“It is time for us to lead once again”

I regret having just set a personal record for the longest period of time between posts.  But let’s forget about that right now, because today there are a couple BIG events to talk about.

Swine flu: Having very recently mutated to allow human/human transmission, it has already spread around the globe, leading to fears of a global pandemic.  To be fair, I think the mainstream news media have been doing more to fan the flames of fear (while sanctimoniously denying any intent to do so) than the flu itself.  As of this evening early Tuesday morning, only 40 50 cases had been reported inside the United States, and not a single fatality. CDC laboratory tests thus far indicates that the infection responds well to antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza), which are being stockpiled in a number of states.  Maryland has already opened a swine flu command center right in my home city of Baltimore, in anticipation of likely infections occurring in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.  CDC lab tests have also indicated that the other two FDA-approved antiviral drugs for flu, amantadine (Symmetrel) and rimantadine (Flumadine), are ineffective against the swine flu.  Both oseltamivir and zanamivir are neuraminidase inhibitors, which work by blocking the action of the viral neuraminidase protein.  This is the protein on the surface of influenza viruses that allows it to be released from the host cell in the process known as “budding.”  Amantadine and rimantadine are both M2 protein inhibitors, drugs whose mechanism of action involves blocking the ion channel that removes a virion’s coating and releases its genetic content into the cytoplasm of the host cell.  It is worth noting that poultry farmers in China used amantadine to guard againt the H5N1 avian flu in chickens, an ill-advised practice (H. sapiens as an agent of natural selection!) that has led to the abundance of influenza strains resistant to amantadine.

It’s too early yet to tell whether the swine-flu fatalities in Mexico will be seen here in the United States or elsewhere around the world, but we probably won’t have to wait very long to find out.  As the eccentric chaotician Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, “life finds a way” – we had better work hard to ensure that it’s human life that finds a way this time.  If you’re wondering what you can do, look at this guide on the US Department of Health and Human Services’ PandemicFlu.gov website.  And, of course, you can follow the CDC’s swine flu updates on Twitter.

In that vein, I lastly want to commend President Barack Obama, who, speaking today before the National Academy of Sciences, made a remarkable (and badly needed) commitment to the advancement of American science. After describing how the current swine flu emergency should remind us of the necessity of science, and among many breaks for applause, Obama said:

I believe it is not in our character, the American character, to follow.  It’s our character to lead.  And it is time for us to lead once again.  So I’m here today to set this goal:  We will devote more than 3 percent of our GDP to research and development.  We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and science.

That’s why I campaigned for this guy. Let’s all make sure we hold him to this promise.

Reading List

I’ve decided I need to kick my reading into high gear, after realizing it’s been quite some time since I actually finished any new books.  So for inspiration, I compiled a brief sample list of books that I want to either read or re-read.  The ones followed by an asterisk I have already read at least partially.  This list is in no particular order – seriously.  I’d gladly welcome any comments, reviews, or recommendations.  Thanks to C for suggesting Stiff and to mobius for suggesting Godel, Escher, Bach.  If I actually complete this list, I’ll finally buy myself a telescope.  That sounds like a good bargain, right?

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

The Evolution Of Compassion by Robert Axelrod*

Stiff by Mary Roach

The Lives To Come by Philip Kitcher*

The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

An Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks*

In The Shadow Of Man by Jane Goodall

The Double Helix: A Personal Account Of The Discovery Of The Structure Of DNA by James Watson*

Monster Nation by David Wellington*

The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark by Carl Sagan*

The Red Queen: Sex And The Evolution Of Human Nature by Matt Ridley

Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait

Don’t mess with Pan troglodytes

I’ve been spending much of this evening brushing up on Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee.  Yesterday, a woman in Stamford, Connecticut was terribly mauled by Travis, her friend’s 14 year old, 200 pound pet chimpanzee.  I feel terrible for the victims – including Travis, who was shot to death by police as he attacked an officer in his patrol car.  The human victim, Charla Nash, remains in critical condition in a Stamford hospital; she suffered a number of broken bones and a badly decorticated face.  Chimpanzees, while generally playful and good-natured, are still wild animals and therefore unpredictable.  From press reports so far, it sounds as if the chimpanzee may have been infected with Lyme disease, which could have been the cause of Travis’ unusual anxiety and aggression.  I don’t want to speculate about his living condition or treatment as I am not familiar with them, but I will say that handling great apes—especially Pan troglodytes—requires an excess of expertise and caution.  They typically possess four to five times the upper body strength of an adult human and can demonstrate possessive or territorial behavior.  In this incident, the human victim had recently made a significant change to her hair style which is being reported as a potential reason that Travis may not have recognized her (they were previously familiar) and identified her instead as an intruder.  I’m a bit skeptical of that theory, given that chimpanzees show remarkable ability to recognize and differentiate both human and chimpanzee faces.

I hope that Ms. Nash recovers remarkably, and that Travis’ death serves as a warning to those who own or may consider adopting pet chimpanzees.  They are best left to professionals running well-equipped sanctuaries.  Consider donating to a sanctuary if you want to help.  (Chimpanzees raised in captivity are almost never accepted by wild troops, and therefore cannot be released into the wild).

Edit: Apparently, the face-shredding is a common feature of chimp attacks.  I’d forgotten that I wrote about this in one of my very first posts on Survival Machine.

Conclusive evidence for ‘Selfish Gene’ theory found.

I have to admit, I never really got evolution in any sophisticated way before I read Richard Dawkins‘ seminal 1976 book, The Selfish Gene.  Dawkins illustrated the foundation of a paradigm shift in evolutionary biology away from group selection or kin selection and toward the gene as the unit of selection driving evolution.  That shift shaped the whole of modern biology, and selfish gene theory is the predominant model used by scientists today, with notable exceptions such as E. O. Wilson.  Before I read The Selfish Gene, I knew that evolution by natural selection made accurate predictions about the observable biological world, but the nuances of its mechanism—gene selection—were over my head.  It wasn’t elegantly taught in my high school biology classes, if it was even taught at all.  I recall it being discussed in more depth in my undergrad life sciences courses at the University of Maryland, but that was, unfortunately, around the time I was tuning out (temporarily) academic ambition.  It was after reading Dawkins’ The God Delusion that I was so impressed with his writing tone and style I purchased The Selfish Gene.  And science, am I ever glad I did.  Each chapter seemed to evoke another Eureka! moment, where the dense veil of complexity was lifted from life and I felt a renewed calling toward the study of biology (my first declared major in college).

That said, you can understand why I am so excited about this: next month, the journal Genetics will publish research findings by University of Western Ontario biologist Graham Thompson, and Peter Oxley and Benjamin Oldroyd of the University of Sydney in Australia, who managed to isolate part of the honeybee genome that is responsible for reproductive altruism.¹  (Full text of the article is available now).²  As you may know, female worker honeybees [order Hymenoptera] are sterile.  In a honeybee colony, the queen is the only reproductively active female.  Sex determination for honeybees is haplodiploid, meaning that the queen may lay fertilized female eggs (with two sets of chromosomes, or diploid), or unfertilized male eggs (with one set of chromosomes, or haploid).  The queen, having stored sperm in a spermatheca during her numerous mating flights (what a slut!), can choose how many male and female offspring to produce.  Although all her female offspring possess the genetic potential to be queens, the overwhelming majority of them will remain sterile workers, toiling away to feed and groom the queen as she becomes a huge sibling factory.  Their ovaries will remain inactive, and they will devote their lives to the queen.  Occasionally, ‘anarchist’ colonies of honeybees are found, in which a small proportion of females besides the queen activate their ovaries and begin to reproduce.  Thompson, Oxley, and Oldroyd have at last discovered what appears to be conclusive, material evidence that the selfish gene is real!  Specifically, what they have done is identified four quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that account for 25% of the phenotypic variance in ovary activation.  These are regions of the honeybee genome that are almost certain to contain genes responsible for the selfish ‘cheating’ behavior found in the ‘anarchist’ colonies.  Although this does not mean that the actual genes have been defined, it does mean that they are now very close to doing so.  So the theoretical assumption underpinning modern biology, although quite strong on its own, finally has physical, molecular evidence to support it.  This sort of thing makes me a bit weak in the knees, so please forgive my ebullience.

Oh, and in case you couldn’t tell, I <3 honeybees.

¹ Western News – The University of Western Ontario

² Genetics Volume 179, No. 3, July 2008.  Four quantitative trait loci that influence worker sterility in the honeybee (Apis mellifera), by Peter R. Oxley, Graham J. Thompson, and Benjamin P. Oldroyd.

Ninja bears?

I know I haven’t posted recently, and thus have really not kept up with my new years resolution to post at least once a week. But, I probably cursed this blog with that resolution. So, in an attempt to humble my high-and-mighty scientific ambitions and set the bar lower to allow more frequent updates, I present you with:

NINJA BEARS!

Photographer unknown.