Columbia University Science Honors Program

Can Eating Chocolate Improve Your Brain?

Sam Connors

2/22/16

Current Event 12

Can Eating Chocolate Improve Your Brain?

By Peter Russell

Through many cognitive experiments and brain performance tests, researchers led by Georgie Crichton of the Sansom Institute for Health at the University of South Australia have found that chocolate appears to improve mental skills. This is welcome news for chocolate lovers because the relationship between chocolate and the various tests conducted held up. These tests included verbal memory, scanning and tracking, visual-spatial memory [which allows us to find our keys or remember the way home, for example] and more. The question researchers asked next, however, was how chocolate appears to boost brainpower. They speculate flavonols, found in plant-based foods, and which represent up to 20% of the compounds present in cocoa beans. In addition to flavonols, other psychoactive components of chocolate include caffeine and theobromine, both of which have been associated with improving alertness and mental skills, they say.

It was noted at the end of the article that eating chocolate should always be balanced against a healthy diet and lifestyle. This may seem like a no brainer or even irrelevant, but in light of these findings, many people may begin to over-consume chocolate. "Of course chocolate intake should be considered within an overall healthy eating pattern, with consideration given to total energy intake and an individual’s energy needs," Crichton says. Still, the newfound apparent link between chocolate and brain performance could give chocolate a better name and put chocolate above all other sweets.

My biggest concern with this article was that it did not identify the significance of the tests performed, rather it merely just listed which ones were done. This was good to know, but without explanations, the reader is just taking the author’s word for granted. Otherwise, I enjoyed reading the article and liked how it was short and sweet (just like chocolate!). This is important for articles to have because it keeps the reader invested. I would only suggest explaining the experiments and links between chocolate intake more.

Reference, Peter RussellWebMD Medical. "Can Eating Chocolate Improve Your Brain?" WebMD. WebMD, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20160222/can-chocolate-improve-brain

A Parasite, Leopards, and a Primate’s Fear and Survival

AP Biology                                                                                                                      Jason Cushman 

Current Event 12                                                                                                                          2/22/16

A Parasite, Leopards, and a Primate’s Fear and Survival

                Members of the scientific community have been recently looking into the many bite marks on the bones of a large portion of ancient hominins which are caused by large African Felines and leopards.  Through their investigations and studies of chimpanzees in the Ivory Coast, many have concluded that these cats were and still are one of the biggest and most dangerous predators to our ancestors and the Hominina Clade.  Of the chimpanzees studied, scientists estimate that on average, they have a 30 percent chance of being attacked by a leopard each year.  Through this research, a study has been published proving that the leopards have had a lot of help from a single-celled parasite known as Toxoplasma Gondii.  This parasite messes with the fear-related regions of the brain and removes the natural defense mechanism in chimps that makes them afraid of cats.  Toxoplasma Gondii was first studied in the 90s in rats where scientists saw similar results in their fear of house cats.  Scientists concluded that those infected lost their fear of cat odors and some claim that they were even attracted to those odors.  The parasite’s evolution to have this effect on animals is due to the parasite’s life cycle.  When ingested by a cat, Toxoplasma Gondii travels to the gut where it can reproduce and create oocysts that are expelled in feces and can survive for months until it is picked up in a new animal.  Therefore, it evolved to make it easier to reach the gut of the cat by making its original host easy prey.  A new study has found that this parasite is also in and affects birds and other mammals including humans.  11 percent of Americans have it and in some extreme cases, countries have been observed to have 90 percent of their population infected.  Though generally the parasite is dormant in cysts in the brain due to healthy immune system suppression, recent studies have found some symptoms linked to this disease.  Women have been observed with heightened aggression and men, increased impulsiveness.  The parasite has also been known to cause more serious health complications in fetuses and those with compromised immune systems. 

                This is fairly worrying because of its prevalence in not only mammals but humans as well.  The fact that a vast majority of some countries are infected is dangerous and could lead to many problems in those country’s’ futures.  Although leopard attacks are not a major risk for most humans, some of the reproduction health complications that Toxoplasma Gondii can create along with the possibility for further, potentially dangerous mutations.  Furthermore this information could be used to more accurately hypothesize the development and migrations of the Hominina Clade.  Scientists may be able to use maps of high cat density and understand what our ancestors did to avoid them.  This discovery could also aid neuroscientists in examinations of the fear center of the human brain and how it can be manipulated.  This could have many practical uses such as helping people with diseases like PTSD. 

                This article was very well written and very informative.  Zimmer used many different studies to give a very complete picture of what is happening and gave detailed descriptions of each study along with the scientists who completed them.  He did an especially good job of summarizing all of the information and linking it together very smoothly.  He also made sure that it was very understandable for the reader by including many definitions and explanations.  I really enjoyed the way he wrote the article in a chronological fashion, explaining the views of scientists  based on one study and how that changed with each progressing study.  My primary criticism of this article would be that there is a lack of discussion of possible future implications this parasite could create for humans and other animals.  Without this part, the article lacked a clear relevance and left the reader to guess what it may be.  Otherwise this article was practically flawless and a very good read. 

Zimmer, Carl. "A Parasite, Leopards, and a Primate’s Fear and Survival." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Rising Sea Levels

Gillis, Justin. "Seas Are Rising at Fastest Rate in Last 28 Centuries." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/sea-level-rise-global-warming-climate-change.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=science&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Science&pgtype=article>.

The changing sea levels are undeniable as many coastal towns around the world are suffering their consequences. This phenomenon is at least in part due to anthropological greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists such as Dr. Kopp and Dr. Rahmstorf affirm that sea levels are guaranteed to rise in the next century. Since the 1800s, global temperatures have risen around 1.8 fahrenheits. Sea levels have been changing naturally for centuries; however, calculations in 2013 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change estimates that continued rates of emissions will cause a rise in sea levels of 1.7 to 3.2 feet in the next 100 years. The article states that the warming climate is only just beginning to have an effect on the Arctic ice sheets and sea levels in general. Evidence suggests that unless humans curtail our current greenhouse gas emissions, the destruction upon coastal areas will be devastating and occur sooner than governments and people can respond in an effective way.

Rising sea levels have a profound global impact because of the amount of communities that thrive in coastal areas. If a drastic sea level rise of 1.7 to 3.2 feet occurs in the next few decades, these areas will be inhabitable. Although scientists deem that sea level change seems inevitable at this point, such rapid change would not allow governments to consider options to minimize its damage on its citizens. This article provides solid evidence that such areas are in danger, which would especially impact the people in coastal areas and also the people in other areas that rely on the industries in coastal areas that would be severely damaged through rising sea levels.

This article was comprehensive and provided ample scientific evidence for the claims that it made. Considering the debate around anthropological sources of climate change, the scientific evidence provided in this article did a great job at defending its position that greenhouse gas emissions are at least partly related to the rising global temperatures. However, the article could have done a better job in presenting a counterargument and refuting it in order to make the author’s case more solid. Although many scientific studies were cited to make the information seem credible, providing a counterargument would have improved the article. Writing more about some individuals’ doubts about anthropological climate change and rising sea levels and rebutting the claims with evidence would have left a more solid and balanced impression.

In Zika Epidemic, a Warning on Climate Change

I recently read an article on the new Zika virus that discussed the effects it had on the climate change. The article, “In Zika Epidemic, a Warning on Climate Change,” by Justin Gillis claims that the fact that 2015 was “the hottest year in the historical record, with an outbreak in Brazil of a disease transmitted by heat-loving mosquitos” should be taken as a warning. Gillis claims that “global warming is likely to increase the range and speed of the life cycle of the particular mosquitoes carrying these viruses, encouraging their spread deeper into temperate countries like the United States.” He backs his claim by quoting various experts on the matter, including Andrew Monaghan, who claimed, “As we get continued warming, it’s going to become more difficult to control mosquitoes…. The warmer it is, the faster they can develop from egg to adult, and the faster they can incubate viruses.” In the article, Gillis also recognizes the counter argument, which is that there are countless possible confounding variables. Overall, the article goes over a few reasons why we should be more cautious when handling issues like global warming, since they can lead to epidemics like the Zika virus.

This article could not apply more to our everyday lives. I recently went to Puerto Rico, a country which is susceptible to the virus, and my entire group risked getting the disease. As the temperature gets hotter, diseases like this Zika virus will spring up more and more often, so we need to be careful that we take pre-emptive measures to stop global warming from becoming a reality. We are faced with a problem that will actually have an immediate effect on us. Additionally, we are constantly exposed to mosquitos, which makes this entire situation even more dire, for there is no running from this problem--we can only try to prevent it. The article states that it won’t be long before a virus like this one will make its way into the United States, so we should prepare ourselves for that if temperatures don’t stop rising. In short, the connections that can be made from this article to our own lives are quite important, for our own lives are in danger if this trend between global warming and these diseases continues.

This article had its ups and downs, but it was overall a pleasure to read. Its strengths included its acknowledgement of the counter argument, in which Gillis quoted a few people who disagreed with his stance. Another positive aspect of this article was that Gillis expanded his observation to other diseases, not just the Zika virus, which included malaria, Lyme disease, dengue disease, etc. This article was quite nice in these two aspects, but there was one major problem I had with it: it repeated itself. I found that I was reading the same thing over and over again, just said by different people. Overall, if I were to improve this article, I would have made it more concise and compact, cutting out some quotes in the process.

Hyperlink:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/world/americas/in-zika-epidemic-a-warning-on-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

MLA:

Gillis, Justin. "In Zika Epidemic, a Warning on Climate Change." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

It’s Possible to Grow a 3-D Printed Ear on a Mouse’s Back

Natalie Kister

At Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, a group of scientists, researchers and bioengineers have been working on 3D printing different small organs in the hopes that they will one day come to a point when they can implant these organs in humans. Exciting progress has been made in regards to this project. They team has recently successfully been able to not only print a human ear, jawbone, skull done and skeleton muscle, but implant these body parts onto the backs of mice and into rodents. While there have been pictures of ears attached to the backs of mice before, the difference with this new research is that the ear on the mouse was 3D printed AND it was able to live and grow. The mice’s bodies grew blood vessels to attach to the ear, allowing it to survive. Even more exciting to the researchers was that when printed muscle was implanted into rodents, nerve were grown and developed by the rodents bodies allowing the muscle to be usable. The printer works by combining biodegradable plastic, whose purpose is to provide the body part being printed with a stable structure, and a mixture of human cells with rat, mice, or rabbit cells. The use of living cells in the printer does not change the basic idea: this gel-like material is pumped out of the printer in layers, following a code for a certain body part.

This article contains very exciting news to the science and medical world. With the research conducted and preliminary discoveries made, it is hoped that this technology will soon be able to be used on humans. By taking the next step of implanting trials in humans, it is hoped that further discoveries can be made about the possibility of using biostructures in the future instead of looking immediately towards donor organs and prosthetic limbs. Victims of car crashes and other injuries were internal organs may be damaged or parts of their bodies lost can have new hope in this 3D technology.

I chose to read this article because the title, “It’s Possible to Grow a 3D Printed Ear on a Mouse’s Back”, caught my attention immediately. This article was easy to read and presented all of its information in a clear way. As someone who had not previously heard about this technology, the terms were well explained, allowing me to easily follow along and understand the concepts and article as a whole.  

St, Nicholas. "It’s Possible to Grow a 3-D Printed Ear on a Mouse’s Back."The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/science/its-possible-to-grow-a-3-d-printed-ear-on-a-mouses-back.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&module=NextInCollection®ion=Footer&pgtype=article&version=column&rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites>.

Hoping to Lead Great Lakes Lampreys to Demise by the Nose

Nuwer, Rachel. "Hoping to Lead Great Lakes Lampreys to Demise by the Nose." The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Feb. 2016. Web. 12 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/science/hoping-to-lead-great-lakes-lampreys-to-demise-by-the-nose.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront>.

The Sea Lamprey is an eel-like, aquatic, parasitic vertebrate that is an invasive species in the North American region. These organisms have a long snakelike body with sharp teeth, used to suck into the victim’s flesh. Recently these organisms have moved into the Great Lakes and caused great destruction in terms of ecological damage, as well as economic devastation in the fishing industry. As the author of the article states, “Harvests of lake trout fell from around 18 million pounds a year to less than 300,000 pounds… Unchecked, lampreys killed an estimated 110 million pounds of fish each year.” (Nuwer) Until recently lampricide, chemical control of lampreys, has been administered to the Great Lakes in attempt to control the population. This lamprey pesticide has been known as TFM, a metabolism-targeting poison applied to larvae-infested streams. However, this method has proved inefficient seeing as in addition to the lampreys, it kills off native fish species. Because of these problems scientists have been working towards a new control mechanism that will target specifically the targeted organism. The sea lamprey, like many other fish, return to a specific place to lay their larvae. These organisms use their nose to determine where the majority of larvae are currently laying, and return there to lay them. The scent they follow is usually specific pheromones released by others. Scientists are planning to use this to their advantage and create pheromones they will respond to and others they will swim away from. If successful they will place the pheromones in places that contain lampricide as well as nets to catch mass quantities and remove them. As Dr. Miller, a researcher in the field says, “Animals are always more sophisticated than we think… Effectively managing them takes a full hand of cards played in a smart way — not just one ace and you’ve got them.” (Nuwer)

For a large mass of people, and fishing as an industry, these invasive pests have been destroying an important food supply. This possible new technology will become increasingly significant if it is proven successful. Not only will it cause a needed boost in the fishing supply we are harvesting, but will lead to other breakthroughs in the scientific field of invasive species. Invasive species are most harmful because of the fact that they are not native and therefore have no known predators. They overrun the native species, but if scientists can figure out how to understand these species better, for example, the sea lampreys pheromones, they can create more beneficial controls for all these harmful species.

This article was incredibly interesting and well written. It was easy to comprehend, but the material was still challenging enough. There were a lot of included statistics, as well as examples of things scientists are doing in the research fields. One thing I wish the article had included more of were examples are possible ways to administer this same technology for some other invasive species. Overall a good and educational article!  

"'Jaws' May Help Humans Grow New Teeth, Shark Study Suggests." 'Jaws' May Help Humans Grow New Teeth, Shark Study Suggests. 12 Feb. 2016. Web. <http://phys.org/news/2016-02-jaws-humans-teeth-shark.html>.

The article, “Jaws’ May Help Humans Grow New Teeth, Shark Study Suggests,” tells of a research performed by Dr. Gareth Fraser of University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences which may bring new hope to humans with tooth loss. For a long time, sharks and rays have been known to develop and replace rows of teeth in a similar fashion to a conveyer belt when needed. Apparently, this is due to the network of genes in a special set of epithelial cells, called the dental lamina, which account for the lifelong continuation of tooth development and regeneration in sharks. All animals have these specialized cells, but humans only form two sets - the baby and adult teeth - before they are destroyed. The research team concluded that over 450 million years, this tooth-making gene, which made the first vertebrate teeth ever, has evolved in sharks while it has reduced in other mammals. According to Dr. Gareth Fraser: "We know that sharks are fearsome predators, and one of the main reasons they are so successful at hunting prey is because of their rows of backward pointing, razor-sharp teeth that regenerate rapidly throughout their lifetime, and so are replaced before decay.” The team’s research, which include examining the teeth of catshark embryos, show that these genes are important both during the development of the shark’s first teeth and during the regeneration of further teeth.

The new treatment, which could possibly be created with knowledge of how sharks are able to continuously generate their teeth, would have an immense impact on our society. This problem of tooth loss affects every human especially during their elderly years since their teeth might not be strong enough to bite harder food and receive proper nutrients. The ability to regenerate teeth and to make them as strong as they were during a human’s adolescent age would be astounding. It also goes to show how evolution really is a central theme in biology, and how scientists are using this new-found knowledge to better the lives of humans.  

Though this article was very informative and engaging, it could have included more quoted from several of the scientists involved in the research to further highlight the impact this new therapy could have on our society. I felt like this article was more of an introductory article to what the scientists will be experimenting on the catsharks because it didn’t include any information about how the scientists are going to utilize this knowledge (how will they incorporate this knowledge into their invention?) Overall, this article was well-written and interesting to read.

Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change is Found Lacking

Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change is Found Lacking

In the article, Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change is Found Lacking, John Schwartz talks about how many science teachers in the United States touch briefly on the subject of climate change, but do not have a sufficient grasp on the topic or political factors related to climate change in order to teach the material effectively to students. A survey taken in the journal of science also found that 30% of 1500 teachers surveyed emphasized the climate change had to do with “natural causes”, while 12% did not emphasize global warming had to do with human causes. Half of the 12% did not talk about any causes to recent global warming. The survey was done by climate scientists, a research team, and the National Center for Science Education. To address the reason why some teachers do not touch on climate change enough or at all, Bertha Vasquez, a teacher in Miami, states, “if you’re not as confident in the subject area, you’re going to avoid it”. Professor Plutzer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania went on to explain why many teachers were hazy in the area of climate change stating, “very few current teachers had much exposure to climate science when they were in college”. However, these percentages might change in the next few years due to the fact that 26 states have developed a Next Generation Science Standards which have been adopted by 16 states so far. Many school districts have also independently adopted these standards.

This article is very important in this day and age, especially because our world is being deeply affected by global warming. An article like this could alarm the public and notify people in that their children are not being taught about the human causes of climate change and the ramifications that our actions are going to cause. One of the first steps in solving a problem as big as global warming is educating people, something that won’t happen without teachers incorporating a greater aspect of environmental science into their curriculum.

This article was very well written and included many good statistics. The author presented the information in a way that was easy to understand. However, I think there could have been a greater amount of information about the human causes of climate change and what possible consequences are already and what they could be in a few years. The article was mainly about a lack of teacher knowledge on the subject, but touching briefly on fossil fuels, sea levels, pollution, and the declining population of many animal populations would have rounded out the article. Overall, this was a very interesting article, informing me on how there are many teachers not educated on the growing issue of climate change.  

Schwartz, John. "Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change Is Found Lacking." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/science-teachers-grasp-of-climate-change-is-found-lacking.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

How a Medical Mystery in Brazil Led Doctors to Zika

How a Medical Mystery in Brazil Led Doctors to Zika

by Donald G. McNeil Jr., Simon Romero and Sabrina Tavernise  Feb. 6, 2016

This article discusses the origins of the deadly virus called Zika in eastern Brazil. The authors describe the discovery of the disease through the observation of deformities in Brazilian babies’ facial features. Since these observations, the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency and have prompted warnings to countries where the virus is circulating. Researches have concluded that the virus is sexually transmitted, and can affect pregnant women. Additionally, the virus now threatens the economies of fragile nations and the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio and has sparked debate in heavily Roman Catholic countries about a women’s right to birth control and abortion. Furthermore, the article discusses the questions that have arisen since the virus’ discovery: what is the virus, how could it have been around for almost 70 years without us realizing its power, and how do we stop it?

Because it is able to spread easily, researchers are worried that the virus could potentially spread to the United States. Doctors are on high alert because of this, and many are looking into ways to limit the disease before it can keep spreading. As previously mentioned, the presence of Zika in Brazil has Brazil’s government questioning the possibility of the summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. As the virus continues to spread, many people in all different areas of the world are concerned.

The article was well-written and informative, and helped me to gain a clearer understanding of the topic. I have heard reports about the Zika virus in the news but did not fully understand the context of the epidemic; now I know about the origins of the virus and the ways it spreads. The authors broke the article into multiple subsections, which helped to clarify the different topics discussed. Each section had a specific area of focus, which deepened my understanding of specific topics concerning Zika virus. However, the subsections made the article harder to read because it made the writing choppier. I would have liked the authors to include a conclusion paragraph that summarized all of the information previously stated.

Overall, I enjoyed reading and analyzing this article — it was well-written, informative, and helped me to gain an understanding of a topic that I had yet to learn about.

Mcneil, Donald G., Simon Romero, and Sabrina Tavernise. "How a Medical Mystery in Brazil Led Doctors to Zika." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/health/zika-virus-brazil-how-it-spread-explained.html?ref=health&_r=0>.

"Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause"

Ever heard of schizophrenia? Those who suffer from it usually are characterized by their hallucinations and delusion thinking. For generations, this mental illness has proven to be an enigma to scientists; however it became slightly less mysterious late January after the discovery of the role genetics plays. It is natural for the average human’s brain to undergo synaptic pruning, a process in which the brain disposes of useless connections between neurons as it ages; however, “people with schizophrenia have a gene variant that apparently facilitates aggressive ‘tagging’ of connections for pruning, in effect accelerating the process.” In addition, MHC is a human genome that is usually mentioned in previous studies relating to the disorder; in fact a 2007 study displayed MHC’s involvement in synaptic pruning. A research team, led by Steven McCarroll and Aswin Sekar found that the MHC contains four common variants of a gene called C4 which then produced C4-A and C4-B, two kinds of proteins. Upon analyzation of 64,000 people, the study confirmed that schizophrenia patients were prone to have overactive forms of C4-A compared to the others. Dr. Steven’s lab mice with the C4 genes expressed blatant signs of something wrong in synaptic pruning. This led to the conclusion that overproduction of C4-A could result in too much pruning, which would explain the thinner prefrontal layers in schizophrenic patients and why most patients are so young (teenagers/twenties) However despite this leap of knowledge, much is to be questioned in the field of biological psychiatry. “Carrying a gene variant that facilitates aggressive pruning is hardly enough to cause schizophrenia; far too many other factors are at work. Having such a variant, Dr. McCarroll estimates, would increase a person’s risk by about 25 percent over the 1 percent base rate of schizophrenia — that is, to 1.25 percent.”Although the new finding will not lead to new treatments or medication soon, it marks the beginning to truly understanding the disorder.

The article made it blatant that the field of biological psychiatry is an painstaking one. Human psychology does share its roots within biology in the end, however uncovering these roots are harder as there is so much unknown about the field due to amount of unwarranted factors present. Although the newfound understanding gained from McCarrol and Sekar’s work cannot automatically lead to treatments, it allows for others researchers to build upon their research and ultimately paves a route for the creation of possible treatments.

The strengths within the article was clearly the amount of research the author put into comprehending this intricate topic as well as quote integration and citing data as well. However, I felt there were some weaknesses within the author’s strengths such as the overflow of information. I had to read the article several times before I actually could understand what exactly I had read. Also some of the quotes were a bit simplistic, merely confirming something the author had already written. Overall it was a really interesting read, but if the author worked on simple things like simplifying what exactly was so groundbreaking about the discovery of the researchers I think this would have made a huge difference.

Hyperlink:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/health/schizophrenia-cause-synaptic-pruning-brain-psychiatry.html?_r=0

Carey, Benedict. "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause." The New York

Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.

US Zika Case Sparks Questions About Sex and Mosquito Germs

The Zika virus transmitted from mosquitoes to humans has recently been found as sexually transmitted in a case in Texas. Scientists have been researching to see how high of a risk infection through sex is for this illness. It is still evident that mosquitoes are the main component of the spread of Zika through Latin America and the United States. According to a member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is difficult to target other transmission types of these diseases during outbreaks. The Zika epidemic is predominantly in Latin America and the Caribbean.Distinguishing the sexual transmission of the Zika virus was only possible in Dallas because there was no outbreak there; no transmission was reported in the United States until the Dallas case. It was confirmed that the individual who caught the virus had recently had sex with a person who had just returned from Venezuela, however they have both recovered. Globally there have been cases contraction of the Zika virus from Africa and Tahiti. Currently the scientific is scrambling for solutions due to the evidence from Brazil of babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads (microcephaly) of whom had mothers with the Zika virus. This has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a global emergency because it is a threat to the whole globe. It is important to know about any other types of transmission; for example if a blood donor has been in a Zika outbreak area, can a receiver get infected through a blood transfusions?

As of right now there are no routine screenings of blood donations specifically testing for the presence of the Zika virus because the Zika virus only remains in the blood of an infected person for a few days. A solution to this possible issue would be to test all blood donated, but if that is too expensive, then to definitely test blood used for pregnant women. Another prevention method could be to require all people traveling to infected areas to wait a month after their return to America before donating blood, which has been recommended by the Red Cross and adopted by Canada. This is important to research because there are many unanswered questions like how long is someone infectious, and is it only contagious if the infected person is showing symptoms. I chose this article because I believe that more people have to be informed about the Zika Virus and specifically its symptoms and possible effects. The more awareness that is raised, the more funding for research will be offered and prioritized. The mosquitoes efficiently inject the disease into the bloodstream of the victims, causing rapid circulation. Interestingly, and my favorite quote from this article stated by an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University was that "the mosquito is the deadliest animal on the planet.” Just thinking about a mosquito compared to an animal we see as a vicious animal like a panther, it is baffling to think that mosquitoes are more dangerous. It makes sense though because mosquitoes are much more common in everyday life globally. This article informed the reader, in detail, about what is currently known about the disease, and what precautions are currently being taken. The authors also did a great job finding credible quotes to strengthen their content and bring new insight to confirmed facts. I did not find many weaknesses with this article because it was concise but with enough detail, the authors could have added photographs/diagrams to enhance their point. Other than that I enjoyed reading this article, and I would recommend others to read it.

"US Zika Case Sparks Questions About Sex and Mosquito Germs." The New York Times. The

New York Times, 03 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/02/03/health/ap-us-med-zika-virus-sex.html

“How a Medical Mystery Led Doctors to Zika”

Zika, a newly identified mosquito-transmitted virus, has recently been in the headlines of every newspaper because of its link to Guillain-Barré syndrome and possible link to the birth defect microcephaly. While this link has not been proven yet, doctors in Recife, Brazil noticed a shocking increase in the number of microcephaly cases in babies. This disease causes, “children with normal faces up to the eyebrows, and then you have no foreheads and very strange heads,” said Dr. Celina M. Turchi, an infectious diseases researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil. These symptoms are consistent with incomplete brain development. Doctors could not figure out why they had such a sudden spike in microcephaly cases until they discovered the spike in Zika cases as well, causing them to investigate a connection between the two. Researchers and doctors in Brazil have been working to find a link between Zika and microcephaly and even found Zika in the amniotic fluid in pregnant women and Zika in the brain tissue of two stillbirths. Yet, this does not prove a link, more research needs to be done and test need to be run on many more women before any definite link can be concluded. This suspicion has led the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency, ask pregnant women to refrain from travel to the countries infected with Zika, and ask women to refrain from unprotected sex with men who have just traveled to one of these countries. Some Ministry of Health leaders even recommended that women delay having children in these countries. Many countries had been tracking Zika as it traveled from Asia through the Pacific Islands, eventually landing in South America. However, Zika is considered to be much less dangerous than its cousin viruses like yellow fever, dengue, and West Nile virus, so not much was done to try and prevent it. Zika now is present in 33 countries with a combined population of over 600 million people, so it has the potential to be destructive. Yet, in Recife and the state around it, cases of Zika have been declining for the past three weeks, and researchers do not understand why. This could be a good sign that the virus is not one that can persist in a community, or it could just be a fluke because it is in a very confined area of country. Zika is an up-and-coming public health crisis that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
The Ebola Outbreak that started in March 2014 stirred up fear among the entire world. We failed to stop that outbreak because of lack of cooperation and coordination among countries. We learned lessons from Ebola and can apply these to Zika. We need to get in front of this before microcephaly becomes a common birth defect and cases of Guillain-Barré skyrocket. No mother should be afraid to have a child because of mosquitos, and this fear could potentially affect the population size of the next generation.
I think the authors did a very good job of framing their argument into different sections. However, they were rather quote-heavy and lacked specific science evidence. This evidence is not widely present because of lack of research, but there are still statistics and studies out there that could have been used to scientifically back up their claims. Overall, the article was very well written and easy to read.
Citation:
Mcneil, Donald G., Simon Romero, and Sabrina Tavernise. "How a Medical Mystery in Brazil Led Doctors to Zika." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. .

DNA Study of First Ancient African Genome Flawed, Researchers Report

In October, Dr. Andrea Manica and his colleagues reconstructed the genome from a skeleton of an Ethiopian man who lived 4,500 years ago, which was the first ancient human genome ever found in Africa. The results from the reconstruction of this genome are key to finding more clues about African history that artifacts cannot provide. However, two scientists uninvolved in this original study requested the use of the original data for their own studies, and their findings did not reach the same conclusions as Manica’s. The original study’s data suggested that the skeleton was linked to a group of Ethiopians, known as the Ari, who live near the cave today. The more recent study found that the skeleton was only distantly related to people elsewhere in Africa, and not related to the Ari. These new findings provoked Dr. Manica and his researchers to review their study. They found that they had forgotten to adjust the standard reference genome that is used as a basis for reconstructing the skeleton’s genome, and thus their data was incorrect. The Ari still appear to be linked to the skeleton, but not as close as previously thought.

The fact that DNA can survive thousands of years and still be used in research is amazing, but we must also consider the difficulty in piecing together and making sense of these ancient DNA genomes. This study, and several others that have encountered errors similar to those of Manica’s, proves that reconstructing these ancient genomes is not an easy task. There is a growing list of retracted scientific studies, and our society must be aware that not every released scientific study is going to be completely accurate. It is also important to note that both groups of scientists encourage DNA experts to be willing to share their data analyses to catch similar errors in the future. After looking at this study, and several others that have been retracted, it is our responsibility to understand the hardships of this tough profession, and that mistakes are often bound to occur.

I thought this article was well written with a clear and concise summary of each researcher’s report. Specifically, the author did a great job of explaining the complex mistake that Dr. Manica and his team had made by using a simple puzzle analogy. Zimmer could have included other examples of previous retracted studies that encountered problems in order to compare Manica’s mistake to those of other studies. Overall, this article expanded my knowledge on the frequent mistakes made in ancient genome reconstructions.

Citation:

Zimmer, Carl. "DNA Study of First Ancient African Genome Flawed, Researchers Report." The  New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.     <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/science/dna-study-of-first-ancient-african-  genome-flawed-researchers- report.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2         Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&versi            n=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront>.