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June 13, 2012

4:01 PM | Japan Tsunami Debris on Pagan Island: Financial Problems May Lead to a Second Environmental Mess

This is a story about how a small island in the tropical pacific was proposed as a dumpsite for trash from the 2011 Japan tsunami. The story of Pagan Island involves the chemistry of Greece’s Pantheon, Jack Abramoff, sweatshops, and a bat so big it’s called a flying fox. Even on a remote uninhabited island, [...]

April 16, 2012

12:32 PM | Singing Snails and Killer Whales: Parallels in Conservation

According to ancient Hawaiian legend, the snails here sing in the trees at night. There are over 30 traditional Hawaiian songs and chants that mention tree snails. Much of the cultural knowledge of Polynesian people was passed on through song, and the fact that these animals were frequently mentioned shows us how important they were [...]

March 08, 2012

6:42 PM | Towing my weight: Partnering with commercial shipping for whale and dolphin research

I didn’t give much thought to shipping until I started doing my PhD on whales and dolphins. Food magically appeared onto store shelves out of thin air, where I bought it. I don’t think most of us give much thought to where our food comes from, but once I started paying attention how things get [...]

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Baby geniuses: young guppies show number skills

I have vague memories of the first time I counted to a hundred. It felt like one of those landmarks like tying your shoes for yourself the first time, or riding the bicycle more than a few feet without the training wheels or dad holding you up. Of course, I don't come anywhere near Adam Spencer: Once when I was about 7, I counted to 10,000 just to check the numbers didn't run out before then #NerdConfessions Counting large numbers is not something that comes easily for us humans. A new paper […]

Piffer L., Miletto Petrazzini M.E. & Agrillo C. (2013). Large number discrimination in newborn fish, PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062466

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The Earlier discovery of Antibiotic Resistance

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how quickly penicillin resistance was discovered not long before it was distributed to the public, and how even Alexander Fleming noted his worries over penicillin resistance in the closing of his Nobel prize acceptance speech. But even in the process of researching this article, I realised that I was merely scratching the surface. You see penicillin was not the first antibiotic discovered. If I want to talk about the first discovery of antibiotic […]

Bentley R. (2009). Different roads to discovery; Prontosil (hence sulfa drugs) and penicillin (hence β-lactams), Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, 36 (6) 775-786. DOI: 10.1007/s10295-009-0553-8

Macleod C. & Daddi G. (1939). A ''Sulfapyridine-Fast'' Strain of Pneumococcus Type 1, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 41 69-71. DOI: 10.3181/00379727-41-10575P

Cokkinis A.J. (1938). SULPHONAMIDE CHEMOTHERAPY IN SURGICAL INFECTIONS--I, BMJ, 2 (4059) 845-847. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.2.4059.845

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Stand by me: Close friendships appear to counteract genetic vulnerability to depression in girls, but not boys

Publication of US psychiatry's updated diagnostic code has provoked renewed debate in recent weeks over the extent to which mental illness ought to be framed as a psychosocial or a biological problem. The answer of course is that it is both. A new Canadian study captures this interplay, showing how close friendships appear to mitigate the risk for girls whose genes mean they are more vulnerable than average to depression. Mara Brendgen and her colleagues studied 294 pairs of twins aged ten […]

Brendgen, M., Vitaro, F., Bukowski, W., Dionne, G., Tremblay, R. & Boivin, M. (2013). Can friends protect genetically vulnerable children from depression?, Development and Psychopathology, 25 (02) 277-289. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579412001058

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Autism, plasma cytokines and siblings

I'm gonna try and be fairly brief in this post on the paper by Valerio Napolioni and colleagues* (open-access) looking at plasma cytokine profiles in cases of autism and their asymptomatic siblings. Brief because (a) the paper is open-access and (b) the participant groups (autism: n=25; sibling controls n=25) were relatively small so one has to be quite careful in extrapolating the findings with any large degree of confidence.Siblings by Paul Klee @ WikiPaintings Just in case you are […]

Napolioni V, Ober-Reynolds B, Szelinger S, Corneveaux JJ, Pawlowski T, Ober-Reynolds S, Kirwan J, Persico AM, Melmed RD, Craig DW & Smith CJ (2013). Plasma cytokine profiling in sibling pairs discordant for autism spectrum disorder., Journal of neuroinflammation, 10 38. PMID: 23497090

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Blood magic: old blood ages the young

“Our ancient countess was refused her desires will To bathe in pure fresh blood She’d peasant virgins killed Elizabeth, in the chasm where was my soul Forever young, Elizabeth Bathorii in the castle of your death You’re still alive, Elizabeth” -“Elizabeth”, Ghost As folklore has it, Elizabeth Bathorii, Countess of Hungary, often […]

Villeda SA, Luo J, Mosher KI, Zou B, Britschgi M, Bieri G, Stan TM, Fainberg N, Ding Z, Eggel A & Lucin KM (2011). The ageing systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function., Nature, 477 (7362) 90-4. PMID: 21886162

Loffredo FS, Steinhauser ML, Jay SM, Gannon J, Pancoast JR, Yalamanchi P, Sinha M, Dall'osso C, Khong D, Shadrach JL & Miller CM (2013). Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Is a Circulating Factor that Reverses Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy., Cell, 153 (4) 828-39. PMID: 23663781

Zhang G, Li J, Purkayastha S, Tang Y, Zhang H, Yin Y, Li B, Liu G & Cai D (2013). Hypothalamic programming of systemic ageing involving IKK-β, NF-κB and GnRH., Nature, 497 (7448) 211-6. PMID: 23636330

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June 13, 2012

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