Summer Reseach Internship Opportunity

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute is offering an interesting program for high school juniors from June 23 to August 8. The program will enable the student to conduct a cancer-related research project under the mentorship of internationally known scientists.

Application deadline is Feb. 3, 2014. Apply on line.

Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo

I read the article, “Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo”. In 1961 biologists, Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorehead discovered that old age is built into our cells. This discovery contradicted the previous common belief that a healthy human cell would multiply forever. This article explains a recent validation to this previous discovery. Dr. Hayflick and Dr. Moorehead reared fetal human cells and found that begging at the fetal stage, cells stop growing in the human body. Cells that stop growing this way came to be known as senescent. The article states, “Given all this research, the last place you would expect to find senescent cells would be at the very start of life. But now three teams of scientists are reporting doing just that. For the first time, they have found senescent cells in embryos, and they have offered evidence that senescence is crucial to proper development.” Essentially they discovered that for life to get off on a good start, you need a splash of old age (senescent cells). Biologists also discovered that senescent cells are important to life for other reasons. They found that, “Besides stopping their growth, scientists found, senescent cells also secrete a cocktail of chemicals. The chemicals they release can create chronic inflammation. They also attract certain immune cells, which seek out the senescent cells and kill them.” This behavior is good for our health because it keeps cells from becoming cancerous by stopping the cells from uncontrollable division. Moreover, the biologists found that senescent cells are crucial for embryonic development because the chemicals they release act as signals for cells to develop into different tissues, to create a complete and functional body.

The material covered in this article affects humanity greatly. The discovery of the benefits of these senescent cells may be able to help find a cure to cancer. If scientists study the behavior of these cells they may be on a track towards a cure to cancer and therefore many lives all over the world could be saved. Also, this article relates to our bio class. We are currently learning about reproduction and embryonic development so this article directly correlates. It is interesting to learn a little bit more about embryonic development from this article, because they would not be something that would be covered in class. However, it is very interesting.

Overall, I found this article to be very interesting. I enjoyed learning about these cells because I had not heard about them before. Previously I had thought cells would always keep growing and multiplying, so I was very intrigued to read more about these cells that stop growing. Although this article was interesting, I think it would have been more interesting if it covered more about the negative affects of these cells rather than mostly positive. Also, the article wasn't very clear at points which made it difficult to understand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/signs-of-aging-even-in-the-embryo.html?ref=science&_r=0

"Coldblooded Does Not Mean Stupid"

In the article, “Coldblooded Does Not Mean Stupid,” by Emily Anthes from the New York Times, the preconceived notions that coldblooded reptiles were not nearly as intelligent as mammals was addressed and argued to be wrong. Although species like lizards, turtles, and snakes have been understudied while other species have had a plethora of research released on them, recently scientists have revisited these deserving animals. Originally thought of to be very simple minded animals with very little intellectual knowledge, new studies have been released saying that they are not as primitive as many had thought. These new ideas connect to cognitive evolution, and because retiles, birds, and mammals all came from a common ancestor, the sophistication of that ancestor is can now be thought to be greater. In a variety of experiments performed on different reptiles surrounding their willingness to respond to environmental problems and problem solve reflect the new possibility of their more complex mind. Although the experiments performed were relatively simple, they had previously been overlooked, because the tests done were the same that were done on mammals, and scientists were not taking into consideration, and “scientists commonly [used] “aversive stimuli,” such as loud sounds and bright lights, to shape rodent behavior. But reptiles respond to many of these stimuli by freezing, thereby not performing.” However, now that researchers have learned what type of work needs to be done with reptiles, new advances can be made in this field. 

Studies around cognitive evolution, or the way in which species come about solving problems, is very important to our understanding of ourselves and how we have come to the mental state in which we are today. Knowing that our distant ancestors were more advanced than we previously thought could possibly change our notions around our own and other species’ evolutions. This new discovery could also cause scientists to question how what notions other experiments were performed under, and if they need to be redone from a less biased point of view. 

I thought that this article was written very well. The author incorporated different stories and examples that tied the whole piece together, but did not let that take away from the facts she was presenting. However, I wish that Anthes would have put into context some of the estimated times of evolution, so the effect of this new revelation was more tangible. Still, the article was a great read and extremely informative. 

Citation: Anthes, Emily. "Coldblooded Does Not Mean Stupid." New York Times. 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

I read Wolf to Dog: Scientists Agree on How, but Not Where by Carl Zimmer. In the article, the author discussed the confusion scientists had and still have on the location where dogs developed from wolves. Scientists know that dogs developed from wolves because their genes are the most closely related. Originally, scientists believed that dogs developed in South China because Chinese dogs have the closet DNA to wolves. But, this would mean that dogs developed over 30,000 years ago, which some scientists very much disagree on. New studies have shown that dogs may have been bred in Western Europe due to new gene extraction from fossils. This article does not conclude where dogs were developed, but it does not give insight to the possible places where wolves were domesticated leading to new dog breeds.

            This article is important to the real world because of the resources being discovered to find the answer to this long debated question. Scientists have found a way to take fossils of ancient wolves and dogs and replicate those genes into actual gene strands. This will also have the future to possibility study other ancient bones to find how species evolved over time.

            I thought the author only did an ok job in writing his article. I was very confused when I first read it, and had to read it several times to wrap my head around the fact that there was no concluding answer. I thought the author could have made it clearer that there is no answer to this ambiguous question. And he should have specified the different sides more clearly.

Zimmer, Carl. "Wolf to Dog: Scientists Agree on How, but Not Where." New York Times. New York Times,      14 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/science/wolf-to-dog-scientists-agree-on-how-but-not-where.html?ref=science>.

I read the article “An Icy Observatory Detects Neutrinos From Far, Far Away” by Kenneth Chang. This ‘Icy Observatory’ refers to the observatory that was established in 2010 called IceCube Neutrino Observatory whose purpose was to look for and discover neutrinos. Neutrinos are extremely small sub atomic particles which can pass through anything with mass with relative ease. The last report of neutrinos was 1987 which came from a supernova explosion 165,000 light-years away. The IceCube has been established with more than 5000 sensors. These sensors were frozen across a cubic kilometer (about one quarter cubic mile). Their purpose is to look for flashes of blue light which “are given off by the cascades of debris generated by a neutrino.” Neutrinos are hard to detect because they rarely interact and affect the universe. For example every second trillions of neutrinos pass through every person on Earth. Neutrinos are discovered once in a while when a neutrino does collide with something, setting off a cascade of electrons and other subatomic debris. Some scientists believe that some of the neutrinos might be coming from our own galaxy not just from solar systems far away.

This discovery of new neutrinos is important for astronomers. Francis Halzen, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin who is the lead investigator for the project said, “This gives us a new way to do astronomy.” The high energy neutrinos will allow astronomers to observe the universe through a new spectrum. Before observations were made by gathering photos, particles of light, visible light, and X-rays and Gamma rays. Another supernova like the one in 1987 would drastically help the understanding of neutrinos due to the vast amount that are released after a cosmic explosion.

Overall this was a well written article. The article was at time difficult to understand and I had to do some more research on neutrinos to completely understand what the article was talking about. However the author was able to simplify some aspects which greatly helped in understanding this topic of these subatomic particles. I enjoyed reading and learning about neutrinos and hope they lead to more understanding about the universe in the future. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/science/space/icy-observatory-detects-neutrinos-from-outside-our-solar-system.html?ref=science&_r=0

Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo

            I found this article to be very interesting.  The article proposed that cells of animals are capable of reaching old age even at the very beginning.  Scientists believed that if human cells were put in a test tube with a good amount of nutrients, the cells would multiply forever.  However, Dr. Hayflick and Dr. Moorehead discovered that this is not the case through their study of fetal human cells.  The doctors found that the fetal cells would divide up to 50 times and then stop.  Cells that stop growth in such a manner are called senescent.  Senescent cells are responsible for several aspects of old age, including wrinkled skin, cataracts, and arthritic joints.  The reason why the cells eventually stop dividing is that the DNA gradually accumulates damage, and switches on a set of genes that cease all growth once the DNA becomes too damaged.  Such senescent cells were found in embryos of mice, which is interesting because “the discoveries raise the prospect that the dawn and dusk of life are intimately connected.”

            This discovery is significant because senescent cells could lead to a cure for cancer in the future.  Cells are more likely to divide uncontrollably and develop into cancer as their DNA becomes more damaged.  However, senescent cells prevent themselves from becoming cancerous “by stopping their own growth and by inviting immune cells to kill them.”  At the same time, an accumulating supply of senescent cells can lead to chronic inflammation that can cause damage to surrounding tissue and harm our health.

            I thought that the article included all the important information about the subject matter, but the information was not presented in a clear and concise manner.  The points made in the article were disorganized and out of order, and I felt that the article skipped around, making it a bit confusing.  The article started out by talking about the discovery of the senescent cells, jumped to their significance, and then went back to explaining how the cells were discovered.  I think the article would have been much more effective if the author finished each point before moving onto the next thing.  Another thing that I did not like about the article is that it was supposed to be about the significance of the senescent cells found in embryos, but the article mainly focused on the general topic of senescent cells found elsewhere in the body.  However, I did learn a lot from reading this article, and the information in the article is relevant to what we are currently learning in class.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/signs-of-aging-even-in-the-embryo.html?ref=science&_r=0

Zimmer, Carl. "Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.

Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo

Carl Zimmer’s article in the New York Times titled, Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo, is an intriguing article that summarizes the findings a recent experiment. These recent discoveries have to do with certain cells called senescent cells which are characterized by the stopping of growth after dividing around 50 times. The experiment has discovered that, “senescent cells are involved in many of the ravages of the old age.” This basically means that senescent cells are the cells in our body that cause us to age and grow old. This research has also uncovered that senescent cells are actually found in embryos and may be crucial to proper development. This has raised the very thought provoking question about how “the dawn and dusk of life are intimately connected.” Surely this will lead to further research of senescent cells and it truly brings on a lot of questions about the essence of the cycle of life.

            This article affects humanity as a whole in big ways. First off, this sparks questions about what it means to grow old and what is really happening inside of our bodies. This discovery will lead to dramatic investigations on the true purpose of senescent cells and their function in the human body. In theory, removing senescent cells sounds like a good way to prevent aging; however, this is not the case as senescent cells have multiple key functions in the body such as preventing cancer and ensuring proper development of the embryo. All these questions are vastly interesting and hopefully, more research is done soon.

            I really enjoyed this article for a variety of reasons; one being that we are studying embryos and the development of life in Biology at the moment and I thought that this was a perfect article to review. Additionally, I am vastly interested in the purpose and cycle of life and I am interested to see how this will change the way we look at “growing old”. Maybe some day, we will harness the senescent cells and develop a line to immortality. Only time will tell.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/signs-of-aging-even-in-the-embryo.html?ref=science&_r=0