Scientists: Born or Made

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/us/21stem.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print (accessed November 21)

NY Times Newspaper; Monica Davey; November 21, 2009

Blogger: Zachary Hough

The Board of Regents at the University of Nebraska took a vote recently on human embryonic stem cell research. The 4-to-4 tie vote resulted in the school staying in line with President Obama’s expansion of stem cell research. Opponents against such research were very disappointed at the results, but administrators at the university saw this as a big victory that would allow Nebraska to attract more top scientists. It also allows the school to continue applying for federal research grants. According to the administrators, these things would have been difficult to do under the restricted stem cell research policy of George W. Bush. Supporters of the cause say that embryonic stem cells have the the potential to treat macular degeneration (retinal damage), diabetes, strokes, and other ailments due to the cells ability to transform into nearly any type of tissue. The scientists at Nebraska in this situation exhibit traits of perseverance and resiliency. Stem cell research is a very controversial topic that has faced a lot of criticism and opposition in recent years. The ability of the scientists to persevere through this opposition and maintain persistent in their work is what has helped achieve the victory in the university vote.

This article does not have too much relevance to society. I doubt anyone outside the state of Nebraska, let alone a majority of the Nebraskan population, knows or cares about the vote that just took place. Nonetheless, the University of Nebraska gained a major victory with the decision, so it is relevant to scientists at the college. As I said, stem cell research is a controversial topic. The general public seems to enjoy controversy, so this issue may become more mainstream if given enough time. Until then, Nebraska has its scientists and money to keep them happy and satisfied.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091118114459.htm

Science Daily(November 21, 2009)

Accessed(November 21, 2009)

In a report by ACS’s Journal of Proteome Research, Scientists have found that the protein content of women’s saliva changes as they increase in age. This discovery leads to many other outlets in which a simple test could diagnose and treat age-related diseases in women. Some of these diseases include common ones such as lupus or Sjögrens syndrome, which is associated with dry mouth and dry eyes. These diseases often affect millions of women globally, and at a higher rate than men.

John Yates and his colleagues started from the fact that saliva has many different proteins that are involved in digestion and disease fighting. With this knowledge, they wanted to use the proteins as guide markers that could be a faster and less painful way to the needles that are needed for blood tests.

His group analyzed the saliva proteins of healthy women from ages 20-30 and from ages 55-65. There were 239 different proteins between the age groups that were involved in the immune system’s defense against infection. The older group had twice as many immune-related proteins than the younger group, which thus made the scientists conclude that

This discovery will provide relief for many people out there, including me, that are afraid of needles and blood tests. More women can now easily be tested and in a faster manner because of these proteins in the saliva that could be used to predict diseases. Many times the needles are not sanitary and can also be a source of the spread of disease. However, the scientists have not found exactly which specific biomarkers are in the proteins that can help to predict diseases, but are continuing to work on it and have now formed a relationship between the proteins in the saliva and the women’s age. Hopefully with more research and clinical trials, this method of testing can be furthered and practiced in a wide variety.

Blogger: Brittany Manning

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091119121300.htm (accessed November 21st, 2009)

ScienceDaily

Adapted from materials provided by The University of Maryland

Published: November 20th, 2009

Everyone is aware of how smoking cigarettes or inhaling second-hand smoke can impact an individuals health in aspects such as lung cancer, however it may come as a surprise that cigarettes serve as a site for harmful pathogenic bacteria which can lead to blood infections and even anthrax. Researchers at the University of Maryland reached the conclusion that while it was well-known that cigarettes and tobacco products contained bacteria, little was known to make such a statement that the bacteria were harmful to humans, but they have attained just that. Amy Sapkota, head researcher of the study, commented that if these bacteria can survive the smoking process, imagine how harmful and powerful they are to sustain their functionality in humans. The experiments were conducted by using microarray analysis and eliminating specific factors of the cigarette to focus on only specific parts to yield more variable results. Overall, hundreds of different strains of bacteria were found to be present in common cigarettes produced by such companies as Camel, Kool, Lucky Strike, and Marlboro. Some of the bacterias identified included Acinetobacter, Bacillus, Klebsiella, and Pseudomonas aeruginsoa. These were found to be associated with lung infections, respiratory illnesses, infections of the blood, and specific nosocomial infections linked to ten-percent of all hospital illnesses. The research group has already received funding to continue their research, and plans on during so in hopes of uncovering all of the harmful pathogens that are stored away in cigarettes.

The research for this experiment is being conducted by the University of Maryland, along with scientists based out of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France. The people involved are going to have to demonstrate determination and perseverance because I am sure they will be challenged by tobacco and cigarette industries throughout the world. While their research could end up keeping thousands and even millions out of the hospital each and every year, tobacco industries are going to do their best to oppose the results of the experiment.

As soon as I began reading this article, I instantly made a connection with the movie, “The Insider”, for these scientists have found yet another harmful effect of cigarettes and I am sure that tobacco industries are going to do everything in their power to deny these results. With over one billion smokers worldwide will this research provide enough evidence for some to put their cigarettes down? Probably not, for everyone knows that cigarettes can lead to lung cancer and otherrespiratoryinfections, and that is not enough to stop smokers, so will thisinformationbe the determining factor? One can only hope that maybe one day people will see how they are harming themselves and other and have the perseverance to stop smoking.

Blogger: John Winslow

Date Accessed: 11/21/09

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/21collider.html?_r=1&ref=science

Written by: Dennis Overbye

Last year the Large Hadron Collider in Europe was turned on. Its purpose is to try to replicate the Big Bang and the processes that occured when the universe was a trillionth of a second old. It accelerates subatomic particles to near light speed and makes them collide into each other. When the collider was first turned on last year people celebrated around the world, but only for a few hours. Many of the electrical connections in the collider were vaporized due to the immense amount of current flowing through them. This put a screeching halt on the experimentation that was about to be done using the collider. Engineers have spent the past year fixing these connections and now the collider is up and running once again. The scientists in charge of running the collider have noticed a flow of subatomic particles rushing through the collider. This is a good sign for the researchers because it shows that what the engineers have been doing is on the right track. The collider is not yet ready to run at full power but it can run at about half power and over the next couple of years they will slowly increase the power so that they can identify any problems. In 2011 the collider wil be shut down for a year to make sure that there are no problems come 2012 when the collider will be able to run at full strength.

I find this sort of thing extremely interesting. I love physics and I am fascinated by the Big Bang theory and cannot wait to learn more about it from research done by this team of scientists. I do wonder though, what sort of value does this add to society? It is an extremely expensive endeavor and I don’t think that it really has any reward other than a better understanding of how the universe came to be.

Science News

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5ae1ei-us-parkinsons/

Date accessed: November 19^th, 2009

Blogger: Eileen Roach

I came across this article on Science News that described a pivotal finding in the scientific community: mutant genes linked to Parkinson’s disease. Researchers have found that people who are of Japanese and European decent have a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s thanks to mutant versions on five specific genes: MAPT, PARK16, BST1, SNCA, and LRRK2

A large study of more than 25,000 people attempted to uncover the genetic links to Parkinson’s. In Japan, the study focuses solely on those with Japanese heritage, whereas in the US, European decedents were looked at. In Japan, 2,011 participants found the network of genes and 18,381 without the disease. In the US study, 5,000 of those from European decent suffered from the disease, and again had some sort of combination of the mutant genes within their DNA.

With all of their data, the researchers were able to narrow down the mutant genes involved. Those of Japanese and European decent, variants of PARK16, LRRK2 and SNCA carry a high risk of Parkinson’s. While BST1 and MAPT were population specific.

These findings are extremely important because now researcher could quite possibly start looking at other ethnic backgrounds and see if Parkinson’s is ethnic specific. Seeing that American is the “melting pot”, I wonder if having multiple descents contributes to these specific networks of genes. Hopefully further research will be able to expand on these newly identified genes.

Ny times

nov. 18, 2009

by: Henry Fountain

In a fjord in southwestern Norway, a large wind turbine is place out in the sea. The turbine has three 139 feet rotor blades. The turbine extends more than 300 feet below the waterline. The Project called hywind is owned by Statoil which is based on Norway. The giant Turbine is hooked up to a transmission cable and began supplying electricity to Norway on Sept. 21, 2009. The purpose is not to produce the maximum energy, but to test the new alternative energy in open ocean far from land. However, one of the problem that seem to arise is the cost of the project.

If the project ends up being a success, this could be a next level of alternative energy. This would spread from Norway to Europe and the United State. However, there must a cheaper way in order to produce such device.

Blogger: Adams Paschal

accessed 11/19/09

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427353.500-four-ways-to-feed-the-world.html

Author: Debora MacKenzie

This article addresses the problem the world has with hunger. Right now, a sixth of the world suffers from hunger. The goal of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is to end hunger by 2025, and have a halway goal of making the world only 10% hungry, rather than 25% by 2015. The problem the world has is that the population is suspected to increase to 9.1 billion by 2050. With population and global warming increasing, the chances of ending hunger is “unlikely”. Scientists have predicted that everything that the world is doing now for food production must double in order to feed all 9 billion people. While it may be possible to double food production it will only become increasingly more difficult with global warming. Global warming has made it extremely difficult to produce more food, it only makes the vegetation and farm life more difficult.

They have 4 ways of figuring out how to possibly accomplish these goals. 1) Hold on to Water. 2) Stop ploughing 3) Go back to basics, use simple food rather than making vegetation difficult. 4) Boost yields, meaning plant crops that produce more food with less seed and vegetation. With these 4 plans, it could dramatically improve the hunger situation.

I do not believe that hunger can be done with completely, but it could be decreased around the world if everyone follows these 4 ways of helping the environment. Would just doing one of these improve the environment? If we do these 4 things long enough, will we be able to do away with hunger completely?

Renewed Hope for an AIDS Vaccine

Despite questions, the Thailand trial spreads optimism

By Katherine Harmon

Scientific American

November 16th 2009

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=renewed-hope-aids-vaccine

accessed November 17th

Blogger: Ian Western

Despite multiple failed trials in the search for an AIDS vaccine, scientists and Thailand have finally developed the Phase III Trial that protects people from effects of AIDS. This vaccine led to disappointment after a reanalysis showed that the protection could be attributed to pure chance. But rather than disheartening the scientists by failure, the vaccine has inspired researchers who now see new clues in the battle against the fatal illness.

Costing $150 million and enrolling more than 16,000 subjects, the Thai clinical trial was the largest AIDS vaccine test to date. It began in 2003, and early results released in September showed a slim but statistically sound benefit from the vaccine. In the October full report, however, skepticism developed after various statistical analysis. After considering all data, the statistical effectiveness of the vaccine dropped from 31 percent to 26 percent. Still, many researchers are convinced that the trial has provided plenty of data to run with. “This contributes more evidence that an AIDS vaccine may be possible,” says Jerome Kim of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “We’ve taken a very small step,” Kim says. “It’s not a home run, but it opens the door to future work.” Vaccine proponents also point to the lessons learned from the failed Merck STEP trial. That vaccine test, halted in 2007, got only as far as phase II, but even so it did not leave researchers back at square one. It suggested, he notes, how some HIV strains could be blocked from infecting cells and offered data that could help in the interpretation of the Thai results.

I believe that the scientists involved with the Phase III Trial display a good amount of optimism and skepticism about their work. Instead of jumping to a conclusion after a successful trial, they removed their emotions from the equation and later learned that the vaccine worked mostly by chance. Despite their potentially amazing discovery, they still used the scientific method effectively. Furthermore, they utilized the information gained from the process to move forward, and are now optimistic about finding a vaccine for such a painful disease. This article is important to me because I have witnessed firsthand the suffering that AIDS patients endure, and its tragic spread is something we all want to end as soon as possible.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091116085057.htm

Science Daily (November 16, 2009)

Date Accessed: (November 16, 2009)

Andy Hong, a civil and environmental engineer from the University of Utah has invented a new method to take off oil sheen, which is extremely hard to remove. He came up with the idea of continuously pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, which created microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters. Hong’s experiments showed that “pressure-assisted ozonation” and “sand filtration” can remove oil drops in water, which thus could lead to the potential of the prevention of oil sheen being dispersed into coastal waters.

The method used could be used to clean a great range of pollutants such as : oily water that is re-injected underground, water from mining, heavy metals in the soil, and oil spills. The method that Hong came up with already used two popular used technologies: ozone aeration and sand filtration. However, Hong modified ozone aeration and used repeated cycles of pressurization of ozone and dirty water, so that the ozone would expand into many micro-bubbles allowing more surface area for the oxygen in the ozone to react with oil. The ozone would then attack the pollutants. These reactions converted the oil droplets to turn into acids and chemicals, which then helped the oil droplets clump together and be removed by the sand filtration. Hong’s experiment removed 99 percent of the turbidity from the water, and made it almost as clean as drinking water. 83 percent of the oil was removed, which left the rest as organic acids that were removable by biodegradation.

After his success with his experiments at the University of Utah, Hong plans to make larger scale models of his experiment and perform them in China. Other companies around Salt Lake City hope to license his technology so that other companies can bring it to the market.

Hong is a perfect example of a scientist that has combined technology with science. This is a major discovery that seems to have productive results and is inexpensive. If this is tried on a larger scale, hopefully it will have the same effects so pollution can effectively be reduced in the oceans and on land. Fewer animals will be harmed, and the environment will be in better condition. I believe that this discovery is a great step towards reducing toxins in our environment, and more funding should be given towards projects like these, so they can occur on a larger scale and are accessible to more people.

URL:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091113122530.htm

Date Published: 11/13/09 Date Accessed: 11/15/09

Source: Science Daily

Blogger: Amy Andreasen

A recent exploration of the moon has revealed that there is in fact water on the moon despite popular belief. Data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) indicates that the mission successfully discovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the shadowed region of the crater named “Cabeus” near the moon’s south pole. “The impact created by the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket created a two-part plume of material from the bottom of the crater. The first part was a high angle plume of vapor and fine dust and the second a lower angle ejecta curtain of heavier material. This material has not seen sunlight in billions of years.”

Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA says that this is a huge accomplishment and that the LCROSS is allowing scientists to explore and uncover new information in ways they never could before. The LCROSS is helping us to obtain a deeper understanding for the moon and all of its secrets. A team of specially-trained scientists worked on analyzing data from the satellite’s spectrometers. Spectrometersexamine light emitted or absorbed by materials that helps identify their composition. Theyprovide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A full analysis of the LCROSS data will take a large amount of time for the scientists to complete, but when they do complete the analysis, we will gain a vast amount of new information about the moon.

I think this discovery is very important to our knowledge of space and of the moon. By using new technology that was developed, scientists were able to prove wrong a belief that has been held for decades. It is important because it shows that there is much we do not know about the world as well as outerspace. Since we were able to find water on the moon, I do not doubt that we will find water on other planets as well. With scientists continuing to improve technology each day, I think that we will continue to find out more things about the universe that were doubted in the past.