Category Archives: Science in the News

Living LARGE

Posted on January 25, 2015 by | 1 comment

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “living large”? Well, most of us will think of an individual who is living life to the extreme, maybe spending a ridiculous amount of money or living a very extravagant lifestyle. However, for far too many parents and children in North America, “living large” has a very serious and negative connotation. I am referring to the epidemic of obesity in children in North America. Fortunately, a new study has shown that a program that aims to reduce childhood obesity is working well in the U.S.

The study, “Changes in Body Mass Index Associated With Head Start Participation” focuses on a program funded by the U.S. government for low income households. The Head Start program focuses on health, nutrition, exercise, and early education for the young children. Basically, the program promotes healthy living and provides a well-structured plan to achieve it. The program includes health and nutritional services, such as meal plans, activity outlines, and family counselling.  The study looked at two groups of children, one with a healthy BMI and another who were overweight or obese. The researchers monitored the children’s BMI throughout two academic years. The study led by Dr. Lemung found that children who were obese  and overweight who participated in the program had a significantly healthier BMI by kindergarten than those who were in a primary health care system.

Medical_complications_of_obesity

Complications of Obesity Source: Wikimedia Commons

Furthermore, a recent CBS news article published in January 2015 focused on the obesity epidemic amongst children in the United States. The article states that about a quarter of the children from ages two to five are either obese or overweight. Moreover, it states that as children enter adulthood, obesity seems to follow. Unsurprisingly, this trend is noted to lead to future health risks for the children. The health risks include a higher chance of developing diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, and much more.

Healthy Fruits & Vegetables

Nutritional Food Choices, Source: Flickr Commons

 

Unsurprisingly, young children living large with no plans to improve their health can threaten their future wellbeing. We need to ensure younger generations are able to thrive in the future and not be held back by complications of obesity. Fortunately, programs such as Head Start have shown to prevent and treat obesity at a very young age. In conclusion, more programs and preventative measures for obesity should be implemented around the world. In turn, these type of initiatives will provide a great way to ensure children get a “head start” in living healthy and not LARGE.

Check out the video created by Jessie Deen for more information on childhood obesity and prevention:

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Posted By: Navjit Moore

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

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Thymus: A Lab-Grown Organ

Posted on January 19, 2015 by | Leave a comment

They are in the air we breathe and on the objects we touch. Germs, such as bacteria, viruses and parasites, are all around us. The thymus, an important structure of the immune system, is responsible for the production and storage of a vital cell called the T cell. T cells help to recognize and defend the body from various infections and foreign invaders. In a recent study, led by Professor Clare Blackburn from the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, scientists were able to construct a fully functioning thymus in the lab.

 
This was done by collecting fibroblast cells, which play a role in making collagen and the extracellular matrix for tissues, from the mice embryos. The collected cells were then genetically altering to express a particular gene not normally present in the fibroblast cells.  As a result, these modified fibroblast cells began to function like regular thymus cells. The study had shown that when scientists transplanted the altered cells back into the mice, the cells had organized themselves into a functioning thymus organ

Youtube Video Courtesy of: Medical Research Council

Thymus Image Courtesy of: Google Images

Thymus Image Courtesy of: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymus

This important study will have a major impact on the healthcare field as this opens a potential opportunity for lab grown thymus’ to be transplanted into human patients who suffer from immunodeficiency.  For example, bone marrow transplants patients are more easily at risk of infections due to a decrease in the number of granulocytes, which are a type of white blood cell, and elderly patients as the thymus naturally deteriorates with age.  In addition, patients who are born without a thymus, also known as DiGeorge Syndrome, who suffer from many complications such as low levels of calcium, heart defects and a poor functioning immune system will also benefit from this finding.  Therefore, a lab grown thymus is such a new and exciting finding as it could be the key to protecting these patients from various health concerns and even death.

Although it would be nice to begin using this process  immediately, Blackburn stated that this study had, so far, only been conducted on mice and there are plenty more steps that need to be taken, such as applying this technique to human cells and testing their functions in models, before we can apply this technique on human patients.

Nonetheless, this is an exciting finding as we can hopefully apply this technique in the future to human patients who suffer from weaken immune systems. Not only will this study help patients who suffer from immunodeficiency but this can also reduce the challenges that come with finding a correct match between an organ donor and organ recipient!

– Candace Chang

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Will Your Next Friend Be A Computer?

Posted on January 18, 2015 by | Leave a comment

How do you feel if computers know your personality better than your best friends and even your parents? Feeling awful and scared?

A recent study (“Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans”) shows that computers are able to predicate a person’s personality more accurately than one’s friends and family members.

Picture Credit:http://pakseoexpert.com/

By analyzing digital footprint (“likes” on Facebook), a research group at The University of Cambridge suggests that people’s personalities can be predicated automatically and without involving human social-cognitive skills.

In the computer personality judgments study, researchers used a sample of 86,220 volunteers, who filled in the 100-item personality questionnaire through an application called myPersonality project on Facebook and also tracked their Facebook Likes.

The results of analyzing the collected data, researchers realized that the result of the study highly aligned the Big Five theory. (The five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.) For example, volunteers with high openness tend to like meditation or TED talks, and participants with high extroversion tend to enjoy partying or dancing.

In order to study the human personality judgments, researchers obtained from participants’ friends on Facebook and asked their friends to give a 10-item version of a personality measure about a given participant.

By comparing with participants’ self reports, the results show that those computer-based models are more accurate than humans in personality judgment.

At the end of the article, researchers concluded that computers gave more accurate  personality report than a person’s friends, partners and even parents.

“In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological traits and react accordingly, leading to the emergence of emotionally-intelligent and socially skilled machines.”

“In this context, the human-computer interactions depicted in science fiction films such as ‘Her’  (“Her” is a movie which is released in 2013. The film follows Theodore Twombly, a man falls in love with a computer system that speaks with a female voice.) seem to be within our reach.”

—–Wu Youyou

Picture Credits:http://www.gsmnation.com

However, researchers couldn’t deny that privacy concerns came out because computers can collect amount of information about an individual.

“Big Data and machine learning provide accuracy that the human mind has a hard time achieving, as humans tend to give too much weight to one or two examples, or lapse into irrational ways of thinking.”

“We hope that consumers, technology developers, and policy-makers will tackle those challenges by supporting privacy-protecting laws and technologies, and giving the users full control over their digital footprints.”

——Dr. Michal Kosinski

Picture Credits: National Magazine(Canada)

In the age of Big Data, online data mining and tracking activities of users cause a big concern of personal privacy. By tracking a person’s activities online, computers are able to give a suggestion for one’s life decisions, such as choosing activities, career paths and even choosing a romantic partner. However, related laws or policies should be set up to protect users’ privacy.

 

By Xindi Wang

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science in the News

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Artificial Intelligence: Humanity’s greatest achievement or biggest threat?

Posted on January 18, 2015 by | 3 comments

Imagine a world where our every need is catered to by an army of sentient machines— robots in charge of menial tasks such as cleaning and cooking, responsible for driving us safely to work, and growing our food more efficiently.  These are just some of the potential uses of artificial intelligence, a field of computer science that has the goal of creating intelligent machines that are able to learn and act on their own. Some argue that as we develop more powerful artificial intelligence we will be able to tackle problems such as world poverty and hunger.

But not everyone is keen on these technologies, including renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and inventor/entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has gone as far as saying that “…with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon”.

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Video uploaded to YouTube by Kostas Keramaris

Critics of these technologies are not questioning the potential benefits, but are weighing them against their inherent risks on humanity as a whole. One of the biggest risks is referred to as technological singularity — a point at which artificial intelligence will exceed human capacity and control, which could potentially end civilization or humanity as we know it. In a nutshell, the machines would be able to learn at a rate beyond the limitations of human biology, and once outside the control of their creators, the machines’ behaviour may not be as intended or even harmful to mankind.

Will AI ever reach singularity? The Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica explores this possibility, depicting a future in which humans are in a perpetual state of war with their former robotic minions. Photo credit: "Big Frakkin Toaster" by ⣫⣤⣇⣤, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Will AI ever reach singularity? The Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica explores this possibility, depicting a future in which humans are in a perpetual state of war with their former robotic minions.
Photo credit: “Big Frakkin Toaster” by ⣫⣤⣇⣤, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Doomsday scenarios aside, advances in AI technology will undoubtedly have other negative effects on society. A recent report by an American non-partisan think tank looked at how AI would affect the work force. Based on the opinions of over 1,900 experts, they believe that by the year 2025  AI and robotics will permeate every aspect of our lives, and foresee that an increase in automation will put downward pressure on blue collar jobs, and to some extent, white collar jobs.

Having AI take over everyday tasks such as driving will also have interesting ramifications on our legal frameworks – who bears the responsibility if a vehicle that is driven by an algorithm crashes and kills a human? Should the blame rest with the software engineer, or should we take a robot to court? 

The potential benefits of AI research are clear — so how can we ensure that its risks are dealt with accordingly? The Future of Life Institute, a volunteer-run group, has been trying to address these issues for a number of years. They have recently put forth a proposal delineating some of the potential research that can be done to ensure AI remains beneficial and aligned with human interests. They are pushing to increase research on ways to make AI safer, and to better understand its effects on society. Their proposal has been backed by top AI researchers and academia – including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, who has also decided to donate $10 million USD to fund such research.

What’s your take on this issue? Do you cozy up with Siri every night and welcome the era of robotics with open arms? Or do you lie awake at night in fear of the robot uprising?

Hasta la vista baby? Some prominent scientific minds have their doubts about Artificial Intelligence

Hasta la vista baby? Some prominent scientific minds are not so keen on Artificial Intelligence.
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Written by Armando Dorantes Bollain y Goytia

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Part of our Brain comes from a Virus!

Posted on January 17, 2015 by | Leave a comment

We all have heard at some point the word “virus” and associated it with words like death, illness, non-living, etc. But let me tell you that in reality, this is not always the case. Have you ever considered that viruses can help us discover new cures for brain diseases?

Just recently, Johan Jakobsson, head of research team at the division for Molecular Neurogenetics at Lund University (Sweden), and his team have concluded an investigation that has been published in Cell Reports. It explains that we have acquired virus DNA through the course of evolution as a consequence of viruses’ replication cycle.

Viruses are classified into families by the Baltimore classification, in which one of the characteristics is type of replication. Let me explain how viruses incorporate their DNA into ours, but first here is a video that will help you understand the process. At the beginning, Wayne Hodgkinson explains how regular transcription works, but near the end, he mentions that certain types of viruses perform the reverse process. That is the key mechanism that some viruses use: reverse transcription.

Explaining the video in simpler words, reverse transcription consists of taking the original genetic material of the virus (RNA strand) and convert it into a “fake” DNA. I am providing a diagram that reflects reverse transcription.

Reverse Transcription Process           Source: Google images

In addition, I have created a simple diagram that explains how some viruses insert their DNA into ours.

Created by Leslie Almeyda         Uploaded from personal computer

For long time ago scientists have been aware that viral DNA is present in our brain, but the former has been considered not useful to us; therefore, it has not had much importance. However, Jakobsson and his team have shown that viral DNA is capable of determining which and when genes are expressed in our brain cells. This is due to the virus’ DNA being integrated in the part of our DNA that controls expression of the “baby nerve cells,” which –when they have “grown up”- will become specialized nerve cells. As he says in a press release, “we believe that the role of retroviruses can contribute to explaining why brain cells in particular are so dynamic and multifaceted in their function.”

Let’s recall that there are many (lethal) diseases that are related to the brain, and unfortunately some of them are still untreatable. Now with the discovery that part of our brain is affected by viral DNA, scientists can look deeper into our brain cells and link our genes expression to viral DNA insertion. In Jakobsson’s words, “I believe that this can lead to new, exciting studies on the diseases of the brain. Currently, when we look for genetic factors linked to various diseases, we usually look for the genes we are familiar with. […] Now we are opening up the possibility of looking at a much larger part of the genetic material which was previously considered unimportant.”

In conclusion, we have observed that some viruses are indeed helpful to us and might even lead us to newer and more efficient treatments to cure a variety of diseases. Thank you viruses!

 

-Leslie Almeyda-

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