Category Archives: Issues in Science

Viruses: The Lifeline of the Ocean

Posted on April 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Photo from Flickr user moonjazz

Most of us think of viruses as destructive and harmful, but a new study could change your mind.  Research done by Dr. Emma Shelford from the University of British Columbia, and a team of scientists, suggests that viruses may be the lifeline of the ocean.  We had a chance to sit down with Dr. Shelford and discuss the study:

 

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The research looks into how the presence of viruses in the ocean are affecting the growth of phytoplankton, which are very small organisms that live in the surface water of the ocean. Through a process called photosynthesis, they use the energy from the sun, and nutrients from the water to fuel themselves.

Satellite image of phytoplankton growth off the coast of Vancouver Island. Photo from Flickr user eutrophication&hypoxia.

The study was conducted in two locations: False Creek, in Vancouver BC, where phytoplankton and nutrients in the water are high and the Indian Ocean, a nutrient-poor region where there is low phytoplankton abundance.  After analyzing the water samples from both locations, they found that the presence of viruses resulted in an increase in the growth of phytoplankton.

How do viruses affect the growth of phytoplankton?

Viruses reproduce by a process called viral lysis, where they infect a bacterial cell.  At the end of the process, the bacterial cell bursts.  This releases all of the bacteria’s nutrients into the water.  The nutrient that the research focuses on is nitrogen. This nutrient is very important in the growth of phytoplankton.  So with an increase in nitrogen in the water, there is also an increase in phytoplankton.  The role of viral lysis is explored in further detail in this descriptive podcast:

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How does this research affect us?

Phytoplankton form the base of the food chain. Photo from Akash Aujla

The research has given us a new perspective on what role viruses take in the ocean. By helping the growth of phytoplankton in the ocean, viruses are also having an impact on the world’s ecosystem.  Phytoplankton form the base of the food chain.  Their production is key to the survival of organisms higher up in the chain.  More lower level organisms, means more food for upper level organisms, and eventually more fish and other seafood that we consume on a regular basis.

Phytoplankton also produce half of the oxygen that is in our atmosphere.  As a byproduct of creating food for themselves through photosynthesis, they release oxygen into the atmosphere.  Also through photosynthesis, phytoplankton help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  This is especially important because this gas is a contributor to global warming.  It is one of the most prominent greenhouse gases and acts like a blanket over the Earth that prevents heat from escaping.

It is amazing to think that viruses are actually an important and integral part of the ocean ecosystem. They play a huge role helping support life in the ocean and the entire world.

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Extra Gene Leads to Long Cancer-free and Fat-free Lives in Mice

Posted on March 19, 2012 by | 1 comment

Mouse (Photo by Ernst Vikne on www.flickr.com)

Can you imagine a world in which cancer and obesity can be prevented by a single gene? It may sound too good to be true, but researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Spain have found such a gene. In fact, not only does this particular gene prevent cancer and obesity, it also increases longevity!

The gene in question is known as the ‘Pten’ gene, a tumor-suppressing gene that is often lost in humans affected with cancer.

“Tumor suppressors are actually genes that have been used by evolution to protect us from all kinds of abnormalities,” explains Manuel Serrano, a researcher who worked on this study.

With an extra copy of the Pten gene, mice appeared to be immune to cancer. In addition, these mice were also found to have less body fat; in fact, the Pten gene led to slimmer mice despite an increase in appetite.

Difference in liver fat of a mouse with the Pten gene and without. (Source: Researchers' own materials)

The decreased body fat can be explained by the fact that most tumor-suppressing genes increase the activity and production of brown fat. Brown fat is a special type of fat that burns energy rather than storing it. As people age, the amount of brown fat in their tissues tends to decrease and be replaced by the more familiar—and much-disliked—white fat. In the case of the mice with the extra Pten gene, the overactive brown fat led to their burning more calories.

Brown fat can also explain the observed increase in longevity, as it has been shown to have the beneficial effect of protecting against metabolic damage commonly associated with aging. Metabolism refers to the chemical reactions that take place in our body in order to maintain life. Numerous studies exist that show a correlation between the rate at which these metabolic processes occur and the longevity of organisms.

This study may have been performed on mice, but the results are very promising for humans as well. The amazing effects of the Pten gene indicate that it may be possible to develop a drug for humans that offers the same benefits.
References:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1890175,00.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/cp-weg022912.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120306131252.htm

 

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

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Journey To The Unknown

Posted on March 12, 2012 by | 1 comment

James Cameron is taking a break from filming blockbuster movies like Titanic and Avatar, to travel to the deepest depth of the ocean – The Challenger Deep.  He plans to travel to the bottom of the ocean in his custom built submarine while documenting his journey on film and gathering samples for scientific research.  The dive is supposed to happen in the next couple of weeks.

A map showing the location of The Challenger Deep and Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Photo from Flickr user Mudkipz_KGM

 

The Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, is the deepest point recorded in all the oceans. At 11 kilometers below the surface, it is more than two kilometers higher than Mount Everest – the highest point on Earth.

 

 

 

Mr. Cameron will make the dive alone, in his state of the art, custom built submarine.  His vast imagination that we see come to life in his movies has now come to life for real.  The sub is reminiscent of a bullet.  The 7.3 meter long, one-person vessel, will travel vertically and reach the bottom of the ocean in less than two hours. It uses very heavy steel plates to help the sub descend to the bottom. When the vessel is ready to go back up, the plates are dropped and it will rise to the surface.  However, the submarine can still be controlled to hover in one spot, or glide through the water.

The effects of pressure in deep ocean water on styrofoam. Picture from Flickr user NOAA's National Ocean Service

The pressure in the submarine will remain constant for the entire trip.  Although the pressure at this depth is usually crushing, a newly designed foam that maintains buoyancy without being crushed and warped by the immense pressure, is the main frame of the vessel.  The pressure will cause the foam to shrink about two and a half inches, but the foam will remain intact.  It is this foam that helps the vessel rise to the surface as well, as the foam is lighter than water.

Mr. Cameron will be able to stay at the bottom for around six hours. The submarine is equipped with spotlights and cameras to document the journey in high-resolution 3D video.  The sub also has tools for collecting samples including a robotic arm, and a suction sampler that acts like a vacuum to suck up things like small organisms.

The Challenger Deep has been reached once before in 1960, but only for 20 minutes.  The pilots were not able to capture any images or samples because of the dust that was disturbed by the landing of their vessel.  This area of our world is not very well known.  Needless to say, discoveries that Mr. Cameron could make, like previously unknown organisms, would have a profound impact on scientific research. His journey to the Challenger Deep sounds amazing and exciting. I cannot wait to see what he finds in the unknown depths of the ocean.

Video from National Geographic:

Follow James Cameron’s Journey on YouTube

References:

http://deepseachallenge.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/science/earth/james-cameron-prepares-to-dive-into-mariana-trench.html

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The Future Of Food: Laboratory Grown Meat Could Save The World

Posted on March 12, 2012 by | 3 comments

Source: U.S Census Bureau, Expected Word Population from 1950 to 2050

The world population will increase by 2.5 billion by 2050. How are we going to feed the 2.5 billion more people in 2050? The UN says we will have to nearly double our total food production and we should adopt new technologies, however there are already one billion chronically hungry people, there’s little more virgin land to open up, climate change will only make farming harder to grow food in most places, the oceans are overfished, and much of the world faces growing water shortages. Prof. Sean Smukler from the University of British Columbia said, “Keeping pace with demand for meat from Asia and Africa will be particularly hard as demand from these regions will shoot up as living standards rise”. So how are we going to deal with this problem?

Here is the solution!

The first strips of muscle have been grown in a project to develop a new way to produce meat

 Dutch scientists (Prof. Mark and his group) have used stem cells to create strips of muscle tissue with the aim of producing the first laboratory-grown hamburger later this October. The aim of the research is to develop a more efficient way of producing meat than rearing animals. At a major science meeting in Canada, Prof Mark Post said, “synthetic meat could reduce the environmental footprint of meat by up to 60%”. Moreover Oxford University study found that this process would consume 35-60% less energy, 98% less land and produce 80-95% less greenhouse gas than conventional farming.

How it works?

How it works

Image from misfit120.wordpress.com

To make the artificial meat, scientists take muscle cells from an animal and incubate them in a protein ‘broth’. This makes the microscopic cells multiply many times over, creating a sticky tissue with the consistency of an undercooked egg. This “wasted muscle” is then bulked up through the laboratory equivalent of exercise; it is anchored to Velcro and stretched. And researchers at Utrecht University have calculated that an initial ten pork stem cells could produce 50,000 tons of meat in two months.

Video from Youtube: euronews science: In Vitro meat

Anyone wants to taste the lab grown meat burger now? However, it takes nearly one year to grow one meat patty in lab, and biggest problem is, cost of producing the hamburger will be US$345,000! But Prof. Mark says that once the principle has been demonstrated, production techniques will be improved and costs will come down.

References

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2087837/Test-tube-meat-reality-year-scientists-work-make-profitable.html

http://haysvillelibrary.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/world-population-update/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16972761

http://www.bellenews.com/2012/02/20/world/europe-news/lab-grown-meat-created-by-dutch-scientists-using-stem-cells/

http://www.gizmag.com/lab-grown-meat/20625/

 

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News, Uncategorized

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Is Vitamin C better than other cancer treatments?

Posted on March 5, 2012 by | 1 comment

There are many existing cancer treatments such as removing tumors by surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. However, all the treatments mentioned above have high risks in damaging patients’ health in the process of  killing or removing the tumors.

There have been ongoing discussions about the intravenous treatment of vitamin C as an alternative  cancer treatment by reducing tumours for cancer patients. One of the first researches on the effect of vitamin C on cancer patients was done by Nobel laureate Linus Pauling about 40 years ago. Even though his experiment was later criticized for being faulty and biased, the idea of  vitamin C’s benefits for cancer patients was further investigated.

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Vitamin C is one of the antioxidants that can prevent cancer. Antioxidants inhibit oxidation in human body. Substances such as oxygen which can oxidize into free radical molecule and damage cells’ DNA or cause cell death. Vitamin C is also known to improve our immune system, and prevent illnesses such as common colds.

However, this same vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is shown to reduce the tumour size in cancer patients. This is when the ascorbic acid is absorbed intravenously(IV) and in high dosage.

One of the many research papers on the effects of ascorbic acids shows decreased growth rate of mesothelioma cells, which is cancerous tumor cells. Since the growth and the spread of tumors with defects in its DNA are the crucial risk of cancer, the results of decrease in growth of tumor cells are significant improvement for cancer treatments. Another research article states that vitamin C is toxic to certain cancer cells, but not to normal cells.

The ascorbic acid is put into our body in the sodium ascorbate form to decrease the pH difference of the vitamin C and human blood. Therefore, if we consume too much ascorbic acid orally, it could cause acidic stomach.

Despite all the benefits of vitamin C, there are some critiques about vitamin C treatments that it only kills certain types of cancer cells, and  an excessive amount of vitamin C can affect absorption of Copper  and Selenium.

However, even with these minor concerns, trying the intravenous treatments of ascorbic acid for reducing tumor growth could be considered beneficial for cancer patients. Also, further researches and developments on the ascorbic acid treatment for cancer patients could improve the use of treatments for the future.

 

References

http://www.jamiesonvitamins.com/node/74

http://pdn.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_cid=272308&_user=1022551&_pii=S0006291X10002123&_check=y&_origin=article&_zone=toolbar&_coverDate=02-Apr-2010&view=c&originContentFamily=serial&wchp=dGLzVlk-zSkWA&md5=232d451371f7652e84e112edc22aff87/1-s2.0-S0006291X10002123-main.pdf

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070910132848.htm

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/c.html

http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf17_20/pdf/2006/04J/28Mar06/20225740.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=16567755&S=R&D=mnh&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeprM4y9fwOLCmr0qeqK9Ssqi4SLaWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGrtE%2Bwp7dMuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

http://www.orthomed.com/civprep.htm

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Medicine

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Disrupted Biological Clocks Shown to Cause Neurodegeneration and Early Death

Posted on February 27, 2012 by | 3 comments

Researchers at Oregon State University have managed to show that disruptions to the biological clock can directly lead to neurodegeneration— the progressive loss of nerve cells—and early death. These findings are significant, as they represent a step forward in the extensive study of circadian rhythms, which are the basis of our internal clock.

The sleep cycle is affected by the biological clock. (Source: 'marcinbunsch' on flickr.com)

Circadian rhythms coordinate many of our biological processes, from eating and sleeping to molecular processes such as hormonal secretions. Over millions of years, animals’ internal ‘clocks’ have been fine-tuned to align very closely with the 24-hour periodicity of Earth’s rotation—that is, our biological clocks are synced with the length of the 24-hour day that we know. These internal rhythms are what cause us to eat at regular intervals throughout the day, and what cause us to sleep at night and wake in the morning. In other words, our biological clocks are responsible for our internal synchronization.

Many studies have been conducted on the effect these circadian rhythms have on animal health. Disruptions to the biological clock have previously been linked with neurodegeneration; however, it was not apparent whether these disruptions were the cause or the result of the neurodegeneration. The study at Oregon State University is the first to demonstrate that disruptions to the biological clock are, in fact, a cause of neurodegeneration and early death.

Fruit Fly (Drosophila melanogaster). (Source: 'Oregon State University' on flickr.com)

The researchers conducted the study on fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which have been found to share many similarities with humans. The flies used in the study were genetically modified to show signs of neurodegeneration. In order to assess the effect of disruptions to the internal clock, some of these flies were further modified to have interrupted circadian rhythms.

It was found that the flies with disrupted internal clocks had a 32 to 50 percent shorter lifespan than those without the internal disruption. In addition, these flies also exhibited accelerated neurogeneration—as evidenced by signs of holes in the brain—along with decreased climbing ability.

Holes forming in fruit fly brain. (Source: 'Oregon State University' on flickr.com)

These results clearly show the importance of the biological clock in the maintenance of animal health and functioning. Through this study, a greater understanding of circadian rhythms and their effects on organisms has been achieved.

 

 

 

References:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110140225.htm

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2012/jan/disruption-biological-clocks-causes-neurodegeneration-early-death

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