Category Archives: Science Communication

Pip, SAR, and GMOs: How UBC Researchers are Advancing our Knowledge of Plant Immune Systems

What would happen if plants couldn’t protect themselves? Well, for one, they would be prone to many different infections and viruses. Ultimately, plants would die without the ability to protect themselves. To really put things into perspective, humans would not have many of the food sources they have without plants.

Yuli Ding, a 5th year PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and her colleagues made a coincidental, break-through discovery in October 2016. Focusing on the ability of plants to resist diseases that they’ve previously encountered, called Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR), Ding set out to determine if a specific molecule is required for this type of protection. SAR is described with greater depth in the following podcast with the researcher herself. The molecule in question was Pipecolic Acid (Pip). According to the findings of the scientists, “Pipecolic acid could be a relatively important mobile signal is the systemic acquired resistance.” In simpler terms, Pip aids in SAR by activating the process.

We had the opportunity to interview Yuli Ding about her research to help clarify some of these complex concepts. Listen to her explanations of the research in the following podcast.

What happens to plants that cannot complete SAR? Mutated plants, with a non-functional SARD4 gene, are SAR-deficient and thus unable to effectively defend against diseases. Instead of making Pip to activate SAR, a Pip pre-cursor molecule gathers in the plants – demonstrating SARD4’s importance in synthesizing Pip. Since Pip is not being created, the plants don’t exhibit SAR and are less able to defend themselves when infected by pathogens.

In this video, Yuli Ding describes how they identified SAR-deficient Arabidopsis plants, and demonstrates one of the main lab techniques, Polymerase Chain Reaction, that her team used to help identify Pip as a signal molecule.

Arabidopsis Timelapse
Music: Horizon, by Letmeknowyouanatole

Why should we care? SAR is a key process by which plants protect themselves, so SAR is an essential mechanism in ensuring the maintenance of agriculture and healthy crop yields.

Science is advancing at a rapid rate and the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) has been increasing. A GMO is the result of a gene transfer between organisms. For example, the gene of one organism is inserted into another organism in order to improve that organism. The results of this study could be a stepping stone to creating GMOs that have better SAR, and are better able to defend against disease. Specifically, the genes responsible for synthesizing Pip could be added to immuno-compromised organisms. Genetic modification could also be used to make plants have stronger SAR or better immune systems.  Although the use of GMOs could be beneficial, GMOs pose several threats to the environment and other organisms.

What can we do with this research right now? The findings of this study could help improve the yield of crops and the number of successful crops. Farmers and agriculturalists could now focus on improving the environmental conditions of their plants to ensure that all requirements for a plant to be healthy are met. A healthy plant would increase the chances of proper SAR. All in all, a healthy plant is a happy plant!

 

By Navpreet Ganda, Pavneet Virk, and Zhongkai He.

The Body Snatcher

When you think of parasites, what comes to mind? Worms? They’re small? They’re gross? Irrelevant to our region?

Turns out these little beasts have a greater impact than you’d think. Gehman studied how a certain parasite that infects mud crabs is affected by environmental factors, such as temperature. Her research enriched the pool of knowledge regarding the parasite model! This means, information known about a specific parasite can be applied to similarly behaving parasites. For example, Gehman’s findings help us better understand the malaria parasite! For additional significance of her research, please listen to this podcast.

Audio credit: https://soundcloud.com/evelyn-chen-827562817/so-project

                                                                                              

Why are parasites important to you?

With globally increasing temperatures it’s possible for new parasites to surface in different regions and affect us, either directly or indirectly.

Parasites require the presence of a host to survive and the abundance, distribution, and susceptibility of the host affects the parasite. To evaluate these factors, Gehman and her colleagues studied factors within 10 estuaries and observed the abundances of hosts and parasites in each region.

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Image Credit: Andy Tucker, Georgia University

They studied a castrating barnacle parasite that infects the mud crab. Mud crabs reside in oyster reefs and rely on them for protection. This parasite establishes itself within the mud crab and changes its behavior and reproduction patterns,  effectively taking over its body. Infected mud crabs have a sac under their body which makes them unable to get into the oyster reef, leaving them vulnerable to their predators.

As shown through this video, you can see the sac on the mud crab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGo32jzqQAI&feature=youtu.be%20

Video taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGo32jzqQAI&feature=youtu.be

It was shown that regions with varying abiotic and biotic factors influenced the abundance of this parasite.

Host Size

Host size was the biggest predictor of parasite infection as larger mud crabs would be infected more often. Smaller crabs would not have enough energy to sustain the parasite, but larger crabs have more energy to sustain the parasite and may also be older, increasing their susceptibility to infection.

Water Depth

As this parasite has free-living larvae it migrates further in deeper waters because it flows with the water circulation. Therefore, in deeper waters there is a higher rate of infection.

Predator Abundance

Areas with higher predator abundance both could increase and decrease the infection prevalence. In deeper waters, mud crabs are trying to avoid their predators and that can increase infection in those individuals. However, predators that feed on infected crabs can also decrease the infection in that population.

screen-shot-2016-11-30-at-3-52-03-pm

Image credit: Andy Tucker, Georgia University

At first glance, it is hard to see this paper’s significance, but after understanding how this relates to us it is clear how important it is. There has been little evidence for how the ecological structures will change due to environmental factors which is why Gehman’s research about these tiny organisms is pivotal. More research in this area could solidify the parasite-model, allowing us to better understand the impact parasites have on human health.

So how many more bodies will be snatched as global warming continues?

 

»Group 5

Evelyn Chen, Nikeisha Dass, Riaz Vejdani, Jane Wanjiru

Baking Cookies or Critical Thinking?

Baking Cookies or Critical Thinking?  

When you are making choices on your own, do you ever feel ill-equipped or unconfident in your decision making ability?

We have all felt this frustration at some point in our life, whether it is in university chemistry laboratories or in high school when you are writing a comparative essay. However, critical thinking extends beyond just our education. Even though we may not realize it, decision-making is constant in our lives, from small questions like, “How do you like your coffee?” to a big life question like,“Why are you a good fit for this job?” Critical thinking is the skill we use to answer these questions and make choices by applying our previous knowledge through comparisons and reflection.

Critical thinking

There are many different applications of critical thinking Photo Credit: LinkedIn

This important life skill should be taught and developed, but sometimes it is inhibited because of the lack of confidence, time and skills needed to form an analysis. Doug Bonn, a UBC researcher looks into providing learning opportunities to develop student’s confidence in critical thinking. To teach critical thinking, Dr. Bonn uses the comparison model which is similar to the process of baking cookies as explained in our video below.

Video Credit: Yiwei Liu, https://youtu.be/nnFcwZt6tws

As you can see, the comparison model is used in everyday tasks, even in simple tasks where you must compare and go through repetitious cycles until you get the greatest product. Endorsing this higher level of learning leads us back to the importance of where critical thinking is developed and taught. Fascinated by this thought, we polled students on the UBC campus to see if they thought critical thinking was more established in high school or in university. We then compared their answers to lead researcher, Dr. Bonn’s; let’s listen in.

Podcast Credit: Stephanie Schaupmeyer

Turns out, universities have a lot to learn from high school according to Doug Bonn. Hopefully in the future, the comparison model will be incorporated in university education to prepare students for real world application and making big life decisions. Special thanks to Doug Bonn for giving us his time and insight on his research paper!

-Group 3: Jenna Carpenter-Boesch, Stephanie Schaupmeyer, Yiwei Lin

The Ediacaran Enigma

In biology, there’s a metaphor known as the universal tree of life that expresses the idea that all organisms are part of a big happy family, descending and evolving from the same common ancestor. It’s proved to be a pretty good rule of thumb too, as analysis has given most organisms a place somewhere in the branches of this metaphorical tree. Now, pay attention to how I emphasized “most”, because there’s an exception to this rule – one group of puzzling animals, known only from fossils, that has defied scientists’ attempts to place them on the tree of life and relate them to other organisms. They are the Ediacaran animals – grouped together and named after the period of Earth’s history they lived in (likely because “what the hell are these things” wasn’t very scientific).

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Artist’s impression of an aquatic Ediacaran environment. Image Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Eloquently described by the scientific community as looking like “mud-filled bags” or “quilted mattresses”, these bizarre animals first appeared in our fossil record about 600 million years ago, and are the earliest known multicellular organisms. Yet despite being the first, Ediacarans share no clear relationship with later multicellular life, or any other known life for that matter. Usually related organisms have at least some distinctive trait in common (for example, all Cnidarians have stinging cells), but while some Ediacaran animals shared a few passing similarities with sponges or jellyfish, for the most part they were too different from pretty much anything that came before or after them to be considered related to them: they were too complex and large compared to life before them, yet they also had body shapes that were completely alien compared to any forms of life after them. As a result, Ediacaran life is often described as “enigmatic” – or scientist speak for “really weird”.

dickinsoniacostata

Dickinsonia costata, an iconic Ediacaran organism. Note “quilted” appearance. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)

Further hammering home the strangeness, despite fossils of Ediacaran organisms being found practically everywhere, all Ediacarans abruptly vanished from the fossil record 540 million years ago, and no-one is entirely sure why.

In short, these multicellular organisms suddenly showed up, disappeared just as suddenly, and are so unrelentingly bizarre that they can’t be definitively linked to any other lifeforms we’ve seen on this planet.

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Paleontologist Guy Narbonne examining Ediacaran fossils at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland, Canada. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Now, before you scream “aliens!” at me, there are actually some reasonable hypotheses as to what the heck Ediacaran life was, why it has no clear relationship to other known life, and why it just disappeared. For example, one hypothesis suggests that the Ediacarans were a “failed experiment” in multicellular life by Mother Nature, having been out-competed to death by later life evolved from unrelated lifeforms (in fact, scientists have traced the origins of modern animals back to the Cambrian explosion, an event that coincidentally happened… wait for it… 541 million years ago). Regardless, given the “we can’t ever know for sure” nature of prehistoric biology, it’s likely that Ediacaran life will remain an intriguing biological mystery for years to come (and my personal favourite footnote in our otherwise fairly predictable biological history).

~ Kimberly

You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry

Feeling hangry? Want to know why?

Well, there can be a multitude of reasons why we give in to our cravings, such as stress, or poor will power. I’ve always wondered why I get these intense random cravings for a good Bueno bar or pizza, and here’s why; our bodies are very reactive to what we eat and junk food is one thing that keeps us coming for more.

Okay, why? 

The major players in our cravings are leptin and serotonin. Leptin is a hormone released to tell our brains when we are full and serotonin is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel happy. Because leptin is made in our fat tissue the more we eat, the more leptin is produced, which should tell our brain that we have enough energy and to stop eating. But, something called leptin-resistance can develop which means we have so much leptin circulating in our bodies that the brain stops receiving the signal. When the brain doesn’t receive that signal our body saves more fat as energy and goes into ‘starvation’ mode, resulting in us searching for fatty-rich foods. If meals aren’t eaten at regular times, it can affect your metabolism which means entering starvation mode. Since our brain thinks our body needs to be conserving more energy it also makes us feel lazy, so we move only when necessary. Extreme leptin-resistance can also lead to weight gain or obesity.

Leptin Feedback Cycle Credit: Authority Nutrition

Leptin Feedback Cycle Credit: Authority Nutrition

On the other hand, up to 90% of serotonin is made in our intestines, and is released when we eat. When we eat sugary food versus fruit more serotonin is released to accommodate our reward system. Once we start to build a tolerance, we need more serotonin to make us feel as good as it did previously, therefore even more junk food. So when our cravings start to hit junk food is the target since we know it’ll make us feel better than eating vegetables. This release of neurotransmitters can be so strong as some studies have related the feeling to the effects of cocaine. Which is one of the reasons why we continue to eat junk food because our brains relate the large release of endorphins to a reward.

Synaptic Transmission: How Serotonin gets transported to the brain Credit: Nutrition Wonderland

Synaptic Transmission: How Serotonin gets transported to the brain Credit: Nutrition Wonderland

How to fight the cravings. 

Now that I found out it’s not just my terrible willpower, I don’t feel as bad for giving in, but, here are some ways that can fight off those cravings when it’s taking over your mind.

Run it off! Running can release endorphins- including serotonin- making us feel great again without the junk food. To avoid the stress-eating or post break-up eating, get in tune with your body with some meditation which also releases endorphins. Now you know that these tiny molecules are responsible for your huge cravings.

»Nikeisha Dass

The Future Nanowire Battery

How did you feel when your favorite electronic device, such as a smartphone or tablet, could not be charged anymore? Did you know there was a limit? Many electronic devices can be used for only 3 or 4 years because their battery life is not infinite. Fortunately, new research has found a way to extend battery life. I will explain this method of applying nanowire technology.

First, we must understand nanowires. A nanowire is thousands of times thinner than a human hair. It has a very good electrical conductivity, and it can store a lot of electric charges. However, according to some previous research, nanowires are very weak, so they will be broken after recharging a few thousand times. For example, a lithium battery can be recharged approximately three thousand times, similar to nanowire batteries, but if we can protect the nanowires, we can make these batteries a much longer time.

The image obtain from Wikipedia

The image retrieve from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Nanowires_on_si_substrate.jpg, published under non-commercial use license.

A student at the University of California, Irvine(UCI) called Mya Le Thai found that nanowires can be recharged more than 200,000 times if they are coated with manganese oxide. She spent three months testing nanowires with this protective coating. They were recharged more than 200,000 times, and they remained intact and functional.

I think this research is very important because scientists have not improved the life of batteries for a long time. Nowadays, some people use electric cars to protect the environment, but the life and size of the battery is a major limitation to this vehicle technology. Moreover, many people get annoyed when they have to charge their electronic devices again and again, and doing so is inconvenient and risky, such as when a smoke detector or a home alarm system batteries stops working. If we could have a battery, which could last much longer or forever, these frustrating problems would be solved.

Zhongkai He

Bitcoin is a Stable Investment when Markets are Unstable

The looming clouds of uncertainty are hanging over the markets, as the saga of events leading to 2016 presidential elections is still unfolding. The markets showed a 2% surge on November 7, after FBI once again cleared Hillary Clinton regarding her private servers’ emails. Nevertheless, market analysts argue that the shock from a plausible Trump’s victory will likely hit the markets even harder than the Brexit (which cost investors about 2$ trillion in one day).

picture of bitcoin on iPad

Photo by Jonathan Waller (Whitez) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/]

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this volatile environment, investors are looking for safer investments and some of them are opting for the virtual currencies such as bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the market with more than 100,000 transactions per month. Bitcoin does not have a physical existence and is not controlled by a central authority the way Canadian dollar is controlled by Bank of Canada. Its backbone is essentially computer code, distributed among a wide network of servers called ‘nodes’. Transactions made by bitcoins are anonymous and a record of all the transactions to date is called a ‘blockchain’. Blockchains can be best understood as ledger account, which is openly available online. Creation of bitcoin takes place when a node performs a large amount of calculations to add a block to the blockchain; this process is commonly referred to as ‘mining’.

Diagram describing number of bitcoin transactions per month

Diagram describing number of bitcoin transactions per month

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual Currencies such as bitcoin, always had their place in the tech community, but what makes bitcoin attractive to financial industry? For the majority of its lifetime, bitcoin has been on the shadier side of the economy; the tax authorities and the law enforcement did not exactly know how to treat it under the law and remained suspicious of its potential for illegal transactions. But in recent years, many have caught up including Canadians, who passed their first law in June 2014 for regulating the use of bitcoins.

 

Bitcoin is Fair, Stable, Safe, and Secure *

In contrast to paper currency, bitcoin transactions are always recorded, making it easy to keep track of the currency on the market. Also distribution of blockchains among nodes globally, makes the transactions’ records secure and almost impossible to alter. These two qualities convinced the Swedish National Land Survey to consider bitcoins as a tool for transaction and record keeping, as it is many times faster than the current manual methods requiring lots of paper work. Convenience afforded by the bitcoin is an important factor in attracting people; there are currently more than 100,000 merchants that accept bitcoins with hundreds of ATM machines around the world. Bitcoins cut the middleman in the transaction, meaning that buyer and seller interact directly instead of through credit card companies and this eliminates the transaction fee. Like non-virtual currencies, bitcoin’s value fluctuates over time. However, as the political volatility increases, bitcoin locks steps with gold, making it an attractive investment hedge in the times of uncertainty. For all of these reasons, investors are considering bitcoin as a viable investment option; putting its star on a rising path.

* https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

Sadaf Yadegari

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation

A growing percentage of college students do not sleep enough because of many reasons. Some students are taking too many credits and participating in different extracurricular activities. Other students have to work for hours to pay for their school. Although college students can shorten their sleep time and save the time for other activities, they are supposed to realise that they should not do it. A recent published scientific article, Partial sleep deprivation activates the DNA damage response (DDR) and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) in aged adult humans, has shown that insufficient sleep is linked to cell damage which may contribute to an increased risk of chronic disease. Another study, The influence of sleep deprivation and obesity on DNA damage in female Zucker rats, has indicated that prolonged and regular sleep deprivation can kill up to 25% of certain brain cells on those mice in the experiment. Sleep deprivation is associated with genetic damage in brain cells in some levels to human beings. Since the damaged brain cells require a long time to heal, college students are supposed to get enough sleep on a regular basis to ensure their brains can have a good rest.

What causes lack of sleep?

Some people do not realise the importance of adequate sleep, so they choose to stay up late to socialise or watch television shows. For individuals who are busy with work, frequent travelling tends to disrupt their regular sleep circles. Moreover, health problems such as snoring, sleep apnoea can disturb people’s sleep many times during the night. People who have these problems always wake up without feeling rested or refreshed. The sleeping environment is another factor that has the effect on sleep. People usually are not able to sleep well if their bedrooms are too hot or too cold or they have noisy neighbours. Some life habits can also be disruptive. For example, drinking coffee or listening to electronic music close to bedtime make people sleep less likely.

By Mikael Häggström. When using this image in external works, it may be cited as follows: Häggström, Mikael. "Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014". Wikiversity Journal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 20018762. (All used images are in public domain.) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Effects of Sleep Deprivation. Häggström, Mikael. “Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014”. Wikiversity Journal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 20018762. (All used images are in public domain.) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons. Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Effectes_of_sleep_deprivation.svg

Consequences of insufficient sleep

Poorer health condition is the price of inadequate sleep.  Researcher have indicated that obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and frequent mental distress are associated with sleep loss. Also, lack of sleep impairs people’s performance. People who need eight hours sleep per night only get six, they have the poorer concentration on their daily work comparing to their peers. For students who give up sleep and study for the whole night, they are less likely to get better grades because sleep loss slows their reaction time and makes them have poorer memory.

Sleep tips

Research shows that students who sleep more get better grades. I have some advice for college students and adults who suffer sleep loss. You may drink warm water or milk before you go to bed. Warm milk helps people fall asleep and sleep better. You can also remove distractions in the bedrooms such as game players or computers, and shut down all digital devices while sleeping. Last, try not to consume too much alcohol or caffeinated beverages hours before bedtime.  

Please watch the video below and check how sleep deprived you are.

Video credit to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfMOPTsU_0

Xi Chen