and females through evolution. Homo erectus males were about the same size as their ausralopithicine ancestors, but the female H. erectus is 60 percent taller and heavier than her predecessor, this difference being comparable to a modern 10 year old girl and an adult woman. Wrangham attributes the change to a diet of cooked food. Females were able to eat enough to get bigger, and bigger generally means more fecund.
As a result of the smaller sexual dimorphism of Homo erectus, Wrangham suggests that males were no longer under pressure to get bigger themselves. Wrangham believes that this slight decline of male competition brought about the origins of distinctly human pair bonding.
Wrangham's claims continue to receive criticism, but it certainly is food for thought.

-Jane de Verges, Group B

Instant Sunglasses Improved, No More Waiting.

Chemical engineer Jiro Abe, and his colleagues at a university in Japan have been studying light-sensitive materials that are derived from hexaarylbiimidazole (HABI). Hexaarylbiimidazole (HABI) is a material that instantly changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light , and just as quickly changes back to clear when the light source is removed. They have discovered that in its natural state it is colorless and when ultraviolet light breaks one of the bonds in the molecule, it produces a dark blue appearance. currently this takes ten/s of seconds and sometimes longer. Abe Abe colleagues have found a way to decrease that speed of change from clear to blue and vice verse.

They found that by adding naphthalene to the compound, they could increase speed of the color change to about 180 milliseconds. Adding a compound called cyclophane instead of naphthalene improved the clear-to-blue conversion even more--to about 30 milliseconds. The version of HABI goes back to the original clear state when the light source is removed just as fast as it changes to blue.

This enables Plexiglas or lens like materials to rapidly change from clear to dark, and dark to clear when going indoors. It is also an idea of theirs that it will make a great candidate for future new generation of optical data-storage in which its color on/off ability could substitute for the magnetic on/off switches that underlie today's electronic data-storage devices. The new material photochromics can be used in optical data storage and super cool sunglasses!!

Update:
Yes everyone this does already exist i should have made that clear, but this is a newer version that the transition is a much shorter period of time and less annoying when you go inside and you glasses are still dark. Now they will transition much faster, it now takes only about 30 milliseconds to change. Some were skeptical to this concept, regarding the flickering and if it will affect eye sight while riding motorcycles or bicycles because of the rapid changing from light to dark. It would not affect you while driving because windshields don't let the UV light pass though anyways.




Samantha DeBiasio (Group B week 11)

MSG

Last night I ordered Chinese food and on the menu it said "Very little MSG added".  Since I couldn't really remember what it was, and why it was bad for you I ate it anyways and did a little research tonight.  MSG stands for monosodium glutamate which is a sodium salt of the amino acid "glutamic acid".  Studies show that it acts as a nerve impulse stimulator in the brain as well as other tissue areas. It is used as a flavor enhancer in food.  It is made by using bacteria and yeast species to ferment carbohydrates.  Often it is produced by fermenting starches, sugar cane, or molasses.  Not only is it used in Asian food restaurants it is often used in processed and canned foods.

The health concerns associated with MSG are the subject of many studies. When injected into lab animals it has resulted into damage of nerve cells in the brain.  When consumed through food it has seemed to be metabolized with little to no affects. It has been said that it is safe when eaten at minimal levels.  The most prominent study was done in 1995 by the FASEB and reported findings of an unknown percentage of people who may react badly and develop "MSG symptom complex" with symptoms of burning sensation, numbness, and tingling in the back of the neck arms and back as well as headache nausea and more.   Some people with severe poorly controlled asthma have had symptoms of "MSG symptom complex" No long term effects have been proven yet although scientists still wonder if it could somehow cause the same problems as when injected into animals when consumed in certain situations.  For more information check out this link.

[Emily Bell]

Update:

Thanks for letting me know I forgot my name! How stupid. Many of you have asked about the relationship between MSG and its popular attachment to Asian cuisine.  I believe this is most likely because they often use it as a flavor enhancement but also because it was first commercialized in Japan.  There are Asian restaurants that use no MSG at all and normally that is advertised right on the menu.  It is very commonly used as a preservative in things like RAMEN-definitely, salad dressings, bouillon cubes used for soups/gravy etc.  However in moderation I think your all safe after my research!

Schizophrenic Brains Not Fooled by Optical Illusion

Patients suffering from schizophrenia are less susceptible to various visual illusions. For example, healthy participants perceive a hollow, concave, mask as a normal, convex, face, presumably due to the strength of constraining top-down influences, while patients with schizophrenia do not. The illusion exploits our brain's strategy for making sense of the visual world: uniting what it actually sees — known as bottom-up processing — with what it expects to see based on prior experience — known as top-down processing. Our brain retains memories of what faces look like, so whenever we see a face, of course it has to come out, overriding visual cues such as shadows.

But schizophrenics see the hollow face for what it is. About 7 out of 1000 Americans suffer from the disease, which is characterized by abnormalities in perception or expression of reality. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, and poor planning, with significant social dysfunction. Some psychologists believe this dissociation from reality may result from an imbalance between bottom-up and top-down processing — a convenient hypothesis to test out with the hollow mask illusion.

However the neural mechanisms underpinning this effect remain poorly understood. Dima and Jonathan Roiser of University College London used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the hollow mask illusion in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. The goal of this study was to use measures of effective connectivity arising from dynamic causal modelling (DCM) to explain differences in both the perception of the hollow mask illusion and associated differences in neural responses between patients with schizophrenia and controls.

When healthy subjects looked at the hollow, concave faces, connections strengthened between the frontoparietal network, which is involved in top-down processing, whereas people with schizophrenia did not show such strengthening. These findings suggest that schizophrenic patients rely on stimulus-driven processing and are less able to employ conceptually-driven top-down strategies during perception.

Schizophrenics aren't the only ones who see the concave face. People who are drunk or high can also 'beat' the illusion. During these drug-induced states, a similar disconnection between what the brain sees and what is really there may be occurring!

Posted by Sarah Bello (10)

Scrambled Brain

Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his contributions to physics. He proposed the general theory of relativity and other groundbreaking insights. When a rare genius like Albert Einstein comes along, scientists naturally wonder if he had something special between his ears.

Albert Einstein died in 1995 at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey. His brain was removed and preserved for anatomical research. The majority of the brain was cut into 240 blocks; however the remaining portion of the brain was kept in a jar. These pieces were sent to various researches.

A study conducted by a team led by Sandra Witelson, a neurobiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, found that Einstein's parietal lobes were 15% wider than normal parietal lobes. Another study conducted by Dean Falk, an anthropologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, claimed to have discovered a rare pattern of grooves and ridges in the parietal regions of both sides of the brain. The team compared photographs of Einstein’s brain to a second previously published set of 58 control brains.

The right parietal lobe is critical for visual working memory. This enhancement in mathematical, visual, and spatial cognition might somehow be related to Einstein’s superior ability to conceptualize physics problems. Critics state that these findings are highly speculative, taking in to consideration that the evidence is derived through photographical analysis.

Posted by Saad Choudhry (10)

Update (April 24, 2009):

Most studies regarding the anatomy and physiology of Albert Einstein’s brain have revealed similar findings, that certain parts of the brain were indeed very unusual. Many experimenters have speculated that these unusual features are related to Einstein’s superior ability to conceptualize physics problems. However, a study conducted by a team led by Sandra Witelson, a neurobiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, revealed one component that failed to explain Einstein’s mental prowess. The size of Einstein’s brain fell at the low end of average for modern humans. The explanation remains a mystery.

Alcohol & Age-Preception

The University of Leicester has led a recent study that shows consuming alcohol does not affect how men judge a woman's age. The research was performed in bars and cafes. 240 people were interviewed to rate attractiveness of underage and mature females. The females that were to be judged by the surveying people were shown electronically. The females were with and without makeup. "The study found attractiveness ratings of minors were not affected by alcohol or make-up compared to mature faces." Both surveyed men and women found immature faces (minor) more attractive. And makeup influenced attractiveness level when surveyees had consumed alcohol.

Previous research has showed males usually view young females as older than they really are. But found with this new study: even with large amounts of alcohol, this does not lead men to think these younger females are even older. This is legally important because alcohol is said to be the cause of impairing judgement in cases of unlawful sex with a minor. This study prove this to be untrue. Because of this study, many offenders may not be allowed to use alcohol as an excuse of unlawful sex with a minor. 

Personal Opinion:

Although this article is very interesting, I do not feel that surveying 240 people is accurate enough.  Another important fact to remember is that the judged females were shown electronically. That could be another reason for the results obtained. I also feel that everyone judges differently. Also, alcohol effects people in different ways. With this being said, how accurate is surveying 240 people, analyzing results, and applying a conclusion to the whole population of people. I feel there may be many other factors that need to be considered.

Something to think about.

Update:

To answer some questions, yes people have tried to use alcohol in court as an excuse for sexual incidents with a minor. The immature and mature faces were overall seen as more attractive than without makeup to those that had consumed alcohol. And "on average, the participants overestimated the ages of the faces they saw –in line with previous research which reveals an overestimation of age by 2.5 years." This research group does plan to further their study.

-Shonneau Lippett (10) 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_release

Waterless World

Research has been done that shows water levels in many major rivers have fallen greatly in the past 50 years. This is due to both human interference and climate change. Rising temperatures are changing precipitation patterns and increasing evaporation. The water in over 900 of the world's rivers has decreased, however there are rivers like the Yangtze in China and the Brahmaputra in South America that have increased water levels. The increase in these rivers adds to the crisis because it is thought to be caused by melting glaciers in the Himilayan mountains. Some rivers no longer even reach the sea.

Humans need access to 20 Litres of water a day to drink and wash with. Many nations do not have enough water to supply its population. In these nations it is common for each person to only have 5 litres of water a day. The UN says that the nations with little water is due to poverty not because of physical availability. For example, Japan and Cambodia are close in latitudes and have the same average precipitation however Japananese people have a much greater availability to water. The richer countries will be better off when the water crisis strikes. They will be able to afford going to extremes to bring water to its populations. They could do this by building huge channels to bring water, changing paths of rivers, carrying water on ships, etc.

The main concern is how much more scarce water is going to be in the future with population growth and climate change greatly depleting our fresh water sources. With a shift towards a warmer climate we would also expect to receive more rainfall because warm air can hold more water. However with this shift we also might see a shift in which area receive the rainfall.

UPDATE:
I completely agree that we need to be proactive and start thinking of ways to increase water or ways to live off sea water. Rich countries could get a desalination plant which is an expensive way to produce large amounts of water. All parts of the world will be affected differently. BBC news has a map that shows where they predict the worst stress. In 2020 up till 2070 is shows no stress for the Northeast USA. There is a little part on the coast that is expected to experience moderate to high stress by 2070. As our populations grow, water availability will decrease.
They are already being progressive in aiding rivers return to normal. They have to dredge the mouths of many rivers every year to make sure they dont dry up. Dredging is a process in which sediments from the bottom of waters are deposited elsewhere, which would allow for the river to be deeper.

Posted by Willow Alves

Engineered Immune Cells say DIE PROSTATE CANCER CELLS!! to Prostate Cancer Cells

  Prostate cancer kills nearly 30,000 men in the US alone every year and the numbers of patients is rising. Though early detection is often considered the best treatment (the cancerous gland can be readily removed), the cancer can quickly metastasize to the rest of the body, prompting use of more drastic and dangerous treatments. 

  One of the newer such treatments involves using a virus to inject specific genes into the Killer T cells (the immune systems' bamf henchmen) to target remaining prostate cells in advanced cancer patients who had their prostate removed. The engineered Killer T cells can then recognize a membrane bound protein found only in prostate cells, called prostate-specific membrane antigen. Because the cancer is found in these cells, the theory is that the Killer Ts can effectively rid a patient of cells harboring the cancer. The researchers engineered about 1,000,000,000 of these T cells to inject back into their hosts, hoping their theory was correct. 

  After a few days, two of the clinical trial patients had strikingly reduced levels of cancer-markers in their blood, down 50% and 75% respectively, prompting a huge reaction from the field, and a call for further research. This treatment, it should be noted, is extremely dangerous, as the tinkered T cells (which, after injection into a body who has had their immune system wiped by chemotherapy, comprise most of the disease fighting force in the body) could start targeting other tissues such as healthy heart or liver tissues and things would become much greatlier bad. It is thus up to the researchers to 'perform due diligence to ... make sure there is no cross reactivity'. 

  Despite these worries, though, scientists are incredibly excited about the new field of personalized cell therapy, believing that more research will bring about the cure to any cancer through targetted approaches using engineered cancer-specific Killer T cells.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090420/full/news.2009.376.html

[Nathan Beck, Group A]

If You Can't See it, Feel it!

Have you ever stared at something so long that you started to think it was actually moving? You're not crazy! This is actually an illusion called "motion aftereffect". Nine years ago in the year 2000, neurologist Christopher Moore, at MIT in Cambridge, found that when a device vibrated onto a subject's fingertips there was activity seen in the visual motion detector in the brain. These findings were dismissed because prior to these unusual, "unimportant" results, everybody thought the brain processed the senses on their own and combines the senses when the brain interprets them.

So much for tossing these results! For the past five years motion aftereffect has been research thoroughly. This first started using blind subjects and observing the brain interactions when the subjects read Braille. The Braille actually triggered the brain's visual cortex. These results were written off by saying that the brain was working to compensate for the blindness. However, this wasn't enough for Moore and another graduate student, Talia Konkle, and they researched some more. They wanted to know if this occurred in people that didn't suffer from blindness.

With the help of "DaVinci", a small tactile simulator that taps patterns with a centimeter box of pins on the subjects' hands, they could answer some questions. Eight subjects watched a whit screen as dark stripes fell across it. After viewing the stripes the people felt DaVinci tap the pins across their fingertips while they viewed a stationary stripe. Surprisingly, motion aftereffect transferred between senses in the brain. Those who watched the moving stripes thought the pins were moving across their fingers while those who watched the stationary stripes felt the opposite sensation from DaVinci.

These findings suggested a deeper connection between the senses rather than working on their own and then being put together when it came to how our brain perceives things. In other words, what we touch might slightly alter what we see. Moore and Konkle are trying to use their results to find exactly where in the brain the sensory interaction happens. They will eventually try to use these facts to help in rehabilitation approaches for stroke victims or victims of other brain injuries that impair vision and/or touch.

Crystal Cabral (Group A)

Update: Wow, sorry about the spelling errors. I did this really late at night it's not very like me to post something with so many errors. Pretty embarrassing. Aside from that, it seems like many people think this is hard to believe. I don't necessary believe all of it as well, but I'm sure if I were to pay more attention to things like this I'd notice it and understand it better.

Infertile Female Mice Produce New Gametes

A female is born with all of the eggs she will have for the rest of her life. At least this has been the standing belief before recent experiments with female mice. A Chinese team of scientists, led by Kang Zou and Ji Wu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have found evidence that female mice can produce new eggs later in life.

Germ line-cells, present during embryo formation, are the cells responsible for the production of oocytes, unfertilized eggs. The researchers scanned mouse ovaries for a protein that is only present in germ line cells called vasa homolog. They then isolated vasa homolog producing cells (germ line cells) and tagged them with green fluorescent protein. These GFP cells were injected into the ovaries of mice whose own eggs had been killed. Matings between these mice resulted in offspring who were tagged with GFP. These results suggest that the injected germ-line cells successfully produced new eggs in receiving females.

An expert on reproduction at the University of Kansas Medical Center, David Albertini, says the results might be due to oocytes injected into the ovaries with the germ line proteins by mistake. However he admits the result was “a pretty exciting observation." Whether the results were accurate or not it cannot be outright stated that the result would stay true to humans due to obvious physiological differences. But the implications the results may have for human infertility are very promising.

-Jillian O'Keefe (Group C)

Update:

No more research has been done yet (this was a very recent study). Obviously these results will lead to more experiments with mice and maybe eventually human test subjects. Also, there were no serious side effects that the mice experienced.

A swedish scientist, Dr. Frisen, recently studied the regenerative capabilities of heart muscle cells. Through carbon dating he was able to determine that heart muscle cells DO regenerate at a rate of less than 1 percent per year. Heart muscle tissue was thought to be like oocytes, you only have the cells you were born with. There are not enough oocytes in a persons body to provide a strong enough signal for carbon dating. But Dr. Frisen is hoping to find oocytes' birthday when his technique becomes more sensitive.

Darwin's evolutionary theory in question?

A recent field called epigenetics, is based on studying the inheritance of characteristics not found in an organism's DNA sequence. Scientists in this field, argue that environmental factors, such as diet, temperature, and exposure to certain substances, can create distinct phenotypes without directly changing gene structure. These newly acquired phenotypical characteristics, then are passed on to a second generation.

This somewhat contradicts Darwin's theory which states that evolution is a result of a population and not of a single individual. Some scientists though, view results of epigentic research as an add on to Darwin's evolutionary theory, saying that both purely genetic characteristics as well as ones caused by environmental factors in single individuals are responsible for evolution.

Results of various studies, such as those done with Drosphila melanogaster and Agouti mice back up this new field. In the Drosphila experiment, a certain white eyed only strand was chosen. Embryos which are naturally nurtured at 25 degrees Celsius were nurtured at 37 degrees Celsius, resulting in red eyed offspring. After crossing these red eyed flies, the offspring appear partly red eyed without further temperature alterations, even though these flie's genes only encode for white eyes. Agouti mice are yellow, fat and prone to diabetes. When fed a diet high in B12 vitamin, follic acid and cholin prior to and during pregnancy, the offspring appear brown, slim and healthy.

Important factors that can account for this type of inheritance, are the action of histone protiens and cell memory. Histones, which are proteins important in the packaging of DNA, can activate or deactivate genes, at sites referred to as epigentic markers, depending on whether they are acetylated or methylated. It may be that certain environmental factors, can influence this step.

Ongoing research is aimed at explaining how these epigenetic markers are selected and the mechanism through which they are preserved and passed on to a second generation. During cell divison , histones break apart from the DNA strand. Because of this, it is not clearly known how the same gene can be silenced, or altered, in the daughter cells as well.

-Julio Rodriguez (Group C)

Update: Methylation of certain histones is catalyzed by a family of proteins called histone methyltransferases, or HMTs. Ifound a study that said "5'-S-(propionic acid)5'-deoxy-9-(1'-β-D-ribofuranosyl)1,3-dideazaadenine was an activator of EcoP15I and HhaI DNA methyltransferases." I believe this to be an amino acid derivative which can bind and activate a certain complex responsible for inducing transcription and consequently the synthesis of HMTs. I could not find what environmental factors were responsible for this.

Some Fat is Good Fat

There is a special kind of fat that rather than storing calories it burns it. It has been known for sometime that babies, young children and small mammals have brown adipose tissue called brown fat. Brown fat burns calories to help stay warm in colder temperatures. Throughout the years scientist have been skeptical that adults retain a significant amount of brown fat. However, according to three studies that were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, adults probably do have brown fat.

Brown fat could be important in the development of all the new diet and obesity drugs in the future. Drugs could be developed that fire up brown fat activity and help people burn calories faster. Early studies suggest that brown fat plays an important role in whether we burn or store the food we eat. Scientist knew about brown fat for decades, but where unable to locate it on adults. However, newer technology in nuclear medicine found tissue that look like fat, but had high metabolic activity. It was in fact brown fat.

People with brown fat tend to been very different than people who don’t have brown fat. They found people who were younger and leaner were more likely to have brown fat, and older people, the obese, and people taking heart drugs called beta blockers, were less likely to have brown fat. They found people who were lean had more brown fat that was more active, and people who were overweight had less brown fat and it was less active. Also, tests that were run in the winter had the most brown fat, while test done in the summer had the least brown fat. Test done in the fall and spring had intermediate amounts of brown fat.

Alex Pavidapha Group C

UPDATE:

Brown fat is an actual fat. Infants have more brown fat than adults. Brown fat has a lot of capillaries. Brown fat also mitochondria, which is used to produce engery, and is the reason why brown fat is brown. Brown fat in infants is located on the back, along the spine and shoulders. In adults they have found brown fat right above the collar bone and neck. Research in using brown fat as a weight loss treatment is still in the works. But they have been able to stimulate brown fat growth in mice.

I'll take a Sperm, On the Rocks

Frozen Little Sperm

Have you ever heard of peoples' bodies being preserved by being frozen? It does exist. What I haven't heard of before, is freezing someone's sperm to preserve it. It does exist. There have been scattered stories throughout the news lately about people's sperm being preserved. As weird as it sounds, just look at how far science has come.

The record may be tied for the "longest-frozen, viable sperm" in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the age of 13, a man by the name of Chris Biblis was being treated for leukemia. This continued until he was 18 years old. When he was 16 years old, his mother told him he should freeze his sperm. At the age of 38, (free of leukemia) he now has a healthy newborn baby girl thanks to his sperm that he froze twenty one years ago.

In 1992, the first baby was born from intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which is when a single sperm is placed into an egg. Now, it is a procedure that is performed frequently and efficiently. It was also in the news recently that a judge gave approval to have sperm frozen. The catch: the approval was given to a mother who wanted her dead son's sperm saved. She told a local newspaper, '"I want him to live on. I want to keep a piece of him."'

As I said before, science has come a long way. Do you think that it is moral to save sperm of someone who had a disease, incase they had a potential of being infertal from treatments? Do you think it is moral to save sperm of someone who is dead, merely to save a part of him/her? You decide!

Posted by Alyson Paige (Group C)

Update:

It is very curious to think that this could potentially be going against the whole idea of evolution. This was brought up in one of the comments, and it is a very good point. People with disease should be able to have children, but are they passing a bad gene? The chemotherapy is the factor that decreases the fertility, otherwise they would be perfectly fine. So is this going against evolution, or making chemo patients feel more comfortable to be able to possibly have children at a later date?
I researched fees for having sperm saved in a bank and it can cost thousands of dollars depending on how long you want a bank to hold the sperm. It is also more expensive if your sperm is potentially infected with HIV or other disease. There are banks across the country that save sperm, but the closest one to Amherst that I saw was in New York City.

Marijuana plus cigarettes boosts lung disease risk

It has been well known for a while that cigarettes increase the likelihood of developing lung disease, but new studies show smoking marijuana may have an effect too. As almost everyone knows, smoking tobacco increases your risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and many believed smoking marijuana has no severe effect. This is partially true. Studies failed to show a strong link between smoking marijuana by itself and developing COPD. It is when both tobacco and marijuana are habitually smoked by a person that issues develop. Most researchers believe the link is a result of marijuana smoking sensitizing the lung airways, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to the effects of smoking tobacco.

In this specific study, researchers surveyed 878 Canadian adults (ages 40 and above). Of this 878, 53.1% had ever smoked cigarettes, and 45.5% had every used marijuana. When comparing the smokers to the non-smokers, researchers discovered that people who smoked cigarettes were 50% more likely to suffer from frequent respiratory symptoms and 2.7 times more likely to have COPD. These numbers, though drastic and eye-opening, came as no surprise to researchers. It was the results from the marijuana smokers that surprised them.

The men and women who smoked both marijuana and tobacco were more than twice s likely (compared to non-smokers) to suffer from frequent respiratory symptoms. Researchers further found that if they'd had more than 50 joints over a lifetime, their risk of developing COPD was nearly 3 times higher than non-smokers.

Researchers said their findings don't mean that smoking marijuana by itself has no impact on the risk of COPD. Though it was very minor, the risk of developing COPD was increased in correlation to marijuana use.

To further elaborate on their findings, researchers would need to continue with a new surveying group, one larger and more narrow, such as marijuana-only smoking groups. So before you pick up that pipe or cig, think twice, especially if you're mixing the two.

(Alyssa Terestre, Group C)


http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE53C5ZA20090413

More Ice on Mars!

Although The Phoenix lander accomplished its mission of finding ice on Mars, that hasn't stopped scientists from looking elsewhere on the martian planet. Obviously the best way to search for ice across vast distances would be taking photographs from orbit, as opposed to having a lander physically travel places. So, using just such a tool, called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), scientists began scouring the surface of Mars for more signs of ice. And fortunately for them, it became quite clear that ice could be found elsewhere on the planet.

Due to its' lack of atmosphere, Mars often has meteorite impacts, which leave craters along its' surface often exposing things hidden under the martian dust. So while searching for these impact craters scientists were able observe new ice found just below the martian surface. What's so special about this ice you ask? Well this ice is pure water, whereas ice found on the surface, as to opposed under it, is usually a half dust/half water mixture. After examining these photos, scientists theorized that Mars once had an ice age much like ours, where the planet was engulfed in an eternal winter. If this theory is true, it further widens the mystery that is Mars' history. Who knows, maybe there's some ancient animal frozen within these ice craters.

-Conor Stenerson

UPDATE:

To answer some of the questions: As awesome as finding pure ice on Mars is, it still leaves the chance for life on the planet at a marginal percentage. Currently, NASA defines that the conditions needed for life are a source of organic molecules, liquid medium, and an energy source; Mars lacks a liquid medium. So unfortunately, either Mars once had liquid water, opening the possibility for fossilized life, or if we're lucky there are still some liquid water deposits underground containing basic martian microbes or if we're REALLY lucky a complex organism.

Prosmiscuous Turtles!

A recent study conducted at the University of Minnesota and published in the Journal of Herpetology showed that multiple paternity is common among Blandings Turtles. Multiple paternity is when more than one male has fathered a baby, or in this case, one female mates with multiple fathers to produce a litter. Adult females were captured and tissue samples were obtained from each, along with gluing a radio transmitter to each. For two years, the turtles were monitored and their nests were marked and protected. When the hatchlings hatched, a tissue sample was obtained from each and they were released back to the wild. DNA tests were run on all the hatchlings, and the results of the testing showed that the majority of the clutches showed evidence of multiple paternity.

Blandings turtles occur in the northern US and in Southern Canada and populations are declining as a result of habitat alternation and fragmentation. In some states and provinces, they are considered endangered or threatened. For recovery efforts to be affective, a clear understanding of the species mating system is necessary. This goes especially for turtles due to the fact that for many relief efforts to try and stabilize a turtle population, means that they have to help bring up the reproductive success. this is done by artificial egg incubation and the headstart of hatchlings (where turtle hatchlings are raised in captivity and then released into the wild when they are big enough not to be threatened by most predators). By understanding the genetic mating system of a species, it makes it easier to infer about the social mating system of a species. By knowing the mating system, the ecological requirements of a species, mainly pertaining to successful reproduction can be better understood, and conservation efforts can be better tailored to successfully help an endangered population. Hopefully, with this knew study, better conservation efforts can be taken into helping the Blandings Turtle. Who knew that knowing about a turtle's sex life could help it's survival!

- Maura Mulvey (Group C)

'Want to Stop Malaria? Target the Geezers'

A new paper suggests that the current strategy for killing mosquitoes carrying malaria that has been used for the past fifty years may be less efficient than previously thought. The way things are done at the moment, mosquitoes are killed quickly while they are young in order to prevent the spread of malaria, but recent research has shown that by using types of insecticides that act more slowly, killing older mosquitoes, pesticide resistance may be minimized. The evolution of pesticide resistance is a problem in controlling the spread of the disease because the mosquitoes are able to build up immunities and spread the parasite despite preventative measures.

In areas where spraying takes place, certain gene mutations in mosquito larvae that give even slight resistance are spread quickly due to their usefulness. Pesticides have gradually become ineffective against the spread of malaria due to this buildup of immunities and resistances to them and now pose a growing problem in preventing the disease as the alternative number of pesticides begins to dwindle.

This new research deals with the problem of resistance because insecticides that kill mosquitoes early on in life prevent the act of reproduction altogether, which puts a great deal of pressure on the species to become resistant. Mosquitoes, however, are only able to spread malaria once they are around 10 to 14 days old, so it isn't necessary to put this much selective pressure on them. As long as malaria spread is prevented, the mosquitoes can be killed later in life, and thus be given more of a chance to reproduce without developing resistances. Models presented by the research have shown that the targeting of older mosquitoes would perhaps delay the emergence of pesticide resistance by decades and remain just as effective.

There are plenty of insecticidal candidates for this idea, including a slow-acting fungus, and the use of these in addition to applying them in certain combinations with each other should be extremely effective in preventing resistances for very long periods of time.

EDIT: One issue that was raised in the article was indeed the difficulty in suggesting this new method of mosquito-removal to potential buyers. It would be difficult to explain to a man who paid to have mosquitos killed that they would still be around for a while although malaria would be prevented.

(Nicholas Skvir, Group C)
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/407/2

Donating is not always a good thing

About a year ago I came home and saw a form on the kitchen table. It was an egg donation form that my sister was in the process of filling out. All that I could think about was that movie Loser (2000), with Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari. In that movie, Jason's character warns about cancer that can occur from egg donation. I never knew if it was true or not until I read this article from TIME magazine.

Most women who think seriously about donating and even the ones who already have donated have no idea about long term side effects from this procedure. This is partly to blame on the lack of long term studies being done and the lack of some sort of registry to track donors after the procedure. There have been stories of infertility and even one woman got colon cancer. The infertility would seem more plausible because of the hormone treatments you have to go though to create more mature eggs for extraction, but the colon cancer case is harder to figure out if it really was due to the donation. Of course, this case was swept under the rug in the end.

Some of the short-term effects are ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, ovarian torsion or ruptured ovarian cysts. Most women get a mild or moderate form of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which involves discomfort, bloating or nausea and usually goes away on its own. The more serious form of this affects 100-200 women out of 100,000 and can lead to kidney failure and death.

Many women turn to this because you can get up to $5,000 dollars for 1 donation, and an individual can donate up to 6 times in their life. It's great to get paid, but is it really worth it to cause harm to your own body?

-Katie Cyr (week 8, group B)

Reef Fish and Coral Loss

Between 32% and 72% of reef fish have populations that are decreasing over the past decade. This disappearance is a direct correlation with the disappearance of coral. If this coral continues to disappear reef habitats will continue to deteriorate.

The hard coral provides a foundation for other types of coral. The coral is also a food source and provides safety for reef fish. So scientists became worried when they found out that in 2003 the coral had reduced 80%. the deterioration is from coral diseases, storm damage, pollution and sediments from soil damage.

Analyzed data from 48 studies including peer revised papers, government and university research reports and unpublished data that covered trends on 318 Caribbean coral reefs and 273 species of reef fish over a period of 53 years. Today reef fish populations were constant from 1955-1995, then they plunged about 3% to 6% a year from 1995-2007. The loss of algae eating fish, such as parrot fish and surgeon fish is scary because these fish eat the algae that help the reefs to survive.

The loss of reef fish is said to not be due to over fishing because it is affecting fish that are not fished for and is something bigger that's affecting the entire sea for the past three decades. The loss of fish is 20 years behind the loss of coral but the loss of fish from so many species points to the loss of coral as the cause.

Update: According to the United Nations System-Wide Earth Watch The reefs are deteriorating in all areas where human activity is high, In east Africa, all of continental South Asia, Southeast and East Asia and across the Caribbean coasts. Another thing to add to the deterioration of reefs is the increase of carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere which may decrease calcification rates of corals, coralline algae and coral -algal communities by up to 10-20 percent as carbon dioxide levels double in the next century.
The UNEP Coral Reef unit was established with the divisions of environmental conventions in December 2000, and it is helping to lead international efforts to cave the planets threathned coral reefs. It works with internaitonal partners around the world to increase internaitonal and national and local support for the coral reef conservation and sustainable use.


Samantha DeBiasio (Week 8, Group B)

Scent and Sexual Selection

What makes two people attracted to one another? They answer may seem obvious: they like each other's looks, personality, etc. They are a good fit, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Many would say two people that mesh well together have "good chemistry". You may think this is just a figure of speech, but recent studies have shown that biochemistry and evolution may play a much more significant role in how we choose our mates than we think.

The first example is of pheromones. Pheromones are chemical signals that trigger a response in other members of the same species. Pheromone communication is most well documented in insects, but some plants and vertebrates secrete pheromones as well.
When a woman is ovulating, she produces a pheromone scientists call copulin. When copulin is received by a man, his testosterone levels rise. He then secretes androstenone, a chemical that repels women who are not ovulating. Other nonrelated studies have shown that women display many subtle signs when they are most fertile that are meant to attract mates, like a higher voice pitch.

Reproductive cycles are not the only thing that influence attraction. In a recent study, women were asked to smell the T-shirts of men and rate which ones they found the most attractive. The results showed that women were more attracted to the shirts of men with a different major histocompatability complex (MHC) from them. MHC is a large gene family that plays a major role in immune systems. Humans can unconsciously perceive MHC types via olfaction, and choosing a mate with a different MHC than you will be beneficial to the survival of your offspring.
Interestingly, women who use hormonal contraception did not show the same results. Hormonal contraception tricks your body into thinking it is pregnant, so the biochemical factors at play don't have the same affect.

I learned all this on Oprah, but here are some other interesting articles:
For Gay Men, Different Scent of Attraction
Synthetic Pheromones

UPDATE: 4/10/09
Thanks for all the comments. A lot of you mentioned the use of pheromones in commercial products, and also of the controversy surrounding whether or not humans sense pheromones at all. I could not find a clear answer. To be able to sense pheromones, mammals need what's called a Vomeronasal organ, also called the Jacobson's organ, discovered in 1803. For decades scientists claimed that humans do not have a vomeronasal organ, or if we do, it is functionless. Research done by Dr. Margaret Johns in the 70s suggested that the vomeronasal organ that acted on humans was in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that also produces hormones and regulates appetite, fear, and a variety of other behaviors. Evidence shows that humans do respond to chemical cues, with one example being women whose menstral cycles link up when they work or live together.
Scientists are currently developing synthasized pheromones that could be used for different medical uses, like to treat anxiety, or the symptoms of PMS. As for use in purfumes and colognes, most scientists remain skeptical about their effectiveness.
Another interesting note, the earliest purfumes were made with animal pheromones like musk from deer and castoreum from beavers. These ingredients were meant as preservatives and also to enhance the scent. As far as seduction goes, they may work for beavers but not humans.



Jane de Verges, Week 8
(Group B)

Stick to Your Drinking Schedule

A study done by the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center found that drinking one alcoholic beverage everyday reduces the risk of death in older adults. This was true only when the person drank just one beverage per day. When the amount was increased to three drinks per day, the drinking began to be damaging to one's health. 

The study claims that drinking once per day reduces your risk of death by 28%. Drinking the three drinks daily increased a person's likelihood of death by 11%.  Now it does seem sort of odd to be able to assign percentages for the likelihood of death based on a study like this, but this was one intense study. The San Francisco VA followed more than 12,000 subjects (50 and over) from all walks of life for 4 years. Such a huge sample does legitimize their claims about knowing people's percentage risk of death. 

The most interesting result from this study is that having only a couple drinks per week is neither advantageous nor damaging. So if you know any older adults that already drink a couple times a week, tell them to up the ante to a drink a day, because it just might be beneficial.

-Calin Darabus (B)

Week 8 

Update:

 I originally said "12,000 smokers", when in fact this article has nothing to do with smoking, so I changed that. The source does not say if the study found one sort of beverage to be more beneficial than others, but I would imagine that wine is the best (which is why I picked that picture for this blog). Wine contains anti-oxidants that beer and spirits do not, which would likely make it the preferred drink. However, the study only generalizes it as one "drink" per day, what ever that may be. 

Oceanic Life Causing Harm?

Rising phytoplankton popultions in the Pacific ocean is one of several explanations as to why levels of methylated mercury are on the rise. According to data gathered by U.S. researchers and policy makers, methylated mercury levels have been on the rise at an annual rate of 30%.

Methyl mercury, a human neurotoxin formed when mercury is methylated by microbes can accumulate in tuna as well as in a variety of fish commonly consumed. Although the process of how mercury is methylated is known, it is unclear how such large amounts are appearing in oceans. It is estimated that as much as 29% of all subsurface mercury is methylated.

It was once thought that methylated mercury came from rivers and streams which terminated at oceans, or even mercury in the atmosphere. Additional explanations, as to how this is occurring include excess amounts of organic carbon from phytoplankton providing surfaces where microbes can methylate mercury. Warmer climate changes in certain zones due to global warming may be the cause of a phytoplankton and fish population increase, which in turn produce more organic carbon. Like many problems regarding oceanic life today, the delicate balance between terrestrial and atmospheric activity is greatly impacting marine biological interactions.

-Julio Rodriguez (group c)


Update:
Methyltaed mercury levels as small as 3 µg/kg may have toxic effects on humans. Methylated mercury is converted into inorganic mercury in the liver and kidneys but also targets the brain and the rest of the CNS.

Symptoms of methyl mercury poisoning, due to high levels of the accumulated toxin, are impaierd motor, cognitive and other functions controlled by the CNS. Also, inhaling methyl mercury can be as toxic as ingesting it.

I am not sure that amounts of methyl mercury accumulated in fish is related to the ability to intake the toxin. It may be that certain fish are in a section of the ocean that has high levels of methyl mercury and then considered more dangerous than others.