Category Archives: Science in the News

Stem cells: bone marrow vs. peripheral blood

Posted on October 31, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Stem cell transplants have the ability to treat approximately 80 different types of diseases and disorders. These include certain types of cancers such as leukemia, bone marrow deficiency diseases, aplastic anemia (the lack of normal blood cell production), and inherited immune system and metabolic disorders. Doctors have the tough decision of figuring out what the most appropriate course of treatment is for patients who are suffering from these diseases and disorders. Specifically, for those who require a stem cell transplant, doctors must decide whether to use stem cells that are transplanted from a donor’s bone marrow or from their peripheral/circulating blood stream. New research has revealed that patients who have received a bone marrow transplant report an overall better quality of life compared to those who received a peripheral blood transplant. The patients who are receiving these potentially life-saving transplants are already very sick and therefore would want to maximize the chance that their transplant procedure will not only increase their life expectancy, but also their overall quality of life.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Stem_cell_treatments.png

Potential Uses for Stem Cells. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Stem_cell_treatments.png

A specific type of complication that arises and that is common side effect of post-transplantation is called graft versus host disease (GvHD). GvHD occurs when newly transplanted donor immune cells attack the recipient’s body. The results from the new research conducted finds that patients who received a bone marrow transplant overall experience fewer symptoms of GvHD and self reported better psychological well-being post transplant. These findings are quite important as the doctor’s main objective post transplant is for the patient to be healthier than they were before they received it. Therefore, I think it would be beneficial for follow up research to be done so it is certain that all stem cell transplants are being done with the patient’s best interests in mind, including their long-term health.

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A video of patients and transplant experts that explain the basics of a blood or marrow transplant.

 Currently, donor stem cells are extracted from the peripheral or circulating blood stream about 80% of the time, while the other 20% time it is collected from the bone marrow. This is because peripheral blood stem cell donation is a much less invasive procedure and is similar in risk compared to a regular blood donation. However, donors who are providing stem cells from their bone marrow are often put under a general anaesthetic and feel a small amount of discomfort or pain in the hip region, which can be compared to the sensation of falling on ice. It is important to keep in mind that patients who are desperate for these stem cells are in a great amount of pain and therefore put it into perspective, the small amount of discomfort felt from bone marrow donation is nothing compared to the amount that the patient who needs them feels.

Regardless of whichever method of transplantation scientists agree to be the best, both are providing life saving assistance to those with life threatening diseases and disorders. I hope that everyone reading this will consider signing up on the National Stem Cell registry and becoming someone’s second chance at life.

 

Rashmeen Kambo

 

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

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Liar, Liar… Brain on Fire

Posted on October 31, 2016 by | 4 comments

Whether you lied to get out of homework, or to get out of work, or even just lying to your friend to make them feel better… we have all been there. Lying is a part of the human condition, but have you ever wondered what triggers you to tell that lie? I’ll admit that there have been many instances where I have lied. For example, I’ve told my friend many times her hair  looks great – when it really doesn’t.

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Image Courtesy of Pinterest.com

Studies in the field of neuroscience show there may be a biological explanation behind why lies escalate over time.

 

Image Courtest of: Huffingtonpost.com

Image Courtesy of: Huffingtonpost.com

So what triggers a lie? Psychologist Tali Sharot from the University College of London suggests that the brain becomes numb from the aching it causes, thus lying becomes a routine.  This explains why people progress easily from smaller to bigger lies; they become used to the fabrication.

Sharot and colleagues suggest that the “emotional adaptation” is the logic behind the acceleration of dishonesty. A little white lie can’t hurt anyone, right? You’re inclined to feel slightly bad from your first lie, but what about the few dozen after that? Will it feel just as bad? I’ve lied many times as a child and used to feel incredibly guilty, but now making the same lies just doesn’t feel as bad.

Sharot then conducted a study with 80 volunteers. These volunteers were to scrutinize jars containing pennies and estimate how much money was in them. The volunteers had partners who had to estimate as well, but had blurry pictures. Thus, the partners had to rely on the volunteer’s advice to estimate. Some volunteers were told that the more accurate their guess, the more the both of them would win; an incentive to send the truest estimate. In other instances, the more the partner overstated the money the jar contained, the more the volunteer would win and the less the partner would; an incentive for the volunteer to give the partner false information. Of the two cases, the second situation had partners lie more.

Next, 25 volunteers underwent neuroimaging when they were providing information to their partners. The amygdala, the part of the brain that responds to processes encountering emotional experiences, spew out activity after the first lie. This represents the idea that lying is unpleasant.

Image Courtesy of: http://brainmadesimple.com

Image Courtesy of: http://brainmadesimple.com

However, activity experiences by the amygdala decreased before subsequent lies. The larger they decreased, the more lies were detected by the volunteers in the next rounds. This suggests that the more decrease in amygdala activity, the more comfort one will experience when lying.

“Think about it like perfume. You buy a new perfume, and it smells strongly. A few days later, it smells less. And a month later, you don’t smell it at all.” 

    – Tali Sharot, a psychologist at the University of University College of London.

Image Courtesy of: Pinterest.com

Image Courtesy of: Pinterest.com

This idea of emotional adaptation relates to every human, because let’s be real… we all lie when we think we can get away with it. You experience less guilt when you easily get away with lying. The moral of the story is, don’t become a liar, because a little white lie doesn’t end just there. It begins to snowball. Also, you wouldn’t want your nose keep growing like Pinocchio, I know I wouldn’t.

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Image Courtesy of  www.disneyclips.com

By: Harmen Tatla

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Posted in Science Communicators, Science in the News, Uncategorized

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Video

AI-based advertising vs. traditional advertising: which one is more powerful?

Amazon suggested product

Youtube Advertising

  Over the past decade, the industry of information technology has developed at a surprising speed. Also, the way that advertisements are designed and served has changed significantly. Compared with the advertisements in the 1990s, there are more forms of advertising. One of the most special forms is the Artificial Intelligence(AI) based advertisement. When you go to Amazon for online shopping, what pops up on the screen is no more the best-seller, but the item that you wish to buy. Similarly, you will find that the advertisements before YouTube videos are more and more attractive and relevant to you. These are all examples of AI-based advertising. Then there is a debate over whether the new form of advertising is more powerful than tradition advertising.

  What are the advantages of tradition advertising? Obviously, it’s more creative than the AI-sorted data. It’s more reliable since they are well sorted by advertisement agencies, and it’s easy to be widely spread with traditional media. Also, it lasts longer by leaving deep impression to people and spread among individuals. The slogan ”A diamond is forever” by De Beers is a typical example of successful traditional advertising.

Story of “A diamond is forever”. Source: De beers.

Story of “A diamond is forever”.

What about AI-based advertising? It has many unique features that traditional advertising can never achieve. Firstly, it provides sufficient feedback for advertisement agencies by big-data analysis. Hence, advertisers can know the effectiveness easily. Secondly, AI knows customers better since it can analyze their personal tastes from their searching or reading history. For example, if you bought a headphone from Amazon, then they will suggest you with the complementary products that customers who bought this item also bought. Besides, AI-based advertisements are more attractive because it’s well relevant to your life. What’s more, AI can analysis people’s need and develop potential customers. Here we got a video showing an example of AI-advertising.

For all these reasons, it’s clear that AI-advertising wins the battle. The AI-based advertisements have better efficiency and effectiveness than traditional advertisements. However, it will be better if advertisement agencies can combine them together and make AI-based advertising more creative. The commercial industry has already changed a lot by AI, and there will be more major changes as the information technology industry develops.

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Posted on October 17, 2016 by in Science in the News

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Finding Dory! And Save Them!

Posted on October 17, 2016 by | 1 comment

This summer, there was another Pixar cartoon movie “Finding Dory” became really popular. The story is interesting; the animals are cute.  But the movie itself actually have negative impact to the nature. And you may ask why?

DORY

DORY Image from Flickr

Here are some stories, after the last ocean movie “finding nemo” in 2003, what people didn’t expect is an 40% increase of the nemo fish in the pet fish market and aquarium trade. Nemo fish is actually belong to the clownfish family. And every year, over 1 million of them was taken from the ocean. That happened in 2003, after the movie became successful. Now, marine biologists Rene Umberger and Craig Downs worried about that this will happen again, to royal blue tang fish- the dory. Actually, the data showed that the royal blue tang has been ranked as high as 10th among all 2,300 saltwater aquarium fish species imported to US. And in 2009, the number was 130,000, before the movie. Also, according to Umberger and Downs, about 50 percent of wild-caught aquarium fish were detected with different levels of cyanide. And cyanide will not only the “Sudden Death Syndrome,” which is spontaneous death of the fish. It can kill nearby non-target fish, invertebrates and coral reefs as well. Also, they help to keep the reef healthy, as they eat nothing but algae, therefore they prevents the algae from overgrowing and suffocating the coral. Here is an interesting fact the flesh of dory is poisoning. Although it would not be able to kill you, I doubt anyone would eat them.

DORY AND NEMO

DORY AND NEMO

There are some scientists actually start a program called “ Saving Nemo Conservation Fund” after 2003.And, they are trying an alternative to collecting wild clownfish from the ocean. Nursery breeding is an easy way to prevent over collection of clownfish in the wild. And for the 7 out of 28 species of clownfish are bred in Australia. Unfortunately, none of the ten host anemone species are bred in captivity for aquariums. But, it is lucky for dory, as the University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Lab announced that blue tangs has been bred in captivity for the first, and it is a big step to save these beautiful wild fish.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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Big Oil Attempting to Seismic Blast Clyde River into Permanent Food Shortage

Posted on October 3, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The Indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic, the Inuit, live on land under jurisdiction of the Canadian government. Although they can be completely self-sufficient in their nomadic way of life, the heavy European influence during WWII forced these communities to settle in towns, stripping them of their culture. Mass agriculture is impossible in the Arctic, so any threat to the wildlife or ecosystem is a threat to the Inuit. The hamlet of Clyde River is among one of the many communities suffering from one of the highest food insecurity rates in North America – 68% of the Inuit population does not have consistent access to food, despite most communities having a Northern Store. However, the prices are marked up as high as 400% during certain times of year. The Inuit are lucky to have the wildlife to help sustain their food supply, as they respect the wildlife and treat them properly, but need to fight to keep it. Below is a video by AsapSCIENCE that describes the current state of Clyde River:

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When the Canadian government forced the people of Clyde River and other Inuit communities to live on government land, they lost their rights to fight Big Oil and its next step in the search for oil and gas deposits in the form of seismic blasting. Seismic blasting affects the wildlife because marine mammals use sound in nearly every part of their lives – communicating, mating and reproducing, raising young, hunting prey and hiding from or fighting predators, for example. In one study, catch rates of cod and haddock decreased 40 to 80% for thousands of miles, after seismic surveys. Seismic blasting, high pressure blasts of compressed air shot under water to survey up to 100 km deep into the sea floor to search for oil deposits, is the loudest noise in the ocean, the dynamite-like blasts are louder than underwater volcanoes and earthquakes and can be heard for many kilometers under water. Some species, for example Bowhead whales, cease communication when noise reaches 170 dB, and seismic blasting can reach >400 dB.

Visual representation of seismic blasting, from http://bit.ly/2dmUncH

Seismic blasting is occurring along the East Coast of USA,  and many have voted against it, including big organizations like Oceana.  The blasts sound every ten seconds, all day for days to weeks at a time, surveying the ocean floor for oil deposits the same way as in the Arctic. Greenpeace is petitioning to save Canada’s Arctic and prevent Big Oil from beginning a 5-year seismic blasting plan that is scheduled to begin in summer 2017 and blast every ten seconds, 24 hours a day, for the majority of each year.

Clyde River supporters protesting the National Energy Board approval of seismic testing in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait in July 2014. From http://bit.ly/1LonlGE

Clyde River supporters protesting the National Energy Board approval of seismic testing in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait in July 2014. From http://bit.ly/1LonlGE

Clyde River, backed by Greenpeace and others, has a hearing on November 30th in the Supreme Court of Canada against Big Oil. Sign the petition to stop seismic blasting, save our marine wildlife, and support Inuit communities, who need our help now more than ever:  http://arctic-home.greenpeace.org/en-ca/

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Posted in Science in the News

Toughest Animal on Earth

Posted on September 26, 2016 by | 2 comments

What is the toughest animal on earth?

Perhaps the camel that can weather the dry and arid deserts of the Sahara, or the polar bear that can survive year-long frigid temperatures of the Arctic? Maybe the African elephant weighing in at 14,000 pounds?

But the award for the most resilient animal has to go to the moss piglet – a microscopic critter who can survive even in the vacuum of space.

Moss piglets, or tardigrades, are not new to the scientific community. However, their tenacity has fascinated biologists for centuries. A recent study in September published in Nature Communications have shown that we may even be able to use their DNA to help our cells withstand harmful radiation. Understanding what makes these little guys so tough may one day help our survival in space as well.

A tardigrade (Credit: Eye of Science/SPL)

A moss piglet (Credit: Eye of Science/SPL)

So what exactly is a tardigrade?

Tardigrades are tiny creatures not much larger than a millimeter in length. Also known as ‘water bears’, these animals lumber lazily around in their aqueous natural habitat like bears out of hibernation. At first glance, their plump round bodies, four pairs of stumpy legs, and slow gait make them unlikely contestants in a race of hardiness. However, their ability to thrive in the harshest of environments is astonishing.

Movement of tardigrades (Credit: Craig Smith from YouTube)

Tardigrades commonly live on moist mosses and lichens feeding on plant cells and bacteria. But scientists have collected them from the deepest seas of Mexico to the highest mountains of  the Himalayas.

The tardigrade’s unique ability to survive in extreme environments has prompted scientists to test them to their limits.

In 1998, Japanese researchers put tardigrades to the test by crushing them under 600 megapascals (MPa) of pressure. This pressure is six times greater than the water pressure in the deepest part of the ocean in the Mariana Trench, and the tiny water bears were still able to subsist. To put things in perspective, the strongest human free divers have only been known to survive 3 MPa of pressure.

In 2007, tardigrades became unwilling astronauts as they were shot into space. Far from their native environment, the water bears were left naked in outer space without oxygen, exposing them to hard vacuum and deadly solar radiation. After 10 days, a few tardigrades still managed to survive.

What is their secret to survival?

When taken out of water and dried out, tardigrades enter a state of suspended animation and curl up into a tight ball called a “tun”. In this state, the tardigrade reduces its metabolism by 99.99 percent and produces a mixture of molecules that prevent it from freezing and also encases it in a matrix of biological glass.

A tardigrade in its tun state (Credit: Eye of Science/SPL)

This combination of survival mechanisms is the key to the tardigrade’s resilience. In this dormant state, they have been show to survive for up to 10 years without water. Not even temperatures near absolute zero can crack their shell.

So the next time you are asked to name the toughest animal on Earth, forget the elephant and remember the tardigrade!

Justin Tao

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News, Uncategorized

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