Category Archives: Science in the News

Less and Less Baby Polar Bears with Melting Arctic Ice

Posted on February 16, 2011 by | 2 comments

We all know of the strong correlation between changes in the environment and the polar bears,but a recent study suggests that the population of this species, Ursus maritimus, could be in real danger with the decline of Arctic sea ice specifically in our country’s Hudson Bay.

Source: Flickr

Article published on February 8th, 2011 in Nature Communications outlines a study conducted by Peter K. Molnar et al. from the University of Alberta who used mechanistic models to predict changes in litter size of cub polar bears for pregnant females in the western Hudson Bay population under expected changes in sea ice.

Sea ice is vital for the polar bears because during the winter feeding season they rely on the solid floes to take them near the waters where there are lots of food source – seals. But with temperatures rising and early breakup of the ice sheets, the bears are forced ashore sooner than in the past. Moreover, “on shore, there is no food available for them,” as the lead author of the study puts it. Thus the bears, particularly females of reproductive age, are storing up less energy for the months that they have to hibernate during pregnancy.

The researchers found that ~28% of pregnant females already failed to reproduce for energetic reasons during the 1990s. Using mechanistic models, they predicted that if spring sea ice break-up happens 1 month earlier than during the 1990s – 40-73% of pregnant female polar bears could fail to reproduce, and if the break-up happens 2 month earlier – 55-100% could fail. On a global perspective, the study states that a similar litter size decline trend may be found in over 1/3 of the polar bear population.

What’s even more discouraging is that “the litter size predictions provided in this study serve as another indicator that the western Hudson Bay population will probably not remain viable under predicted climatic conditions” as the article states.

Heart wenching video that hits home of malnourished  mother polar bear and starving cubs as an example of the conditions that polar bears are and will be facing in the future with current climate change conditions. A Warming Climate Takes its Toll on the Polar Bears of Hudson Bay by Daniel J. Cox

WARNING: NOT FOR THE SENSITIVE SOULS.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Environment, Issues in Science, Science in the News

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Shaking up what we knew about shaken baby syndrome

Posted on February 16, 2011 by | 2 comments
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Keeping infants safe is important.

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But is shaking as harmful as it is made out to be?

When infants arrive in emergency with spinal injuries and bleeding in the brain, doctors are often quick to point the finger at the caregiver. Recently more and more evidence supports mechanisms other than shaken baby syndrome as the cause of such injuries in infants.

The cover story of The New York Times Magazine from Feb 2 2011 explores the issue and the implications for people who have been charged under these circumstances.

NYTMag cover

New York Times Magazine cover image

When caregivers are on trial for child abuse, lawyers use doctors to testify how the injuries of the child were inflicted. More and more doctors are testifying for the defense and in turn exposing the prosecution doctors to the validity of these alternative explanations (such as infant stroke caused by and infection).

This article is not discounting shaken baby syndrome as a real problem, but claims that some people have been wrongly accused because the diagnosis was made too hastily.

Some important issues are brought up regarding the use of science in the courtroom.

First of all doctors can be paid for their testimony. I think the outcome should not be reflective of the doctor the accused can afford. When monetary value is placed on the information presented in the courtroom the facts given to the jury can be skewed. Even worse the picture of scientific knowledge presented is not limited to the courtroom; news and media coverage of high profile cases will pass biased scientific information on to the rest of the world.

A particularly relevant point is that jurors may have difficulty understanding the science presented to them, and this can hinder their ability to properly decide on a verdict. What we learn in Scie 300 can have significant impacts on how effectively science is used in the courtroom.

This issue also points out a flaw in the scientific method; conventionally scientists come up with hypotheses which then raise new questions to be tested. Unfortunately when dealing with the law, a hypothesis that is rejected years after it was formulated can have a major impact on those who were wrongfully accused according to the knowledge at the time. Here we have a tradeoff between putting innocent people away and letting a child abuser continue putting children in harms way.

The bottom line still is: never shake a baby.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Course Reflections, Issues in Science, New and innovative science, Science Communication, Science in the News

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Feces combats Clostridium difficile

Posted on February 16, 2011 by | 1 comment

Clostridium difficile or C-diff is a bacterium that 5-10% of the population have in their intestine as part of their normal flora, which is the intestinal composition of ‘good’ usually non-disease causing bacteria. In hospital settings, the amount of people that have C-diff in their intestine rises to 25%. C-diff is of particular concern in hospitals since there is a greater potential for patient to patient C-diff spread.

C-diff

Clostridium difficile - By: AJC1 via flickr

Some antibiotic treatments destroy the normal flora, however C-diff is a spore former, so it is not killed by many antibiotics. The absence of most of the normal flora allows for C-diff to germinate and grow – this produces toxins!  These toxins damage the mucus lining of the colon, which results in ulcers and layers of debris that leads to frequent diarrhea. The disease, called pseudomembranous colitis, can be fatal but is treatable with the powerful and costly antibiotic, Vancomycin. Despite treatment, there is still a high relapse rate of 10-20%.

A news article from The Seattle Times published that American doctors, including Dr. Lawrence Brandt and Dr. Christina Surawicz, have transplanted feces from a healthy person to a sick patient’s colon to combat C-diff and repopulate normal flora. Rest assured, the donors of the stool transplant are close relatives of the sick patient. The doctors of the news article claimed to have so far met success with this unconventional treatment. However, fecal transplants are not widespread and Dr. Brandt even noted that methods among doctors are inconsistent.

Locally, the CBC published an article indicating that the BC Fraser Health Authority had initially barred fecal transplants due to lack of study. I feel that this is currently reasonable until a greater amount of clinical trials are published. Of the published small scale case studies, one in 2009 obtained a  ~73% success rate with fecal transplants and later in 2010 another study posted 100% success. There is also a full clinical trial underway from the University Health Network in Toronto.

Dr. Jeanne Keegan-Henry speaks on fecal transplants:
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In my opinion, one of the issues of fecal transplants is that most of the published research is within the last two years. The long term effects of introducing a different composition of bacteria and potentially other things into a sick patient are not known. If full clinical trials continue to be successful, an antibiotic free treatment for C-diff would not only ease costs for patients, but also slow the development of multi-antibiotic resistant superbugs.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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The Fifth Dimension

Posted on February 15, 2011 by | Comments Off on The Fifth Dimension

An article posted in the Technology and Science section of msnbc.com indicates that physicists are currently trying to discover the fifth (and even the sixth, seventh, or eighth) dimension with new breakthrough technologies.

It has been claimed that there are four dimensions – the three spatial dimensions and the fourth one being time. However, physicists claim that there are more dimensions that make up our universe. The two leading physicists that support this theory are Lisa Randall from Harvard University and Raman Sundrum from John Hopkins University. Randall and Sundrum’s theories help provide explanations for some of the most profound scientific dilemmas since Einstein’s time.

The lightness of gravity

The weakness of gravity was always a mystery to physicists. In Randall’s book called Warped Passages, she states, “A tiny magnet can lift a paper clip, even though all the mass of the earth is pulling it in the opposite direction.”

By having more dimensions, string theorists – physicists that believe that the building blocks of all the matter in the universe are string-like particles vibrating with their own frequencies – can create formulas and equations that could explain the weakness of gravity.

Smashing particles

With new technology like a new underground particle accelerator, new dimensions could be discovered. New dimensions are hard to detect due to our inability to see them – our human eyes can only perceive the three spatial dimensions. The underground particle accelerator would be able to show the new dimension – the evidence would be a new class of particles that had the same charge as the normal particles but with extra mass. This extra mass indicates that the particles gained extra momentum that propelled them into the fifth dimension.

It seems like in the immediate future, the fifth, sixth or even the eleventh dimension could be discovered. The physics that we come to learn today might be obsolete and so it seems like those science fiction books that people read might be true after all!

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Posted in Issues in Science, New and innovative science, Science in the News