PARADISE REGAINED!!!

Inhibitory activities of Puerariae Flos against testosterone 5α-reductase and its hair growth promotion activities.

Murata K, Noguchi K, Kondo M, Onishi M, Watanabe N, Okamura K, Matsuda H.
 

Crude drugs expected to have an estrogenic effect were screened for their inhibitory activity on testosterone 5α-reductase. Testosterone 5α-reductase is an enzyme catalyzing the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, which possesses high affinity for the androgen receptor. Among the crude drugs tested, we focused on Puerariae Flos (the flowers of Pueraria thomsonii) due to its potent inhibitory activity and suitability for commercial use. The 50% ethanolic extract of Puerariae Flos (PF-ext) showed inhibitory activity of 60.2% at 500 μg/ml against testosterone 5α-reductase. Interestingly, it was more potent than that of Puerariae Radix (roots of Pueraria lobata). PF-ext also showed in vivo anti-androgenic activity using a hair growth assay in testosterone-sensitive male C57Black/6NCrSlc strain mice. We demonstrated saponins, including soyasaponin I and kaikasaponin III, to be active components in PF-ext. In addition, hair growth promotion activity in C3H/He mice at 2 mg/mouse/day of the topical administration of PF-ext was demonstrated. Thus, Puerariae Flos is a promising crude drug for treating androgenic alopecia.

J Nat Med. 2011 Aug 6. [Epub ahead of print]

Why is this cool?

 This may be the paper that leads to the cure to baldness!! Men have dreamed of this for untold millennia! My favorite time of year is winter because it gets cold enough here that I have to wear a hat. While capped, I enjoy looking at my reflection in windows because I look like I have hair. I feel comfortable and confident with the slightest illusion of HAIR!!

 Before we get too far, let's discuss the paper. It says that they tested "crude drugs" ( I don't know exactly what this means) for their ability to inhibit 5-alpha reductase. One of the crude drugs that they tested was the extract of the flowers of Pueraria thomsonii.

They found stellar inhibition and, when tested on mice that were genetically engineered to be bald, they found that there was HAIR GROWTH!! One of the interesting things is that they don't identify the exact compound that inhibits 5-alpha reductase activity, but they have some leads in saponins. More on that when I review the entire paper.

 Often I find myself jumping to what I think is the natural conclusion of an idea and right now that conclusion is the end of "old." When you think of old men, you have several thoughts:

1. Baldness

2. That remaining hair is gray

3. Weathered skin

 Science will have cured baldness! Lotion and lack of outdoor manual labor has done in weathered skin! Normal hair dye has masked grayness! What is the new old? Kevin Bacon. He is 53 years old and is kicking it like he was in Footloose!! Our ideas of masculine old men will have to adjust to the Bacon paradigm!!

THALIDOMIDE!!!

Pharmacological properties of thalidomide (alpha-phthalimido glutarimide), a new sedative hypnotic drug.
SOMERS GF.

Thalidomide (alpha-phthalimidoglutarimide, "Distaval," "Contergan") is a new sedative hypnotic drug which produces no toxic effects when administered orally to animals in massive doses. This lack of toxicity may be due to limited absorption. The drug has a quietening effect on the central nervous system, reducing the voluntary activity of laboratory animals and promoting sleep. Unlike the barbiturate drugs it does not cause an initial excitation in mice, incoordination or narcosis. It potentiates the actions of other central nervous system depressants, in particular the barbiturates. Its sedative effects are counteracted by central nervous system stimulants. It has no deleterious side effects and does not affect the heart, respiration or autonomic nervous system.

Br J Pharmacol Chemother. 1960 Mar;15:111-6.

Thalidomide and congenital abnormalities.
SPEIRS AL.
Lancet. 1962 Feb 10;1(7224):303-5.

The Thalidomide Lesson.

Science.1962 Aug 17;137(3529):497.

Why is this cool?

 For those not in the know, thalidomide was originally a drug that was prescribed for nausea and the most nauseous people are pregnant. Naturally, pregnant women were prescribed the drug and for a while they felt better. Their sleepless nights ended with the drug, but began again once their children were born. It turns out that thalidomide causes very visible birth defects such as flippers and webbed hands.

 This is cool?!

 Let me explain why I think this is cool. Obviously, flipper babies are tragedies, but  I have an immense interest in understanding how it is that the DNA gets decoded into a human and the embryo is the biggest jump. Thalidomide gave us a peek into the world of the developing human!

 I also wonder how much stress the embryo can take before malformations occur. Is it possible that with the correct concentration and temporal administration of teratogens we can vastly alter human morphology while retaining all the psychological elements of humanity.

 THIS IS MASQUE!!! He produces teratogens and molds human flesh to his whim!!

 Delving into truly unattainable levels, what if teratogen therapy can be applied such that animal embryos, such as primates, could be create a human-esque being? Or human embryos altered to produce animals. Maybe more practically, teratogen therapy could be used to ensure parents with genetic malformations can treat their children in utero to prevent such malformations from manifesting. A chemical approach to genetic disorders as opposed to a genetic or stem cell approach!

Dinosaurs became birds!!!!

The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the late cretaceous of madagascar

Forster CA, Sampson SD, Chiappe LM, Krause DW.

A partial skeleton of a primitive bird, Rahona ostromi, gen. et sp. nov., has been discovered from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. This specimen, although exhibiting avian features such as a reversed hallux and ulnar papillae, retains characteristics that indicate a theropod ancestry, including a pubic foot and hyposphene-hypantra vertebral articulations. Rahona has a robust, hyperextendible second digit on the hind foot that terminates in a sicklelike claw, a unique characteristic of the theropod groups Troodontidae and Dromaeosauridae. A phylogenetic analysis places Rahona with Archaeopteryx, making Rahona one of the most primitive birds yet discovered.

Science. 1998 Mar 20;279(5358):1915-9.

Why is this cool?

Dinosaurs rock! Definitely not as much as dragons, but they are the closest we may ever get to real dragons. Today's paper is all about how dinosaurs have evolved into birds!! They present evidence that suggests several similarities between birds and dinosaurs (I say dinosaurs, but the author is specifically referring to Archaeopteryx). I will not go into the evidence, because it is fairly straightforward from the abstract.

 You may be thinking that birds are not awesome and their connection to dinosaurs only sullies the reputation of all thunder lizards, but you are so wrong. There are only three genres of flying animal: birds, bats, and insects. Insects are not animals, but you know what I mean. Insects and bats are both annoying, leaving only birds to be impressed by. 

If you need more reasons why birds rock, the great United States has declared that the most badass bird around, the Bald Eagle, represents the tenets of truth, liberty, and the American way.

 Just to be sure, here is a battle between a dragon and dinosaur. The dinosaur wins for being less fictional

Elephant Extinction!!!

Will Elephants Soon Disappear from West African Savannahs?

Philippe Bouché1*, Iain Douglas-Hamilton2,5, George Wittemyer2,3, Aimé J. Nianogo4, Jean-Louis Doucet1, Philippe Lejeune1, Cédric Vermeulen1

Precipitous declines in Africa's native fauna and flora are recognized, but few comprehensive records of these changes have been compiled. Here, we present population trends for African elephants in the 6,213,000 km2 Sudano-Sahelian range of West and Central Africa assessed through the analysis of aerial and ground surveys conducted over the past 4 decades. These surveys are focused on the best protected areas in the region, and therefore represent the best case scenario for the northern savanna elephants. A minimum of 7,745 elephants currently inhabit the entire region, representing a minimum decline of 50% from estimates four decades ago for these protected areas. Most of the historic range is now devoid of elephants and, therefore, was not surveyed. Of the 23 surveyed elephant populations, half are estimated to number less than 200 individuals. Historically, most populations numbering less than 200 individuals in the region were extirpated within a few decades. Declines differed by region, with Central African populations experiencing much higher declines (−76%) than those in West Africa (−33%). As a result, elephants in West Africa now account for 86% of the total surveyed. Range wide, two refuge zones retain elephants, one in West and the other in Central Africa. These zones are separated by a large distance (~900 km) of high density human land use, suggesting connectivity between the regions is permanently cut. Within each zone, however, sporadic contacts between populations remain. Retaining such connectivity should be a high priority for conservation of elephants in this region. Specific corridors designed to reduce the isolation of the surveyed populations are proposed. The strong commitment of governments, effective law enforcement to control the illegal ivory trade and the involvement of local communities and private partners are all critical to securing the future of elephants inhabiting Africa's northern savannas. 


PLoS One. 2011;6(6):e20619. Epub 2011 Jun 22.


Why is this sad?
 I have never been to Africa and my wife has underlined the clause in our marriage contract that prohibits me from dragging her there. So, I have never seen an elephant in the wild. As a child, I rode on an elephant at a circus, but I never learned his name or his family history.  Maybe it was a her. This all comes to the fact that I love elephants! Remember that song "Teddy Bear's Picnic"? I thought it was about elephants...until last year.  Somewhere I heard that elephants have great memories and that means they want picnics, so I just assumed the song had "elephants" everywhere "teddy bears" shows up.

 On that note, it saddens me to read that elephants will one day be extinct. It makes me think of that story "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse," where they describe how Kennedy's boat is now stuck in concrete.  What did the researchers do? They went over Africa for four decades and monitored the decline in the elephant population.  They found that elephant populations are declining all over the place!! Some by 76 %! They found that even elephants in refuges were declining! If the refuge were a mutual fund and the elephants were share price, people would take action if the fund manager let the stock slip in value by 76%...over four decades!

Ebenezer  "Ebony" Hide

  It is something like Elephantmen which everyone should read.  Mappo created human-animal hybrids as an army to conquer Europe and they did.  The fun ends when the UN raids the training/production facility and liberates the ~100,000 elephantmen. Not all of them at elephants though. There are crocodiles, elephants, hippopotami, zebras, giraffes, camels, rhinoceri, and warthogs. Curiously, no lions or hyenas.  The liberated elephantmen are rehabilitated and turned loose to slowly die out.  This connects to elephants because I feel that they are just dying out slowly and we are just watching them.

 

EXTINCTION AGENDA!!!

Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth

James A. Estes et al.

Until recently, large apex consumers were ubiquitous across the globe and had been for millions of years. The loss of these animals may be humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature. Although such losses are widely viewed as an ethical and aesthetic problem, recent research reveals extensive cascading effects of their disappearance in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This empirical work supports long-standing theory about the role of top-down forcing in ecosystems but also highlights the unanticipated impacts of trophic cascades on processes as diverse as the dynamics of disease, wildfire, carbon sequestration, invasive species, and biogeochemical cycles. These findings emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast the effects of trophic downgrading on process, function, and resilience in global ecosystems.

Science 15 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6040 pp. 301-306 

What is this cool?

 This is amazing because it shows that the loss of large organisms in an environment have massive effects! Of course it does because the environment/ecosystem as we know it evolved with all those organisms. What kinds of creatures are out there keeping the world machine running?

Lions

Tigers, all kinds

Tuna

Wolves

Wildebeasts!

Seastars (really)

 This seems like when a co-worker dies  and, at the funeral, you see the numerous people related to the deceased in one way or another. Then you go back to work and see people affected by the death who didn't attend the funeral. Then you go to a lunch place and find out that the deceased was acquaintances with the waitress and she becomes really distraught. Later during a fire, you find out that the co-worker was a volunteer firefighter. Lastly, you find out that the co-worker was really good at their job and now the work environment is getting hostile because the boss wants results. Once embedded, a person or organism become vital to the normal operation of a business or ecosystem, respectively.


I'm just saying that you should go and hug your friend, because he or she is probably important to someone.

ORIGIN OF THE SEXES!!!

Running with the Red Queen: Host-Parasite Coevolution Selects for Biparental Sex

Levi T. Morran*, Olivia G. Schmidt, Ian A. Gelarden, Raymond C. Parrish II, Curtis M. Lively

Most organisms reproduce through outcrossing, even though it comes with substantial costs. The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that selection from coevolving pathogens facilitates the persistence of outcrossing despite these costs. We used experimental coevolution to test the Red Queen hypothesis and found that coevolution with a bacterial pathogen (Serratia marcescens) resulted in significantly more outcrossing in mixed mating experimental populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Furthermore, we found that coevolution with the pathogen rapidly drove obligately selfing populations to extinction, whereas outcrossing populations persisted through reciprocal coevolution. Thus, consistent with the Red Queen hypothesis, coevolving pathogens can select for biparental sex. 

Science 8 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6039 pp. 216-218

Why is this cool?

 If you are like me, sometimes you will stare at someone while they talk and think about something...anything. You may look at their body and wonder if anyone finds them attractive and then you wonder what it means to be attracted. Why is there attraction? Why can't we reproduce without a partner? Why do we need women? Why is love so cruel?

 Today's researcher's may have ideas about the last question, but their work focuses on why two sexes ever evolved.  The abstract states the following "The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that selection from coevolving pathogens facilitates the persistence of outcrossing despite these costs." They tested this with nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans) which can reproduce asexually or with a mate.  The nematodes were separated into two groups and one was grown in the presence of a pathogenic bacteria (Serratia marcescens) and the other was not.  They found that the bacterially infected nematodes ceased to asexually reproduce and shifted to mating with a partner.

 As a teenager, I often wondered why I yearned for love and that "other." You know, the someone who completes me and boils my thin blood.  I am drawn towards the perfect Her not because I philosophically believe that someone else is necessary, but because my biology is pre-programmed that way. 

 It is startlingly to me that this compulsion for someone else is an evolutionary accident. Great poetry and prose are all the indirect result of some pathogen changing our evolutionary trajectory.  Clint Eastwood may appear to be pretty bad ass in his movies, but he always comes off as some unnatural creature. He fights, revenges, and smokes, but he never has a partner dangling off his arm. His lack of partner feels off. In a world where humans reproduced asexually, Clint Eastwood would always have a mate. 

Extreme longevity!!!

Extreme longevity in proteinaceous deep-sea corals. 
Roark EB, Guilderson TP, Dunbar RB, Fallon SJ, Mucciarone DA.
Deep-sea corals are found on hard substrates on seamounts and continental margins worldwide at depths of 300 to approximately 3,000 m. Deep-sea coral communities are hotspots of deep ocean biomass and biodiversity, providing critical habitat for fish and invertebrates. Newly applied radiocarbon age dates from the deep water proteinaceous corals Gerardia sp. and Leiopathes sp. show that radial growth rates are as low as 4 to 35 mum year(-1) and that individual colony longevities are on the order of thousands of years. The longest-lived Gerardia sp. and Leiopathes sp. specimens were 2,742 years and 4,265 years, respectively. The management and conservation of deep-sea coral communities is challenged by their commercial harvest for the jewelry trade and damage caused by deep-water fishing practices. In light of their unusual longevity, a better understanding of deep-sea coral ecology and their interrelationships with associated benthic communities is needed to inform coherent international conservation strategies for these important deep-sea habitat-forming species.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Mar 31;106(13):5204-8. Epub 2009 Mar 23.

Why is this cool?

 Do you know how old I am? I am 29 years old and, on the infinite countertop of evolutionary time, I am a fleck of dust. My existence no more registers to it than the bacteria on your eyebrows registers to you. Were an organism to live a really long time, then it could be privy to the time tested secrets of evolution!! Imagine that a sentient redwood would be able to see change. Serious change. Not a nickels and dimes, dollars. Bank vaults of dollars!
 What did the researchers do? They did some radiocarbon dating and determined the age of living coral reefs! They found that the "longest-lived Gerardia sp. and Leiopathes sp. specimens were 2,742 years and 4,265 years, respectively." 

 Do you know what radiocarbon dating is? Let me explain. We are carbon-based lifeforms, but all carbon is not equal. The carbon that composes most of our body, clothes, general stuff is carbon-12. There also exists carbon-13 which is stable, but does not occur in large amounts. The interesting one is carbon-14 which decays at a specific rate and occurs in a fixed ratio in everything carbon. I am getting outside of my knowledge base here, so you should check the exact details yourself. What makes does it mean to say that carbon-14 decays? And what is the difference between carbons-12,13, and 14? The difference is a neutron. Carbon-12 has six neutrons, while 13 and 14 have 7 and 8, respectively. Carbon-14 decay means that the nucleus cannot support that number of neutrons for whatever reason and it becomes carbon-13 by ejecting a neutron. Since the ratio between the various carbons is known, researchers can figure out how old a carbon thing is by seeing how much carbon-14 has decayed.
 So, these coral have been shown to live for thousands of years! I don't think there is any medical use that can come from this discovery, just because the organisms are so completely different. I do think that it tells us just how amazing the world is!
These insignificant bacteria were on the bottom of the ocean when Kang the Conqueror was defeated by the Fantastic Four in ancient Egypt!

Those coral were filter feeding without knowing that Iron Man and Dr. Doom were battling in Camelot!

As those same exact corals flapped with each current, Dracula became the Lord of the Vampires!!

More importantly, could those corals recognize the importance of Storm taking control of the Morlocks?!?!

Obesity in Asia!!!

Body Mass Index and Diabetes in Asia: A Cross-Sectional Pooled Analysis of 900,000 Individuals in the Asia Cohort Consortium

Background
The occurrence of diabetes has greatly increased in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Asia, as has the prevalence of overweight and obesity; in European-derived populations, overweight and obesity are established causes of diabetes. The shape of the association of overweight and obesity with diabetes risk and its overall impact have not been adequately studied in Asia. 

Methods and Findings
A pooled cross-sectional analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between baseline body mass index (BMI, measured as weight in kg divided by the square of height in m) and self-reported diabetes status in over 900,000 individuals recruited in 18 cohorts from Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Logistic regression models were fitted to calculate cohort-specific odds ratios (OR) of diabetes for categories of increasing BMI, after adjustment for potential confounding factors. OR were pooled across cohorts using a random-effects meta-analysis. The sex- and age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes was 4.3% in the overall population, ranging from 0.5% to 8.2% across participating cohorts. Using the category 22.5–24.9 Kg/m2 as reference, the OR for diabetes spanned from 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31, 0.76) for BMI lower than 15.0 kg/m2 to 2.23 (95% CI 1.86, 2.67) for BMI higher than 34.9 kg/m2. The positive association between BMI and diabetes prevalence was present in all cohorts and in all subgroups of the study population, although the association was stronger in individuals below age 50 at baseline (p-value of interaction<0.001), in cohorts from India and Bangladesh (p<0.001), in individuals with low education (p-value 0.02), and in smokers (p-value 0.03); no differences were observed by gender, urban residence, or alcohol drinking. 

Conclusions
This study estimated the shape and the strength of the association between BMI and prevalence of diabetes in Asian populations and identified patterns of the association by age, country, and other risk factors for diabetes.

PLoS ONE 6(6): e19930. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019930

Why is this cool?

 The researchers recorded the body mass index of 900,000 people across Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. They found that there was a positive correlation between high body mass index and presence of diabetes. This correlation extends across gender, location, and alcohol consumption.
 You may ask "We already knew that, so what is the big deal?"

 Well, it is an interesting thing, but most studies on diabetes on on people of European descent and it is entirely possible that the Asian peoples are sufficiently different, due to their particular evolutionary history, such that diabetes does not result from being fat. Well, that was not the case. Another idea, and I don't know if they checked it, is that the Asian diet may make a huge difference and as such it could disconnect diabetes from weight. Again, their data suggests that no matter how you get fat, you are racing towards diabetes.

 Why is this interesting to me? Well, I live in the States and here we worry about China dominating everything because of their invincible economy. An economy which is not as burdened as the American one is with old people and overweight people. Can China's economy grow as quickly as it has been when it becomes saddled with the long lived and obese? I suspect not. I wonder what cultural initiatives will be cooked up to deal with their obesity. What has been done for the obesity problem of the U.S. of A.?
 I also see this issue as another aspect of global warfare! Imagine that the USA projected unparalleled spending power on the part of China and was running out of options on how to contain or otherwise mitigate that growth, what choices would it have?

The US would institute a system of actively prompting massive food consumption! The people would be obese. The economy burdened with health costs. This is the future!

SEX PILLS!!!

Turning Males On: Activation of Male Courtship Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

Yufeng Pan, Carmen C. Robinett, Bruce S. Baker

The innate sexual behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster males are an attractive system for elucidating how complex behavior patterns are generated. The potential for male sexual behavior in D. melanogaster is specified by the fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx) sex regulatory genes. We used the temperature-sensitive activator dTRPA1 to probe the roles of fruM- and dsx-expressing neurons in male courtship behaviors. Almost all steps of courtship, from courtship song to ejaculation, can be induced at very high levels through activation of either all fruM or all dsx neurons in solitary males. Detailed characterizations reveal different roles for fruM and dsx in male courtship. Surprisingly, the system for mate discrimination still works well when all dsx neurons are activated, but is impaired when all fruM neurons are activated. Most strikingly, we provide evidence for a fruM-independent courtship pathway that is primarily vision dependent. 

PLoS ONE 6(6): e21144. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021144

Why is this cool?

 The researchers did something here that is truly amazing: they found a pathway into male courtship behavior...in flies!!!! "Almost all steps of courtship, from courtship song to ejaculation, can be induced at very high levels through activation of either all fruM or all dsx neurons in solitary males."  Kablam!! I don't know much about flies or their mating behavior, but I think this could have amazing repercussions on human mating!

 Imagine that an analogous system is investigated in humans and that medicines are discovered to activate or deactivate the system in both men or women! The activating pill would be prescribed to couples who are experiencing a lull in their physical interactions. I say physical because the concentration of whatever this fantastical drug will decide the type of interaction.

A low dose gives attraction and high dose gives complete submission to sexual desire. Maybe the deactivating pill would be prescribed for a cheating spouse or a spouse that feels the urge to cheat. 

It reminds me of the story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I'm thinking specifically of the scene where Deckard and his wife are arguing about using the mood organ. If you have not read it, you really should because Blade Runner omits a great many awesome ideas.

SMOKING ROCKS!!!

Nicotine decreases food intake through activation of POMC neurons.

Mineur YS, Abizaid A, Rao Y, Salas R, DiLeone RJ, Gündisch D, Diano S, De Biasi M, Horvath TL, Gao XB, Picciotto MR.

Smoking decreases appetite, and smokers often report that they smoke to control their weight. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the anorexic effects of smoking would facilitate the development of novel treatments to help with smoking cessation and to prevent or treat obesity. By using a combination of pharmacological, molecular genetic, electrophysiological, and feeding studies, we found that activation of hypothalamic α3β4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors leads to activation of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons. POMC neurons and subsequent activation of melanocortin 4 receptors were critical for nicotinic-induced decreases in food intake in mice. This study demonstrates that nicotine decreases food intake and body weight by influencing the hypothalamic melanocortin system and identifies critical molecular and synaptic mechanisms involved in nicotine-induced decreases in appetite.

Science. 2011 Jun 10;332(6035):1330-2.

Why is this cool?

 SMOKING IS GOOD...for something. There has been a lot of talk about cancer and emphysema associated with cigarettes and all that data is pretty conclusive, but what if cigarettes actually did some good?! People have known that smokers are usually skinny and wily, but why?

 Turns out smokin' activates your brain to be less hungry. So, when you see someone bad mouthing cancer sticks, you tell them that you're losing weight in an all natural way because going to the gym is unnatural. Animals don't gym and they are as natural as it gets. They just keep it trim and smoke all the time.

  What did the researchers do? They say that through "a combination of pharmacological, molecular genetic, electrophysiological, and feeding studies" they were able to see activation of "pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons." I don't know anything about these neurons or neurobiology, so I can not say exactly what that means. What I can say is that they have found a mechanism by which nicotine intake affects appetite and that is stellar!

 What does this mean for the future? Maybe this research will be a drug and just like multivitamins people will take them everyday to stay slim. Gyms would go out of business because the pill would keep people slender and they would not feel the urge to break themselves on an elliptical. 

 The government could enforce the pill and bring down rising healthcare costs attributed to obesity! Imagine that being on insurers may do the same because costs associated with obesity are so high.  Are the financial costs of obesity so much higher than those attributed to smoking as to justify heavy taxes on sweets and high calorie foods while lowering taxes on and regulations of smoking? A skinny world could be perfection...maybe.

GOSSIP!!!

The Visual Impact of Gossip.
Anderson E, Siegel EH, Bliss-Moreau E, Barrett LF.

Gossip is a form of affective information about who is friend and who is foe. We show that gossip does not impact only how a face is evaluated-it affects whether a face is seen in the first place. In two experiments, neutral faces were paired with negative, positive, or neutral gossip and were then presented alone in a binocular rivalry paradigm (faces were presented to one eye, houses to the other). In both studies, faces previously paired with negative (but not positive or neutral) gossip dominated longer in visual consciousness. These findings demonstrate that gossip, as a potent form of social affective learning, can influence vision in a completely top-down manner, independent of the basic structural features of a face.

Science. 2011 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

Why is this is cool?

 This is so cool that I can barely contain my excitement! I think the abstract sums up their work really well, but here is a brief re-cap of the main point: gossip about something affects how you see that something! Negative gossip makes you visually aware of the thing gossiped about! 

 I see this has having huge ramifications for education. The authors suggest the same and I think it would be interesting to explore thoughtspace on this issue. It seems to fit with that age old idiom "you learn more from mistakes than from successes." That is if you generalize a mistake to be an input of negative information on a topic. So, having this knowledge what would be the best way to teach? 

 Maybe instead of talking about the achievements that Richard Nixon had, an elementary school teacher would discuss the many failures of Nixon? The idea being that knowing his failures would increase knowledge retention.

 What about a PE teacher who makes sure to evenly split up the class so that adept athletes can not pick other adept athletes and, thus, increases the randomness of the game and the chances that each student will learn from losing instead of just the shrimpy kids who get annihilated?

 Is it possible that knowing only successes does not increase consciousness on a topic? Am I so far off? I should read the paper and see what they say. 

 Are there other things besides education that could be affected by this? Could this explain politics in some way? No, matter how well intentioned and skillful a politician may be, a negative comment will have a more lasting impact?

VIRUS INDUCED BEHAVIOR CHANGE!!!

Infection with a plant virus modifies vector feeding behavior.

Stafford CA, Walker GP, Ullman DE.

Vector infection by some animal-infecting parasites results in altered feeding that enhances transmission. Modification of vector behavior is of broad adaptive significance, as parasite fitness relies on passage to a new host, and vector feeding is nearly always essential for transmission. Although several plant viruses infect their insect vectors, we have shown that vector infection by a plant virus alters feeding behavior. Here we show that infection with Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), type member of the only plant-infecting genus in the Bunyaviridae, alters the feeding behavior of its thrips vector, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande). Male thrips infected with TSWV fed more than uninfected males, with the frequency of all feeding behaviors increasing by up to threefold, thus increasing the probability of virus inoculation. Importantly, infected males made almost three times more noningestion probes (probes in which they salivate, but leave cells largely undamaged) compared with uninfected males. A functional cell is requisite for TSWV infection and cell-to-cell movement; thus, this behavior is most likely to establish virus infection. Some animal-infecting members of the Bunyaviridae (La Crosse virus and Rift Valley fever virus) also cause increased biting rates in infected vectors. Concomitantly, these data support the hypothesis that capacity to modify vector feeding behavior is a conserved trait among plant- and animal-infecting members of the Bunyaviridae that evolved as a mechanism to enhance virus transmission. Our results underscore the evolutionary importance of vector behavioral modification to diverse parasites with host ranges spanning both plant and animal kingdoms.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jun 7;108(23):9350-5. Epub 2011 May 23.

Why is this cool?

 First of all, what is it? Something that I didn't know for awhile was that "vector" does not just mean a line with a direction, it also means something that carries disease from to the host. An example is that fleas were vectors for bubonic plague during the Black Death time. Today's paper is about how how a plant virus (Tomato spotted wilt virus) infects thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) and how the thrip infects tomato plants.

 What they found was that after being infected, thrips  increase their feeding three-fold when compared to uninfected thrips. They also found that infected thrips had increased probing tendencies also about three-fold increased. Looking at it in broad terms, a virus changed the behavior of an organism. Wow! Like Super Wow. World of Warcraft WoW!!

 There are times that I look in the mirror and I see myself as a person with interests and a history and beliefs about many things, but, sometimes, I see something different. My eyes wander over my nose, glasses, and mouth, only to see a biological machine. If a computer could see itself in a mirror, it would see itself as I sometimes see myself. 

The biological machine is the execution of timeless genetic material and it subject to further programming. I would like to believe that I am some biologically-independent personality, but after reading about how my personality can change with insufficient HP and how a blow to the head can make me mind dead, I am positive that it is not the case. This thing I call "me" exists in a precarious state of well-fed (possibly over-fed) and disease-free. If one of those things should change, so would my personality.

 Strange, I say "my personality" as if it were a thing like a messenger bag that I carry all my things in. Am I the collection of my personality, history, and biological disposition? What is this thing called "me"?

HIGH GRAVITY LIFE!!!

Microbial growth at hyperaccelerations up to 403,627 x g.

Deguchi S, Shimoshige H, Tsudome M, Mukai SA, Corkery RW, Ito S, Horikoshi K.

It is well known that prokaryotic life can withstand extremes of temperature, pH, pressure, and radiation. Little is known about the proliferation of prokaryotic life under conditions of hyperacceleration attributable to extreme gravity, however. We found that living organisms can be surprisingly proliferative during hyperacceleration. In tests reported here, a variety of microorganisms, including Gram-negative Escherichia coli, Paracoccus denitrificans, and Shewanella amazonensis; Gram-positive Lactobacillus delbrueckii; and eukaryotic Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were cultured while being subjected to hyperaccelerative conditions. We observed and quantified robust cellular growth in these cultures across a wide range of hyperacceleration values. Most notably, the organisms P. denitrificans and E. coli were able to proliferate even at 403,627 × g. Analysis shows that the small size of prokaryotic cells is essential for their proliferation under conditions of hyperacceleration. Our results indicate that microorganisms cannot only survive during hyperacceleration but can display such robust proliferative behavior that the habitability of extraterrestrial environments must not be limited by gravity.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Apr 25. [Epub ahead of print]

Why is this cool?

 Are we alone in the universe? Is there others out there sharing this thing called life? I am pretty sure bad ass aliens like Squeed roam the universe looking for a place to shoot their whatever guns and drink their madness juices.

From TURF By Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards from Image

 Today's paper is not about aliens, it is about bland microbes, but those microbes demonstrate something that we have always known, NOTHING CAN STOP LIFE!! Well, more like nothing can stop bacteria (and yeast) from growing anywhere. Anyway, the researchers took some microbes and spun them around to simulate an increase in gravity. They maxed out at 403,627 times Earth gravity!
To put that into context, if you weighed 100 lbs on Earth, you would weight 2700 lbs on the sun and that is only 28 times Earth gravity. Now, imagine 403,627 times Earth gravity! It would be kind of like being on the surface of a white dwarf!

Enter the White, Hot Room

 Since we are on the topic of aliens, What do you think will happen in that movie Super 8? Without a doubt, it is the only movie that looks interesting this summer.