NewsTrust - Biology - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

After Osama bin Laden’s death, imagining a world without DNA evidence

Sat, 14 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Brandon L. Garrett - May. 14 (Opinion) - How did the United States make sure that Osama bin Laden was dead? Facial-recognition software offered only 95 percent certainty. To be 99.9 percent sure, according to federal officials, it took DNA testing.

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Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Ian Sample - Nov. 28 - Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organsScientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population."What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature."This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing."These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University said: "The key question is what might this means for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers."Medical researchAgeingBiologyUnited StatesCancerCancerIan Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Hooking the high seas' fishing 'pirates'

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Karen Sack - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - It's time to close the net on fishing pirates who threaten to undermine vital marine ecosystems. Highlighting the scale of the problem of illegal fishing and calls on the international community to act.

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Synthetic Biology: Artificial Life Has Arrived

Sat, 22 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - By The Economist - May. 22 (Editorial) - To create ife is the prerogative of gods. Deep in the human psyche, whatever the rational pleadings of physics and chemistry, there exists a sense that biology is different, is more than just the sum of atoms moving about and reacting with one another, is somehow infused with a divine spark, a vital essence. It may come as a shock, then, that mere mortals have now made artificial life. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith, the two American biologists who unravelled the first DNA sequence of a living organism (a bacterium) in 1995, have made a bacterium that has an artificial genome—creating a living creature with no ancestor (see article). Pedants may quibble that only the DNA of the new beast was actually manufactured in a laboratory; the researchers had to use the shell of an existing bug to get that DNA to do its stuff. Nevertheless, a Rubicon has been crossed. It is now possible to conceive of a world in which new bacteria (and eventually, new animals and plants) are designed on a computer and then grown to order.

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Human Genome Project a "Bubble"

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Nature - By Philip Ball - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - For scientists, the Human Genome Project (HGP) might lay the foundation of tomorrow's medicine, with drugs tailored to your genetics. But a venture capitalist would want medical innovations here and now, not decades hence. Nearly ten years after the project's formal completion, there's not much sign of them.

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Polar bear listing no threat to development

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Anchorage Daily News - By Geoffrey L. Haskett - Dec. 26 (Opinion) - The simple fact is that development and the protection of threatened and endangered species can and do coexist in Alaska, precisely because of these cooperative efforts and in concert with the careful and prudent application of the Endangered Species Act.

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10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By David Wolman - Jul. 30 (Review) - 1 Sea mammal blowhole. Any animal that spends appreciable time in the ocean should be able to extract oxygen from water via gills. Enlarging the lungs and moving a nostril to the back of the head is a poor work-around. 2 Hyena clitoris. When engorged, this "pseudopenis," which doubles as the birth canal, becomes so hard it can crush babies to death during exit. 3 Kangaroo teat. In order to nurse, the just-born joey, a frail and squishy jellybean, must clamber up Mom?s torso and into her pouch for a nipple. 4 Giraffe birth canal. Mama giraffes stand up while giving birth, so baby?s entry into the world is a 5-foot drop. Wheeee! Crack. 5 Goliath bird-eating spider exoskeleton. This giant spider can climb trees to hunt very mobile ...

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Easement will protect the Chuitna River

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Anchorage Daily News - By Donita Hensley - May. 21 (Opinion) - For more than 40,000 years the Dene people have cultivated and been nurtured by the land and waters around Tyonek, a village 40 miles west of Anchorage on Upper Cook Inlet. At the very heart of this land is the Chuitna River, its source for abundant wildlife, diverse vegetation and natural beauty.

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Why our obsession with climate change may end up destroying biodiversity

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Brendan Borrell - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - Now, being green is all about greenhouse gases: Neighborhood moms are more apt to fret over food miles than felled forests; organic cattle farmers are more interested in offsetting the methane coming from cow burps than pondering squished tadpoles in hoof prints. Even scientists have grown bored with question of habitat loss, tweaking their grant proposals to emphasize the climate angle no matter how tenuous the connection. Saving the Amazon is so 1980s.

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Neurotopia : Friday Weird Science: For Men, It Really IS The Size That Counts

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ScienceBlogs.com - By Scicurious - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - First of all, what IS the normal length of a penis? Sci had always heard somewhere around 6 inches, but never had any proof. But now, she's got the official numbers.

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Creationism Feels Right, but That Doesn't Make it So

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Jesse Bering - Mar. 22 (Review) - Presently I’m attending a small symposium on “Belief and Reason” at Trinity College, Cambridge, being sponsored by the Perrott-Warrick Fund. It’s a rather intimate affair with mostly cognitive scientists discussing the latest research and theory on everything from paranormal beliefs to free will to the placebo effect. One of the standout talks Monday was by Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, who gave a presentation titled “Is Religion Natural?” He focused on the puzzling case of creationist beliefs.

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The Forces That Shaped A Young Charles Darwin

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

NPR - By LIane Hansen, Keith Thomson - Feb. 01 (Interview) - To honor Charles Darwin — born 200 years ago this month — Weekend Edition Sunday and the NPR science desk are launching a series called "Darwin 200." In the first installment, Keith Thomson, author of The Young Charles Darwin, talks about his early influences. [10 min 45 sec]

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What Makes You Uniquely "You"?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Discover Magazine - By Susan Kruglinski - Jan. 16 (Interview) - Some of the most profound questions in science are also the least tangible. What does it mean to be sentient? What is the self? When issues become imponderable, many researchers demur, but neuroscientist Gerald Edelman dives right in. A physician and cell biologist who won a 1972 Nobel Prize for his work describing the structure of antibodies, Edelman is now obsessed with the enigma of human consciousness—except that he does not see it as an enigma. In Edelman’s grand theory of the mind, consciousness is a biological phenomenon and the brain develops through a process similar to natural selection. Neurons proliferate and form connections in infancy; then experience weeds out the useless from the useful, molding the adult brain in sync with its environment.

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The Life of the Mind

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By Jonah Lehrer - Jan. 04 (Review) - To celebrate the end of the year at Mind Matters, we’re going to highlight a few of the posts that we featured over the past 12 months. Although our articles have covered a wide variety of subjects, from visual illusions to borderline personality disorder to the limitations of free will, many of our most popular posts dealt with the intersection of neuroscience and everyday life. This fact is, perhaps, a testament to the increasing relevance of neuroscience and psychology to society. As scientists break open the black box of the mind, and begin to unravel the neural processes that define our behavior, it’s becoming clear that who we are—and what we decide to do—is ultimately shaped by the quirks and constraints of these three pounds of flesh inside the head.

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Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Nature - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - The authors statement is clear "In this article, we propose actions that will help society accept the benefits of enhancement, given appropriate research and evolved regulation. Prescription drugs are regulated as such not for their enhancing properties but primarily for considerations of safety and potential abuse. Still, cognitive enhancement has much to offer individuals and society, and a proper societal response will involve making enhancements available while managing their risks"

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Darwin's no help on the origins of greed

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Nick Cohen - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - The posters outside the Natural History museum's Darwin exhibition have a wary feel. They show the old boy shushing at the passers-by with a forefinger over his lips and a worried look in his eyes. Inside, the curators explain how he sat on his theory of evolution for fear of its social consequences with the help of a letter he wrote to his friend, Joseph Hooker. In 1844, 15 years before he found the courage to publish On the Origin of Species, he said: 'I am almost convinced that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.'

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One of Life's Tiny Dramas Captured Forever on Film

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ScienceBlogs.com - Nov. 02 (Review) - There are many inexplicable and tragic events in nature, yet few are captured on film. Here is an interesting series of photographs depicting a pair of swallows, Hirundo rustica (known as the Barn Swallow in the United States). In this series of images, we watch the story that unfolds after one of the birds was fatally injured, yet the bird's mate remains nearby, delivering food or water and keeping its dying companion company. In this image, we see the healthy bird as it "mantles" (covers with its wings) its injured, but still living, companion;

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Household Products: Start with labels

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jul. 24 (Editorial) - The public is getting a stinky deal from industry on many fresh-smelling products such as air fresheners, fabric softeners and detergents. The federal government needs to regulate the products more aggressively.

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The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure

Sun, 18 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Martin Portner - May. 18 (Review) - Principles of Pleasure * Sexual desire and orgasm are subject to various influences on the brain and nervous system, which controls the sex glands and genitals. * The ingredients of desire may differ for men and women, but researchers have revealed some surprising similarities. For example, visual stimuli spur sexual stirrings in women, as they do in men. * Achieving orgasm, brain imaging studies show, involves more than heightened arousal. It requires a release of inhibitions engineered by shutdown of the brain's center of vigilance in both sexes and a widespread neural power failure in females.

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An interview with Eric Kandel

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ScienceBlogs.com - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - Our German counterparts at ScienceBlogs.de have produced this 21-minute video of an interview they did with neuroscientist Eric Kandel, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory in the sea slug Aplysia californica. Kandel is one of the authors of Principles of Neural Science, the standard textbook for neuroscience at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. His autobiography, In Search of Memory, which was published in 2006 (and which I reviewed at the time), won the LA Times Book Award for Science and Technology in that year.

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Finger on the spot

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Apr. 14 (Opinion) - Your correspondent is all for scientific progress, but biologists have spent about 15 years trying to determine how best to set conservation priorities. Although the science has improved over the years, the continued emphasis on what to save, rather than how to do it, seems like cataloguing deck chairs on the Titanic. Biologists are still running modelling experiments to determine whether to save the Wedgwood or leaded crystal as the house smoulders and timbers fall from the roof.

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Monkeys Hear Voices

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Pascal Belin - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - The use of vocalizations, such as grunts, songs or barks, is extremely common throughout the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, humans are the only species in which these vocalizations have attained the sophistication and communicative effectiveness of speech. How did our ancestors become the only speaking animals, some tens of thousand years ago? Did this change happen abruptly, involving the sudden appearance of a new cerebral region or pattern of cerebral connections? Or did it happen through a more gradual evolutionary process, in which brain structures already present to some extent in other animals were put to a different and more complex use in the human brain?

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Chimpanzees take risks but bonobos play it safe

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ScienceBlogs.com - Mar. 26 (Review) - Would you gamble on a safe bet for the promise of something more? Would you risk losing everything for the possibility of greater rewards? In psychological experiments, humans tend to play it safe when we stand to gain something - we're more likely to choose a certain reward over a larger but riskier one. Now, we're starting to understand how our two closest relatives deal with risk - bonobos, like us, tend to be risk-averse while chimpanzees usually play the odds.

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Psychedelic Chemist Explores the Surreality of Inner Space, One Drug at a Time

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By David Biello - Mar. 20 (Review) - Alexander Shulgin is the world's foremost "psychonaut." The 82-year-old chemist has not only created more of the 300 known consciousness-altering (or psychoactive) compounds than anyone living or dead, he has, by his own account, sampled somewhere between 200 and 250 of them himself--most of them cooked up in the musty lab behind his home in the hills east of Berkeley, Calif., where he has shared many a chemical voyage with his wife of 26 years, Ann.

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What happens in the brain of an improvising jazz musician?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

ScienceBlogs.com - By Ed Yong - Mar. 03 (Opinion) - The scans imply that there is a very consistent pattern of brain activity linked to creativity, a pattern of heightened senses and self-expression with a lack of conscious control. And the very similar results from the Scale and Jazz scans suggest that this has nothing to do with the complexity of the music and everything to do with the creativity of the performers. -- Limb and Braun also tantalisingly suggest that a similar prefrontal shut-down could also be linked to other states of altered consciousness including meditation, hypnosis and most intriguingly, dreaming.

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