Hopkins researchers study heart defect that kills athletes. Physicians at Johns Hopkins, with colleagues around the globe, are seeking families to help them learn more about a rare heart condition that kills athletes and seems to run in families. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

This affects 1 in 5000. That is a huge number of possible patients. It is amazing how well we can do even when things do not work right. Pistol Pete Maravich played profession basketball but died of a heart attack after he retired. It turned out he had an abnormal heart, which only had 1 coronary artery. Yet, he played at a physical level far beyond any of us could. Just amazing.  12:54:27 PM    

Bicycle handlebars pose serious health risk to children. Bicycle handlebar-related abdominal or pelvic organ injuries pose a serious health risk to children and result in substantial health care costs, according to a study from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In non-motor vehicle related bicycle crashes, as many as 80 percent of internal organ injuries are associated with handlebar impact. Requirements for safer handlebar designs may reduce the risk of these costly injuries. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

Hospital costs much higher for motorcycle crash victims who don[base ']t wear helmets. Motorcycle riders who crash without a helmet rack up far larger hospital bills than those whose heads were protected in a crash, a new study finds. From the emergency room door to the trauma center to the rehabilitation unit, the authors report, care for unhelmeted crash victims cost substantially more and kept patients in the hospital longer than care for patients who wore helmets. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

What about retractable handlebars on motorcycles? My guess is that helmut use by children has decreased the number of head traumas, so we can now see what other injuries are possible. But, how many children ride bikes so that 900 have an injury? What is the incidence and is it something we can really reduce? Was there and age distribution of incidence and injury severity? Would new handlebars really change anything? Would education about the proper way to fall be more useful? Don't know. Can't say. At least from the article.  12:42:39 PM    

Scientists identify 'genetic signature' of stem cells. Princeton University scientists have taken a major step toward identifying the "genetic signature" of stem cells, discovering a subset of genes whose products may give these cells their unique traits. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

This is the sort of work that comes from knowing the sequence of many of the human genes. You can look at the specific genes that are expressed in a specific population of cells, creating a 'fingerprint' of that cell type. Now, the tricky thing is this. You can tell what the fingerprint is for a population of similar cells. But, do ALL the cells express the entire complement of genes or do they some express some, while others express the other proteins? That is, if you looked at a single cell, does it have the whole 'fingerrint' or only part of it? A lot of single cell research indicates that gene expression is stochastic, that is, random. You can take 2 identical cells, examine them separately and you will find that, although some genes are expressed similarly, there are some genes that are specific to one cell or the other. It is this randomness that gives cells, and life, their ability to adapt. If every cell in a population was always expressing the same things, then a single attack could bring them all down. Ig there are some differences, then chances are that they will not ALL be vulnerable to the same thing. This work is important but it is still looking at a population of cells. For pluripotetent stem cells (these are the sine qua non for stem cell therapies.), you may need to get down to the single cell level.  12:34:36 PM    

EGFR media briefing. Dr. Alan Sandler of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to speak on the science behind the EGFR class and clinical experience to date. Learn more about the role EGFR-TKIs play in cancer treatment. By blocking cancer[base ']s ability to use certain signaling (or chemical) pathways implicated in the growth and division of a variety of solid tumors, the emerging EGFR-TKI class is at the clinical forefront of battling many cancer types, including lung, breast and prostate cancers. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

EGF antagonists may have a very important use in oncology. Immunex/Amgen is working on such a product. But, so far, a lot of the products have been duds, with little therpeutic values. It might be worthwhile to hear this presentation. Maybe I'll drop in at Starbucks to hear it online.  12:23:47 PM    

Hormone replacement therapy may improve breast cancer detection and survival rate. A study of nearly 300 breast cancer patients in Oregon found that the tumors in those women, who had been receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT), were less aggressive and easier to detect on mammograms. It also reports that HRT users had higher survival rates than nonusers. [EurekAlert - Medicine & Health]

This is such a good example of why medicine and the study of biology can drive you nuts. One study indicates that HRT can increase a woman's chances of breast cancer. Now this study shows that those on HRT had tumors that were much easier to see by mammograms than by palpitation. So, if the original study used mammograms to find the tumors, it would have picked up more from HRT simply because, for some reason, HRT increases the ability of mammograms to see the tumors. But it may not really increase the number of tumors. Not having seen the study, I can not say but this study certainly seems to indicate that HRT makes tumors much more visible to mammograms.

The HUGE news is that HRT actually seems to provide positive survival benefits.Of 144 women on HRT, 100% were still alive after 6 years. For the 148 who were not on HRT, 19 were dead at the 6 year mark. MAn, biology is sure confusing. And it is something that the media has an incredibly hard time explaining, because of this. Complexity is not something mass media want to deal with.  12:21:07 PM    

Early humans smart but forgetful [New Scientist]

Very interesting work but there is really no hard evidence from this article that they were forgetful. That seems like a conjecture but the article does not explain where it really comes from.  12:10:21 PM    

Fossil find reveals world's oldest penises [New Scientist]

New Scientist continues to be the best tabloid in science. What a great title and sure to get your attention. if they said it was a bivalve penis, who would look. It is actually an interesting little find. Who knew that these shellfish had TWO penises? Now I do. I'll be able to drop this into so many conversations. Now here is an image:

They have to use a type of bicycle pump to eject the sperm into the female.

12:07:05 PM    

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

I have had several people hand/email me this quote, supposedly by Julius Caesar. Sometimes it is from Shakespeare's play. Sometimes directly from Caesar. But a Google search does not uncover this quote from either source. So, is it legitimate or is it just something that fits the mood of some people, me included? ('Well, if he did not say it, he should have.') Wikipedia examines this question and also answers in the negative. Maybe it is from a movie version. There was a version of Julius Caesar made in the '50s. This is the sort of thing someone might have written with an eye towards what the House Unamerican Activities Committee was doing. Anyway, it appears to be something that many people love so much that they do not even do the easy things like checking with Google. It speaks to something they feel, but by saying it came from Julius Caesar, you can say "See. They knew about this 2000 years ago. It is not just my opinion. Julius Caesar for goodness sakes, talked about these dangers. Here's the evidence." I might like to believe he said this,; I might agree with the basic sentiment; but to me, this quote is a fraud and is as misleading as all the Viagra spam I get.   11:56:07 AM    

Shirky on Community.

Clay Shirky's written another sterling essay, this time on the nature of communities vs/ broadcasting and why only fools think they're going to build a really cool community and everyone will come and like hang out and then they'll be like all popular and everything.

Clay is one of my favorites. [JOHO the Blog]

This is such a great contrast to the CIO article I posted yesterday. Clay comes much closer to defining what a weblog is and is not. People who do not get it, will not get it until they do. That is the nature of a paradigm shift. Some transitions are easier than others but the inability of those on either side of the shift to effectively communicate their own viewpoint to the other side is a hallmark of such transitions. Clay is someone who I will have to keep reading.  11:32:05 AM