Gut Bacteria Linked to MS

Scientists in Germany recently conducted a study on mice in which mice were raised to have multiple sclerosis symptoms.  MS is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the myelin in the brain and spinal cord, and this attack causes nerve damage which leads to the disease’s symptoms.  Most scientists agree that a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors is what brings about this disease in people, even though the exact causes are unknown.  In the study, the mice that were never colonized with bacteria found in the human intestine did not develop MS at all.  However, the mice that were colonized with the disease had an 80% chance of developing MS.  While it is impossible to stop the spread of intestinal bacteria, since they are necessary for human life, scientists are working on identifying the specific species which are believed to cause the autoimmune response that then leads to MS.  Amy Lovett-Racke, a neuroimmunologist at Ohio State University in Columbus points out that gut bacteria help the immune system mature properly and interact with the immune system all the time. “Most of the time, those immune responses are very good and even protective,” she says. “We’re all colonized with bacteria in our guts and most of us lead normal, healthy lives.”

            In response to this news, scientists have begun research on what specifically about these bacteria causes the immune system to react as harmfully as it does.  Since everyone has bacteria, they are also trying to establish what leads some people to react so poorly to the bacteria while others are perfectly healthy.  Ultimately, this research could shed a lot of light on MS as well as other autoimmune diseases like juvenile diabetes and arthritis.  Also, while the effects of the bacteria were very pronounced in the mice, they are much less so in people, and therefore narrowing down the specific harmful bacteria will prove to be a difficult task

            This article was well written, and allowed the lay reader to understand what was a very involved experiment.  It made clear the results and the implications this has for the link between MS and intestinal bacteria.  There could have been further elaboration on why scientists where investigating the intestinal bacteria to begin with, but otherwise the article made the experiment very easy to understand.  It was well-written, succinct, and managed to inform me about both the possible causes and symptoms of MS, and what this experiment means for future research.

Saey, Tina Hesman. "Gut Bacteria Linked To MS." Science News. Science News Magazine, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335561/title/Gut_bacteria_linked_to_MS>.

Considering When It Might Be Best Not to Know About Cancer

Kolata, Gina. "Considering When It Might Be Best Not to Know About Cancer." The New York Times 30 Oct. 2011, Health sec.: A21. The New York Times. 29 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2011. .

Considering When It Might Be Best Not to Know About Cancer

After the same methods for decades of choosing to screen for cancer immediately if a person seemed to be at risk, doctors are beginning to think differently. In the article “Considering When It Might Be Best Not to Know About Cancer” by Gina Kolata, a bold new theory about cancer screenings have arisen. Experts say that screenings for cancer, especially breast, prostate, and cervical cancer, could actually harm the patient’s health instead of hurt them. This statement is completely earth shattering when it comes to our basic knowledge about cancer. It is almost an immediate thought when someone is diagnosed with cancer to go and get a screening. Clinical trial results are saying “screening often leads to what can be disabling treatments for men whose cancer otherwise would have never harmed them.” As the article goes on to say, screening for cancer is what everyone is familiar with, and to slowly move away from screening patients so often would possibly make them lack confidence in their doctors. Even doctors themselves say that this shocking new statistic may make things difficult between themselves and their patients: “General practitioners, who may agree with the new guidelines, worry about getting involved in long conversations with patients trying to explain why they might reconsider having a mammogram every year or a P.S.A. test at all.”

This theory of less screenings for cancer is definitely shocking to the medical world. The article even says since 1845 when Rudolf Virchow said that cancer is an uncontrolled growth that spreads and kills, and that there is now a new 21^st century definition of cancer that needs to be held in account for new treatments. The idea that screenings are bad seems insane, but this article actually does make sense of it. It states that screenings could lead to dangerous medical procedures that were possibly unnecessary for the type of cancer that the patient had, because as doctors have discovered in recent decades, not all cancers are fatal. The article says, “Cancer experts say they cannot ignore a snowballing body of evidence over the past 10 years showing over and over that while early detection through widespread screening can help in some cases, those cases are small in number for most cancers. At the same time, the studies are more clearly defining screening’s harms.”

I believe this article was really well written and interesting. It made things clear to me about cancer screenings, both the pros and cons about them. I definitely am able to see both sides of how the screenings could help patients, but also hurt patients. With many different doctor’s comments on the matter and many different point of view presented, it made it easy for me to form my own opinion about it. The author did a great job of making things easy to understand, and I really enjoyed reading this article.

Taking Advantage of a Destructive Insect’s Weakness for Purple

Taking Advantage of a Destructive Insect’s Weakness for Purple

By ANTHONY DePALMA

          Recently, there has been an infestation of the emerald ash borer, throughout the United States. This little beetle from Asia has killed tens of millions of ash trees in less than a decade, so foresters have become proactive in their mission to stop this environmentally harmful pestilence. Since they were discovered near Detroit in 2002, the beetles have spread to 15 states and Ontario. They function by depositing their eggs in the diamond-shaped bark of all varieties of ash. The larvae then borrow under the bark and feast on the living tissue of the trees for a year or two, eventually cutting off the trees water supply and killing it. Foresters have also concluded that campers who unknowingly carry the infested wood have aided the beetle’s rapid advancement. Because of this, the ash borer has already spread so far that eradication of it is impossible. Now officials are focusing on slowing the spread of these beetles and saving as many ash trees as possible. One strategy that has been developed to achieve this goal is The Barney Trap. Rightly named for their bright purple color, 6,560 Barney Traps have been implanted in ash trees across New York. After extensive testing, entomologists at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Serve have designed an effective trap for these harmful little bugs. By simply looking at the ash borer, scientists concluded that it was a visual insect. Victor Mastro, director of the project, explained that if human beings had eyes that were proportionally as large as the ash borer’s they would be the size of softballs. Therefore, his team then experimented with a dozen different colors to see which one attracted the most beetles. They found that deep purple was the beetle’s favorite. Next, with the color decided, the team had to settle on the right shape. Although four-side traps gave them the most surface area, they ended up settling on the more cost effective three sided traps. Finally, to enhance the traps ability to attract beetles, a chemical lure was added. Since these traps are relatively new, their effectiveness remains inconclusive, but foresters have high hopes that they will stop the onslaught on ash trees.

          This ash borer’s effect on society on our society is profound. As Nathan Siegert said in the article, “right now, the emerald ash borer is the most destructive insect we have in North America.” The ash is a commercially valuable tree whose straight trunk and true grain make its wood perfect for furniture legs, baseball bats, and other products. It also makes great firewood. Therefore, if the ash borer continues to kill these trees we will loose very important resources that come from this tree. Moreover, the way the scientists have reasoned through the Barney Trap is setting a precedent for the future. Although foresters have relied on detection traps for years, they had not used it on the ash borer because they did not respond well to chemical lures. The Barney Trap, which relies mostly on its color and shape to trap the destructive insect, is new and innovative way to handle this situation.

          Overall, I thought that this article was well presented. It did a good job of explaining the problem the ash borer poses to our environment in a direct and understandable manner. Moreover, it went through a detailed procedure of how foresters and entomologists created the Barney Box. Its inclusion of a picture also aided in understanding what the Barney Box was like. The article could have been improved if it had discussed how the bug got to North America. All it says is that it came from Asia, but it never explains how it got here. Moreover, the article could have explained the extent the Barney Box has assuaged the problem to date.

DePalma, Anthony. “Taking Advantage of a Destructive Insect’s Weakness for Purple.” New York Times. 12 Sep. 2011. Oct 30 2011.

Peer Evaluation of Water Project Posters

AP Biology Water Projects

A. Austi's Project

A Austi the Properties of Water


C. Barth's Project

Barth Properties of Water

G. Connors' Project

Connors Water Properties Term Paper - AP Bio

W. Dougherty's Project

W Dougherty Water Project

M. Ebrahim's Project

Ebrahim Water Properties

T. Ennis's Project

Explore the Wonders of Water Blog/Web Site

J. Faselt's Project

J Faselt Water

T. Hudson's Project

Hudson Water

R. James' Project

James AP Bio Water Project PPT

J. Keating's Project

Keating Water Properties

A. Lemberger's Project

Lemberger Water Properties

G. Lilly's Project

AP Bio Water Project G Lilly

A. Moran's Project

Moran Water Phenomena

I. Palfrey's Project

Ian Palfrey Term Paper Water Properties

A. Pass' Project


A Pass Water


B. Walsh's Project

Walsh apbiowater

A.Weiden's Project


Weiden Water Phenomena



Posters

Scientists Solve Puzzle Of Black Death’s DNA

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/science/13plague.html?_r=1&ref=science

The article “Scientists Solve Puzzle Of Black Death’s DNA” by Nicholas Wade is very interesting. It discusses how scientists have now reconstructed the full DNA of the microbe that killed almost half of Western Europe in the 14^th century. Scientists were able to reconstruct the DNA by using the teeth of four skeletons who had suffered from the plague in 14^th century London. The bacterium that causes plague, known as Yersinia pestis, is still very prevalent today, and the discovery of this DNA sequence put all doubts to rest that it wasn’t the same bacterium that caused the Black Death so many years ago. The ancient genome that was recovered is almost exactly the same as the genome that lives today, only 97 out of 4.6 million DNA units are different, and only a dozen of these occur in genes that would affect the organisms physical properties. What this means is that the bacterium that terrorized Europe 600 or so years ago is almost the exact same as the one that still lives today. The article then discusses how the main reason that this same bacterium isn’t as devastating today is that today sanitation and health conditions are simply better. The main reason that the Black Death was so devastating was because of the lack of good health procedures as well as the lack of modern day antibiotics, which are also very helpful at fighting the plague. However, another more eerie reason that the bacterium may not be as proficient at killing nowadays is pure chance. The plague bacterium rearranges the order of its genes very often, and this rearrangement can sometimes change the devastating abilities of the bacterium. So, another reason why the plague may not be as dangerous today can very well just be that we’re lucky that the bacterium hasn’t rearranged itself in a certain way like it did 660 years ago.

The discoveries discussed in this article can have far reaching impacts on society. Because we now know the exact sequence of the ancient bacterium, we will be able to develop stronger and more efficient antibiotics against the modern day plague and other diseases that have similar DNA patterns. This discovery will also help scientists to identify the sources of other historical disease outbreaks. For example, scientists have always argued over the cause of the Justinian plague, but now they have more reason to believe that it was caused by the same bacterium that caused the Black Death, Yersinia pestis. Aside from these two impacts, this discovery will most likely have countless other impacts unforeseen at this point in time.

This article did a very good job at summarizing what happened and the impacts it has. It gave a detailed enough explanation of the science behind all of the discoveries so as to allow readers to have a good understanding, but didn’t go so in depth that people couldn’t understand. The article also quoted many scientists and experts, which gave it much more credibility. One thing that the article could have done better was explained whether or not this discovery also applies to the plague that ruined Asia earlier in history. However, aside from this, this was a great article that gave readers a great understanding of how scientists came about this discovery and what it means.

Vaccine Makes Headway Against Trachoma

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335157/title/Vaccine_makes_headway_against_trachoma

This article told about a vaccine currently in development that would combat the blinding disease known as trachoma. The author explained what trachoma exactly is. Trachoma is a bacterial infection in the eye by a microbe known as C. trachomatis. Patients who suffer trachoma aren’t actually afflicted by the bacteria itself, but rather the immune response to the infection, which can lead to ocular scarring and blindness. The author then went on to talk about the vaccine, which would cause the bacteria in trachoma to trigger a less harmful immune reaction from the body. The article even stated that scientists are not quite sure how the vaccine works because the protein used in the vaccine is not completely known, “The plasmid encodes a protein whose function is unknown, so exactly how the vaccine works is unclear.” The author also spoke to the coauthor of the study, Harlan Caldwell, about this vaccine. The article further explained the basis behind the vaccine, “Caldwell suspects the plasmid “is driving a very strong innate immune response that, in a sense, becomes the pathology” for the infection. Removing the plasmid might allow a more specific immune reaction against the microbe with fewer harmful effects, he says.” Finally, the article talked about how the vaccine is being studied, with the experimentation on monkeys. In the study, six of twelve monkeys with a C. trachomatis infection were treated with the vaccine, and three of the six treated exhibited immunization to the infection. The other three only showed mild effects of the infection, while the six who were not treated showed moderate to severe eye disease.

This article and in particular this vaccine has a very widespread effect on humanity. If this vaccine is eventually perfected and tested to be safe for people with trachoma, then many people across the world would be able to have a chance at fighting this infection and possibly keep their eyesight. While it was explained in the article that any mass produced vaccine is in the distant future, after further experiments and reiteration, this vaccine could be patented and used to fight trachoma.

Overall, this article was well written, it summarized the current research into the vaccine for trachoma, and explained what scientists are doing to find the cure for this infection. The author did a good job of explaining, with the help of the coauthor of the study, how the vaccine would prevent eye disease, even though researchers don’t even know fully how this vaccine works. One thing that the author could have done better would be to explain who are the organizations currently taking part in this research and who else is looking to find this vaccine.

In Birds, a Possible Clue to the Cycle of Abuse

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/science/11booby.html?ref=science

Behavior research on Nazca boobies, ground-nesting birds native to the Galápagos Islands, has confirmed that animal behavior is similar to human behavior. Many social scientists believe that people are abusive because their parents were abusive, and for the first time, these birds are the first animals that show evidence that relates to this theory – suggesting that the “cycle of violence is generalizable.” The Nazca boobies raise only one chick at a time while the other chicks are taken care of by other adult Nazca boobies. These unrelated guardians can often by aggressive and sexual, and almost all chicks have some contact with unrelated adults. The researchers then studied 24 nestlings over three breeding seasons and carefully recorded the types and numbers of interactions with unrelated adults. Then, another group of researchers recorded the behavior of the same chicks as adults, who were unaware of the chick’s experiences with unrelated adults. They found that the more interactions a chick had with abusive, unrelated adults, the more abusive the chicks were as adults. Now, scientists can study the origin of abusive behavior using the Nazca boobies in ways that scientists couldn’t use with humans before.

I thought this article was very interesting because I never thought that a type of bird living in the Galapagos could have the same problems that humans have in terms of behavior. This article proves that, through similar experiences, animals and human’s abusive behavior comes from abusive adults – suggesting this theory is habitual. However, the article could have explained more on the study of abusive behavior in humans. In addition, it would have been fascinating to see the scientists link the Nazca boobies’ origin of abusive behavior with that of human’s.

Overall, I thought this article explained the background information to this theory and the experiment involving the Nazca boobies very well. It was easy to understand as well as intriguing. However, this article was very vague in explaining the study of abusive behavior that offspring experience in relation to their parent’s abusive behavior. In addition, I am curious to see what other experiments the scientists might perform on the Nazca boobies.

Researchers reconstruct genome of Black Plague

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111012132653.htm

A recent study performed by scientists at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany successfully sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death plague that devastated Europe in the fourteenth century. This was the first experiment where researchers managed to piece together the entire genome of a relatively ancient pathogen. The first step in reaching this conclusion was to obtain a small fragment of the DNA according to geneticist Hendrick Poinar of McMaster University, who helped uncover a “plague pit” in London where a tiny fragment of the Black Death’s DNA was extracted from skeletal remains and determined to be a variant of the Yersinia pestis bacterium. This confirmation of the origin of the disease helped settle many debates over whether or not this epidemic sprouted from this bacterium. The genomic data acquired from the DNA fragment also showed that all modern plagues are somehow descended from the original Bubonic plague. The article further states that scientists have already begun studying the evolution of this bacterium, and have found that is has only been slightly altered in the past few centuries. However, this small change has significantly decreased the lethalness of Yersinia pestis.

These studies have incredibly beneficial possibilities for human health in the future. By understanding how the disease has evolved over time, scientists can predict very accurately how similar strains of other bacteria, or even the Yersinia pestis itself, will evolve in the coming years. Further, by examining this bacterium in several skeletons dating from different centuries, scientists have been able to make analogies between Yersinia pestis and many other epidemics, including the Justinian Plague of the sixth century. Many infectious diseases that had previously eluded complete understanding by scientists are becoming easier to identify and treat as well, as the use of DNA recovery and sequencing has been dramatically increased after this incredibly successful experiment.

I enjoyed this article quite a lot because of its interesting topic. The bubonic plague has been so deadly to the human race and so little was known about it for so long that this new discovery offers interesting insights into future consequences of the new knowledge. I also was pleased to see many quotes from the scientists working in the lab in the article, as it gave a very scientific viewpoint alongside the author’s narrative. The most interesting piece of the article, I would have to say, was the fact that this was the first complete reconstruction of any ancient pathogen. However, the author had absolutely no logical sequence in his writing, so understanding the order of the procedure and observations made at each point was hard to follow.

Snails Ship Out on Scrambled Eggs

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/10/snails-ship-out-on-scrambled-eggs.html

Recent studies have shown that the shelled creatures belonging to the family Janthinidae, purple of violet snails, travel tropical waters clinging to flotation devices made up of strings of egg stuck together with goo. These bubble-rafting snails float upside down right below the surface in oceans across the globe. The snails wait for floating prey to helplessly wander by, and the janthinids extend their sharp mouths like cannons and bite of chunks from the animal. “Both male and female bubble-rafters secrete thick goo from their feet, and then fold the mucus to form air-trapping pockets,” explains Celia Churchill, an ecologist at the University of Michigan. Churchill and her colleagues dived into the unanswered question of how these rafts evolved. After thorough research looking at differences in DNA between janthinids and their close relatives, they concluded that bubble-rafters branched off at an unknown time on the snails’ evolutionary tree called epitoniids. Epitoniids live at the bottom of the sea feeding off of corals. Churchill and her team suspect that the snails’ evolution may have occurred like this: From time to time, bottom-dwelling wentletrap ancestors accidentally trapped small bubbles in their egg nets, and then floated to the surface until those bubbles popped. Because those high waters contained edible jellyfish, some wentletrap ancestors began to capitalize on making more bubbles, eventually exclusively floating. David Lindberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, elaborates that, “the janthinids are an incredibly extravagant group with an extraordinary evolutionary history.”

The studies about the extremely fascinating janthinids may have a profound effect on the evolutionary tree of the snail as a whole. New information discovered about when exactly the janthinids branched off from the epitoniids may alter the evolutionary tree of the snail and changed what we know today completely. Also, studies on these bubble-rafters may open up new discoveries of the art of flotation that may answer other questions regarding other animals that take to floatation.

Overall, I believe that the article did an excellent job in detailing the topic and discoveries at hand explaining what is so fascinating about this particular specie of snail. The author of the article, Daniel Strain, did an exceptional job in including expert analysis and quotations from ecologists at the right time in the article itself. The most interesting component of the article was, in fact, the alluring title because it makes the reader ponder about what it could possibly mean, and thus read the article. The author could have possibly related the phenomenon of the janthinidae to another floating animal.

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