First of all, sorry about the lack of update yesterday. I decided to spend some time with the family, and it just got too late.
Evolution:
Discovery Of Elephants' Oldest Known Relative. Emmanuel Gheerbrant, paleontologist at the Paris Museum (1), discovered one of the oldest modern ungulates related to the elephant order. The beginnings of the radiation (diversification) of the modern mammals (placental orders) remain poorly known because of fossil gaps, and especially in some key Southern continents such as Africa. Emmanuel Gheerbrant, researcher at the CNRS (2), reports(3) the discovery of one of the oldest known modern ungulates in Paleocene beds from Morocco. Dated to about 60 millions years ago, this fossil mammal belongs to a new species called Eritherium azzouzorum. It comes from the same Ouled Abdoun phosphate basin which yielded Phosphatherium escuilliei (4), which was until the Eritherium's discovery the oldest and most primitive proboscidean found. This is the oldest known African ungulate (called paenungulates), and among them the oldest known member of the elephant order (proboscideans) (5).
This seems like a repeat, but the dateline on it is today: Parasites May Have Had Role In Evolution Of Sex. What's so great about sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as one might think. An article published in the July issue of the American Naturalist suggests that sex may have evolved in part as a defense against parasites. Despite its central role in biology, sex is a bit of an evolutionary mystery. Reproducing without sex—like microbes, some plants and even a few reptiles—would seem like a better way to go. Every individual in an asexual species has the ability to reproduce on its own. But in sexual species, two individuals have to combine in order to reproduce one offspring. That gives each generation of asexuals twice the reproductive capacity of sexuals. Why then is sex the dominant strategy when the do-it-yourself approach is so much more efficient?
Ongoing evolution you say? Rodent Size Linked To Human Population And Climate Change. You probably hadn't noticed -- but the head shape and overall size of rodents has been changing over the past century. A University of Illinois at Chicago ecologist has tied these changes to human population density and climate change. The finding is reported by Oliver Pergams, UIC research assistant professor of biological sciences, in the July 31 issue of PLoS One. Pergams said that such size-and-shape changes in mammals, occurring around the world in less than a century, are quite substantial.
Vaccines:
So, do you think this would be possible without all that stuff we learn by knowing EVOLUTION: Scientists Decoding Genomic Sequences Of H1N1 Using Isolates From Outbreak In Argentina. Researchers at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health are working with Argentina's National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institutes (ANLIS), and Roche 454 Life Sciences to decode the complete genomic sequences of influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus from patients with severe respiratory disease. The scientists will be comparing sequences of viruses associated with the current outbreak in Argentina with those found in other locations to determine if there are differences that may be linked to higher mortality rates or provide insights into virus evolution.
College Students Who Feel 'Invincible' Unlikely To Accept STD Vaccines. Vaccines to protect against sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and herpes, are being developed and may soon be available to college students. However, limited research has been conducted to determine if students will accept the vaccines once they are available. In a new study, a University of Missouri researcher has found that students who feel invulnerable, or invincible, to physical harm are unlikely to get an HIV vaccine. Alternately, students who feel invulnerable to psychological harm are more likely to get the vaccine.
Autism:
Will fear of autism keep swine flu vaccinations down? Despite all the actual evidence that should calm those irrational fears? The frustrated and callous part of my mind would say good riddance to that populations, but sadly it's generally not the irresponsible adults that pay the price, but rather the children and those around the irresponsible adult.
Here is an interesting article on "Learning from Aspergers". Since this is my daughter's diagnosis, I could really relate!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Today in the News (29 Jul 09)
Evolution:
Did an ice age boost human brain size? It is one of the biggest mysteries in human evolution. Why did we humans evolve such big brains, making us the unrivaled rulers of the world? Some 2.5 million years ago, our ancestors' brains expanded from a mere 600 cubic centimetres to about a litre. Two new studies suggest it is no fluke that this brain boom coincided with the onset of an ice age. Cooler heads, it seems, allowed ancient human brains to let off steam and grow.
First Vertebrate To Live In Trees Described. In the Late Paleozoic (260 million years ago), long before dinosaurs dominated the Earth, ancient precursors to mammals took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land, Jörg Fröbisch, PhD, a Field Museum paleontologist has concluded. Elongated fingers, an opposable "thumb," and a grasping tail of Suminia getmanovi demonstrate that this small plant-eating synapsid is the earliest known tree-climbing vertebrate. Suminia was relatively small, about 20 inches from its nose to the tip of its tail. The tree-climbing lifestyle of this Paleozoic relative of mammals is particularly important because for the first time in vertebrate evolution it gives access to new food resources high off the ground, and also provides protection from ground-dwelling predators. The evidence for this lifestyle is based on several excellent skulls and more than a dozen exceptionally well preserved, complete skeletons from a single large block of red mudstone that was discovered in central Russia's Kirov region.
Naming Evolution's Winners And Losers. Mammals and many species of birds and fish are among evolution's "winners," while crocodiles, alligators and a reptile cousin of snakes known as the tuatara are among the losers, according to new research by UCLA scientists and colleagues. "Our results indicate that mammals are special," said Michael Alfaro, a UCLA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and lead author of the research.Vaccines:
First Genetically-engineered Malaria Vaccine To Enter Human Trials. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have created a weakened strain of the malaria parasite that will be used as a live vaccine against the disease. The vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers from the US, Japan and Canada, will be trialled in humans from early next year. Malaria kills more than one million people each year and destroys – through premature death and disability – the equivalent of at least 35 million years of healthy, productive human life every year.
I am including this story, even though it's not directly about the vaccine because it's some interesting information. Also because it's one of those onfusing articles that peole latch on to, and in the end you'll hear all sorts of crazy stuff about this study that don't even resemble the results they published here. Low Prevalence Of HPV Infection May Be Tied To Poor Prognosis For Blacks With Head And Neck Cancer. Researchers at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer have found that head and neck cancer patients who test positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) have much better survival rates than patients who don't have the virus, according to a new study in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. The researchers also discovered that blacks in the study had a very low rate of HPV infection, and consequently worse survival, which may explain why African-American patients traditionally have had a poor prognosis for head and neck cancer. "For the first time, we have evidence that the major difference in survival between black and white patients with head and neck cancer appears to be the rate of HPV infection. We found an astounding difference in prognosis between patients who are HPV-positive and those who are HPV-negative," says the study's senior author, Kevin J. Cullen, M.D., director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Autism:
In the field of Autism, I have not found anything really new or news worthy to report today. Although, I did notice something incredibly disturbing, and sad. Many of the "suggested" links on my search involved stem cell treatments for autism. While I am hopeful that one day we'll have a cure for autism, we DON'T yet. And people attempting to fleece the gullible with these treatments are probably doing a lot more harm than anything. Please, actually think about what you may be doing to your child before succumbing to the latest fads like unproven stem cell treatments and not vaccinating your kids. You are only putting your child and everyone else in danger.
Did an ice age boost human brain size? It is one of the biggest mysteries in human evolution. Why did we humans evolve such big brains, making us the unrivaled rulers of the world? Some 2.5 million years ago, our ancestors' brains expanded from a mere 600 cubic centimetres to about a litre. Two new studies suggest it is no fluke that this brain boom coincided with the onset of an ice age. Cooler heads, it seems, allowed ancient human brains to let off steam and grow.
First Vertebrate To Live In Trees Described. In the Late Paleozoic (260 million years ago), long before dinosaurs dominated the Earth, ancient precursors to mammals took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land, Jörg Fröbisch, PhD, a Field Museum paleontologist has concluded. Elongated fingers, an opposable "thumb," and a grasping tail of Suminia getmanovi demonstrate that this small plant-eating synapsid is the earliest known tree-climbing vertebrate. Suminia was relatively small, about 20 inches from its nose to the tip of its tail. The tree-climbing lifestyle of this Paleozoic relative of mammals is particularly important because for the first time in vertebrate evolution it gives access to new food resources high off the ground, and also provides protection from ground-dwelling predators. The evidence for this lifestyle is based on several excellent skulls and more than a dozen exceptionally well preserved, complete skeletons from a single large block of red mudstone that was discovered in central Russia's Kirov region.
Naming Evolution's Winners And Losers. Mammals and many species of birds and fish are among evolution's "winners," while crocodiles, alligators and a reptile cousin of snakes known as the tuatara are among the losers, according to new research by UCLA scientists and colleagues. "Our results indicate that mammals are special," said Michael Alfaro, a UCLA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and lead author of the research.Vaccines:
First Genetically-engineered Malaria Vaccine To Enter Human Trials. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have created a weakened strain of the malaria parasite that will be used as a live vaccine against the disease. The vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers from the US, Japan and Canada, will be trialled in humans from early next year. Malaria kills more than one million people each year and destroys – through premature death and disability – the equivalent of at least 35 million years of healthy, productive human life every year.
I am including this story, even though it's not directly about the vaccine because it's some interesting information. Also because it's one of those onfusing articles that peole latch on to, and in the end you'll hear all sorts of crazy stuff about this study that don't even resemble the results they published here. Low Prevalence Of HPV Infection May Be Tied To Poor Prognosis For Blacks With Head And Neck Cancer. Researchers at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer have found that head and neck cancer patients who test positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) have much better survival rates than patients who don't have the virus, according to a new study in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. The researchers also discovered that blacks in the study had a very low rate of HPV infection, and consequently worse survival, which may explain why African-American patients traditionally have had a poor prognosis for head and neck cancer. "For the first time, we have evidence that the major difference in survival between black and white patients with head and neck cancer appears to be the rate of HPV infection. We found an astounding difference in prognosis between patients who are HPV-positive and those who are HPV-negative," says the study's senior author, Kevin J. Cullen, M.D., director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Autism:
In the field of Autism, I have not found anything really new or news worthy to report today. Although, I did notice something incredibly disturbing, and sad. Many of the "suggested" links on my search involved stem cell treatments for autism. While I am hopeful that one day we'll have a cure for autism, we DON'T yet. And people attempting to fleece the gullible with these treatments are probably doing a lot more harm than anything. Please, actually think about what you may be doing to your child before succumbing to the latest fads like unproven stem cell treatments and not vaccinating your kids. You are only putting your child and everyone else in danger.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Today in the News (28 Jul 09)
Evolution:
Human Population Expanded During Late Stone Age. Genetic evidence is revealing that human populations began to expand in size in Africa during the Late Stone Age approximately 40,000 years ago. A research team led by Michael F. Hammer (Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona) found that sub-Saharan populations increased in size well before the development of agriculture. This research supports the hypothesis that population growth played a significant role in the evolution of human cultures in the Late Pleistocene.
Earliest Animals Lived In A Lake Environment, Research Shows. Evidence for life on Earth stretches back billions of years, with simple single-celled organisms like bacteria dominating the record. When multi-celled animal life appeared on the planet after 3 billion years of single cell organisms, animals diversified rapidly. Conventional wisdom has it that animal evolution began in the ocean, with animal life adapting much later in Earth history to terrestrial environments.
Vaccines:
Cancer Vaccines Led To Long-term Survival For Patients With Metastatic Melanoma. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has announced promising data from a clinical study showing patient-specific cancer vaccines derived from patients' own cancer cells and immune cells were well tolerated and resulted in impressive long-term survival rates in patients with metastatic melanoma whose disease had been minimized by other therapies. "There is continued interest in developing new therapies for melanoma patients with recurrent or distant metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis because there are no systemic therapies that can be relied upon to cure them," said Robert O. Dillman, M.D., F.A.C.P., executive medical and scientific director at the Hoag Cancer Center and lead investigator for the study. "Patients with metastatic melanoma are at high risk for additional metastases and death."
Vi Typhoid Vaccine Proves Highly Effective In Young Children, Study Suggests. A new study has found that a currently available yet underused vaccine against typhoid fever is highly effective in young children and protects unvaccinated neighbors of vaccinees. The study, conducted by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in collaboration with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata, India, was published in the July 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The IVI, based in Seoul, Korea, is a non-profit international organization devoted exclusively to development and deployment of new vaccines primarily for people in developing countries.
Autism:
I am skeptical of this report about breast milk causing autism, HOWEVER, I want to see what the anti-vax pro-disease nutters do with this info. I wonder if they will latch on to this like they did to things that have actually been tested and shown conclusively not to have a link? I doubt it!
Also, again leaning towards some sort of genetic link, there are changes in the genome even as a male ages, so this article would lend the conclusion that autism is genetic more than anything else. I would say this is inconclusive at best, but merits more study. Although, with as weak as the media is in even understanding basic science, I doubt that will really come out in any coverage.
Human Population Expanded During Late Stone Age. Genetic evidence is revealing that human populations began to expand in size in Africa during the Late Stone Age approximately 40,000 years ago. A research team led by Michael F. Hammer (Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona) found that sub-Saharan populations increased in size well before the development of agriculture. This research supports the hypothesis that population growth played a significant role in the evolution of human cultures in the Late Pleistocene.
Earliest Animals Lived In A Lake Environment, Research Shows. Evidence for life on Earth stretches back billions of years, with simple single-celled organisms like bacteria dominating the record. When multi-celled animal life appeared on the planet after 3 billion years of single cell organisms, animals diversified rapidly. Conventional wisdom has it that animal evolution began in the ocean, with animal life adapting much later in Earth history to terrestrial environments.
Vaccines:
Cancer Vaccines Led To Long-term Survival For Patients With Metastatic Melanoma. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has announced promising data from a clinical study showing patient-specific cancer vaccines derived from patients' own cancer cells and immune cells were well tolerated and resulted in impressive long-term survival rates in patients with metastatic melanoma whose disease had been minimized by other therapies. "There is continued interest in developing new therapies for melanoma patients with recurrent or distant metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis because there are no systemic therapies that can be relied upon to cure them," said Robert O. Dillman, M.D., F.A.C.P., executive medical and scientific director at the Hoag Cancer Center and lead investigator for the study. "Patients with metastatic melanoma are at high risk for additional metastases and death."
Vi Typhoid Vaccine Proves Highly Effective In Young Children, Study Suggests. A new study has found that a currently available yet underused vaccine against typhoid fever is highly effective in young children and protects unvaccinated neighbors of vaccinees. The study, conducted by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in collaboration with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata, India, was published in the July 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The IVI, based in Seoul, Korea, is a non-profit international organization devoted exclusively to development and deployment of new vaccines primarily for people in developing countries.
Autism:
I am skeptical of this report about breast milk causing autism, HOWEVER, I want to see what the anti-vax pro-disease nutters do with this info. I wonder if they will latch on to this like they did to things that have actually been tested and shown conclusively not to have a link? I doubt it!
Also, again leaning towards some sort of genetic link, there are changes in the genome even as a male ages, so this article would lend the conclusion that autism is genetic more than anything else. I would say this is inconclusive at best, but merits more study. Although, with as weak as the media is in even understanding basic science, I doubt that will really come out in any coverage.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Today in the News (27 Jul 09)
Evolution:
After Dinosaurs, Mammals Rise But Their Genomes Get Smaller. Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals and plants strongly suggests only one group -- mammals -- have seen their genomes shrink after the dinosaurs' extinction. What's more, that trend continues today, say Indiana University Bloomington scientists in the first issue of a new journal, Genome Biology and Evolution. The scientists' finding might seem counter-intuitive, given that the last 65 million years have seen mammals expand in diversity and number, not to mention dominance in a wide variety of ecological roles. But it is precisely their success in numbers that could have led to the contraction of their genomes.
When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age? The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago. A number of stone artefacts as well as human and animal bones from excavations, spread over more than 100 years, shed further light on the nature as well as the timing of people to the cave.
Vaccines:
The government in the United States is hoping to avoid the mistakes of the 1970s with the swine flu, and are looking for as many volunteers as possible for clinical trials. What is interesting is that there seems to be no shortage of volunteers. The thing that tickles my irony bone though is that the flu vaccines is one of the few that may actually contain Thimerosal!
Although, with the WHO saying that H1N1 is "unstoppable" may have lent some urgency to trials. Of course, I foresee that there WILL be complications from this reactive strategy of the world. Sure, they won't be autism, but facts like that won't stop the anti-vax pro-disease crowd from furthering their agenda and spreading their lies.
Autism:
And in the ever more confusing world of medical studies, the idea of autistic children having digestive disorders is running into some contrary evidence. Unlike the studies attempting to link autism to vaccines (ALL properly conducted studies found NO such link), these studies are a bit harder to control. There may be more to the issues at hand here, just because of the numerous types of disorders classified as autism, the wide variance in people's diets, and even something as simple as physiological makeup. Not an open and shut case here, so it should merit more studies.
Sorry this is an older story, but I just found it by accident. Studies have also begun to show that there are physical and behavioral signs of autism much earlier than had been known before, another reason to doubt the possibility of a link between autism and vaccines. The reason I linked that article is because it links to WebMD's page on "What causes Autism?" Here is their reply:
After Dinosaurs, Mammals Rise But Their Genomes Get Smaller. Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals and plants strongly suggests only one group -- mammals -- have seen their genomes shrink after the dinosaurs' extinction. What's more, that trend continues today, say Indiana University Bloomington scientists in the first issue of a new journal, Genome Biology and Evolution. The scientists' finding might seem counter-intuitive, given that the last 65 million years have seen mammals expand in diversity and number, not to mention dominance in a wide variety of ecological roles. But it is precisely their success in numbers that could have led to the contraction of their genomes.
When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age? The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago. A number of stone artefacts as well as human and animal bones from excavations, spread over more than 100 years, shed further light on the nature as well as the timing of people to the cave.
Vaccines:
The government in the United States is hoping to avoid the mistakes of the 1970s with the swine flu, and are looking for as many volunteers as possible for clinical trials. What is interesting is that there seems to be no shortage of volunteers. The thing that tickles my irony bone though is that the flu vaccines is one of the few that may actually contain Thimerosal!
Although, with the WHO saying that H1N1 is "unstoppable" may have lent some urgency to trials. Of course, I foresee that there WILL be complications from this reactive strategy of the world. Sure, they won't be autism, but facts like that won't stop the anti-vax pro-disease crowd from furthering their agenda and spreading their lies.
Autism:
And in the ever more confusing world of medical studies, the idea of autistic children having digestive disorders is running into some contrary evidence. Unlike the studies attempting to link autism to vaccines (ALL properly conducted studies found NO such link), these studies are a bit harder to control. There may be more to the issues at hand here, just because of the numerous types of disorders classified as autism, the wide variance in people's diets, and even something as simple as physiological makeup. Not an open and shut case here, so it should merit more studies.
Sorry this is an older story, but I just found it by accident. Studies have also begun to show that there are physical and behavioral signs of autism much earlier than had been known before, another reason to doubt the possibility of a link between autism and vaccines. The reason I linked that article is because it links to WebMD's page on "What causes Autism?" Here is their reply:
What causes autism?
Autism tends to run in families, so experts think it may be something that you inherit. Scientists are trying to find out exactly which genes may be responsible for passing down autism in families.Other studies are looking at whether autism can be caused by other medical problems or by something in your child’s surroundings.
Some people think that childhood vaccines cause autism, especially the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine. But studies have not shown this to be true. It’s important to make sure that your child gets all childhood vaccines. They help keep your child from getting serious diseases that can cause harm or even death.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Today in the News (24 Jul 09)
Fast one tonight. Got some work that I have to get to on other projects.
Evolution:
If you are confused as to why animals of the same species sometimes look very different from each other, biologists in England have an answer. Writing in the latest issue of Evolution, University of York experts have used the term ‘exuberant polymorphisms’ for this natural phenomenon. They also say that they have developed computer models that may help explain how this level of variation arises and persists.
I almost hesitate to put this article up, because IDiots will say that it shows people don't believe in evolution... Sadly they miss the point that all the discussions support evolution, they are just discussing the mechanisms and how we originally thought about it. But it was an interesting read none the less.
Vaccines:
Halting A Pandemic: NIH Mounts Search For A H1N1 Vaccine. Bracing for an outbreak of 2009 H1N1 (swine-origin) flu that a Saint Louis University infectious diseases expert estimates could sicken one in five people this fall, scientists at eight Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are launching a series of clinical trials this summer to test vaccines to protect against the illness. “Efforts to find an effective vaccine against H1N1 influenza are historic,” said Sharon Frey, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and lead investigator for one of the national research studies.Yep, Swine Flu is still the thing that everyone is talking about with vaccines. Can't seem to get away from it, so here is another article about vaccinating.
Autism:
First on the good news; autism is receiving more funding for research. But pay attention to what Mandell says. "Now every study we have done, suggests that there is no association between vaccines, which is the big environmental thing that people are worried about, and autism. what we are looking at is probably some gene environment interaction." Again, EVERY study says that, so will the nutters lay off? Probably not, and more babies will die as a result.
I found this article that links milk with autism! My baloney detection kit is tingling on this one a bit. I think some conclusions are over stated and deserve more research. Also, note the source of this article. I think the writers themselves may be overstating things to their agenda. However, keep in mind that lactose tolerance is a very recent human evolutionary change (within the past 8000 years), so I'm not going to discard this as nuttery.
Evolution:
If you are confused as to why animals of the same species sometimes look very different from each other, biologists in England have an answer. Writing in the latest issue of Evolution, University of York experts have used the term ‘exuberant polymorphisms’ for this natural phenomenon. They also say that they have developed computer models that may help explain how this level of variation arises and persists.
I almost hesitate to put this article up, because IDiots will say that it shows people don't believe in evolution... Sadly they miss the point that all the discussions support evolution, they are just discussing the mechanisms and how we originally thought about it. But it was an interesting read none the less.
Vaccines:
Halting A Pandemic: NIH Mounts Search For A H1N1 Vaccine. Bracing for an outbreak of 2009 H1N1 (swine-origin) flu that a Saint Louis University infectious diseases expert estimates could sicken one in five people this fall, scientists at eight Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are launching a series of clinical trials this summer to test vaccines to protect against the illness. “Efforts to find an effective vaccine against H1N1 influenza are historic,” said Sharon Frey, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and lead investigator for one of the national research studies.Yep, Swine Flu is still the thing that everyone is talking about with vaccines. Can't seem to get away from it, so here is another article about vaccinating.
Autism:
First on the good news; autism is receiving more funding for research. But pay attention to what Mandell says. "Now every study we have done, suggests that there is no association between vaccines, which is the big environmental thing that people are worried about, and autism. what we are looking at is probably some gene environment interaction." Again, EVERY study says that, so will the nutters lay off? Probably not, and more babies will die as a result.
I found this article that links milk with autism! My baloney detection kit is tingling on this one a bit. I think some conclusions are over stated and deserve more research. Also, note the source of this article. I think the writers themselves may be overstating things to their agenda. However, keep in mind that lactose tolerance is a very recent human evolutionary change (within the past 8000 years), so I'm not going to discard this as nuttery.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Today in the News (23 Jul 09)
Sorry about not having any updates for the past couple of days. I was stuck in airports and without access to the internet at those locations. Hopefully that won't happen too often, but over the next month or two, I will be involved in a lot of travel and such, so please don't think I have dropped off the face of the earth.
Evolution:
New Discovery Suggests Trees Evolved Camouflage Defense Against Long Extinct Predator. Many animal species such as snakes, insects and fish have evolved camouflage defences to deter attack from their predators. However research published in New Phytologist has discovered that trees in New Zealand have evolved a similar defence to protect themselves from extinct giant birds, providing the first evidence of this strategy in plant life. "Plants are attacked by a bewildering array of herbivores and in response they have evolved a variety of defences to deter predators such as thorns and noxious chemicals," said lead researcher Dr Kevin Burns from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. "In contrast animals often use colours to hide from predators or advertise defences, but until now there has been little evidence of colour based defences in plants."
Australian Aborigines Initially Arrived Via South Asia. Genetic research indicates that Australian Aborigines initially arrived via south Asia. Researchers have found telltale mutations in modern-day Indian populations that are exclusively shared by Aborigines. Dr Raghavendra Rao worked with a team of researchers from the Anthropological Survey of India to sequence 966 complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from Indian 'relic populations'. He said, "Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother and so allows us to accurately trace ancestry. We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes we sampled that are specific to Australian Aborigines. This shared ancestry suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called 'Southern Route'".
New 'Molecular Clock' Aids Dating Of Human Migration History. Researchers at the University of Leeds have devised a more accurate method of dating ancient human migration – even when no corroborating archaeological evidence exists. Estimating the chronology of population migrations throughout mankind's early history has always been problematic. The most widely used genetic method works back to find the last common ancestor of any particular set of lineages using samples of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but this method has recently been shown to be unreliable, throwing 20 years of research into doubt.Vaccines:
'Single-Shot' Vaccines May Protect Against H5N1 Influenza Virus. Two newly developed "single-shot" H5N1 influenza vaccines protected ferrets against lethal infection with the H5N1 influenza virus and may allow for mass vaccination in humans in the event of a pandemic outbreak. As the highly infectious H5N1 influenza A virus continues to persist in bird populations and infect humans through poultry, concerns of a pandemic outbreak remain high. Although human-to-human transmission has remained limited, the fatality rate among those reported human cases is greater than 60%. The threat that the virus will mutate and achieve efficient human-to-human spread emphasizes the need for effective preventative therapies.
Vaccine Blocks Malaria Transmission In Lab Experiments. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have for the first time produced a malarial protein (Pfs48/45) in the proper conformation and quantity to generate a significant immune response in mice and non-human primates for use in a potential transmission-blocking vaccine. Antibodies induced by Pfs48/45 protein vaccine effectively blocked the sexual development of the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium, as it grows within the mosquito. Sexual development is a critical step in the parasite’s life cycle and necessary for continued transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans. “Development of a successful transmission-blocking vaccine is an essential step in efforts to control the global spread of malaria. In our study, we demonstrate the relative ease of expression and induction of potent transmission-blocking antibodies in mice and non-human primates. This approach provides a compelling rationale and basis for testing a transmission-blocking vaccine in humans,” said Nirbhay Kumar, PhD, senior author of the study and professor in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
Autism:
Genetic Marker Linked To Problem Behaviors In Adults With Developmental Disabilities. A common variation of the gene involved in regulating serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain may be linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, new research indicates. The findings were published in the July 2009 issue of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
The Sounds Of Learning: Studying The Impact Of Music On Children With Autism. In June 2009, researchers reported that archaeologists in Germany had discovered a 35,000-year-old flute made of bird bone. It represented, one newspaper said, "the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture." And we have been tapping our toes, humming along, singing and dancing ever since. The power of music affects all of us and has long appealed to our emotions. It is for this reason that UCLA researchers are using music to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), for whom understanding emotions is a very difficult task. This inability robs them of the chance to communicate effectively and make friends and can often lead to social isolation and loneliness.
Evolution:
New Discovery Suggests Trees Evolved Camouflage Defense Against Long Extinct Predator. Many animal species such as snakes, insects and fish have evolved camouflage defences to deter attack from their predators. However research published in New Phytologist has discovered that trees in New Zealand have evolved a similar defence to protect themselves from extinct giant birds, providing the first evidence of this strategy in plant life. "Plants are attacked by a bewildering array of herbivores and in response they have evolved a variety of defences to deter predators such as thorns and noxious chemicals," said lead researcher Dr Kevin Burns from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. "In contrast animals often use colours to hide from predators or advertise defences, but until now there has been little evidence of colour based defences in plants."
Australian Aborigines Initially Arrived Via South Asia. Genetic research indicates that Australian Aborigines initially arrived via south Asia. Researchers have found telltale mutations in modern-day Indian populations that are exclusively shared by Aborigines. Dr Raghavendra Rao worked with a team of researchers from the Anthropological Survey of India to sequence 966 complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from Indian 'relic populations'. He said, "Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother and so allows us to accurately trace ancestry. We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes we sampled that are specific to Australian Aborigines. This shared ancestry suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called 'Southern Route'".
New 'Molecular Clock' Aids Dating Of Human Migration History. Researchers at the University of Leeds have devised a more accurate method of dating ancient human migration – even when no corroborating archaeological evidence exists. Estimating the chronology of population migrations throughout mankind's early history has always been problematic. The most widely used genetic method works back to find the last common ancestor of any particular set of lineages using samples of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but this method has recently been shown to be unreliable, throwing 20 years of research into doubt.Vaccines:
'Single-Shot' Vaccines May Protect Against H5N1 Influenza Virus. Two newly developed "single-shot" H5N1 influenza vaccines protected ferrets against lethal infection with the H5N1 influenza virus and may allow for mass vaccination in humans in the event of a pandemic outbreak. As the highly infectious H5N1 influenza A virus continues to persist in bird populations and infect humans through poultry, concerns of a pandemic outbreak remain high. Although human-to-human transmission has remained limited, the fatality rate among those reported human cases is greater than 60%. The threat that the virus will mutate and achieve efficient human-to-human spread emphasizes the need for effective preventative therapies.
Vaccine Blocks Malaria Transmission In Lab Experiments. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have for the first time produced a malarial protein (Pfs48/45) in the proper conformation and quantity to generate a significant immune response in mice and non-human primates for use in a potential transmission-blocking vaccine. Antibodies induced by Pfs48/45 protein vaccine effectively blocked the sexual development of the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium, as it grows within the mosquito. Sexual development is a critical step in the parasite’s life cycle and necessary for continued transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans. “Development of a successful transmission-blocking vaccine is an essential step in efforts to control the global spread of malaria. In our study, we demonstrate the relative ease of expression and induction of potent transmission-blocking antibodies in mice and non-human primates. This approach provides a compelling rationale and basis for testing a transmission-blocking vaccine in humans,” said Nirbhay Kumar, PhD, senior author of the study and professor in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
Autism:
Genetic Marker Linked To Problem Behaviors In Adults With Developmental Disabilities. A common variation of the gene involved in regulating serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain may be linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, new research indicates. The findings were published in the July 2009 issue of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
"Problem behaviors in these populations account for billions of dollars in intervention costs each year, but nearly all of these interventions occur after the fact," Craig Kennedy, a co-author of the study and professor of special education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of education and human development, said. "This research suggests one way we might predict which individuals are at risk of being aggressive and destructive and provide treatment before problems occur."
The Sounds Of Learning: Studying The Impact Of Music On Children With Autism. In June 2009, researchers reported that archaeologists in Germany had discovered a 35,000-year-old flute made of bird bone. It represented, one newspaper said, "the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture." And we have been tapping our toes, humming along, singing and dancing ever since. The power of music affects all of us and has long appealed to our emotions. It is for this reason that UCLA researchers are using music to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), for whom understanding emotions is a very difficult task. This inability robs them of the chance to communicate effectively and make friends and can often lead to social isolation and loneliness.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Today in the News (20 Jul 09)
Today is the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. It is my first vivid memory, and I know that in no way is this blog a place for that discussion. However, that one event was a watershed moment in human history, and no blog dedicated to any arm of science can not give simple homage to that event. It's amazing what the proper application of real science can do! Sadly, pseudo-science, lies, and fabrications are apparently much easier, and that's what people gravitate to instead. I can only hope this simple blog eventually steers people towards a journey based in reality!
Evolution:
How Evolution Can Allow For Large Developmental Leaps. How evolution acts to bridge the chasm between two discrete physiological states is a question that's long puzzled scientists. Most evolutionary changes, after all, happen in tiny increments: an elephant grows a little larger, a giraffe's neck a little longer. If those tiny changes prove advantageous, there's a better chance of passing them to the next generation, which might then add its own mutations. And so on, and so on, until you have a huge pachyderm or the characteristic stretched neck of a giraffe. But when it comes to traits like the number of wings on an insect, or limbs on a primate, there is no middle ground. How are these sorts of large evolutionary leaps made?
Global Model For The Origin Of Species Independent Of Geographical Isolation. The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory. The first requires a physical barrier such as a glacier, mountain or body of water to separate organisms enabling groups to diverge until they become separate species. In the second, an environment favors specific characteristics within a species, which encourages divergence as members fill different roles in an ecosystem.
Vaccines:
Insights Into Failed HIV-1 Vaccine Trial. Following the disbandment of the STEP trial to test the efficacy of the Merck HIV-1 vaccine candidate in 2007, the leading explanation for why the vaccine was ineffective – and may have even increased susceptibility to acquiring the virus – centered on the hypothesis that high levels of baseline Ad5-specific neutralizing antibodies may have increased HIV-1 acquisition among the study subjects who received the vaccine by increasing Ad5-specific CD4+ T-cells that were susceptible to HIV-1 infection. Now, a study by Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, and a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), reported in the July 20 Advance Online issue of Nature Medicine, shows this was likely not the case.
South Africa launches AIDS vaccine clinical trials. South Africa announced the launch of clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccines created by a developing country with assistance from the U.S. on Monday. It represented a feat by scientists who overcame skepticism from colleagues and from some political leaders who shocked the world with unscientific pronouncements about the disease. "It has been a very, very hard journey," lead scientist Professor Anna-Lise Williamson of the University of Cape Town said at Monday's ceremony, attended by American health officials who gave technical help and manufactured the vaccine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Autism:
NIH Issues Research Plan on Fragile X Syndrome and Associated Disorders. The National Institutes of Health has developed a research plan to advance the understanding of fragile X syndrome and its associated conditions, fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome and fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency. Fragile X syndrome causes intellectual and developmental disabilities and results from a mutation in a gene on the X chromosome.
Evolution:
How Evolution Can Allow For Large Developmental Leaps. How evolution acts to bridge the chasm between two discrete physiological states is a question that's long puzzled scientists. Most evolutionary changes, after all, happen in tiny increments: an elephant grows a little larger, a giraffe's neck a little longer. If those tiny changes prove advantageous, there's a better chance of passing them to the next generation, which might then add its own mutations. And so on, and so on, until you have a huge pachyderm or the characteristic stretched neck of a giraffe. But when it comes to traits like the number of wings on an insect, or limbs on a primate, there is no middle ground. How are these sorts of large evolutionary leaps made?
Global Model For The Origin Of Species Independent Of Geographical Isolation. The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory. The first requires a physical barrier such as a glacier, mountain or body of water to separate organisms enabling groups to diverge until they become separate species. In the second, an environment favors specific characteristics within a species, which encourages divergence as members fill different roles in an ecosystem.
Vaccines:
Insights Into Failed HIV-1 Vaccine Trial. Following the disbandment of the STEP trial to test the efficacy of the Merck HIV-1 vaccine candidate in 2007, the leading explanation for why the vaccine was ineffective – and may have even increased susceptibility to acquiring the virus – centered on the hypothesis that high levels of baseline Ad5-specific neutralizing antibodies may have increased HIV-1 acquisition among the study subjects who received the vaccine by increasing Ad5-specific CD4+ T-cells that were susceptible to HIV-1 infection. Now, a study by Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, and a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), reported in the July 20 Advance Online issue of Nature Medicine, shows this was likely not the case.
South Africa launches AIDS vaccine clinical trials. South Africa announced the launch of clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccines created by a developing country with assistance from the U.S. on Monday. It represented a feat by scientists who overcame skepticism from colleagues and from some political leaders who shocked the world with unscientific pronouncements about the disease. "It has been a very, very hard journey," lead scientist Professor Anna-Lise Williamson of the University of Cape Town said at Monday's ceremony, attended by American health officials who gave technical help and manufactured the vaccine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Autism:
NIH Issues Research Plan on Fragile X Syndrome and Associated Disorders. The National Institutes of Health has developed a research plan to advance the understanding of fragile X syndrome and its associated conditions, fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome and fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency. Fragile X syndrome causes intellectual and developmental disabilities and results from a mutation in a gene on the X chromosome.
The plan puts forward goals to guide future research, setting research priorities for each of the conditions. A major priority of the plan is to investigate the biological processes underlying all three disorders and how to better diagnose and treat them. Other priorities are studying how widespread the gene variations are in the population and how the three conditions affect families.
"NIH’s research efforts have made great strides in understanding these conditions," said Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D., acting director of NIH. "We now intend to build on these advances."
Although the three disorders have very different symptoms, all result from variations in the same gene, known as the Fragile X Mental Retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Full mutation of the gene means that cells do not produce a protein involved with communications between neurons in the central nervous system. The resulting disorder, Fragile X syndrome (FXS), occurs in approximately one in 2,500 births. People with FXS often have intellectual disabilities ranging from mild to severe. They may also have emotional and behavioral problems, including attention problems, hyperactivity, anxiety, aggression, and autism or autism spectrum disorder.
Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Have More Severe Behavioral Problems Than Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Study Finds. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have a high risk of psychiatric problems, particularly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, or both. Often children with FASD are initially diagnosed with ADHD. A new study is the first to examine a range of cognitive factors and social behavior in children with FASD and ADHD, finding that those with FASD have significantly weaker social cognition and facial emotion-processing abilities. Results will be published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
"Behaviorally, FASD and ADHD can look quite similar, particularly with respect to problems with very limited attention, physical restlessness, and extreme impulsivity," explained Rachel Greenbaum, a clinical psychologist with the Children's Mental Health Team at Surrey Place Centre in Toronto, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral dissertation.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Today in the News (17 Jul 09)
Evolution:
Male Sex Chromosome Losing Genes By Rapid Evolution, Study Reveals. Scientists have long suspected that the sex chromosome that only males carry is deteriorating and could disappear entirely within a few million years, but until now, no one has understood the evolutionary processes that control this chromosome's demise. Now, a pair of Penn State scientists has discovered that this sex chromosome, the Y chromosome, has evolved at a much more rapid pace than its partner chromosome, the X chromosome, which both males and females carry. This rapid evolution of the Y chromosome has led to a dramatic loss of genes on the Y chromosome at a rate that, if maintained, eventually could lead to the Y chromosome's complete disappearance. The research team, which includes Associate Professor of Biology Kateryna Makova, the team's leader, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Melissa Wilson, will publish its results in the 17 July 2009 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.
Global Model For The Origin Of Species Independent Of Geographical Isolation. The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory. The first requires a physical barrier such as a glacier, mountain or body of water to separate organisms enabling groups to diverge until they become separate species. In the second, an environment favors specific characteristics within a species, which encourages divergence as members fill different roles in an ecosystem.
Vaccines:
Most people have no immunity to Swine Flu, new research warns. New research into Swine Flu has shown that only those who lived through the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 are likely to have immunity against the virus, contradicting research by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC). Furthermore, the research, performed by the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science and other groups, showed through animal testing that unlike seasonal flu the Swine Flu virus is capable of reproducing in the lungs, making it a much more virulent infection.
Inviragen in quest for second-gen vaccines. Dan Stinchcomb and his team of researchers at Inviragen are closely watching the worldwide race to develop and manufacture an H1N1 vaccine for the coming influenza season. Inviragen is also a player in the quest to develop a vaccine that could be effective against multiple flu strains, including H1N1 or swine flu and seasonal flu. The Fort Collins company, formed in 2003, has previously taken on dengue fever, the West Nile virus and avian influenza.
Autism:
Social reasoning, brain growth and autism. People with autism seem to have special difficulty understanding false beliefs, but research may help understand this disorder, Canadians researchers say. The study finds electroencephalogram recording of brain electrical activity linked how preschool children deal with the sometime discrepancy between how people think about the world and the way the world really is to brain development.
Autism medical problem not a physiological one. Autism is a brain development disorder that begins at birth or within the first three years of a child’s life, and typically involves delays and impairment in basic social skills, language skills, and behavior. The illness currently has no cure although less severe cases may be diagnosed as a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or the neuro–biological disorder: Asperger’s syndrome – both of which are less severe versions of autism. Variable in its clinical presentation, the spectrum of autism – known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) – ranges from mild cognitive changes and behaviors to severe emotional withdrawal.
Male Sex Chromosome Losing Genes By Rapid Evolution, Study Reveals. Scientists have long suspected that the sex chromosome that only males carry is deteriorating and could disappear entirely within a few million years, but until now, no one has understood the evolutionary processes that control this chromosome's demise. Now, a pair of Penn State scientists has discovered that this sex chromosome, the Y chromosome, has evolved at a much more rapid pace than its partner chromosome, the X chromosome, which both males and females carry. This rapid evolution of the Y chromosome has led to a dramatic loss of genes on the Y chromosome at a rate that, if maintained, eventually could lead to the Y chromosome's complete disappearance. The research team, which includes Associate Professor of Biology Kateryna Makova, the team's leader, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Melissa Wilson, will publish its results in the 17 July 2009 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.
Global Model For The Origin Of Species Independent Of Geographical Isolation. The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory. The first requires a physical barrier such as a glacier, mountain or body of water to separate organisms enabling groups to diverge until they become separate species. In the second, an environment favors specific characteristics within a species, which encourages divergence as members fill different roles in an ecosystem.
Vaccines:
Most people have no immunity to Swine Flu, new research warns. New research into Swine Flu has shown that only those who lived through the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 are likely to have immunity against the virus, contradicting research by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC). Furthermore, the research, performed by the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science and other groups, showed through animal testing that unlike seasonal flu the Swine Flu virus is capable of reproducing in the lungs, making it a much more virulent infection.
Inviragen in quest for second-gen vaccines. Dan Stinchcomb and his team of researchers at Inviragen are closely watching the worldwide race to develop and manufacture an H1N1 vaccine for the coming influenza season. Inviragen is also a player in the quest to develop a vaccine that could be effective against multiple flu strains, including H1N1 or swine flu and seasonal flu. The Fort Collins company, formed in 2003, has previously taken on dengue fever, the West Nile virus and avian influenza.
Autism:
Social reasoning, brain growth and autism. People with autism seem to have special difficulty understanding false beliefs, but research may help understand this disorder, Canadians researchers say. The study finds electroencephalogram recording of brain electrical activity linked how preschool children deal with the sometime discrepancy between how people think about the world and the way the world really is to brain development.
Autism medical problem not a physiological one. Autism is a brain development disorder that begins at birth or within the first three years of a child’s life, and typically involves delays and impairment in basic social skills, language skills, and behavior. The illness currently has no cure although less severe cases may be diagnosed as a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or the neuro–biological disorder: Asperger’s syndrome – both of which are less severe versions of autism. Variable in its clinical presentation, the spectrum of autism – known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) – ranges from mild cognitive changes and behaviors to severe emotional withdrawal.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Today in the News (16 Jul 09)
Evolution:
Ecologist Brings Century-old Eggs To Life To Study Evolution. Suspending a life in time is a theme that normally finds itself in the pages of science fiction, but now such ideas have become a reality in the annals of science. Cornell ecologist Nelson Hairston Jr. is a pioneer in a field known loosely as "resurrection ecology," in which researchers study the eggs of such creatures as zooplankton -- tiny, free-floating water animals -- that get buried in lake sediments and can remain viable for decades or even centuries. By hatching these eggs, Hairston and others can compare time-suspended hatchlings with their more contemporary counterparts to better understand how a species may have evolved in the meantime.
Last Supper Of The Hominids Establishes Times They Lived At Sites. In the French cave of Arago, an international team of scientists has analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals hunted by Homo heidelbergensis. It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological sites. The key is the last food that these hominids consumed. For many years, the mobility of the groups of hominids and how long they spent in caves or outdoors has been a subject of discussion among scientists. Now, an international team headed by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Tarragona has based its studies on the dental fossils of animals hunted by hominids in order to determine the vegetation in the environment and the way of life of Homo heidelbergensis.
Not Only Dogs, But Deer, Monkeys And Birds Bark To Deal With Conflict. Biologically speaking, many animals besides dogs bark, according to Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but the evolutionary biologist also says domestic dogs vocalize in this way much more than birds, deer, monkeys and other wild animals that use barks. The reason is related to dogs’ 10,000-year history of hanging around human food refuse dumps, she suggests. In her recent paper in a special issue of the journal, Behavioural Processes, Lord and co-authors from nearby Hampshire College also provide the scientific literature with its first consistent, functional and acoustically precise definition of this common animal sound.
Vaccines:
Discovery Of New Transmission Patterns May Help Prevent Rotavirus Epidemics. New vaccines have the potential to prevent or temper epidemics of the childhood diarrhea-causing disease rotavirus, protect the unvaccinated and raise the age at which the infection first appears in children, federal researchers report in a new study. The findings were based on changing patterns of rotavirus transmission in the United States, where the disease is rarely fatal, and they have implications for combating epidemics in other countries where the death toll is much higher.
Boosting Newborns’ Immune Responses. Newborn babies have immature immune systems, making them highly vulnerable to severe infections and unable to mount an effective immune response to most vaccines, thereby frustrating efforts to protect them. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 million newborns and infants less than 6 months of age die each year due to infection. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston believe they have found a way to enhance the immune system at birth and boost newborns' vaccine responses, making infections like respiratory syncytial virus, pneumococcus and rotavirus much less of a threat.
Okay, Science Daily didn't have any new stories on Autism, so I found this one about California's alarming increase, and how scientists are looking more to the environment. Although, since it's concentrated in one state, I wonder what it is about California that would be so different. Not only that, but I wouldn't be so quick to rule out some genetic anomalies in the state population (hey, California is the strangest state by far).
Also, for you parents out there with autistic children (like myself), this article about the dangers of poor diet due to "habits" the children hold on to is probably a good reminder to develop some challenges for your kids. A game I play with my daughter is to come up with unique, yet not always unappetizing names for different foods. Especially if we can tie it to another culture that would find that particularly appetizing.
Again, yesterday's news about the 27 genes is still in the news quite a bit. The implications are still being deciphered.
Ecologist Brings Century-old Eggs To Life To Study Evolution. Suspending a life in time is a theme that normally finds itself in the pages of science fiction, but now such ideas have become a reality in the annals of science. Cornell ecologist Nelson Hairston Jr. is a pioneer in a field known loosely as "resurrection ecology," in which researchers study the eggs of such creatures as zooplankton -- tiny, free-floating water animals -- that get buried in lake sediments and can remain viable for decades or even centuries. By hatching these eggs, Hairston and others can compare time-suspended hatchlings with their more contemporary counterparts to better understand how a species may have evolved in the meantime.
Last Supper Of The Hominids Establishes Times They Lived At Sites. In the French cave of Arago, an international team of scientists has analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals hunted by Homo heidelbergensis. It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological sites. The key is the last food that these hominids consumed. For many years, the mobility of the groups of hominids and how long they spent in caves or outdoors has been a subject of discussion among scientists. Now, an international team headed by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Tarragona has based its studies on the dental fossils of animals hunted by hominids in order to determine the vegetation in the environment and the way of life of Homo heidelbergensis.
Not Only Dogs, But Deer, Monkeys And Birds Bark To Deal With Conflict. Biologically speaking, many animals besides dogs bark, according to Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but the evolutionary biologist also says domestic dogs vocalize in this way much more than birds, deer, monkeys and other wild animals that use barks. The reason is related to dogs’ 10,000-year history of hanging around human food refuse dumps, she suggests. In her recent paper in a special issue of the journal, Behavioural Processes, Lord and co-authors from nearby Hampshire College also provide the scientific literature with its first consistent, functional and acoustically precise definition of this common animal sound.
Vaccines:
Discovery Of New Transmission Patterns May Help Prevent Rotavirus Epidemics. New vaccines have the potential to prevent or temper epidemics of the childhood diarrhea-causing disease rotavirus, protect the unvaccinated and raise the age at which the infection first appears in children, federal researchers report in a new study. The findings were based on changing patterns of rotavirus transmission in the United States, where the disease is rarely fatal, and they have implications for combating epidemics in other countries where the death toll is much higher.
Boosting Newborns’ Immune Responses. Newborn babies have immature immune systems, making them highly vulnerable to severe infections and unable to mount an effective immune response to most vaccines, thereby frustrating efforts to protect them. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 million newborns and infants less than 6 months of age die each year due to infection. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston believe they have found a way to enhance the immune system at birth and boost newborns' vaccine responses, making infections like respiratory syncytial virus, pneumococcus and rotavirus much less of a threat.
Okay, Science Daily didn't have any new stories on Autism, so I found this one about California's alarming increase, and how scientists are looking more to the environment. Although, since it's concentrated in one state, I wonder what it is about California that would be so different. Not only that, but I wouldn't be so quick to rule out some genetic anomalies in the state population (hey, California is the strangest state by far).
Also, for you parents out there with autistic children (like myself), this article about the dangers of poor diet due to "habits" the children hold on to is probably a good reminder to develop some challenges for your kids. A game I play with my daughter is to come up with unique, yet not always unappetizing names for different foods. Especially if we can tie it to another culture that would find that particularly appetizing.
Again, yesterday's news about the 27 genes is still in the news quite a bit. The implications are still being deciphered.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Today in the News (15 Jul 09)
Going to make this one quick, going out to see the new Harry Potter movie with my daughter.
Evolution:
A University of Calgary archaeologist who is one of the few researchers in the world studying the material culture of human beings' closest living relatives – the great apes – is joining his colleagues in creating a new discipline devoted to the history of tool use in all primate species in order to better understand human evolution. Mercader was the lead author of a team that laid the foundations of the emerging discipline of chimpanzee archaeology in two previously-published papers in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He is the archaeologist who uncovered the first prehistoric evidence of chimpanzee technology in 2007 — a 4,300-year-old nut-cracking site in the rainforests of Côte D'Ivoire, West Africa that provides proof of a long-standing chimpanzee "stone age" that likely emerged independently of influence from humans.
The appearance of many species of flowering plants on Earth, and especially their relatively rapid dissemination during the Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) can be attributed to their capacity to transform the world to their own needs. In an article in Ecology Letters, Wageningen ecologists Frank Berendse and Marten Scheffer postulate that flowering plants changed the conditions during the Cretaceous period to suit themselves. The researchers have consequently provided an entirely new explanation for what Charles Darwin considered to be one of the greatest mysteries with which he was confronted.
The mode of reproduction seen in modern sharks is nearly 400 million years old. That is the conclusion drawn by Professor Per Erik Ahlberg, Uppsala University, from his discovery of a so-called "clasper" in a primitive fossil fish earlier this year. The research results are published in Nature. In February this year, a paper published in Nature by a team of Australian and British researchers showed that placoderms, a group of ancient fishes that died out more than 350 million years ago, gave birth to live young. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos in the body cavity of the placoderm Incisoscutum showed that these fishes, close to the common origin of all jawed vertebrates, had a mode of reproduction similar to modern sharks.
Vaccines:
Medical mycologists in The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID) and the Department of Biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have significantly advanced the fight against San Joaquin Valley Fever, a respiratory infection of humans, commonly called Valley Fever, which is caused by the Coccidioides fungus. For the first time, the researchers have genetically engineered a live, attenuated vaccine that successfully protects mice against Valley Fever, known in scientific circles as coccidioidomycosis. A live, attenuated vaccine is used as a preventative treatment based upon creation of a mutated form of the pathogen that is no longer capable of causing disease.
New interventions show promise against two different types of brain abnormalities, both of which are implicated in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease. A drug called Dimebon seems to improve cognitive function in both mice and humans but, new research reveals, it actually increases brain levels of beta amyloid, a protein long thought to be a leading culprit in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Autism:
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have identified 27 genes that are associated with either Asperger Syndrome (AS) and/or autistic traits and/or empathy. The research will be published July 16 in the journal Autism Research. This is the first candidate gene study of its kind. The research was led by Dr Bhismadev Chakrabarti and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge. 68 genes were chosen either because they were known to play a role in neural growth, social behaviour, or sex steroid hormones (e.g. testosterone and estrogen). The latter group of genes was included because AS occurs far more often in males than females, and because previous research from the Cambridge team has shown that foetal testosterone levels are associated with autistic traits and empathy in typically developing children.Social cognition—the ability to think about the minds and mental states of others—is essential for human beings. In the last decade, a group of regions has been discovered in the human brain that are specifically used for social cognition. A new study in the journal Child Development investigates these brain regions for the first time in human children. The study has implications for children with autism. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University scanned the brains of 13 children ages 6 to 11 as they listened to children's stories. At the moment the plot of the stories revealed what a character wanted, believed, or knew, or presented the mental state of the character, the researchers observed increased activity in these specific brain regions. When the story turned to other topics—such as the physical world or the visual appearance of the characters—activity in these brain regions went back down.
Evolution:
A University of Calgary archaeologist who is one of the few researchers in the world studying the material culture of human beings' closest living relatives – the great apes – is joining his colleagues in creating a new discipline devoted to the history of tool use in all primate species in order to better understand human evolution. Mercader was the lead author of a team that laid the foundations of the emerging discipline of chimpanzee archaeology in two previously-published papers in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He is the archaeologist who uncovered the first prehistoric evidence of chimpanzee technology in 2007 — a 4,300-year-old nut-cracking site in the rainforests of Côte D'Ivoire, West Africa that provides proof of a long-standing chimpanzee "stone age" that likely emerged independently of influence from humans.
The appearance of many species of flowering plants on Earth, and especially their relatively rapid dissemination during the Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) can be attributed to their capacity to transform the world to their own needs. In an article in Ecology Letters, Wageningen ecologists Frank Berendse and Marten Scheffer postulate that flowering plants changed the conditions during the Cretaceous period to suit themselves. The researchers have consequently provided an entirely new explanation for what Charles Darwin considered to be one of the greatest mysteries with which he was confronted.
The mode of reproduction seen in modern sharks is nearly 400 million years old. That is the conclusion drawn by Professor Per Erik Ahlberg, Uppsala University, from his discovery of a so-called "clasper" in a primitive fossil fish earlier this year. The research results are published in Nature. In February this year, a paper published in Nature by a team of Australian and British researchers showed that placoderms, a group of ancient fishes that died out more than 350 million years ago, gave birth to live young. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos in the body cavity of the placoderm Incisoscutum showed that these fishes, close to the common origin of all jawed vertebrates, had a mode of reproduction similar to modern sharks.
Vaccines:
Medical mycologists in The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID) and the Department of Biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have significantly advanced the fight against San Joaquin Valley Fever, a respiratory infection of humans, commonly called Valley Fever, which is caused by the Coccidioides fungus. For the first time, the researchers have genetically engineered a live, attenuated vaccine that successfully protects mice against Valley Fever, known in scientific circles as coccidioidomycosis. A live, attenuated vaccine is used as a preventative treatment based upon creation of a mutated form of the pathogen that is no longer capable of causing disease.
New interventions show promise against two different types of brain abnormalities, both of which are implicated in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease. A drug called Dimebon seems to improve cognitive function in both mice and humans but, new research reveals, it actually increases brain levels of beta amyloid, a protein long thought to be a leading culprit in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Autism:
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have identified 27 genes that are associated with either Asperger Syndrome (AS) and/or autistic traits and/or empathy. The research will be published July 16 in the journal Autism Research. This is the first candidate gene study of its kind. The research was led by Dr Bhismadev Chakrabarti and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge. 68 genes were chosen either because they were known to play a role in neural growth, social behaviour, or sex steroid hormones (e.g. testosterone and estrogen). The latter group of genes was included because AS occurs far more often in males than females, and because previous research from the Cambridge team has shown that foetal testosterone levels are associated with autistic traits and empathy in typically developing children.Social cognition—the ability to think about the minds and mental states of others—is essential for human beings. In the last decade, a group of regions has been discovered in the human brain that are specifically used for social cognition. A new study in the journal Child Development investigates these brain regions for the first time in human children. The study has implications for children with autism. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University scanned the brains of 13 children ages 6 to 11 as they listened to children's stories. At the moment the plot of the stories revealed what a character wanted, believed, or knew, or presented the mental state of the character, the researchers observed increased activity in these specific brain regions. When the story turned to other topics—such as the physical world or the visual appearance of the characters—activity in these brain regions went back down.
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