In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth. Numbering in the tens of trillions and representing many thousands of distinct genetic families, this microbiome, as it's called, helps the body perform a variety of regulatory and digestive functions, many still poorly understood.
How this microbial mélange may be linked to body weight changes associated with morbid obesity is a relevant and important clinical question that has received recent attention. Now, a new study suggests that the composition of microbes within the gut may hold a key to one cause of obesity—and the prospect of future treatment.
The cast of "House" won't need to find new jobs any time soon but using a robotic assistant to remove a patient's gallbladder by key-hole surgery (laparoscopic cholecystectomy) was as safe as working with a human assistant, a Cochrane Review has concluded. Comparisons between robot- and human-assisted surgery showed that there were no differences in terms of morbidity, the need to switch to open surgery, total operating time, or length of stay in hospital.
It's not quite a "Book of the Dead" but a 14th century brick oven uncovered by archaeologists in Spain found a unique use for animal bones just the same - strengthening city fortifications. The scientists report that the animal bones were burnt in the oven and mixed with other materials to produce a protective coating that strengthened the grand medieval walls of what is today Granada, Spain. It must have worked pretty well since Granada and the surrounding territory were the last bastion of Islamic Iberia during that period.
In a study scheduled to appear in the Jan. 15 issue of Analytical Chemistry, scientists describe how they found these materials thanks to their new testing method.
Edward Larson, author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Scopes trial (which I highly recommend), writes in
Bookforum about the
influence of racism on Darwin's thinking. Creationists argue (as most recently exemplified in Ben Stein's widely panned film
Expelled) that "practically all the harmful practices and deadly philosophies that plague mankind have their roots and pseudo-rationale in evolutionism." To these people, in this year of big Darwin bicentennial celebrations, "all the hoopla must seem like throwing a birthday party for Hitler."
In 1960, Dr. Frank Drake developed an equation that predicts the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy. It's a simple equation -- the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy is equal to the product of all the following numbers:
- The total number of stars in the galaxy
- The fraction of stars that have planets orbiting them
- The number of planets orbiting each star that are capable of supporting life
- The fraction of planets capable of supporting life that actually do support life
- The fraction of planets supporting life that support intelligent life
My elementary school art teacher used to discourage the use of rulers, claiming that “there are no straight lines in nature”. Mr. Dugan, your own cells are here to tell you it’s not true. Systems of taut fibers and light struts— as straight as the bars and chains of a swingset—are omnipresent in biological forms.
These organic analogs to popsicle sticks and rubber bands often occur in interwoven networks reminiscent of the geodesic domes that Buckminster Fuller promoted in the 1950’s. Since form follows function, it’s hardly surprising that these natural geodesics offer the same benefits in nature that they do in architecture: high strength, dynamic stability, and material frugality.
Michael Shermer of Michael Shermer: What Will ET Look Like? has inspired me to write a sci fi. Shermer's ET, whether a bipedal primate or not, is attractive for a theme of oceans and humans -- both representing new experiences. An extraterrestrial, you might agree, is also ideal to ask questions to our hero, as suggested by me, to be played by Michael Shermer.
The extracellular deposits of of the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease(AD) brain. These Aβ deposits are result of-
1) increased production of Aβ (anabolism)- High activity and levels of β-secretase (BACE1) and γ-secretase
(presenilins) increase the amyloidogenic processing of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), leading to the increased production of Aβ AND/OR
In the first-ever study of food advertisements in UK magazines, researchers found them filled with sugary, salt-filled options often contradicting the health messages the articles were trying to put across. That means that women sitting down to enjoy some reading with their cup of tea and a chocolate bar may be tempted to an even unhealthier diet.
Newcastle University researchers collected and compared data on the nutritional content of the foods advertised in 30 most widely-read weekly magazines during November 2007.
A detailed nutritional analysis of the foods in the adverts found that the products advertised were generally much higher in sugar and salt, and lower in fiber than the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.
Peter Doran, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wasn't all that happy that his Nature paper(1) was widely used by detractors of early 2000s global warming theory so he set out recently to find out just how many other earth scientists believe in human-induced climate change.
His research then found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000 so he was lumped in with those disputing global warming, something he did not say. Doran found out, just as Bill Gray later would when he disputed Al Gore's contention that global warming caused Hurricane Katrina, when you go up against crazy people with an agenda life can get ugly.
