July rushes in

https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/origin-gene-mutation-causing-early-onset-alzheimer-s-disease
This is a publication of HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) Bio-Interactive about a mutation that has been discovered in the genomes of families with early onset Alzheimers disease. It is a pedigree of a family in Colombia that has a mutated PSEN1.




http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/some-of-historys-most-beautiful-combs-were-made-for-lice-removal  From Atlas Obscura, an exhibit or ornate lice combs. With us from the beginning.


https://alicerosefoxall.wordpress.com/2016/06/26/ferns-communicate-to-determine-their-sexes/  This is an article about research done at Nagoya U on Lygodium japonicum which determined that ferns use gibberellins for sex determination. It is a little bit more complex than this, of course.


http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46416/title/Reverse-Transcriptase-with-Proofreading-Capabilities-Created/  This is a report of research done at U Texas published in Science about the creation of a synthetic reverse transcriptase, a "xenopolymerase", which has proofreading capabilities.


http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/06/27/is-it-better-to-teach-pure-math-instead-of-applied-math/ From Washington Monthly, is it better to teach pure or applied math?  Research from the OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development say that the richer you are the more likely to learn pure math and not a watered down applied math approach.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/science/scales-feathers-hair-common-ancestor.html
From the NYT, a report of research done at the U of Geneva and published in Science Advances about how anatomical structures in bearded dragons, crocodiles and corn snakes all inherited their placodes from the same reptilian ancestor. An embryonic placode in birds and mammals is known to develop into hair. So the ancient reptilian ancestor is the beginning. Drum roll and fanfare.



https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160627160939.htm  Article in Science Daily about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the "non-disease". As reported in Microbiome, Cornell U scientists have found biological markers include markers for inflammation in patients with ME/CFS. (I knew it.)


http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nrg.2016.59.html The molecular hallmarks of epigenetic control. Not sure this will get you the full article. This is from Nature Reviews Genetics and is a very important topic about environmental influences on genetics.


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/b-cf-fbe062816.php From eurekalert and to be published in Elife, a report of research on Pentagone, why do some stem cells form a finger?  It turns out that Dpp and Pentagone are in people too in addition to fruit flies. They may controls what cells form fingers. This work was done at the U of Freiberg.


https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/why-science-based-medicine-matters/ This is an article on why science-based medicine matters.  We don't need to vaccinate against smallpox anymore but it should be a wake-up call to the anti-vaxxers.




http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/06/28/quackery-expands-in-the-dana-farber-cancer-institute-and-childrens-hospital-of-philadelphia/  Quackery at the Dana Farber and CHOP. This is a Science Blogs from Respectful Insolence article about "integrative Medicine" and acupuncture.  It criticizes DFC and CHOP for spending money on "fairy dust".


http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/your-face-same-age-you-are  From Science magazine, published in Cell Research, a facial map was made by taking 3D images of more than 300 faces.  They used their map of facial aging to predict the age of each subject.  Then they compared blood samples of slow medium and fast agers.





http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-scottish-scoundrel-who-changed-how-we-see-data  From Atlas Obscura, an article about William Playfair, inventor of the pie chart.




https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160629145200.htm  From Science Daily a review in PLOS ONE about butter consumption done by Tufts University researchers. The metastudy found small or insignificant association of butter consumption with total mortality, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-is-how-your-brain-becomes-addicted-to-caffeine-26861037/  A 2013 commentary from Smithsonian about the effects of regular caffeine consumption on the brain. Yes, it is addictive and chemically resembles the molecule adenosine and binds the receptors for adenosine.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160630144409.htm  This is an article from Science Daily reporting a treatment developed at UPenn for autoimmune diseases. They were working on pemphigus vulgaris, a disease I love to say, in which the body makes antibodies to a protein called desmoglein-3. In the treatment, they were able to remove a subset of antibody making cells without interfering with normal immunity. This is published online in Science.


I hope you are enjoying this blog as much as I am enjoying doing it.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/42280/title/How-We-Age/  From The Scientist, How We Age. This is a commentary from the Scientist Staff sand includes all the multifarious ways, from DNA repair mechanism deterioration to telomere damage.




http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46133/title/Zebra-Finches-Aid-Neurodegeneration-Research/ From The Scientist an article about neurodegeneration and zebra finches (not zebrafish) is about Duke University, U Wisconsin and other researches on the similarities between songbirds' and our own brains. It is actually a review. The most recent work is published in PNAS on mutant huntingtin and singing behavior in songbirds.


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/pelvic-exams-may-not-prolong-life-a-task-force-says/ From the NYT Wellness Blog, a new finding from the US Preventative Services Task Force that pelvic exam may not be needed for women. ACOG still recommends the annual exams until there are trials done.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/health/what-doctors-know-about-how-bad-it-is-and-wont-say.html Article in the NYT about the discordance between what doctors know and what they say.
This research was done at the Center for Research on End of Life Care at Weill-Cornell Medical Center and published in JAMA.

Father's Day

https://goodsciencewriting.wordpress.com/ This is a blogpost by Russ Hodge. It includes a lot  of definitions of science terminology, tongue embedded in buccal cavity.

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-mendel-s-pea-plants-helped-us-understand-genetics-hortensia-jimenez-diaz  This is a TED-ED talk about Mendelian genetics.

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/  This is a Nat'l Geographic (Genographic Project) interactive graphic showing the human migration out of Africa. "What stories are waiting to be told in your own DNA?" (A quote from the article).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033jv1y  A program from the BBC world service. Where did Karl Marx get his inspiration?  This is a program from 2004.

http://www.sciencealert.com/for-sports-scientists-say-practice-doesn-t-really-make-perfect From ScienceAlert, an article about how practice alone isn't enough to make a person good at sports. This was the conclusion of a study done by researchers in US and New Zealand.




https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160620084935.htm  From Science Daily, a report of work done at the University of Bath reviewing mammal species known from the end of the Cretaceous across N America at the same time as the dinosaurs became extinct. The review shows that 93% of mammalian species became extinct but that some mammals recovered more quickly than previously thought.




http://giphy.com/gifs/26BRQY7cHMMVzU6n6 This is an animated GIF showing a bacterium on a diatom on an amphipod. This was posted to FB by Science Communication and Visualization Somersault 18:24.

http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/sdata.2016.34 This is an article about the origins of modern cities. Published in Nature Scientific Data a report of work done at Yale University. Posting of interactive gif was by Gizmodo.
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/06/see-the-exact-moment-when-the-worlds-biggest-cities-were-born/

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21700385-great-teaching-has-long-been-seen-innate-skill-reformers-are-showing-best  From The Economist. In a study updated last year that was done at the U of Melbourne showing that what matters most in student learning is teacher expertise.   This article is actually a review and other heavy hitters like Harvard, Stanford, and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) are quoted.




http://www.futurity.org/hiv-simulation-1186252-2/  From the futurity blog, a report of a computerized model of HIV that was built at the U of Chicago. The publication will appear in Nature Communications and is an NIH-funded study.



http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-look-what-happens-brain-when-music-causes-chills-180959481/  From the Smithsonian, what happens in the brain when music gives you chills? This is a report from The Guardian about research reported in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.(I didn't know this journal existed either.) Frissons, or goosebumps, are like a skin orgasm.


https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jun/02/the-history-of-nonfiction-biography-of-our-culture-100-best-nonfiction-books  From the editors of The Guardian 100 best non-fiction books.



https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160620115949.htm  This is an article from Science Daily about research done at Arizona State U to be published in Nature Chemistry showing that certain DNA sequences can conduct an electrical charge, in other words carry electricity.





http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35502310  This is a report of research published in Elife recounted by a science reporter for the BBC about light-sensing cyanobacteria.




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/science/contagious-cancer-clams.html?_r=0 Carl Zimmer's NYT article about contagious cancer found in clams. The work was done at Columbia University and published in Science.




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/upshot/long-term-mistrust-from-tuskegee-experiment-a-study-seems-to-overstate-the-case.html This is a report in the NYT by Aaron Cornell who blogs for the Incidental Economist, about a study of behaviors of African-American's in terms of their trust of the medical establishment. Some say the distrust plummeted after reports of the Tuskegee  study. Others say one study cannot determine the behavior of a whole race of people. Susan Reverby, one of my heroes (at Wellesley), is quoted.



http://gizmodo.com/hundreds-of-genes-spring-back-to-life-in-the-days-after-1782487652  From Gizmodo, a report of research done at the U of Washington which showed that some genes become active after death. and their activity increased up to 4 days after death. This work was published in Science magazine.




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/science/mitochondrial-dna-mothers.html?_r=0 Article in NYT about international research studying DNA in sperm of C. Elegans. Sperm DNA self-destructs upon fusion with egg. This could be useful as a cure for certain diseases. One of the authors was at U of Colorado Boulder.

Science Advances, Despite or In Spite

http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-have-developed-a-new-blood-test-that-might-aid-depression-treatments  New blood test for depression.  From ScienceAlert, report f work done at Kings College, examining 2 biomarkers that predict response to antidepressants. Published in The International J or Neuropharmacology.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dXodS8Qq0 From the SciWomen16 Summit. Women Advising Other Women at the California Academy of Sciences.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/jan/12/science-resilience-how-to-teach-students-persevere  From The Guardian Education, how to teach students to persevere.  Teaching resilience. This article is by a neurologist and trainer of educators. This is a commentary with some suggestions based on her research.





http://blog.theliteracysite.com/WordCrimes/  Weird Al has a great video on grammar "Word Crimes". I am still laughing. (Weird Al has a big Dictionary.)


http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-know-why-birds-are-so-freakishly-smart-1781889157
From Gizmodo, Why Are Birds So Smart? From PNAS, an estimation of the numbers of neurons in a bird's brain.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/first-mammal-extinct-climate-change-bramble-cay-melomys/ From the National Geographic blog, a report of a mammal species native to the Great Barrier Reef Bramble Cay melomys that has gone extinct due to climate change.

http://unionnewsdaily.com/news/county/25103 This is an article from the Union County NJ Daily News about the concern that the colleges and universities are hiring an increasing number of adjunct faculty members to teach classes who are unable to provide the services that students need.

http://www.nature.com/news/first-rodent-found-with-a-human-like-menstrual-cycle-1.20072  This is a Nature publication of research done at Monash University which identified a mouse with a reproductive cycle similar to that of a human. The spiny mouse can possibly be used to research women's menstruation-based health issues.


http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-melancholy-courtney-stephens  From Ted-Ed, a brief history of melancholy.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160616071935.htm  From Science Daily, a report of research done at Ohio State University showing the ill effects of women's long working hours on their health. The research will be published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.


https://climatecrocks.com/2016/05/23/defending-science-with-michael-mann/  Defending Prof. Michael Mann against climate change deniers. This is an article by Peter Sinclair about Prof. Mann who is at Penn State.

https://www.cshl.edu/news-and-features/a-consortium-to-map-the-brain-is-launched.html  This may be a repeat from last winter. From Cold Spring Harbor labs a report of the launching of a consortium to map the brain so that the precise location, shape and connections of all neurons can be generated.
It's called BOINC, barcoding of individual neural connections.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46326/title/Single-Bacterial-Species-Improves-Autism-Like-Behavior-in-Mice/ This is an article from The Scientist about mice being fed a high fat diet whose pups lack certain social behaviors (autism-like). Analyzing their gut microbiota showed they lacked Lactobacillus reuteri. This research has been published in Cell.



http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/distillations-magazine/02-1-04-science-protector-of-the-common-good.aspx  From Distillations, a publication of the American Chemical Society, a
 great cartoon from artist Frederick Opper depicting the concern of consumers for chemical safety.


http://www.cmpod.net/all-transcripts/a-fleas-worst-nightmare-on-the-plague-text/  The story of the Bubonic Plague from the Curious Minds Podcast.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/13/the-atmosphere-has-crossed-a-grim-milestone-and-scientists-say-well-never-go-back-within-our-lifetimes/
 This is an article from Washington Post about the finding that the atmosphere will not go below 400ppm CO2 in our lifetimes. This is a finding to be published in Nature Climate Change and was conducted at the UK Hadley Center and the Scripps Institution.


 









http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46143/title/Students-Study-Their-Own-Microbiomes/  This is an article from The Scientist about college classes using the students' own microbiomes as research subjects in their own classes. This was done as an HHMI curriculum initiative at the University of Michigan. Results were published in Genome Biology.

June is busting out

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/health/liquid-cancer-test-offers-hope-for-alternative-to-painful-biopsies.html  An article in Sunday NYT about DNA diagnostics replacing tumor biopsies. The work was done at UC Davis and reported at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting. Liquid biopsies are currently used but not for diagnosis.






http://thescienceteacher.co.uk/objectives-in-science-lessons/ The problems with learning objectives in science lessons. Don't get me started. LOs are not a meaningful tool but they are required of teachers.


http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/352/6289/1052.full.pdf  From this week's science magazine, a commentary by David Malkin et al about rare cancer predisposition syndromes which can identify genes that are critical to carcinogenesis. The Li-Fraumeni syndrome helped to identify a genetic defect that predisposed people to cancer in 1969. At that time cancer was not thought of as a genetic disease.

INSIGHTS

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/ The Scientific American Mind blog on whether intelligence is hereditary. Genes explain 5% of the difference between people. A comment by Robert Plomin, a deputy director of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Center at King’s College London.


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos-180959069/ This is an article from the Smithsonian about whether the gene editing technique recently developed should be used to eliminate carriers of malaria or Zika virus. It also refers to the interesting history of mosquitoes and disease.




http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/352/6289/1052.full.pdf
This is an article from this week's Science magazine about the identification in 1969 of a genetic syndrome later called the Li-Fraumeni Syndrome predisposing children to soft tissue cancers. This was before cancer was generally thought of as a genetic disease.

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.19996!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/534024a.pdf Here is a pdf from Nature describing research done at MIT to figure out how microbes carried in a sneeze travel.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/06/human-pig-embryos-qa-chimeras-transplant-organs-scientists This is an article from the Guardian about the creation of a human-pig chimera. This research was done at US Davis using CRISPR gene editing and will be advantageous for organ transplantation to minimize rejection. It was an NIH-funded study and the ethics of such work is being intensely debated.  The bacon should be delicious.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/upshot/the-us-is-failing-in-infant-mortality-starting-at-one-month-old.html?_r=0 This commentary is from the NYT and was developed from data from the CDC of infant and neonate mortality internationally and also from a publication of the American Economic Journal. The US does worse in terms of care for 1 month to 1 year olds than other countries. It is recommended that more money be provided to help mothers in poverty care for their newborns  (under 1 year).

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/science/four-elements-on-the-periodic-table-get-new-names.html?_r=0  An article from the New York Times about the renaming of 4 chemical elements.
nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson replace ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium.


http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/before-the-hobbits/485960/  From the Atlantic, a report of the finding of a human tooth and a jaw fragment from 700,000 years ago.These are from the hobbit lineage of dwarfed humans on the island of Flores.


http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-developed-a-blood-test-that-detects-early-alzheimer-s-disease  From ScienceAlert, a report of a blood test to detect early Alzheimers Disease.  This is reported in the journal Alzheimers and Dementia. The test looks for autoantibodies.


http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/third-sex-lizards-could-outcompete-their-normal-female-cousins  From Science magazine, this article reports about "superfemales". These are sex-reversed  (as embryos) and their output of eggs is greater than normal females. Behaviorally, they are more like males than females and may possibly drive normal females to extinction.


http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41702/title/A-Movable-Defense/ An article in The Scientist about transposable elements or jumping genes.


http://www.nature.com/articles/srep27523 Article in Nature about fish recognition of human faces. These are animals with no neocortex which learn to recognize a human face. Work was done at the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.




http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/natural-history-is-dying-and-we-are-all-the-losers/
An article in the latest Scientific American about the reduction in the number of course offerings in Natural History for a major in biology and the proportion of intro biology texts devoted to natural history since 1935. The commentator, lamenting the reduction, is a science writer.




http://www.newswise.com/articles/inbred-neanderthals-left-humans-a-genetic-burden In the blog Genes to Genomes there is a report of a publication in the journal Genetics about the genomes of Neanderthals. There is evidence that there are harmful mutations in the Neanderthal genome that left then 40% less reproductively fit than modern humans, (in other words, 40% less likely to reproduce and pass on their genes.)




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/science/national-academies-sciences-gene-drive-technology.html Article in NYT about the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, recommending safely controlled field trials of the gene editing of species using the new technology called CRISPR despite possible risks to the environment. The photo shows gene-edited female mosquitoes.


http://hub.jhu.edu/2016/06/10/health-and-humanity-q-and-a-karen-kruse-thomas  This is a book called Health and Humanity, chronicling 50 years of the history of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.




http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46205/title/Building-Gene-Networks/  This article in the New Scientist reports research done at Rice University by synthetic biologists who built synthetic gene circuits which they then put into E. coli bacteria. This is a way to study naturally occurring gene oscillators (like those that have circadian oscillations) which are normally hard to study.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/obscure-disease-may-offer-backdoor-to-new-treatments-for-alzheimer-s-and-other-killers/  From Scientific American MIND blog, an article about an obscure disease called Supra Nuclear Palsy, the rare disease that killed Dudley Moore. An accumulation of tau protein characterizes this hard to diagnose and impossible to cure disease. A recent publication in Science Translational Medicine suggests that maybe tau protein is involved in Alzheimers and possibly SNP patients can be used to test therapies for Alzheimers, which affects far more people.


http://www.sciencealert.com/new-treatment-improves-pancreatic-cancer-survival-rate-for-the-first-time-in-decades  From ScienceAlert, a new treatment for pancreatic cancer. The clinical trial results, which increased the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer from 15-17% to 29% was reported at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting. It was a combo study with gemcitabine and capecitabine.



http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2016/06/10/trump-clinton-on-the-environment-a-handy-guide/  From the UC Berkeley Blog, a chart comparing Trump and Hillary on the environment.


https://mrdrscienceteacher.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/teaching-the-hypothesis/  A Facebook post by Paul Strode about hypothesis teaching and the correct and incorrect ways of doing it.




http://www.sciencealert.com/this-crazy-infographic-shows-just-how-much-of-the-ocean-we-don-t-see  From ScieneAlert, an infographic about the ocean


http://www.vox.com/2016/3/17/11250962/proof-evolution-vestigial  A video by Vox shared by IFLS about the proof of evolution: vestigial structures on your own bodies.