Biol101 – Creatures from the Bog

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Should consumer behavior research consider human biological  and evolutionary roots?

Yes, according to Prof. Saad, who is now likely to be banished from the Faculty Lounge in the business building to the one in the biology building for potentially forcing scores of marketing majors to wake up for those 7:45 evolutionary biology labs. Prof. Saad’s recent paper chastises colleagues for a “collective amnesia” in failing to consider that “consumers are biological beings shaped by a common set of evolutionary forces.”  One can imagine “Black Friday” evolutionary forces: delay discounting, hunting and gathering, and reward syndromes.

So, do consumers still shop? The social aspect of physically going shopping seems to be important. For instance, although broadband internet availability reduces commute-time driving (with the availability of telecommuting), recreational driving does not decrease. J. Giglierano J. and M. Roldan, “Effects of Online Shopping on Vehicular Traffic,” Mineta Transportation Institute 1-20 (October 2001) (N.b., no new data found, particularly in view of high gas prices). People still like to go to the mall. Biology? Evolution? Who knows.

Catharina Svanborg says she does; it is human breast milk, and it is killing cancer cells! It has been extremely difficult to convince her science colleagues that the work she is doing is for real! Her lab is not large, and she does not qualify as a high-profile, “big scientist.” Besides, her specialty is not even cancer at all but infectious disease. David Solomon, a cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says that novel ideas in science always challenge the current paradigm. Furthermore, he said, “If this work had come from a well-known lab at the NCI, you’d have reporters calling six days to Sunday. You’d have scientists eager to collaborate. But it’s coming from a small lab in a foreign country. It’s like General Motors versus a garage operation.”

What We Need to Know

1. Where is the National Cancer Institute?
2. Why did Dr. Solomon say that novel ideas in science always challenge the current paradigms? Isn’t science supposed to be about new ideas? Try to justify what he meant by his statement.
3. Why would a scientist like Dr. Svanborg be reluctant to publish too soon an idea that breast milk fights cancer?

The discovery was made at Lund University in Sweden, in 1993, when a graduate student of Dr. Svanborg came rushing into her office with some weird news unrelated to the topic that he was actually researching. He had been looking for how mother’s milk fights bacteria in a tissue culture (tissue cultures use cancer cells) and discovered that the milk also caused the cancer cells to disappear. When Svanborg looked into the microscope, she discovered that the cancer cells were “committing suicide!” The thing about cancer cells is that typically they reproduce forever without limits.

What We Need to Know

1. Why are cancer cells used in tissue cultures even when researchers are not even studying cancer?
2. What is known about the life expectancy of most normal cells? How does that information relate to the first question?
3. What is the scientific name given to cells committing suicide? Why would cells commit suicide normally?
4. What does the discovery of cancer-killing effects of breast milk while looking for effects of milk on bacteria tell you about the process of science?

The Genetics of Resistance to HIV Infection

This case uses the example of HIV, to explore the relationships between viruses, cells and the immune system, and the role of genes in disease resistance. An animation explains PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and electrophoresis and their practical use as a genetic test.

We will see how mutations in an HIV receptor confer relative reslstance to infection. We will find out how often this mutation occurs in the general population, and see data about additional mechanisms of HIV resistance.