Author Archives: SydneyInthof

Is a bigger brain a better and more social brain?

Posted on November 15, 2017 | 1 comment

We have all heard the debate about the relationship between brain size and intelligence, but a bigger brain has never been confirmed to be related to increased intelligence. Intelligence is a very broad category and now, we have determined many different types of intelligence, including social smarts or social cognition. People who are smart in about other people and in social situations have good social cognition, which has been researched thoroughly in dolphin and whale populations.  A recent study revealed that larger, more developed brains are common in marine mammals with higher levels of social interaction. Intelligence as a whole might not be related to brain size, but social cognition very well might be, and not just in marine mammals.

For many mammals, survival and mating are the main factors that motivate behaviour.  If they can successfully live to pass on their genes, they have done their part for their species. Being good at interacting with their own species even more important for many whales and dolphins, such as orcas and bottlenose dolphins, since they are among the most social animals found on the planet.

Kieran Fox, Michael Muthukrishna, and Susan Shultz from the University of British Columbia studied dolphins and whales and found that the mammals with larger, more developed brains relative to their body size had more social interaction. These whales and dolphins can be said to have better social cognition than others with less social interaction. Whales and dolphins that are more social survive longer and reproduce more successfully, passing on their genetics to more offspring, creating more and more social generations after them. Kieran Fox calls this a “positive feedback loop“, since very social parent whales and dolphins create even more social children over time.

Family of Orcas Source: Flickr images

Humans can also benefit from good social cognition, since we are more likely to succeed in our careers and have kids with more social interaction. This research focussed on marine mammals, but it’s entirely possible that larger human brains could also be related to better social cognition. The better we are at interacting with others, the more we can share our knowledge and build our own lives. So if you have a big brain, you too might be more socially equipped for success, just like most bottlenose dolphins and orcas.

-Sydney Inthof

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Noise Pollution: Is it as dangerous as chemical pollution for our ocean’s giants?

Posted on October 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

Ocean pollution has a large impact on the whales that fill our oceans. Most research has focussed on pollution involving oil spills and the addition of plastics to the ocean, but the concept of noise pollution has been relatively ignored until the past few decades. Recent research suggests that excessive noise may even lead to hearing loss in whales, and cause stress that impacts their reproductive success. The question still remains: How much does noise pollution impact wildlife? And is it as dangerous as chemical pollution?

Noise pollution refers most commonly to the sound produced by cargo ships, seismic research, wind turbines and pile driving, since the noise they produce has the greatest effect on marine wildlife. Smaller boats and jet skis produce sound at a higher frequency that doesn’t impact marine wildlife as much.

Cargo ship – A large source of noise pollution

Whales rely on hearing to navigate and communicate as much as we rely on our ability to see. Beluga whales use a technique called echolocation to navigate using sound. Male humpback whales sing long and complex songs to impress potential mates. When large amounts of noise pollution interrupt the sound that whales use to communicate with each other, they can get lost or separated from their family. Noise pollution can also interfere with the mating of humpback whales if other whales can’t hear a male humpback’s song.

Chemical pollution of the ocean, which often occurs through oil or chemical spills, has a huge impact on whale health, since whales ingest whatever chemicals as added to the ocean. Whales can develop chronic health problems or even die from chemical and oil spills. Accumulated plastics or gear that isn’t “whale-safe” often leads to entanglements and injures whales, as well as death. Noise pollution on the other hand, can’t be linked to individual deaths of whales, but its impact on their reproduction is significant.

Even though the chemical pollution kills whales, while they are living, they are still able to reproduce and contribute to furthering the species. Noise pollution has the potential to impact living whales and decrease their ability to reproduce. Without reproducing, the whales can’t help their species develop, so noise pollution has the potential to be more problematic than chemical pollution when it comes to the impacts on whales.

-Sydney Inthof

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Incurable Lymphomas: Can remission last longer?

Posted on October 1, 2017 | 1 comment

Lymphoma is the 5th most common cancer in Canada and can be very aggressive. Most lymphomas are not curable, so long lasting remission has been the recent goal of treatments. Lymphoma patients have been treated for years with a chemotherapy regimen including an antibody called Rituximab. Antibodies are proteins that can recognize cancerous cells and tag them for destruction. Rituximab has been extremely effective in treating aggressive lymphomas, but the American Society of Oncology has been developing an alternative antibody, Obinutuzumab, with the goal of improving the length of remission.  In a recent trial, they found that Obinutuzumab increases remission length in some forms of lymphoma, but not for others.

Lymphoma is a cancer that most commonly affects the lymph nodes, but can also appear in other organs in the body. In the most advanced cases, lymphoma can spread to the bone marrow. Effective treatments are therefore very important, but challenging to develop. Many years ago, doctors treated all cancers including lymphomas, with radiation, however lymphomas are able to spread quickly, making radiation challenging. Radiation is also unable to treat lymphoma that has spread to the bone marrow, so it is not a treatment option for advanced lymphomas.

Chemotherapy is able to treat cancers that involve multiple areas of the body, including the bone marrow, which radiation is unable to do. When Rituximab was developed as a supplementary antibody to previous chemotherapies, it dramatically increased the effectiveness of chemotherapy and the length of remission for lymphoma patients. Obinutuzumab is a similar antibody to Rituximab, so doctors chose to test it to determine if it works even better than Rituximab. The American Society of Oncology performed a randomized trial on 1,418 lymphoma patients to test the effectiveness of Obinutuzumab in prolonging remission in comparison to Rituximab. Obinutuzumab was at least equally as successful as Rituximab in all patients, and for certain types of lymphoma, it was found to be more successful than Rituximab.

Chemotherapy is a great example of the applications of chemistry to the medical field. Chemotherapy uses antibodies to target specific cells, which requires tagging those cells for destruction. Chemotherapy also uses other molecules that prevent reactions that harm the DNA of a cell, which is a common cause of cancer. Advances in chemistry have a significant impact on cancer treatments in the form of chemotherapy. Since Obinutuzumab succeeds in prolonging remission for some lymphomas, further advances in chemotherapy could lead even more successful treatments for all lymphomas.

-Sydney Inthof

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