White Roofs to Mitigate Global Warming?
Jun 15 at 9:09pm by Aileen
The Washington Post reported on a recent talk by Energy Secretary Steven Chu that white rooftops may help slow global warming by reflecting sunlight instead of absorbing it. Perhaps even better, white roofs cut energy consumption for cooling by an almost equal percentage.
Climate scientists say the reflective properties of white are so much greater than gray, black, green or any other color, that simply by putting white roofs on enough buildings and houses we could buy the time we need to make other necessary changes to combat global warming. In fact, the energy savings alone on air conditioning caused the state of California to begin requiring that most new flat-roofed buildings have reflective roofs, and retail giant Walmart has installed them on 75% of its stores in the United States. Even Washington, D.C. has gone so far as to require than new flat roofs be covered either in vegetation or have reflective roofs for the energy savings alone.
The Environmental Protection Agency offers good information and cost analysis for reflective roofing products on its Energy Star website with multiple links to manufacturers, resources and data.
Secretary Chu emphasized in his speech that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted research demonstrating that if just 63% of the roofs in 100 large cities and tropical/temperate areas worldwide were white, the effect would provide the same climate benefits as taking all the cars in the world off the road for a full decade. That’s considerable, and definitely worth the effort.
What’s New on the Swine Flu Vaccine Front
Jun 8 at 7:07pm by Aileen
The World Health Organization Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response Update as of June 5 is maintaining the pandemic alert at Level 5 for the time being, but seeking input from members for fine-tuning the system to account for virulence and other factors not currently considered. The system should be more receptive to the severity of outbreaks in different countries or regions to better characterize to the public and public health officials worldwide to monitor the actual situation in their areas in order to avoid excessive response or not enough response.
In the meantime, the mortality rate of this flu, while initially high in the Mexico City area, has fallen overall to around 2% or less, in line with annual deaths during flu season. Those who contract the virus are still those generally considered to be in the healthiest range of the population. On the vaccine development front there have been several developments since the 2009 Swine Flu epidemic began:
On April 29 vaccine researchers at St. Louis University announced that they’d accomplished the first step in developing a universal vaccine against pandemic influenza. To accomplish this the researchers used proteins (engineered a ‘bug’ that produced said proteins from genetic sequences coding for them) from both A and B influenza strains. The vaccine introduces those proteins so the body can engineer antibodies specific to them. More testing is needed, they say, before the vaccine is ready for prime time.
On May 1 Juergen A. Richt, a pathobiologist at Kansas State University’s college of veterinary medicine released findings that the current lineage of H1N1 Swine Flu is a descendant of the 1918 strain that killed more than 20 million people worldwide. For the study Richt and colleagues from Canada, USDA and Mount Sinai engineered their ‘bug’ in a biosafety-level-4 lab (like the one at UT-Austin) at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Canada using elements from both the 1918 virus and a 1930 descendent of that virus.
On May 22 researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research announced that they’d evoked a robust immune response with a vaccine made of virus-like particles [VLPs], which are just the protein coats of actual viruses without any genes inside. This approach, which like other approaches involves genetic manipulation to produce the “hollow” virus shells, may work better than attenuated virus vaccines. The new vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus is a VLP.
And finally, on June 4 Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News reported that scientists around the world are accelerating efforts to develop an effective vaccine against the current Chimera strain. This is ‘news’ in the GE/biotech community because genetic manipulation is standard operating procedure in the development of influenza vaccines, of any type - live, attenuated, killed and dissociated or VLP. Step #1 is to engineer your Chimera.
No matter how the Chimera came to be, Bellerophon is engineered very much on purpose. I personally like the idea of the VLP vaccine, as it ONLY has coat proteins and it excites a more robust immune response to those than to dissociated coat proteins. The robust response is to the form of the viral shell. Even better, if these beasties get out in an ‘oops’ it won’t kill anybody - it’ll just immunize ‘em. Let’s all hope one of these is available come September.
Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Glowing… Marmosets?
May 29 at 5:05pm by Aileen
Green Glowing Monkey Paws
Well, I’ve got to admit this much-touted development in the world of medical research took me somewhat by surprise. Mostly because it caused me to stop eating my grilled cheese sandwich mid-bite to wonder “Huh? Why in the world would they do that?”
Seems this week’s Nature is reporting that researchers in Japan have managed to genetically engineer the green fluorescent protein gene into primates - specifically marmosets. Yes, these endearingly cute little monkeys have been engineered to express the gene in their hair roots, skin and blood, all of which glow green under UV light sources.
Now, I can understand why tropical fish aficionados might want several tetras of each color (they’ve got several now) in their aquarium to impress friends, neighbors and potential mates, but glowing green marmosets? You’ve got to have a primate license to own any kind of monkey or ape! The researchers responsible for this development say that this feat of genetic engineering could lead to monkeys being bred with genetic changes that would make them good animal models of human diseases.
Major Scientific Developments That Changed The World
May 26 at 8:08pm by Ryan
The world we live in is a scientific world. But this world that we’ve inherited did not come cheaply. It came from millions of hours of research and commitment to the slow, steady progress of the scientific method. Here’s a post that documents the major scientific developments that have made our world the world it is today: 15 Scientific Discoveries that Developed the Modern World
Supersizing You
May 12 at 7:07pm by Aileen
We have all heard the increasing concern among public health officials about the “obesity crisis” in recent years as citizens of all ages get fatter and fatter - including, perhaps counterintuitively, the most financially challenged among us, traditionally considered the most nutritionally needy of all groups. Old pictures from the Great Depression era of the 1930s routinely showed the sunken faces and emaciated bodies of those who suffered most from the economic conditions.
The new Great Recession that became apparent last fall with the collapse of Wall Street and much of the world’s financial systems does not seem to be stemming the tide of obesity, and apparently much of the overall weight gain has occurred in just the past ~30+ years since the 1970s. We have heard about changes in diet to include more high fructose corn syrup instead of refined sugar in cheap snack foods and sodas, about more unhealthy fatty meats produced in factory farm intensives and fed unnatural diets, and we’ve seen the average size of a “single serving” meal at most fast food joints and restaurants practically double, contributing to people eating more and more of high-fat, high-calorie foods.
There has also been much said about increasing sedentary lifestyles, this lack of regular exercise contributing to the epidemic of obesity in children. But new research by associates of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deaking University in Australia was presented to the European Congress on Obesity last week analyzing a variety of factors that show it really is all about how much we eat.
Increased Food Intake Alone Explains Rise in Obesity in U.S. tested 1,399 adults and 963 children to determine how many calories their bodies burn on a daily basis in normal living. Once this was determined, the researchers were able to calculate how much the individuals needed to eat in order to maintain a stable weight or growth curve in children. The bad news is that we’re eating a whole lot more calories than we burn, thus we get fatter and fatter.
It was determined that in order to get back to average individual weights of the 1970s, adults would have to consume about 500 fewer calories per day, children about 300 fewer calories. That may sound difficult until you realize that a single large hamburger averages 500 calories, and a small order of fries and medium soda amount to about 300. The same effect could be had if people got enough extra exercise to offset the increased calories, but it’s pretty obvious that’s not going to happen.
Professor Boyd Swinburn, the study’s leader, suggested to the WHO conference that while increased exercise should be encouraged for a range of benefits by public health agencies, more could likely be accomplished simply by programs that promote eating less.
Technical Innovation and Pandemics
May 3 at 1:01pm by Ryan
Sometimes simple things remind you how privileged we are at this time in history.
Consider this: you can receive text-messages on your cell phone that update you about the current state of the Swin Flu pandemic. There has never been a time in history when you could get such useful information so quickly.
Or think about the extraordinary level of global cooperation regarding protocols for keeping Swine Flu in check. While some people might be complaining about over-reaction, I for one and am extremely grateful for the extraordinary care that’s being taken to prevent mass death.
Score one for innovation and technological progress.
Sexy Science for Sexy Geeks
Apr 27 at 3:03pm by Aileen
Jimmy Rogers over at the blog Geeks are Sexy has taken a liking to writing about science, and launched what we hope will be a regular feature entitled Science is Sexy. First offering is a look at what cancer is, and why there’s no single cure for this ailment.
Rogers is a PhD student in microbiology and he’s pretty good at explaining deep concepts in easy terms. So go on over and check out how both geeks and science can be sexy!
A “Unique” Strain of Flu
They’re calling it Swine Flu [H1N1], but the virus that began showing off its late season virulence in Mexico City last week sports DNA from three varieties - swine flu, bird flu and human flu. Within days it had spread to California and Texas, then New York City, Kansas, Ohio and such far away places as New Zealand. On Sunday, April 26, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control [CDC] declared a Public Health Emergency, other nations have issued travel advisories to avoid the U.S. and Mexico, and the words “global pandemic” are being tossed around on news shows and discussed everywhere. Stockpiles of Tamiflu [Roche], which has been shown effective against this virus, have been released and will be quickly shipped anywhere in the United States that the illness appears.
There in no reason to panic, though officials are watching the outbreak closely and trying to contain it. This is an influenza Type-A virus that apparently incubated in pigs before making the jump to humans, but the virus is now being spread person to person. The CDC Swine Flu Fact Page has lots of good information about the virus and lists ways people can minimize their chances of infection. Despite some nations imposing emergency bans on pork imported from the U.S. and Mexico, this flu is not spread by eating properly cooked pork.
Advice to avoid crowds, wear disposable face masks, using tissues when coughing and sneezing to avoid spreading germs, and washing/sanitizing hands often are standard. This illness is striking healthy adults rather than targeting the very young or very old, and there is no current vaccine. If you get it, stay home from work or school to avoid spreading it to others. Those who had a Type-A flu shot this past season will still be susceptible to this infection.
2009 Templeton Prizewinner
Apr 15 at 6:06pm by Aileen
French physicist d’Espagnat wins prestigious Templeton Prize
The Templeton Foundation awarded its $1.42 million prize this year at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] in Paris to French physicist and philosopher Bernard d’Espagnat for his work in quantum physics that, d’Espagnat says, reveal a reality beyond science that spirituality and art could help to grasp.
d’Espagnat is a former senior physicist at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva and professor. He has argued in his books that modern quantum physics demonstrates that ultimate reality cannot be described.
“Mystery is not something negative that has to be eliminated. On the contrary, it is one of the constitutive elements of being.”
Why Some People Beat the Flu
Apr 2 at 8:08pm by Aileen
…and other people die
If your family managed to get through this year’s flu season intact, you’re probably considering yourself very lucky. The A strains claim tens of thousands of lives every year, while hundreds of thousands of people who get infected manage to bounce right back in a week or two. Researchers at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Germany has conducted experiments using 7 strains of genetically identical mice that led the somewhat surprising conclusion that very serious infection and death from influenza is primarily an autoimmune malfunction.
The research, published in the Public Library of Science [PLoS-One] on line, demonstrates that an excessive immune response to the virus is responsible for fatal outcomes of the disease in mice, and that this immune overreaction is genetically linked.
After infecting mice from the seven genetic lineages with identical strains the Influenza A virus, the researchers were surprised to discover very strong differences in the progression of the disease. In five of the seven mouse lineages the illness was quite mild, while in two the animals lost weight rapidly and died within just a few days.
“The mice die from their own immune defenses, which are actually supposed to protect them against the virus,” says Klaus Schughart, head of the Experimental Mouse Genetics research group. “The immune system produces too many messengers, which have a strong activating effect on the immune cells. These cells then kill tissue cells in the lungs that are infected with the virus. It appears that the animals have specific receptors on their cells that make them more receptive to a severe viral infection.”
If the results can be extended by further research to humans, it may be possible to identify people who are much more likely to die of influenza due to specific genetic makeup, so that protecting them during flu season can be made a priority. While certain at-risk populations are advised to get their flu shots annually - including doctors and nurses most likely to be exposed to the virus - identifying who among the at-risk populations is most likely to develop a hyperactive and potentially fatal autoimmune response could make better use of flu vaccine supplies by targeting them to the right people.
Links:
Why Some People Shake Off the Flu
Host Genetic Background Strongly Influences the Response to Influenza A Virus Infections
Getting In The Groove
Mar 20 at 4:04pm by Aileen
Music as Universal Brain-Language
With the return of the sun and spring popping out all over, the season’s long list of open-air music festivals is prepared to launch in cities, towns, parks and fields somewhere near you. Obviously, human beings share a collective appreciation for music and aren’t shy of demonstrating that on a regular basis.
So it is probably not too surprising that biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany published research this week in the Journal Current Biology that scientifically establishes the well-known fact that music really is the “Universal Language.”
Language of music really is universal, study finds
Researchers wanted to find out if the expression of emotions in Western music would be appreciated by people who had no exposure to it. They chose as their test subjects the Mafa, an isolated ethnic group in the African nation of Cameroon. Predictably, the Mafa listeners did recognize emotional expressions made through the music, including happiness, sadness and fear. The scientists determined that the clues relied upon by the listeners to types of music they’d never heard were primarily tempo and mode, devices that musicians use to elicit certain emotions even in people who don’t know the language of a song.
Guitarists’ Brains Swing Together
Meanwhile, a different group of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development used electroencephalograms [EEG] to record the brain activity of eight different pairs of guitarists playing a sort of jazz-fusion melody together. Reported lead researcher Ulman Lindenberger,
“Our findings show that interpersonally coordinated actions are preceded and accompanied by between-brain oscillatory couplings.”
That’s Sci-Speak for what most of the rest of humanity recognizes readily as “getting in the groove.”
So here’s hoping the weather is great for your neighborhood’s spring music fest, and that the groove goes on and on!
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