February 6, 2010
Your body goes to great lengths to protect you from the outside world. From your subconscious hinting that jumping a motorcycle over the Grand Canyon might be a bad idea all the way down to killing pathogens before they have a chance to harm you, your health and safety is pretty much a full time job. Occasionally the body gets a bit caught up in fighting the enemy and we get a little collateral damage. Crohn’s Disease is when your gut takes one for the team.
WARNING: Some potentially nauseating pics of the gut after the jump
February 3, 2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoutedrop/2317065892/
Wow, its Feb already, I’m a little scared with how quick this year seems to be passing already.
Anyway, got two things for you today.
First, The Lancet retracted a paper from 1998 by an author (I refuse to call him a scientist) named Andrew Wakefield today in the light of recent developments. His research suggested a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. The link does not exist and there has even been the suggestion that he fabricated his data. This is a very important issue as Wakefield and Co. kick started the anti-vaccination movement that has now seen childhood vaccination drop substantially. Despite many subsequent studies highlighting the inaccuracy of Wakefield’s work we are now in a position where long dead or controlled disease, such as polio for crying out loud, are re-gaining a foot hold in the community. The retraction, whilst important for the scientific community will probably not halt the movement it created. Shame Wakefield Shame.
On a lighter note I found this today in my RSS reader, Beetle-Inspired Adhesive Lifts Man. What? Turns out some researchers (who haven’t published the work yet but it should appear in PNAS very soon) have found that a group of beetles that can adhere to leaves and in fact support up to 100 times there own weight using only water. The trick appears to work in a somewhat similar way to two glass sheets sticking together when water is placed between them. The water in this case ‘sticks’ to the smooth glass and ‘adheres’ them together. I believe this occurs due to Van de Waals forces but don’t quote me on it 
. In any case the beetles use a droplet of water to produce the same effect. These researchers took that idea and scaled it up to produce a plate with 1000’s of tiny hole that produces 1000’s of tiny water droplets. They a small prototype to lift a Lego man…
It’s cool work and may eventually allow us to scale the sides of buildings etc like Spiderman! If only I can acquire the technology to copy all my favourite superheroes powers, I’d be invincible!!!!! <Evil laughter, rolling thunder and cracking lightning in the backgroud>
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January 29, 2010
In about 4 hours, I’ll be on my way to my 3 week long Vietnam holiday. I apologise in advance for James’ articles. Anyway, this is the last you’ll hear of me for a while. I was too unorganised to write something original this week, so you’re stuck with another old On Dit article. As per usual, sorry for any factual, grammatical or errors otherwise.
The Black Death
The Plague killed an incredibly significant proportion of people in the middle ages. Approximately 25% – 40% of the population of Europe died during this time (they are approximates because the people who usually did the counting of bodies had died due to the high virulence). It was the first time that human death rate was higher than the birth rate. Blah, blah, blah. I could throw statistics like this at you all day, but they’re boring, a waste of time and you already know that Plague killed a lot of people. This article is about teaching you stuff you don’t know. Keep reading →
January 27, 2010
Hey guys I found another cool one this week. A Japanese lab has set free a mould that has taken over (a map of) Tokyo!!!
This is the kind of science I really like, just on face value its ridiculous but if you really look at it its pretty ground-breaking stuff. Essentially the Japanese team used a mould called Physarum polycephalum that exists as a single cell that throws out branches in all directions like a fan looking for nutrients. If the branch, or plasmodium, hits nutrient then the branch becomes thicker and a small nodule is established which then sends out further plasmodia. If a branch does not find food it shrinks until it vanishes.
The Japanese group simulated a map of Japan on growth media by using a bright light border for the coast, borders and inaccessible terrain (Physarum polycephalum will not grow in the presence of light) and placed oats at the sites of major cities in the greater Tokyo area then inoculated the media at Tokyo.
Initially the mould grew slowly but once the branches had found a few oats a definite network was being established. By the end the two network (mould Vs actual train) look remarkably similar.
On the left is the actual plate and mould growth. The dark areas indicate areas suitable for rail transport and the white areas are either ocean or unable to support railway. On the right are ‘stick-and-ball’ diagrams of the mould network Vs the actual network in use. Picture modified from paper (linked at top).
The researchers converted the growth and resultant network into a mathematical relationship that they believe will make it easier to plan networks in the future. The reason this is so important is that the mould’s network was simpler and more efficient than the existing network. It’s hoped that the lessons learned from natural networkers, like the mould, will increase the efficiency of newly built systems.
Tero, A., S. Takagi, et al. (2010). “Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design.” Science 327(5964): 439-42.
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January 23, 2010
I thought it was about time to leave bacteria and viruses behind for a week to look at disease caused by a very different micro-organism, Malaria. In fact by looking at malaria we can cover two diseases in one week by also looking at the effect of Sickle Cell Anaemia. It’s hard to overestimate the impact malaria has had on human populations over time but some perspective can be gained by observing that the WHO decided to try eradicating it in 1955. We gave up in 1976 because it was resistant to all our attacks and still kills nearly 100,000 people every year but it’s suspected that many deaths go unrecorded.
Keep reading →
January 20, 2010
Ok, I was typing up a quick Wednesday post, but I ended up not very happy with it and tore it up. So I’m just going to post up a previous DotW that I wrote for On Dit. It is also being syndicated here at Science Creative Quarterly, which you should also check out.
Spurting viruses from your crotch
I’ll start by saying warts irk me out. Perhaps not as much as jellyfish, but they’re up there. It really sucked researching and looking up pictures for this topic; I hope you all appreciate it. In fact, appreciate it even more that I didn’t include any pictures of any warts in this article.
Nevertheless, science is not about personal preference or being irked out; it’s about the truth, even if it makes you mildly nauseated. You must accept it warts and all, one might say. Not me though, I would never stoop to such a base level of humour. Keep reading →
January 16, 2010
As I’ve said before, the definition of disease is fairly open and, in a sense, poisoning is a disease. Does it really matter whether a toxin is produced by something that’s in the body as opposed to outside the body? Perhaps. I don’t know. I don’t really care. Here’s this week’s article.
For a long time, the Japanese have known that people who ate puffer-fish liver would, on a somewhat regular basis, become paralysed, stop breathing and die. This became such a widespread problem that Japan banned the sale of puffer-fish liver in restaurants and markets in 1983. Despite this, people have not stopped eating it. In fact from 1997 to 2007, 470 people were admitted into hospital for puffer-fish poisoning, 30 of whom died. People eat these livers thinking they have special ways of neutralising the toxin. Experimentally (as seen as above) these ways do not work.
OK, Japan. Come here a minute, I just want to talk to you. Now I enjoy food. I’ll eat deliciously deep-fried food that will sever a good couple of months off my life. I’ll go on the occasional bender and increase my risk of cirrhosis. Hell, I’ve eaten at McDonald’s when it wasn’t even necessary. But really, Japan, there is no fish innard tasty enough to warrant risking dying a slow, frightening death by suffocation.
Junk food and alcohol. Probably still not as bad as puffer-fish liver... maybe. (Picture taken by uhh... someone, I don't remember)
January 13, 2010
Howdy all!
Wednesdays are our slowest days on the blog so on Wednesdays we will be putting up something, not necessarily disease related, that has caught our eye from the last week in science. Thomas and I are both interested in more than just infectious disease so you might even see physics and engineering here (probably not from me, Thomas is the one who likes math). So come back every Wednesday to read about what caught our eyes this week!
For this weeks post I came across a press release that described some interesting results presented the 14th International Conference of the Israel National Institute for Health Policy. Prof. Talma Kushnir of the Department of the Sociology of Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has found an association between the mood of a physician and professional behaviour. She found that when in a good mood (as assessed by a questionnaire) the physician “spoke more to patients, wrote fewer prescriptions, ordered fewer tests and issued fewer referrals”¶. The opposite was true for bad moods leading her to speculate that “on bad mood day’s physicians tend to talk less, and may needlessly prescribe and refer more than on good mood days”. The implication of this work is that when in a bad mood physicians needlessly prescribe and refer more and this leads to lower quality and more expensive healthcare. If physicians are in a better mood it could act as a cost cutting measure.
This actually reminds me of a study I read long ago (but cannot remember who wrote it or when – bad scientist James) that made similar correlations between physician behaviour and the weather. Although if this study is accurate (and as yet I cannot find a paper, just a press release) the influence of the weather might have been included due to weathers already documented effects on mood.
Well, among other things this stood out to me this week. Check back next Wednesday for our next Wednesday Post!
¶ – http://www.aabgu.org/media-center/news-releases/physicians-moods-affect.html
January 11, 2010
Thomas and I are super excited because we have been validated! Well nearly. The South Australian branch of the Australian Science Communicators is having an event, a panel discussion on the importance of the scientific blogging community and we have been asked to be on that panel! We have only been at this for a little while but an invitation like this makes us feel we are doing something useful and interesting to someone.
It’s a public event which mean you can and should come along! Do you wan’t to know what we look like up close? Do you have questions for us you want to address face-to-face? Do you disagree with Thomas so much you want to hit him (take a deep breath, it should pass)? Well read the info below and follow the link. See you there!
Where: The Science Exchange, Exchange Place, Adelaide
When: Monday 18 January, 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Cost: free ASC or RiAus members, $5 students, $10 non-members. Book now online and cash payment can be made on the evening at reception.
Bookings: http://ascscienceblogging.eventbrite.com/
JB
