Updated: 3/27/08; 6:13:59 PM.
A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Blog
Thoughts on biotech, knowledge creation and Web 2.0
        

Thursday, November 7, 2002


Public Release: 4-Nov-2002
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Stomach-dwelling H. pylori bacterium reveals its age
Only 20 years ago scientists first identified the bacterium Helicobacter pylori in the stomach, but it is has been on the planet far longer. A new study analyzing the distribution of certain genes in the bacterium shows that humans have been carrying it for at least 11,000 years, and migrating East Asians first introduced it into the New World thousands of years before the time of Columbus.
National Instittues of Health, US Department of Veterans Affairs, others


Contact: Pam McDonnell
Pamela.McDonnell@med.nyu.edu
212-404-3555
New York University Medical Center and School of Medicine

[Eurekalert - Biology]

Very interesting. At least stomach ulcers are not something that Europeans brought to the Native Americans. One less thing to take responsibility for.  11:57:21 PM    



Public Release: 2-Nov-2002
Fiery ice from the sea
Jokes about swamp gas, and cows in warm barns aside, ONR thinks you ought to be thinking about methane hydrates. There are mega-tons of the stuff at the bottom of the ocean and in the permafrost and it is the cleanest and most abundant source of energy in the world. When burned, it releases less carbon dioxide pollution than anything else around.
Office of Naval Research


Contact: Gail Cleere
cleereg@onr.navy.mil
703-696-4987
Office of Naval Research

[Eurekalert - Biology]

OK, this scares me. Methane hydrates are a huge sink for a major green gas. Release of large amounts of methane from these hydrates has been postulated for several prehistoric episodes of climatic changes. Now we want to use them for fuel. Sure, they may produce less CO2 than oil, but they still release greenhouse gases. This will just continue the oncoming global warming. We need to be finding ways to sequester carbon in trees, or methane hydrates, to help reduce CO2 emissions, not finding ways to emit more CO2. This will just come back to haunt us, I am afraid. It will be great for the big power companies but I am not sure it will be so great for individuals.  11:53:30 PM    



The Importance of Grandma. For a growing number of evolutionary biologists and cultural anthropologists, grandmothers represent a key to understanding the human condition. By Natalie Angier. [New York Times: Science]

I know this will generate some emails from my mom but the research seems unequivocal. As one scientist noted, with regard to Gambian toddlers: 'If the grandmother dies, you notice it; if the father does, you don't.' It did not matter whether it was a maternal or paternal grandmother. And their presence increased the fertility of young woman. Great stuff.  11:47:19 PM    



Public Release: 4-Nov-2002
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
Brain differences in sheep linked to sexual partner preference
OHSU researchers have found a link between brain physiology and sex partner preference.The research was conducted in rams because the animals display distinct, natural variations in sexual attraction, making them valuable in studying the biological basis for sexual partner preference.

Contact: Jim Newman
newmanj@ohsu.edu
503-494-8231
Oregon Health & Science University

[Eurekalert - Biology]

I guess a ram can't be homosexual since that is reserved for humans, right? But it does show that humans are not the only animals that exhibit same sex tendancies. The percentage of same sex rams is roughly that reported for homosexuals. The fact that actual structural differences in the brain can be found, in areas known to be important for reproduction would indicate that homosexuality is not a choice but determined in large part by biology.  11:42:23 PM    



Public Release: 4-Nov-2002
Journal of Virology
Firefly light illuminates course of herpes infection in mice
Researchers are using a herpes virus that produces a firefly enzyme to illuminate the virus's course of infection in mice and to help monitor the infection's response to therapy.
National Institutes of Health, Research to Prevent Blindness, Robert E. McCormick Scholarship


Contact: Darrell E. Ward
wardd@msnotes.wustl.edu
314-286-0122
Washington University School of Medicine

[Eurekalert - Biology]

Very cool. Directly visulaizing the course of a viral infection using bioluminescence. Instead of having to sacrifice mice every day and hopew the indivual mice react similarly to the virus, they could examine individual mice over the time period of the experiment. This could allow much more complex experiments to be performed. I guess you would want to control the fact that the mice were anesthetized daily and given injections of luciferin. That is, make sure that these two procedures did not have an effect on the time course of the infection.  11:37:14 PM    



Public Release: 4-Nov-2002
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Bread crust and stuffing rich in healthy antioxidants
The best thing since sliced bread may be bread crust: Researchers in Germany have discovered that the crust is a rich source of antioxidants and may provide a much stronger health benefit than the rest of the bread.
German Research Association FEI , Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen, Germany's Ministry of Economics and Technology


Contact: Beverly Hassell
b_hassell@acs.org
202-872-4065
American Chemical Society

[Eurekalert - Biology]

Of course, there have been a few recent papers demonstrating that the Maillard reaction responsible for the browning of carbohydrates results in the production of acrylamide. Acrylamide is a possible tumor-producing molecule and is also a neurotoxin. So you can get your antioxidant along with carcinogens. This is the problem with simply examonong the compounds found in food, particularly material derived from plants. Plants are just full of alkaloids, phenols and other moleculess that can be nasty when examined in isolation. Thankfully, we evolved as omnivores and most likely have processes to deal with these toxic compounds.   11:32:26 PM    



Public Release: 5-Nov-2002
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Dispersin' Escherichia coli all over the gut
Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli is an emerging pathogen that causes endemic and epidemic diarrhea in developing and industrialized countries. The bacteria stick to the intestinal surface in a thick biofilm that is thought to mediate their persistence and ability to cause disease. A report by James Nataro and colleagues (University of Maryland School of Medicine) now sheds light on how this protective film might be formed and reports a promising vaccine candidate.
National Institutes of Health


Contact: Brooke Grindlinger
science_editor@the-jci.org
212-342-9006
Journal of Clinical Investigation

[Eurekalert - Biology]

This could be a very important piece of the puzzle examining why E. coli becomes a very bad bacteria. Formming large clumps sounds very similar to the biofat people are looking at. If so. it may be quite difficult to attack without new approaches.  11:27:34 PM    



Brain Power: The Search for Origins. Neuroscientists have found an evocative solution to a classic problem: which is more important in shaping the human brain, nature or nurture? By Sandra Blakeslee. [New York Times: Science]

AmI missing something? Children living in poverty or who are malnourished or who are abused often have 'miswired' brains. I remember reading or so years ago where cats were blindfolded for quite some time after birth. after a certain period of time, they acted as if they were blind, even after the blindfolds were removed. The need for environmental stimulus for proper wiring has been known for a long time. The effect of this stimulus on the wiring of neurons is one reason knowling the complete genome will not solve all the medical problems of the world.   11:22:55 PM    



The Evolution Of The Football. Popular Mechanics Nov 5 2002 11:19PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

The important questions of the day. Of course, the football had intelligent designers behind it, something evolution does not.  11:05:18 PM    



Bloody teeth boost memory. Nature Nov 5 2002 7:37PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Okay, watching a bloody tooth extraction increases your ability to remember something 24 hours later. I can understand that but when one of the scientists says that emotion helps us to remember but it doesn't have to be [personally] meaningful', I have to wonder. Most of us would probably take a bloddy dental extraction perssonally. Just thinking about it makes MY teeth hurt.  11:04:00 PM    



Public Release: 5-Nov-2002
Gene Therapy
Food pathogen vector shows promise against cancer
Listeria and certain strains of E. coli are the scourge of picnics, but researchers at Harvard Medical School and London's Hammersmith Hospital show in the November Gene Therapy that combining bacterial components of these bad bugs can create a powerful vector against melanoma challenged mice.

Contact: John Lacey
public_affairs@hms.harvard.edu
617-432-0442
Harvard Medical School

[Eurekalert - Biology]

It was noticed in the intial years of formal germ theory (i.e. early 1900s) that some people's cancers would go into remission following a bacterial infection. I wonder if something similar was going on. This work is much more focussed and may be more repeatible, something the original observations with normal bacteria was not.  10:29:47 PM    



Public Release: 5-Nov-2002
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
Jefferson scientists show neural stem cells can become dopamine-making brain cells in laboratory
Biologists at Jefferson Medical College have shown for the first time in the laboratory that they can convert some human neural stem cells to brain cells that can produce dopamine, the brain chemical missing in Parkinson's disease. If the researchers can better understand the process and harness this ability, the work may someday lead to new strategies in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@mail.tju.edu
215-955-5291
Thomas Jefferson University

[Eurekalert - Biology]

If these neural stem cells can be more easily worked on and if they can isolate the really important, dopamine producing ones, then diseases such as Parkinson's may be amenable to a cure. This illness results from the destruction of important domine producing cells in the substantia nigra. If you can replace these, then there might be hope for Parkinson's. And, since it is believed that approximately 10% of these cells normally die each decade, this could be a concern for all of us as the time of death for us all keeps getting pushed back.  10:16:21 PM    



Public Release: 4-Nov-2002
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Teamwork in the intestine: Gut bacteria interact with intestine to regulate blood supply
Bacteria aren't always bad. In fact, they can be extremely helpful partners. According to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, microbes found naturally in the mouse and human gut interact with intestinal cells, called Paneth cells, to promote the development of blood vessels in the intestinal lining.
National Institutes of Health, AstraZeneca, Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation


Contact: Gila Z. Reckess
reckessg@msnotes.wustl.edu
314-286-0109
Washington University School of Medicine

[Eurekalert - Biology]

The really interesting work will be finding out how these bacteria accomplish this and whether it will be amenable to some sort of drug therapy. Controlling the formation of blood vessels has a very important role in almost eery form of cancer.  10:11:57 PM    



Public Release: 5-Nov-2002
CHEST 2002 Annual Meeting
Beating pneumonia by a nose
According to a team of researchers from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an electronic nose - a relatively new version of a sensor previously used in the food, wine and perfume industries - can quickly and accurately diagnose pneumonia in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. The results will be presented at the CHEST 2002 Annual Meeting Tuesday, November 5th in San Diago.
Cyrano Sciences, Inc.

Contact: Olivia Fermano
olivia.fermano@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5653
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center

[Eurekalert - Biology]

This could be a much faster procedure than bacterial cultures. Many different types of bacteria give off very distinctive odors. I wonder how many other diseases this artificial nose will owrk with.  10:09:21 PM    



Beyond MP3s: iPod Holds Genome. Wired News Nov 6 2002 7:23AM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Several scientist said So What? It is so much easier if you access the data over a network. What they miss is that you can combine a Ti Powerbook, and iPod and the BLAST software do the work from anywhere, like places that are not connected to a network. The need to physically be connected is a drawback to some forms of creativity. Some people think better sitting by a river or on the bus. You could use this system to get some important work done.  9:58:48 PM    



Amgen Pays for Its Delay. Motley Fool Nov 6 2002 2:15PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

UBS Warburg Cuts Amgen to 'Hold'. Business Week Nov 6 2002 12:54PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Not a good week for Amgen. Competitors for Enbrel. Aranesp reimbursements lowered. Hard to argue for such a high PE until more news about the Rhode Island plant is available. If this gets done early next year, this will be a big boost, although I believe that it will not be too long before Enbrel supply becomes constrained again.  9:52:24 PM    



Martian meteorite mysteries resolved [New Scientist]

Nice explanation for why so many of the meteorites from Mars are young rock, even though most of the rock from Mars is quite old.  2:56:46 PM    



NY Times: Tablets Mightier Than the Keyboard? It's the latest expression of a long-running Microsoft fantasy: a future world in which you'll write directly on the screen of your PC with a plastic-tipped pen. You'll take handwritten notes, mark up documents right on the screen and capture doodles on the digital equivalent of cocktail napkins. [Tomalak's Realm]

One important aspect of tablets vs. PC is the method of input. There is some interesting work that examines the effects of using both hands and both sides of the brain when typing that will disappear when using one hand to write. I know that I get the flow going much faster when I am typing, in ways that never occur when I write in longhand. Didn't we invent typewriters to get away from longhand?   2:52:17 PM    



Tech voting: Cheating made simple Plastic writes about how electronic voting systems with closed-source software and no paper trail, are the new generation of electronic voting machines an invitation to untraceable vote fraud?

The plain fact is that there electronic voting can be manipulated easily, by election officials or hackers. Moreover, the lack of privacy in electronic voting, which ties the voter to the votes cast, eliminates the secrecy of the ballot. This opens the path to not just cheating, but retaliation by the winners of elections, as well. [RatcliffeBlog -- Social and Political]

Voting is not something that should be digitized. We have enough security problems with software as it is. We don't need another voting scandal. If we are going digital, let's make sure it is done right. The software needs to be open, so that anyone can vet it and make sure there are not any problems. Voting software needs to be transparent.  2:43:49 PM    



Open source gloats over leaked Microsoft memo. InfoWorld - OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE advocates have concluded that a leaked Microsoft memorandum detailing a survey it conducted of IT professionals on their views of open source software shows that Microsoft's public relations tactics on ...
Microsoft finds belittling Linux is ineffective Geek.com
Microsoft: Back off Linux attacks ZDNet
The Inquirer - InternetWeek.com - Slashdot - Linux News - and 18 related » [Google Technology News]

Well, the next step in MS standard process is for them to state that they have been open source fomr the beginning. I don't think it will work this time. MS is one of the juggernauts that will have to change, as is Disney, FOx, and most large companies. If their main business is information and not things, they will have to move away from the GE command & control model to an adaptive network. It is the most efficient way to deal with creativity. Unfortunately, the creative types are very seldom in charge of thse companies. Change will come slowly.  2:19:52 PM    



Common Errors in English: "abject, about, absorbtion, accede/exceed, accent marks, access, accessory, accept/except, accidently, acronyms and apostrophes, actual fact/actually, adapt/adopt, adultry, advance/advanced, adverse/averse, advice/advise, adviser/advisor, affect/effect, agreeance/agreement, ahold/hold, ain't, altogether/ all together, all, all goes well/augurs well, alliterate/illiterate, alls, allude/elude, allude/refer, allusion/illusion, alot, almost, alright, altar/alter, alterior, alternate/alternative, alumnus/alumni, amature, ambiguous/ambivalent, ambivalent/indifferent, American, amoral/immoral, amount/number, an historic..." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]

This will be useful for my son. I love the explanations, particularly regarding one of my bugaboos: wreaking havoc. I hate to hear people say reeking havoc or wrecking havoc.  1:38:19 PM    



 
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Last update: 3/27/08; 6:13:59 PM.