We Should Be Happy with the Species We Already Have

I read David Ehrenfeld's article "Resurrected mammoths and dodos? Don't count on it" on The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/23/de-extinction-efforts-are-waste-of-time-money). The article begins by discussing the ways that scientists are attempting to bring back extinct species. By injecting the DNA of a dead animal into the egg of whatever its closest living relative is, one can bring back an almost perfect copy of the extinct animal. This science could work if done perfectly, however there are many issues surrounding de-extinction.

The first issue the author raises is care for any newborn previously extinct species. Ehrenfeld discusses the issue of attempting to bring back the passenger pigeon using the band-tailed pigeon as its mother, saying: “They (passenger pigeons) fly and mate differently; they eat different foods; and they have different calls. Maternal care is critically important for an infant's normal development. That baby bird will live in a cage labeled "passenger pigeon", but it might not be a real passenger pigeon, and it isn't going to bring them back from extinction.” His point being that a bird with passenger pigeon DNA is not truly a passenger pigeon if it doesn’t act like one.

(A drawing of the passenger pigeon)

The next issue raised is that DNA can be “read” differently by different organisms, because of the way they react to different stimuli. The author compares this phenomenon to literature. He says, all the words for every book ever written are somewhere in the dictionary, but if you scan through a dictionary you won’t necessarily find Hamlet or even anything similar to it. The final issue brought up is that not all species could be brought back, and the ones that could would be extremely expensive to resurrect.

I really liked that the author brought up the issues related to de-extinction. All I have ever heard on the topic is about how promising it is and that it should be invested in. However, there are so many practical issues with bringing back any extinct species that it almost renders the concept useless. Although I would love to see a living wooly mammoth or a dodo, I agree with Ehrenfeld that we should be working on keeping the species we have right now instead of trying to bring back the ones we have already lost. This article is related to our biology class because it talks about DNA and how it works. It also discusses why certain proteins are translated and others are not. I really liked this article because it was very different than everything else I've heard about de-extinction.

Jurassic Park? Not So Fictional After All.

Anyone who has seen the movie Jurassic Park should be very familiar with the concept of DNA cloning. Basically, fictional scientists extract dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes frozen in amber for a couple hundred million years. While bringing back dinosaurs may be fiction, the concept of returning other species from the dead is not quite so impossible. Recently, in a conference in Washington, scientists from Australia announced that they have cloned the Southern gastric brooding frog, but only in short-living embryos. While many may scoff at this concept of only getting embryos, it puts a gleam in scientists' eyes. Species in mind for cloning using this new science include the woolly mammoth, sabretooth tigers, and other extinct animals and plants. There are many methods to this, such as inserting an embryo into a similar species to serve as a surrogate mother, or the method known as backbreeding. “We are not talking Jurassic Park,” says Hank Greely, the director of the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University. “We are talking Pleistocene Park, 100,000 or 200,000 years ago... there are an awful lot of cool things that died within the past 200,000 years.”

While the technology may be rather far off, the foundation for the technology exists today. Governments are pouring massive funds into the Human Genome Project. If we complete it, it may open previously unseen doors of DNA knowledge. We may even be able to replicate and record the genetic codes of extinct species from fossilization, or, in the future, mosquitoes frozen in amber.

In my humble opinion, while this is an appealing new path for genetic science, is it really the right choice to bring back species killed off by natural selection? When the woolly mammoths flourished in the Arctic, they would knock over trees, allowing Arctic grasses to prosper. When the woolly mammoths died off, the trees reflected sunlight from the ground, cooling it. Obviously, the Arctic is cold and uninhabitable due to the theories of Charles Darwin himself. Who are we to bring back extinct species and disrupt the balance of the living and nonliving on earth?

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/science/earth/research-to-bring-back-extinct-frog-points-to-new-path-and-quandaries.html?ref=dnadeoxyribonucleicacid&_r=1&

http://jstueart.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/woolly_mammoth_siberian_tundra.jpg

Will the coyotes succumb to the Bounty Hunters?

Link to the article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/us/coyotes-sly-predators-become-targets-in-utah.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=science

On the NY Times website, there was an article called "The Sly Coyote Becomes a Bounty Hunters’ Target in Utah." Written by Melena Ryzik. In Utah, many people are having some problems with the wildlife there. Mainly with the coyotes living in the nearby region. These coyotes are going into nearby towns/cities and they are killing off some of the important animals of Utah like the Mule Deer. A symbol of Utah. In Utah, Gov. Gary R. Herbert, signed the bill for the Mule Deer Protection Act; which allots $500,000 to bounty hunters to get rid of these coyotes and save the Mule Deer. However, there is a debate on whether or not they should be killing off all of these animals just to save another. The hunters are very enthusiastic, the environmentalists are crying foul, and the wildlife administrators are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The big argument for the environmentalists is that there is little to none scientific evidence to support the theory that if you kill off the coyotes in the area, that the Mule Deer population will grow. Mark Clemens, the manager of the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, said "It was a terrible bill, we're really distressed by it," "It's mainly about protection livestock owners." So he, and the Environmentalists think that this is a ridiculous idea. And have been thinking that for the past 10 years at least.

These are a bunch of pelts from the coyotes that were hunted down because they thought that they posed a threat to them. When really they were just looking for some food.


This year in Biology class, we learned a lot about food webs. And How if you kill one member of that ecosystem, then if will effect other members as well. The coyote might not be a very big food source to the deer and small animals in Utah, but they are the big predators. If you kill them all off, then all of the populations of the other animals will grow and t will become way out of hand. Also, I can tell you from first hands experience that this effect does happen. Once we saw some coyotes in our friend's back yard and he killed them off. Later, we ended up seeing so much deer in the area that he had to build a brand new fence just to keep them out. I think that if you kill off a good amount of the coyotes, then it will actually hurt you rather than benefit you in the long run. Dr. Young, a professor at a nearby college, said that the idea of killing another animal just to kill another, only to kill that second animal for sport or game, is not recognized here. These people don't realize tat they aren't only killing off one species, but they are killing off two or three.

Here is an image of one of the coyotes that is looking into a nearby town in Utah.


Now, there are many things that we can do if we are really that desperate to keep these animals away from our towns and cities. For one, we can build fences around our houses. They might find a way around them or dig a hole under them, but at least it will prevent some of them from coming in. But, what we do not want to do is kill off these animals. Becasue if we do that, then the food chain might die out in the area. The populations of the animals that used to get eaten by the coyotes will grow and before long, it will just become too much to handle. So what we need to do is not kill these animals, but in a way, save them.

Genetic Mutations Galore

In our biology class, we are learning about genetic mutations. I thought it was very appropriate to write about a disorder that is common in our world today, which is autism and. The article, written by Jan Hoffman from the New York Times,(http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA323066128&v=2.1&u=mlin_n_wsparker&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w)explained that "the likelihood of a school-aged American child receiving a developmental disorder increased 72 percent in 2011-2012 from 2007, according to an analysis of a phone survey of parents."

Many experts of this mutation believe that there is such an increase of these cases, not because there are more children developing this mutation, but because these cases are now familiar with teachers and school officials, and they have been instructed to watch kids who might be developing slower than other kids or kids that seem to be socially awkward. 

Having just learned about this in biology class, I find this article very interesting. Autism is a common genetic disorder, which seems to be studied and examined by experts very closely, so it may seem strange to others that scientists haven't found a way to prevent this disorder. Since autism is not known to be passed down from generation to generation, there is no definite way for anyone to tell whether a child will be succeptible to this genetic disposition. 

As a person who is interested with working with children in the future, I found this article very enlightening. As I came across this article, I decided to do some background research, and found that many people are ignorant when it comes to autism and other mutations. Many people asked whether or not autism was contagious. I believe that we should all educate ourselves with genetic mutations, as we did in our biology class to understand more about them.

Overall, I thought this article was intruiging to read. I really enjoyed going more into depth about what genetic mutations were and how it could effect people. Based on what I read in the report, steps are being taken and more reports are coming in that there are more cases becoming "mild. Dr. Susan L. Hyman says "We in the field don't have a standard set of definitions about what is mild and severe yet".

Many people wonder why this disorder cannot be "cured". This brought up some good points for me. I thought back to our lab where we collected our strand of simple squamous epithelial cells. Our genetic structure can't be fixed with antibiotics or medicine. That could throw off other traits about you as well. Many experts say that a diagnosis can change as a child grows older, and whether getting better or worse, which gives us another clue in solving this medical mystery.

Source Citation   (MLA 7^th Edition)

Hoffman, Jan. "Parental Study Shows Rise In Autism Spectrum Cases." New York Times 21 Mar. 2013: A17(L). General OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.

Picture Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_UV_mutation.gif

Symptoms of Schizophrenia Dance In Mouse Heads

On the website sciencenews.org I found an article titled "Disrupted Brain Chatter Produces Schizophrenia-like Symptoms in Mice." It was written by Meghan Rosen and immediately caught my attention. The study was done by Christopher Kellendonk and Joshua Gordon, both of Columbia University. Neil Woodward, a neuropsychologist from Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the experiment had said that findings about cognitive problems suggest that they may stem from the thalamus. The thalamus, also known as the MD, is a cell cluster that sends signals to the brain's outer layer. In the study conducted by Kellendonk and Gordon it was found that - at least in mice- curbing communication between neurons in parts of the brain can cause some of the same cognitive problems that are usually associated with schizophrenia.

To do the experiment they first injected a virus into the MDs of some lab mice. The virus screws up the message sending neurons in the MD bringing the "chatter" back in 30 to 40 percent  of those neurons. They did this because in people with schizophrenia the MD is very quiet. This was the best way to try to mimic that symptom. It has also been noted that patients with the disorder also have problems with short term memory and learning. Kellendonk and Gordon ran tests to challenge those aspects in particular. It turned out that this slight change in MD activity and communication was enough to fog the thinking of those mice. The mice had trouble with their usual maze exercise and with new rules to an old one. Records of neural activity showed that the hushed MD threw off prefrontal cortex activity as well. The gathered data suggests strongly that stifled communication with the prefrontal cortex could explain cognitive problems in people with schizophrenia. The article wraps up with a conclusion from Gordon which states, " perhaps we could design treatments that restore cognitive function."

This article stood out to me because of the connection to psychology. I always find that interesting and even the title screams that it could be used to help people with the disorder schizophrenia, a very intense disorder that I honestly don't know much about. The people who have it can experience symptoms of hallucination, delusion, and social disorders. This makes it very hard to function in society. It is terrifying for those living with it and their loved ones. There are, however, treatments to try that can mitigate the symptoms but no cure has been found. It's great to know that, though I am not personally affected by it in any way, more is being done to help those people who are. The idea of being able to change anything in the brain and how it functions is incredible to me. It is such a delicate and important organ, yet we have found ways to influence it.

(picture from http://srxawordonhealth.com/)

Is Two Better Than Four?

I read the article “First Birds Might Have Flown On Four Wings”, by Catherine Harmon from Scientific America. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-birds-might-have-flown-on-four-wings)

As we picture birds they have two wings, now what if they had four?  Birdlike dinosaurs such as Microraptor and the famous Archaeopteryx have long feathers on their rear legs, until recently researchers were not sure what these were for.  Why these feathers disappeared from the fossil records has yet to be answered.  Xing Xu a paleontologist found evidence of leg feathers on eleven basic bird species.  On some of these animals the feathers were designed for flight similar to Archaeopteryx.  

These finding will help us understand how flight came about and how feathers became what they are today.  However, how these rear feathers were used will require further research, it is speculated that they could have been for gliding or for aid in steering.  This does not prove that all early birds had four wings as flight could have many origins.  Now scales have replaced these leg feathers on most birds.  There are of course exceptions to this as with everything in biology.  The removing of these leg feathers could have helped these early birds to develop better legs.  Only further research and more findings can help to find the answers.

This relates to how we learned about mutations and how most are harmful but some can help species to survive.  Also, this relates to how animals are classified as physical such as these feathered hind legs help scientists to class animals based on their fossil records.  This article also relates to the theory of evolution and how animals change over time to beat the interspecific and intraspecific competition in is environment.  I think that this is a very interesting not well known article as discoveries that pertain to dinosaurs are generally not publicized.  Also, this is a good article because once further research is done this could help us answer why birds fly.

This is a sketch of a microraptor with its long rear feathers.

Scientist Begin to Resurrect Extinct Frog

Video- Scientists take leap to resurrect extinct frog by Reuters (3/20/13): http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=1&from=en-us_msnhp#/video/12bf2f71-a404-4004-9678-47967c0e931a

Article- Lazarus Project Attempts To Resurrect Extinct Frog by April Flowers for redOrbit.com (March 16, 2013): http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112804658/lazarus-project-gastric-brooding-frog-extinction-cloning-genome-031613/

I watched a news report and read an article about an interview with scientists working on what’s called the Lazarus Project. This project is about resurrecting an extinct frog. This frog is called the Gastric-brooding frog and has been extinct for 30 years. The frog is known for eating its eggs and then giving birth through its mouth. The scientists are attempting to resurrect this species by using “sophisticated cloning techniques to revive and reactivate the genome of an extinct Australian frog by implanting a “dead” cell nucleus into a fresh egg from another frog species”. This is a very delicate process.  As the project leader says “We are watching Lazarus arise from the dead, step by exciting step”.

In my Biology class we studied DNA and briefly discussed the possibility of resurrecting an extinct species with cloning just like in this project. We also studied the food chain in Biology. This article talks about whether, if resurrected, the frog could be reintroduced into the wild. In our study of the food chain we discussed what could happen to an ecosystem if an organism was removed or introduced. There are a lot of variables to consider, but I believe that if the frog was part of the ecosystem only 30 years ago, that reintroducing it would not negatively affect the ecosystem. The problem would be making sure that the human interference that caused their extinction in the first place is removed. The recreation of an extinct species could be enough to raise awareness and help to clean up the Gastric-brooding frog’s ecosystem.

Image: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112804658/lazarus-project-gastric-brooding-frog-extinction-cloning-genome-031613/

How Valuable is Water?

I read the article, "Rains or Not, India Is Falling Short on Drinkable Water", by Gardiner Harris from the New York Times. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/asia/rains-or-not-india-is-falling-short-on-drinkable-water.html?ref=earth ) This article focuses on the struggle in India to find clean drinking water. Whether it is a monsoon or dry season, finding drinkable water in India is a challenge. 70% of India's population lives in rural areas and over half of the water supplies in these areas are contaminated with toxic bacteria. Some people are forced to walk miles just to fill up their water jugs in a stream or spring. The toxic water is causing a lot of problems as you can imagine. Employment in these areas have declined a great amount because companies cannot access clean water. Also, over 600,000 children in India die each year due to contaminated water. What about water in the cities? 30%-70% of water is lost due to theft and leaky pipes. The water that is not lost before it reaches households is still unsanitary because there is barely a maintenance system put in place. Smita Misra who is a senior economist says, "India is lagging far behind the rest of the world in providing water sanitation both to its rural and urban populations. Not one city in India provides water on an all-day, everyday basis." This means that anywhere you go in India, there will be a poor supply of sanitary water. As bad as things are already in India, conditions are expected to worsen. It is expected that by 2030, India would need to double its water generation capacity if they want to keep up with their growing population.

After reading this article, I think you would agree that something definitely needs to be done about this. Efforts have already been made to try to increase the amount of clean water in India. On February 28th of this year, Palaniappan Chidambaram, who is India's finance master, provided the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation with 2.8 billion dollars. Experts say that this is not enough to help a country with more than 100 million people. I agree with the experts that a lot more is going to have to be done if we want to see a change. After reading this article I learned so much about the struggles in India that I had no idea about. This article relates to Biology class because at the beginning of the year, we discussed environmental issues and this is a huge environmental issue not just in India, but in many countries around the world.

http://blog.unyouth.org.nz/2012/03/water-a-very-21st-century-problem/india-water-scarcity-030611-950-3/

John Tierney

Small Steps Reduce Childhood obesity

            The article “Obesity in Young Is Seen as Falling in Several Cities” By Sabrina Tavernise can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/health/childhood-obesity-drops-in-new-york-and-philadelphia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

            In major cities childhood obesity is finally starting to see a decline. In major cities like New York City and Philadelphia are reporting a 5% decline in obesity between 2007 and 2011. These declines are very small but they are significant because they show the first sign that the obesity epidemic, one of the nation’s worst health problems, may be reversing course.

           
 “It’s been nothing but bad news for 30 years, so the fact that we have any good news is a big story,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the health commissioner in New York City. For many years there has been nothing so even the smallest decline of 5% can show they are on the right track for reducing obesity.

            Some things that schools are doing to decrease obesity are removing sugary drinks and sports drinks from school vending machine. Also setting calorie and fat limits, which reduced the size of snack foods like potato chips to single servings. This will be very helpful because many people don’t know the serving size so if they have a big bag of chips they will eat many when the average serving size is only 11 to 13 chips. When we were doing the lab in class one station was to put how many chips on a plate that you thought was a serving and many of us put way more chips than the serving size.

        
    Many other little steps like this can make a huge difference in Childhood obesity. I think exercise programs and cutting out on un needed  fats can reduce obesity greatly.

          
  (picture) http://a.abcnews.com/images/Health/nc_healthy_vending_machine_ll_110927_wg.jpg

DNA Contributes to Behavioral Variations of Mice

Study Discovers DNA That Tells Mice How to Construct Their Homes by James Gorman is an article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/science/mouse-study-discovers-dna-that-controls-behavior.html?_r=00 ) that explains the discovery of DNA playing a major role in the type of burrow a mouse will dig. The DNA will tell the mouse the length of the burrow and whether this burrow contains an escape route or not. This discovery is important because it can lead to discovery about behavioral variations in humans.

 An experiment with Oldfield mice and Peromyscus maniculatus by Dr. Hoekstra lead to the discovery.  The Oldfield mice would dig long burrows with escape tunnels while the Peromyscus maniculatus dug short burrows without escape tunnels. After this information was recorded Dr. Hoekstra bred these two species and discovered that their offspring dug burrows with lengths that varied. The next step in this experiment was breeding the hybrids with the original short-burrow species. The burrows of these offspring showed varying lengths and some with or without escape tunnels. With all of this information Dr. Hoekstra concluded that DNA by itself does not determine the type of burrow, but the length of tunnels is 30 percent inherited.

A connection is made to biology class since we have recently been studying DNA. DNA is the information used to build proteins, and the proteins then are the instructions to building you. In this case, the DNA in mice help tell them the length to build a burrow and if the burrow should be made with an escape tunnel. I find this interesting because if scientists can discover that DNA is the cause of behavior variations in mice they hopefully then use this information to discover which DNA causes behavior variations in humans. 

The Stemming Potential

Here are some of the unbelievable, 

yet potential uses of stem cells that could soon become a reality.  

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditions

andhealthtopics/stemcells/index.html   ---Link to Article

The Stemming Potential

                                                                                                      Could you ever believe that one microscopic cell could be the cure for things such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and even paralysis?  Stem cells are where it all begins.  They are cells that are not specialized to any type of tissue and hold the potential to create any of the 200 plus types of cells in the adult body.  An article from the New York Times, “Stem Cells” dives into the research, results and controversy of the intensely growing stem cell research.

 

            Stem cells are such a great idea that open up hundreds of doors in the medical field and are a key focus of a lot of research.  The idea behind the use of stem cells is that we could harness their ability to make any cell and specialize it into making the needed cells. 

            Simple organs such as bladders have been successfully made by tissue engineers, but the advances in knowledge of stem cells could help form more complex organs such as the liver or lungs.  This research is happening all around the world as told in the article, “At Wake Forest University in North Carolina, for example, where bladders were developed, researchers are working on kidneys, livers and more,” and also “Labs in China and the Netherlands are among many working on blood vessels.” 

            Most research has been conducted on embryonic stem cells which cause a whole lot of controversy.  Personally, I think this research is revolutionary and should be continued and praised by the scientific community.  As explained in the article, our president “issued an executive order rescinding the limits set by Mr. Bush and making clear that the government supported stem-cell research.”  The research on stem cells is controversial from our different presidents to our different religions.  Any person could ask themselves: Do you believe in stem cell research even if done on embryonic cells?

            The idea of stem cells reminds me of our unit in class on DNA.  Deoxyribonucleic acid contains many genes all coding for a certain protein to be made.  Most cells of our body have certain genes “turned off,” but stem cells have all their genes activated.  This is what allows them to stem off different types of cells for our many different tissue types.  The alterations of DNA in stem cells could be the solution to the making the cells we need for certain treatments.

            Stem cell treatment could help millions of people worldwide.  Growing an organ from a stem cell would eliminate many complications with transplants such as rejection.  I have a friend who has been going to dialysis for years because his body rejects the kidney he needs.  I also have another friend whose body accepted the kidney they received, but now has to be on medication for the rest of his life.  With stem cells both of these problems could be solved because the organ is made from your own cells. 

            With more research and testing I believe stem cells are going to be a crucial step in advancing our medical treatments.  

Oil Free Cars?

          I read the article, "Obama Seeks to Use Oil and Gas Money to Develop Alternative Fuel Cars" by John M. Broder published on March 15, 2013 in The New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/us/politics/obamas-2-billion-plan-to-replace-fossil-fuels-in-cars.html?ref=science&_r=0) This article is about how President Obama proposed a two billion dollar plan to replace fossil fuels in vehicles with an alternative source. The president said, “The only way to really break this cycle of spiking gas prices, the only way to break that cycle for good, is to shift our cars entirely — our cars and trucks — off oil, it’s not just about saving money. It’s also about saving the environment." Replacing fossil fuels with natural gas wouldn't only help the economy, it would help the environment too. There wouldn't be as much pollution. The article also talks about how the money will be used to research potential cleaner means of powering vehicles like electricity, bio-fuels, and fuel cells. 

          Some people may think this is a waste of money but I personally think it's a great idea. The gas we use now pollutes the environment and contributes to global warming. If we could eliminate that pollution that would be a huge help to the environment. In biology class we learned about the story the Lorax and its true meaning. It's about how a lot of things humans do contribute to bad issues in the environment and cause change in the environment. If we keep doing those things it will become very hard to fix what we did. Cars have been polluting the air for so long and we can finally stop it now. We should take advantage of this opportunity and replace fossil fuels in our vehicles.  

picture citation:

(http://www.bentley.edu/offices/sites/www.bentley.edu.offices/files/car-pollution.jpg)

          

Young Scientists Solve Science's Biggest Problems

Source: New York Times bit.ly/ZR97TPhttp://

The article that I read talked about young scientists participating in the Intel Science Talent Search. The article was written in the New York Times by Ethan Hauser on March 11, 2013. The link can be found below. The article talked about the Intel Science Talent Search, a nationwide contest for young scientists who have made great contributions to science. Dan McQuaid, 17, who goes to Ossining High School in Ossining, NY, is one of the 40 finalists out of 1700 applications; from which one final winner is chosen (The winner was chosen on Tuesday. Finalists are below). Dan's cancer research is focused mainly on the topic of the protein KLF6, which isn't very prevalent in cancer, but acts like a tumor suppressor. Mayuri Sridhar's project was similar: she also looked at tumor suppressing proteins and what causes them to be inactive. Mayuri is 17 and goes to Kings Park High School in King's Park, NY. Many of the other projects are also focused towards biology. Jamie Lee Solimano's project focused on cell signaling using cilia, and what would happen if the cell's primary cilium was disrupted. Another project, submitted by Catherine Wong, 17, who goes to Stuyvesant High School in New York City, involved a wireless device that can produce an electrocardiograph and transmit the results to doctors via mobile phone. 

I found this article very interesting and I could connect it with biology class in a number of ways. The article talked about cell communication through cilia, which I could connect with biology class because we talked about cilia during our cell unit. I had never realized that cells could use cilia to communicate, and I found that very interesting. The article also connects to biology class because it talks about proteins that act as tumor suppressors, such as the protein p53. Mayuri Sridhar's project studies how a mutation in an amino acid that makes up the protein can change the structure of the protein so that it cannot bond with DNA and therefore cannot suppress tumors. This relates to what we recently talked about in biology class; mutations in proteins that benefit or harm humans. The mutated protein mentioned in the article does not function correctly, and proves harmful to a person, as it does not suppress tumors correctly and therefore causes cancer. 

I also found the article really cool because kids that are just a little bit older than I am are doing such groundbreaking research. The idea that kids around my age could do things like this was very inspiring, so congratulations to this year's winners. (See below for the finalists). The article also included videos about three of the contestants, which you can find here.

Update: The results of the contest were announced on Tuesday, March 12 in Washington D.C. The results are posted on the contest's web site here: 2013 STS Finalists.

Source: http://topnews.ae/images/Intel-Science-Talent-Search.jpg

Article Link:

http://nyti.ms/Z7Bmwp

America's Blood Level's in the Right Direction!

            In the article, “Blood Levels of Trans Fats Are Declining in Americans” by Anahad O’Connor in the New York Times (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/blood-levels-of-trans-fats-are-declining-in-americans/) I learn about how public health advocates’ changes made an improvement in American’s health. In the year 2000 it was found that American’s blood levels of trans fats rose 60 percent. Being linked to obesity and heart issues, the public health advocates took charge to make a change.

Trans fats are in packaged, baked and fried foods, which American’s are known to eat a lot of unfortunately. City officials realized the health risks that have gone unnoticed for so long that they decided to get into action. They banned trans fats in restaurants and pressed companies to go without them in making their cookies, crackers and other fatty foods. After nine years of these dramatic changes, American’s blood levels of trans fats fell 58 percent. “Over all, trans fat levels fell 58 percent, but there were also improvements in cholesterol and triglycerides.” This is a quote from the article showing that not only the trans fats levels dropped but also cholesterol and triglycerides became more manageable. Reducing trans fats has been a great outcome in the health of America.

            I believe that it’s a great thing that public health advocates have fought for our health and have been so successful. As we know, cholesterol builds up in the arteries and ruptures leading to heart attacks, which can lead to death. Also, in the article it talked about the difference between good fats and bad fats. We learned that bad fats come from products like meat, butter fried foods, etc. Good fats come from plants. Like vegetables and oils. Good fats reduce the risk of heart attacks by having less build up in arteries.

Picture:http://restmkt.blogspot.com/2007/11/are-you-still-using-trans-fats-hfcs.html

One Step Closer to Curing HIV

            I recently read the article “Baby may be cured of HIV” by Nathan Seppa on the Science News Magazine (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348710/description/Baby_may_be_cured_of_HIV).  This article explains how scientists have removed the HIV virus from a baby girl.  Some researchers question whether the virus had taken hold of the baby or if it just carried from her mother.  She was injected with three antiretroviral drugs once a week until her mother stopped bringing her to the doctors.  Now at two and a half years old, she is HIV free!  These medications intercepted the virus before it made reservoirs in the body that are unaffected by the drugs. 

The cure of HIV has only happened once before with a man in Berlin.  The HIV was terminated after he received a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a specific DNA mutation that made his cells resistant to the virus.  This shows how the donor’s DNA mutations were beneficial because it made his cells evolve from the virus. This therapy could lead to “reducing the 300,000 HIV-infected births every year” according to Daniel Kuritzkes.

I think this is a phenomenal discovery that could save the lives of millions.  Not only will it help America, but it can help countries in Africa, which has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world (22.9 million).  If more people donate, more research can be made which could possibly result in a cure within a couple years. 

In biology we learned about mutations.  The mother of the baby infected with HIV in the article had HIV in her genes since birth.  Her genes were passed onto the baby girl.  The man from Berlin was given bone marrow that was resistant to HIV.  These two HIV cures show the beneficial and detrimental results of DNA mutation.

HIV leads to AIDS which destroys your immune system.  This potential cure could save the lives of 2 million people a year in the U.S.  All in all we are one step closer to avenging the deaths of millions of HIV victims in the world.

PICTURE URL: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/images/map3-7-hiv-prevalence-adults-large.png

PICTURE URL: http://zeusdreamcaster.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/child-born-with-hiv-is-functionally-cured/

An apple a day, keeps the doctors away: A Mediterranean diet keeps the heart attacks away

The article “Mediterranean diet shown to reduce heart disease, landmark study finds” was published on 2-25-13 by Kay Lazar, a journalist for the Boston Globe, and can be found at    http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2013/02/25/mediterranean-diet-shown-reduce-heart-disease-landmark-study-finds/KG3FC3fuhcz2HxT7XLbFaK/story.html. 

The article shows us that a Mediterranean diet is very beneficial to our health, and lowers the risk of getting heart attacks when we are older.  In order to prove that the Mediterranean diet does improve health, a group of Spanish researched tracked thousands of participants over 5 years and found that eaters who had the Mediterranean diet had a 30 percent reduction in the rate of heart disease compared to those who did not have the diet.  The Spanish researchers performed this study to show us that the Mediterranean diet does lower your risk of heart disease compared to a diet of more fats. 
 

Dr.Ramon Estruch, a senior consultant at the Hospital of Barcelona, led the Spanish team of 7,447 people from ages 55 to 80.  All of the participants in the study had diabetes or at least three major risk factors for heart disease, such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated levels of bad cholesterol, or a family history of early heart disease.  At the end of the study, it was determined that a Mediterranean diet that contained extra-virgin olive oil or mixed nuts would significantly reduce heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from heart problems.
 

After 5 years of eating the Mediterranean diet, the control group that did not eat from the diet had 109 heart attacks whereas in the group that ate the Mediterranean diet with extra nuts had 83 and the group with extra olive oil had 96.  This resulted in the fact that for every 1,000 people who regularly ate the Mediterranean diet, three people each ear would avoid a heart attack or stroke.

This quote spoken by Dr. Estruch shows us how important diet is, ““As a doctor it is easier to say take a pill,” Estruch said. “But diet is a very powerful effect in protecting against cardiovascular disease.”  (Boston. Com).  This quote shows us that our diet has a major effect on whether we get heart disease or not.  Although many of us are not thinking about diet now since we are young, it is important that we start to understand what a healthy diet is because we do not want to face the consequences of a bad diet and health in our future as adults.  The study shows us that the Mediterranean diet does improve your health and help you avoid heart attacks.
 

The article shows us that the Mediterranean diet lowers your risk of a heart attack or stroke by 30 percent.  The Mediterranean diet is made up of nuts like walnuts, and almonds, fresh fruit, vegetable, fish, olive oil, and red wine. 
 

The diet avoids processed foods which are high in saturated fats and red meats which as we learned in Biology are the worst protein source.  The Mediterranean diet focuses a lot on fish and nuts as a source of protein, this relate to our studies on what the U.S.D.A Pyramid says when compared to the accurate Harvard Pyramid does.  In class, we learned that the best protein sources are nuts and beans and the second best source is chicken, turkey, fish, or eggs.  Since the Mediterranean diet avoids red meat, we are eliminating a poor protein source that is high in saturated fat and focusing on fish and nuts which deliver healthy fats like monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fats which are good for your heart.   Fish is important to the diet because it contains Omega-3 fatty acids that lower triglycerides, decrease blood clotting, and moderate blood pressure.
 

As we learned from the Harvard Health Pyramid, diet is not the only thing needed to keep us healthy.  Although the Mediterranean diet did reduce the risk of heart attacks by 30 percent, we learned that there are many more ways to stay in shape and you cannot just focus on what you eat but also how you exercise.    At the bottom of the Harvard Health Pyramid, it says Daily Exercise and Weight control.  Although diet is very important, you also need to exercise and control your weight to stay healthy and avoid heart attacks.  The Harvard Pyramid also tells us that alcohol is used in moderation unless contraindicated, red wine is a big part of the Mediterranean diet because it provides antioxidants and reduces heart disease. 
 

From this article, I learned that the focus of the Mediterranean diet is about making wise choices about what types of fat you consume.  The diet discourages fats like saturated and trans, which are found in processed food, but encourages unsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats.  Olive oil is a major part of the diet ant the main source of fat because it helps to reduce cholesterol levels and provides healthy monounsaturated fat.
 

This article was very helpful to me because my great grandpa struggled with heart attacks and eventually died because of his unhealthy diet that was full of saturated fats that clogged his blood flow.  When my grandmother was growing up in Chicago, her family was very poor and when people are poor they can’t afford healthy foods which are usually more expensive than processed food. 

This article was interesting to me because it encouraged me to eat healthier and help my family and friends to eat healthier to and maybe try out the Mediterranean diet, too!

I think it is important for us as teenagers to learn about our diets and nutrition because when you are older and are faced with a health problem, sometimes it can be too late to change old habits and how your body is functioning.  Seeing how much the Mediterranean diet affects people’s risk of heart attacks encourages me to eat healthy now so I will not face the problems later on and can continue to live a healthy lifestyle. 

These two food pyramids show the Mediterranean diet in words and pictures:

Mediterranean diet for heart health - MayoClinic.com." Mayo Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/CL00011>.