Category Archives: Issues in Science

Is Anybody Out There..?

Posted on March 14, 2016 by | 3 comments

While it is easy to get caught up in our day-to-day activities, it’s always nice to step back and get some perspective about our place in the Universe. One question that may come up, is whether we are alone in the Universe, or if there is intelligent extraterrestrial life out there somewhere. However, despite what some people may believe, there has been no confirmed evidence of intelligent life existing outside of Earth. However, considering the vast size of the observable universe, this is actually quite surprising from a statistical viewpoint. The Milky Way alone, on the low end, is estimated to have over 100 billion stars like our sun. Furthermore, the Milky Way is just one galaxy, and there are known to be over 100 billion galaxies in the Universe. This means that there are approximately 1 billion trillion stars in the Universe, or 10,000 times as many stars in the Universe as there are grains of sand on Earth. Each one of these stars has its own planets, and data from the Kepler spacecraft has shown that on average, each star would have at least one planet in its habitable zone.

2048px-ESO-VLT-Laser-phot-33a-07

The Milky Way above the Paranal Observatory. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

The point is, given this astoundingly large amount of stars and their associated planets in the Universe, even if the chances of intelligent life evolving were incredibly low, given the age of the Universe, we would expect there to be billions of examples of intelligent life. However, if intelligent life is so common, we should have seen at least some piece of evidence of its existence by now. Yet, astronomers, and efforts such as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have yet to detect any evidence of intelligent life.

NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603

The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. Each shape is a distinct galaxy. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

This apparent disconnect between the high probability of intelligent life, and the utter lack of evidence for its existence is known as Fermi’s Paradox. There are a number of different proposed solutions to Fermi’s Paradox that argue for, or against, the existence of intelligent life. One of the most widely accepted explanations would be the existence of some sort of Great Filter, that makes the emergence of advanced civilizations exceedingly rare. While this filter may already be behind humanity, we may also have yet to face it. Human triggered activities such as climate change or the possibility of nuclear war, show that humanity may not survive to be a species that ever leaves our Solar System. While this may seem pessimistic, humanity should realize that the Universe does not seem to be friendly to long lasting, advanced civilizations.

The fact is that at this point we only have one example of intelligent life arising, which would be ourselves. Therefore, given this sample size of one, we cannot know how common intelligent life is in the Universe is, unless we find another example of it. Whether the solution is something like the Zoo hypothesis, the Rare Earth hypothesis, or the fact that we just have not been looking for long enough, humanity should try to take better care of our own planet for now.

The YouTube video below is a great summary of Fermi’s Paradox.

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Credit: Kurzgesagt on Youtube.

By: Gulaab Sara

 

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Stem cells used after cataract surgery for regenerating functional human lenses

Posted on March 13, 2016 by | 1 comment

Congenital cataracts are a significant cause of blindness in children. Congenital cataracts are the clouding of lens, which usually occurs at birth or shortly later; they do not allow any light to the retina or visual information to the brain, which results in a visual impairment. The function of the retina is to convert light energy into signals that are carried to the brain and processed as visual information in the brain.

Human eye schematic

This is a schematic of a human eye done by Rhcastilhos

This is a cataract in a human eye taken by Dr. Rakesh Ahuja.

This is a cataract in a human eye taken by Dr. Rakesh Ahuja.

Humans are born with cells in their eyes called lens epithelial stem cells (LEC); the function of these LECs are to create replacement lens cells throughout their lifetime. Currently, cataract surgeries remove, in an attempt to remove the cataracts, almost all the LECs too. The problem, with these current surgeries, is that the LECs regenerate in a way that doesn’t heal or reconstruct the actual lens properly.

A new study addresses these issues exactly. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have discovered a new surgical technique that retains the shape of the lens, with a therapy that stimulates the LECs to grow. The first part of the surgery has the same method of removing congenital cataracts, however it is the latter part that makes the difference. The second part is a therapy that permits the remaining stem cells to regrow into functional lenses.

This video by wochit News on youtube.com describes the new study and the use of the new surgery technique in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeHIlKEs8_s

This technique was tried on animals first, followed by a small human trial that involved 12 infants under the age of 2. There was a control group of 25 infants (also under the age of 2) that received the original cataract surgery (the one without the therapy). At the end of the study, the infants of the control group had higher inflammation, more hypertension and increased lens clouding relative to the treatment group.

This proves that this new is a safer and more effective cataract surgery technique that is showing positive results and will potentially be the future of cataract surgery. The patients, particularly infants, will have now have healthier lenses forming after having their cataracts removed and will allow them to live a life with healthy eyes and proper vision.

 

Done by: Karanvir Gill

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

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The Resurrection of the Antibiotic?

Posted on March 13, 2016 by | 2 comments

Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are bacteria-killing drugs that either inhibit the growth of bacterial cell walls (the protective wall surrounding the bacteria) or stop bacteria from replicating by manipulating bacterial DNA. Evidence of the use of antibiotics such as tetracycline

tetracycline, Source: wikimedia commons

tetracycline, Source: Wikimedia Commons

have been found in fossils dating back to 350 Common Era and has since evolved alongside human technology to become more effective and accessible to the everyday consumer. Common uses of antibiotics include disinfecting wounds, mediating safe child birth and curing food poisoning. Using antibiotics, countless lives have been saved in human history especially in major historical events such as World War II. The following link demonstrates the effects of the drug Penicillin on the outcome of World War II which was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 (http://classroom.synonym.com/did-invention-penicillin-affect-world-war-ii-8709.html).

Bacteria vs. Antibiotic?

But, antibiotics are double-edged swords. Bacteria has been slowly adapting to various antibiotics and evolved so that some antibiotics are no longer effective. This is due to mainly two reasons:

  1. People have been misusing and overusing antibiotics for the last couple of decades which allowed bacteria to have an easier time adapting and building resistance to the antibiotics.
  2. Bacteria is a very flexible life from in the aspect that it adapts quickly and have quick mutation cycles.

Dangerous cases have resulted where Super Bugs which are bacteria resistant to antibiotics have started to grow in hospitals infecting patients receiving various treatments. These cases have often resulted in mortality in these patients. The following illustration demonstrates the quick adaptability of a bacteria cell to an antibiotic.

512px-Artificial_Bacterial_Transformation.svg

Bacteria/ Antibiotics, Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Battle is Won?

The information presented above must be shocking to some but rest assured because scientists believe that they have found an antibiotic that does not induce bacterial resistance. Teixobactin

Teixobactin, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Teixobactin, Source: Wikimedia Commons

discovered  earlier last year appears to successfully combat the development of bacterial resistance. The key in why this antibiotic is so effective in prohibiting bacterial resistance is the fact that it is able to inhibit bacterial growth in two methods as opposed to the normal one method attack of alternative antibiotics. Teixobactin prohibits the formation of both lipid II and lipid III in a bacteria which are detrimental in the formation of bacteria cells walls. Even if the bacteria is able to adapt by restoring the ability to produce of one of these lipids, the other lipid would still be inhibited.

The following is a YouTube video provided by Newsy Science which outlines the basics of what this new antibiotic can do and the mechanism behind it.

Hopefully, this new antibiotic marks the oncoming of a new age of drug use where antibiotic will no longer induce bacterial resistance.

By: Ming Lun (Allan) Zhu

 

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The Epigenetic Relationship Between Income and Aging

Posted on March 7, 2016 by | Leave a comment

You are probably familiar with the old nature versus nurture debate if you have ever taken a course in psychology or philosophy. It inquires whether our development is induced by our DNA, individual choices we make or by our environment and circumstance. Twins are often used to demonstrate the effects environmental factors have on phenotype.

In the early 1990’s a scientist by the name of Conrad Waddington found that environmental stress was causing certain phenotypes of the Drosophila fruit fly to assimilate. In other words, these phenotypes that were first induced by the environment were becoming permanent and hereditary! Waddington named this area of research Epigenetics; a now growing field of research that looks at how environmental factors can change our phenotype.

Dr. Courtney Griffin, a member of the Cardiovascular Biology Research Program at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation discusses the importance of Epigenetics in this TedX video.

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Many studies in recent years have attempted to reveal a connection between low income and risk for diseases such as heart disease and cancer. What all of these studies have looked at is telomere degradation. As cells divide, the length of these chromosome-caps contracts implying aging. As an indicator of aging, telomere degradation remains unreliable and results from these studies have proven inconsistent.

A new study by Ronald Simons et al. has demonstrated a correlation between accelerated aging and income by a new method. The researchers were able to identify certain epigenetic markers that can be linked to aging by way of DNA methylation. This process involves adding methyl groups to DNA. As the methylation level of a gene increases, the expression of the gene decreases (Read more about DNA methylation here).

A sample of 100 middle-aged, American black women were chosen for the study as the population of black men in America had high incarceration rates (forcing the financial burden on the mother of a family) and low family incomes. The study controlled for other influences of socio-economic status (SES)  such as education, and used a new method of structural equation modeling to find that low income was associated with biological aging.

Income inequality is one of the largest problems the United States faces today as 99% of new income is being distributed to merely one percent of the population. This study implies that this problem may be even worse than previously understood. If these biological effects are in fact hereditary, the vast population of low-income wage earners in America can expect their children and grand children to live shorter lives.

-Johnny Lazazzera

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Banana Lovers Beware: Some “Unap-peel-ing” News

Posted on March 6, 2016 by | 6 comments

The world’s most popular fruit, the banana, is at risk of dying out due to a fungus that is destroying crops in almost every country it’s grown in. The fungus causes the incurable Panama disease, which is currently killing off the popular species sold across North America and Europe known as the Cavendish banana. Scientists from Wageningen University have traced this fungus for decades, and their most recent findings show that it has spread dangerously fast across the globe.

Bananas

The Cavendish Banana. Source: wikipedia

The fungus is known as Tropical Race 4 (TR4), and is the fourth type of fungus found capable of spreading the Panama disease. So far TR4 has been found in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, and most recently in Jordan, Pakistan, and Lebanon. The fungus targets banana plants through the soil, where it can enter the plant’s roots and block off it’s water source until it wilts and ultimately dies. TR4 spreads by releasing spores, which can live in the soil for up to 30 years after the crops die off.

TR4 is especially dangerous because each spore is a clone of the very first TR4 fungus, meaning every spore has the exact same genetic material. This means every fungus is equally as powerful in killing banana plants, and there is no chance of any fungus having a mutation and being defective. Even worse, banana plants are extremely susceptible to this disease. You may have noticed that bananas don’t have seeds. The reason why is that the Cavendish Banana is sterile, and can only be reproduced from offshoots of adult plants or by growing cells in a nutrient bath. In turn, they are all genetically identical, meaning these bananas are also clones of each other. They are all equally vulnerable to the Panama disease, therefore it spreads very quickly through crops.

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A banana plant killed by the Panama disease carried by TR4 fungus. Source: Wikimedia Commons

This isn’t the first time bananas have been threatened by the Panama disease. In the 1960s, it drove another type of banana, the Gros-Michel, into near-extinction. It was after this devastation that farmers started growing the Cavendish banana. It was originally thought that Cavendish bananas were resistant to the Panama disease, that is until a new strain of the Panama disease carried by the TR4 fungus was found to infect them.

The biggest exporters of bananas in the world, Central and South America, have not yet been hit with the Panama disease. However if we want to stop the bananas we know and love from going extinct, drastic strategy changes in the way we currently grow bananas will need to be made, including finding a new variety of banana that is immune to the deadly effects of the TR4 fungus. Time is running out, and it will take a global effort and commitment in order to stop the increasing spread of TR4 and save the banana.

The following video presented by SciShow gives a great summary of the Panama disease and the extinction of banana plants:

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  • Emma Peachey, March 6, 2016

 

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Reverse alkane combustion

Posted on March 4, 2016 by | 1 comment

Researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington have discovered how to convert carbon dioxide and water into liquid hydrocarbon fuels in a one-step, simple and inexpensive process. Combustion is a chemical reaction that occurs between carbon and oxygen, liberating carbon dioxide and water. The equation for combustion can be shown as: CH4 + O2 –> CO2 + H20. The researchers have determined how to drive the reaction in the opposite direction by using high light intensity, concentrated heat and high pressure. The reaction takes place in a photothermalcatalytic flow reactor, operating optimally at 180-200°C and at 6 atm pressure. During the reaction, carbon dioxide and steam flow over the catalyst bed which is heated by an internal electric heater and simultaneously irradiated with UV light using lamps. The researchers used titanium dioxide as the catalyst which is advantageous because it is a cheap and abundant earth metal.

combustion reaction

Source: Wikimedia Commons combustion reaction

The current process produces small branched aromatics and branched linear hydrocarbons which are useful molecules for gasoline products. However, the best reaction run achieved an efficiency of 13%. Consequently, the current system is not commercially viable. Molecular oxygen is a major by-product of the reaction, detected in yields between 64-150%. Although the efficiency of the process isn’t spectacular, this is a new process and hopefully further research will result in effective modifications.

Future theoretical uses of this technology involve using solar energy to produce liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and water. Parabolic (U-shaped) mirrors can be used to concentrate the sunlight onto the catalyst. Indeed, sunlight can provide both thermal energy and photons to drive the reaction forward. However, finding an effective photo-catalyst that can absorb photons from the sun is a challenge as the current catalyst, titanium dioxide, is not able to absorb the entire visible light spectrum. The researchers argue that this process, referred to as the solar photothermalchemical alkane combustion process (SPARC) is inexpensive compared to solar biomass gasification and other related processes which produce synthesis gas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas). Compressing synthesis gas into usable fuels is very costly.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Source: Wikimedia Commons Parabolic mirror

The results of this research have huge implications for the future of hydrocarbon fuels. As mentioned in the original research article, producing and consuming fossil fuels using this method could lead to a carbon-neutral fuel cycle. If the efficiency of this process is improved and optimized for large-scale production, arguably the greatest advantage would be that the current automotive and fuel distribution infrastructure would not have to change. However, I believe that a combination of technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, wind power, solar energy and photovoltaic cells should be utilized appropriately to decrease global carbon dioxide emissions. For example, in certain parts of the world that have low solar insolation, solar energy is not a viable alternative but alkane reverse combustion may be a potential solution.

-Rachel Carr

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