PLANT TALK!!!

Root communication among desert shrubs.

Mahall BE, Callaway RM.

Descriptive and experimental studies of desert shrub distributions have revealed important questions about the mechanisms by which plants interact. For example, do roots interact by mechanisms other than simple competition for limiting resources? We investigated this question using the desert shrubs Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata grown in chambers that allowed observation of roots during intraplant and intra- and interspecific interplant encounters. Two types of root "communication" were revealed. Ambrosia root systems appear to be capable of detecting and avoiding other Ambrosia root systems, whereas Larrea roots inhibit Larrea and Ambrosia roots in their vicinity.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Feb 1;88(3):874-6.

Why is this cool?

 Plants are just completely amazing, because they provide us with food, material for clothing, poison, and perfumes. Given the vast ecological and personal importance that plants have, it is odd that their more unique features are not more highly publicized. Today's paper investigates the communication between plants!

Ambrosia dumosa

 What did they did? They grew two different desert shrub species (Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata) together in various combinations and there were able to show that "Ambrosia root systems appear to be capable of detecting and avoiding other Ambrosia root systems, whereas Larrea roots inhibit Larrea and Ambrosia roots in their vicinity." Amazing! Some important questions to be answered are:
1. How widespread is this interaction?
2. Are there examples of plants interacting to benefit each other?
3. Do these shrubs communicate in any other ways?

Larrea tridentata

 I see this paper as a step in the direction of understanding communication between non-mobile beings. It could be a clockwork situation were a given set of circumstances are met and then a given set of responses are given. As a plant evolves in a more complex environment then circumstances and accepted stimuli could give responses that are amazingly epic! What kind of responses?

 Maybe plants would develop unique behavioral weapons against humans!! Just like the Happening! The worst case scenario would be Ents. Those tree looking things are useless. 

SUGAR MAKES YOU LESS VIOLENT!!!

Sweetened blood cools hot tempers: physiological self-control and aggression.
DeWall CN, Deckman T, Gailliot MT, Bushman BJ.

Aggressive and violent behaviors are restrained by self-control. Self-control consumes a lot of glucose in the brain, suggesting that low glucose and poor glucose metabolism are linked to aggression and violence. Four studies tested this hypothesis. Study 1 found that participants who consumed a glucose beverage behaved less aggressively than did participants who consumed a placebo beverage. Study 2 found an indirect relationship between diabetes (a disorder marked by low glucose levels and poor glucose metabolism) and aggressiveness through low self-control. Study 3 found that states with high diabetes rates also had high violent crime rates. Study 4 found that countries with high rates of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (a metabolic disorder related to low glucose levels) also had higher killings rates, both war related and non-war related. All four studies suggest that a spoonful of sugar helps aggressive and violent behaviors go down.

Aggress Behav. 2011 Jan;37(1):73-80.

Why is this cool?

 Let me tell you my favorite candies: Reese's peanut butter cups, Buckeyes from Schmidt's in Columbus, Whatchamacallits, and most gummy stuff. How often do I eat these candies? All the time. I go through a pound a week and I brush often to keep my cavities at bay. Today's paper is about about how glucose is linked with violence!

 So, the researchers performed four studies that showed:

1. People who consumed a sugary drink behaved less aggressively than those that consumed a placebo drink.

2. Somehow that having diabetes correlates with aggressiveness.

3. That States with high levels of diabetes also had high levels of violent crime.

4. When an important enzyme in sugar metabolism is deficient in a particular country for evolutionary reasons then that country has more killing.

 This sounds really suspicious. It is easy to believe this paper because kids eat candy and they seem mild enough. Adults don't eat as much candy and they are the ones causing most of the violence. I think I really need to read this paper before I believe these results. Let me tell you my various suspicions. Study 3 involving diabetes is especially strange because diabetes is very prevalent in Mexican and Black communities, both of which are statistically likely to be poor. I think that the correlation could be showing economic issues versus physiological issues. Study 4 is strange because we don't know if a deficiency in the important enzyme (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) really affects sugar metabolism in those individuals. It is possible that deficiency in that enzyme is not a problem for sugar metabolism because there are compensatory mutations. Study 2 seems like a small scale version of Study 3, Blacks and Mexicans have higher levels of diabetes and are statistically likely to be poor and poor translates into violence. Before we can really take this study seriously, we need to know what controls were run to correct for socio-economic, racial, and historical factors.
 Just for a second, let's pretend that the results of this study were completely true, how could we apply it? Well, if people are constantly ingesting sugar, then they should be less aggressive on average. Those less aggressive people may be more easily controlled!! Is that the reason that high fructose corn syrup is in everything!? Probably not.

BIG BRAINS!!!

Are bigger brains better? 

Chittka L, Niven J.

Attempts to relate brain size to behaviour and cognition have rarely integrated information from insects with that from vertebrates. Many insects, however, demonstrate that highly differentiated motor repertoires, extensive social structures and cognition are possible with very small brains, emphasising that we need to understand the neural circuits, not just the size of brain regions, which underlie these feats. Neural network analyses show that cognitive features found in insects, such as numerosity, attention and categorisation-like processes, may require only very limited neuron numbers. Thus, brain size may have less of a relationship with behavioural repertoire and cognitive capacity than generally assumed, prompting the question of what large brains are for. Larger brains are, at least partly, a consequence of larger neurons that are necessary in large animals due to basic biophysical constraints. They also contain greater replication of neuronal circuits, adding precision to sensory processes, detail to perception, more parallel processing and enlarged storage capacity. Yet, these advantages are unlikely to produce the qualitative shifts in behaviour that are often assumed to accompany increased brain size. Instead, modularity and interconnectivity may be more important.

Curr Biol. 2009 Nov 17;19(21):R995-R1008.

Why is this cool?

  Today's paper is a review/hypothesis paper that points at large brains and laughs at them. From the abstract, the authors highlight the fact that all behaviors that people think are special in humans are, in fact, replicated by any number of species. On top of that, those species have incomprehensibly small brains!! How do they do it?
 Let's flip the question and ask, why are our awesome mammal brains so gargantuan?

1. We are bigger and as a consequence our brains cells (neurons and glia) have to be bigger.

2. We do a lot of precise work and so we need extremely precise motor control.

3. We remember a lot of stuff.

4. PARALLEL PROCESSING!! We replicate many neuronal circuits and as a result we can think multiple things at once!

 Well, it turns out that to function in this cold world, you don't need all of that stuff. You can get by just swinging sticks and thinking one thought at a time. When you think about all the add-ons that we have in our brains, we seem to be carrying around a Rube-Goldberg Brain!
 Consider this, to turn on a light you need only get to the light and flip the switch. You don't need to be particularly precise and you don't need to be particularly balanced. You don't need to remember that birthday party where you had no friends and you cried yourself to sleep and then your Mom woke up by turning on your bedroom light. Also, you don't need to think about how lights can be improved or how you can improve energy consumption by changing your bulbs. You just need to get to the switch and flip it. Now, when I think of the Tyrannosaurus Rex brain being super tiny, it makes sense. You don't need a super brain to mutilate animals. You just need razor sharp teeth and focus.
 Interestingly, smart people are referred to as big brains, but in comics no super genius has a massive head to house an equally massive brain. Villain geniuses, on the other hand, almost always have hypnotically larges heads. 

 I don't know what Krang's deal is with the Ninja Turtles. He is some interdimensional conqueror, but I have never seen him do anything worthwhile. He certainly is menacing with that huge brain.

So, Lobe was a normal human who used science to replicate the powers of mutants and to give himself super intelligence! Awesome! Also, he is the current CEO or CSO of the Sublime Corporation.

  I had never heard of Egg-Fu until 52, when he recruited a ton of superscientists to create the Four Horsemen in order for Intergang to get revenge on Black Adam! Yes, he is a big egg.

  The Leader is one of the original big headed villians! He has gone through the years trying to prove to the Hulk that brains beat brawn, but, sadly, he is completely wrong. Recently, he has put together some superscientists of his own and, I think, created the RED HULK!

Mental.
Organism.
Designed.
Only for.
Killing.

 M.O.D.O.K. takes the game to a new level! He was super evolved by A.I.M. and was a nobody for many years. By nobody, I mean that he was a joke in the villain world. Recently, he has teamed up with the Leader to be superscience bad asses. Unfortunatley, not everyone wants to see the 'DOK all sorts of extreme and so he regularly appears in silly comics.

Baldness caused by gravity?

Baldness may be caused by the weight of the scalp: gravity as a proposed mechanism for hair loss.

Ustuner ET.

Available theories on the etiology and pathogenesis of male pattern baldness have not been satisfactory. Nonetheless, the most widely adopted theory today is the androgenetic theory. The current article introduces a new theory. According to the new theory the pressure created by the weight of the scalp is the cause of the baldness. The weight of the whole scalp over the loose areolar tissue is the operative weight. Hair follicles are pressed between the scalp skin and the cranial bones. The soft tissues around the hair follicles work as a buffer against the pressure. When the buffer decreases and becomes inadequate with age the effective pressure on the hair follicles increases. Unlike the existing theories, the new theory is able to explain every feature of male and female pattern baldness and agrees completely with all scientifically established facts and produced data. The new theory promises a radical change in how baldness is conceived and treated. Notice by the author: The materials and methods that utilize the new theory described in this article for prevention and treatment of hair loss are in patent pending status.

Med Hypotheses. 2008 Oct;71(4):505-14. Epub 2008 Jul 29.

Why is this cool?

 I'm feeling really bald today. I count the hairs that fall out and I eyeball if those were the hairs that tipped me from thinning to completely bald. How did I lose everything? My baldness seems to reflect my own inner turmoil at not finishing my degree and not being a bit more stylish. Well, in regards to my baldness, today's paper suggests that it is caused by gravity.

Slowly causing hair loss?

 Hum. How do I go about expressing my extreme skepticism of this hypothesis? I could glibly brush it off as quackery, because it doesn't make sense for all baldness. The hypothesis as it appears in the abstract suggests that the buffer zone between the scalp and the cranial bones becomes thinner with time, but what about someone like myself who is bald at the ripe age of 28? 

 I know people who have gone bald at a younger age, so shouldn't the hypothesis include a bit on genetics? It seems far from coincidental that baldness runs through families. Everyone is affected by gravity and, yet, not everyone is bald. It is entirely possible that gravity plays a part in old age baldness, but how do we separate that just being old and the body slowly losing different features? I should put up an article about genetic or biochemical evidence about the nature of baldness.

 Have you wondered why the President of the U.S. of A. is not bald? The last one was Uncle Ike. This was back when TV was a new thing and maybe youth was coming into vogue. I don't know, but, as a bald man, I think it is discrimination of such a blatant kind to not elect bald men! EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR BALD MEN!!

REVIEW: Strontium-90 Absorption by Decidous Teeth

 As you know, the United States is pretty kicking with all those civil liberties and opportunities for bettering one's lot in the world, but it is also badass in the weapons department. This is especially true for the period between 1946 and 1990.

During this time, the U.S. of A. was engaged in a staring match with an equally capable opponent, the Soviet Union. This staring match resulted in the stockpiling of many, many nuclear (not pronounced new-cue-ler) weapons, but you can't just stockpile weapons to intimidate, you have to test them. So, the Stars and Stripes tested many thermonuclear devices right here in the heartland of freedom! 

Well, it turns out that besides disintegrating everything around it, nuclear weapons also spew out radioactive material and that frightened a lot of people. So, today's paper is tested if that radioactivity was finding its way into the greatest human populace to ever exist!

I think to really appreciate the level of nuclear weapons testing going on at the time, I'm going to have to give you numbers:

Shamelessly taken from another website.

There was a lot of testing, but, from my brief research, it does not seem like anyone was asking "are there long term or immediate health effects for populations no where near the blast site?"  A valid question if you are detonating 20 bombs a year. The fastest way to see if radioactive material from nuclear fallout (not pronounced new-cue-ler) was to see if it was accumulating in humans especially children.

So, in 1958, the researcher set up a tooth collection program in the St. Louis area. No adult teeth were collected, because most adults were children before nuclear testing.

Also, calcium accumulation occurs fastest in children and strontium-90 follows normal calcium pathways, so children really had to be the source of the teeth. The paper has a whole entire section devoted to how the teeth were collected, how they were organized, who organized them, and all that. The interesting part of the tooth collection program was that there was only one salaried person, some random secretary and that for a tooth each kid would receive the following button:

 From 1959 to 1961, the researcher received 61,000 teeth, the weekly average was 750 teeth. When the strontium-90 analysis was done, there was a clear increase in the ratio of stronitum-90:calcium over time! Being breast fed versus formula fed made no difference. When stillborn infant bones and teeth were checked, they had much higher levels than those who shed their teeth later in life. I believe that later on the incidence of childhood cancer was correlated with increased ratios of strontium-90 to calcium, but I need to check on that more.

DECIDOUS TEETH STRIKE AGAIN!!!

Lead levels in deciduous teeth of urban and suburban American children.
Needleman HL, Tuncay OC, Shapiro IM.

Nature. 1972 Jan 14;235(5333):111-2.

Why is this cool?

 Every time you fill up your car with gas, you fill it with unleaded gas. When asked what unleaded means, you responded:

"It means that lead has not been added."

"Why is lead such a big deal?" 

"Well, one it is bad for the environment and it harmful to children's development."

 Today's paper is the one that showed that the presence of lead in the teeth of American children was correlated with lower scores on IQ, behavioral, and emotional tests. How did he show that? He collected a ton of teeth. The analyzed the teeth for lead content and then performed the aforementioned tests. He also carried out a follow up examination some years later, maybe I should present that one some time.

 I think this paper is an epic paper because, much like the strontium-90 in baby teeth, this it shows that human action is leading to a decline in human abilities. The action here being burning fossil fuels that have lead added to them and the human abilities being intelligence, emotion, and behavior. Now, I haven't read the paper, but when I see the word urban I immediately think poor. With decreased intelligence and emotion, the poor are guaranteed to remain poor. Then the poor will have to work forever. When industry moves underground, they will have to move as well. This will exacerbate the loss of intelligence and, ultimately, individuality! They will be the ALPHA PRIMITIVES!!

 The Alphas were cloned to be slave workers, although humans exposed to the Xerogen mists can turn humans into an Alpha. The Alphas work in the GREATEST CITY IN THE UNIVERSE: ATTILAN!!

 Attilan is the home of the INHUMANS!! The Inhumans were created by the Kree to be weapons. Each Inhuman has a unique genetic makeup and upon exposure to the Terrigen mists they realize that genetic potential! Each Inhuman is its own species!

From left to right: Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Crystal.

ANATOMIC INNOVATION!!

Body plan innovation in treehoppers through the evolution of an extra wing-like appendage.

Prud'homme B, Minervino C, Hocine M, Cande JD, Aouane A, Dufour HD, Kassner VA, Gompel N.

Body plans, which characterize the anatomical organization of animal groups of high taxonomic rank, often evolve by the reduction or loss of appendages (limbs in vertebrates and legs and wings in insects, for example). In contrast, the addition of new features is extremely rare and is thought to be heavily constrained, although the nature of the constraints remains elusive. Here we show that the treehopper (Membracidae) 'helmet' is actually an appendage, a wing serial homologue on the first thoracic segment. This innovation in the insect body plan is an unprecedented situation in 250 Myr of insect evolution. We provide evidence suggesting that the helmet arose by escaping the ancestral repression of wing formation imparted by a member of the Hox gene family, which sculpts the number and pattern of appendages along the body axis. Moreover, we propose that the exceptional morphological diversification of the helmet was possible because, in contrast to the wings, it escaped the stringent functional requirements imposed by flight. This example illustrates how complex morphological structures can arise by the expression of ancestral developmental potentials and fuel the morphological diversification of an evolutionary lineage.

Nature. 2011 May 5;473(7345):83-6.

Why is this cool?

  When people think of cool looking characters, some immediately jump to lame characters like Superman, Spider-man, Wolverine, or Spawn. These characters are just humans in different costumes! Very few characters with awesome anatomy penetrate into popular culture. You may think Hawkman, but he is wearing a pair of wings. Angel, on the other hand, is a real winged hero!

 Innovative anatomy has always been a thought of mine and today's paper addresses that as it naturally occurs in the TREEHOPPER!! From the abstract, I cannot tell you how they discovered what they discovered, but the money shot is: "complex morphological structures can arise by the expression of ancestral developmental potentials and fuel the morphological diversification of an evolutionary lineage." Amazing!

 If you translate this to humans it could be possible to create new appendages for the future! The transition could be like that for Calisto, formerly of the Morlocks:

At one time she was just some Joan Jett knockoff and, now, she has TENTACLES!!

 Here are some other characters with amazing anatomies:

SHUMA-GORATH!!

LADY STYX!!

TRI-EYE!!

AI APAEC!!

SLUSHH!!