Hunger: A good thing?

The article I chose was about how a new experiment showed that being hungry is a was to stay awake without feeling groggy or mentally challenged. In the article a group of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis found that being hungry was more important than the need for sleep. The body determines that it would rather be nourished than sleep. They discovered that if we modify our lipids with drugs we can solve or reduce sleep problems without the side effects. There are a lot of problems that result from sleep deprivation and lack of food. As stated in the article, sleep deprivation can result in obesity (which was very interesting to me), and can help with the development of diabetes and coronary disease.
I chose this article because it was very interesting to me. I know I can get extremely groggy when I don't get my rest. I would be very interested to see if this could really work. I really don't think it will however, sleep is just as important as being nourished. No sleep makes you sick and no food makes you sick.

Chocolate that could save your life?

Resent research shows that chocolate is actually good for preventing heart disease and cancer. The substance flavonoinds, is found in the cocoa of the chocolate. Flavonoinds held prevent heart disease and cancer due to their high levels of antioxidants. This however doesn't mean that you can over load on chocolate, just that in moderation it is good for you. Also, this is not to be substituted for fruits and vegetables which also give you flavonoids and other essential things that your body needs to stay healthy. Another thing i found out was white chocolate doesn't have any flavonoids in it at all, yet dark chocolate has a lot more in it than milk chocolate. This mainly due to the content of the cocoa which is higher in dark chocolate. I chose this because i felt like it was an interesting topic since chocolate is usually labeled as bad for you, which is only true to a certain consent. Over use of chocolate however can cause you to gain excessive weight and cause cavities.
-Brandon Noonkester

Don't Mess with the Salamander

Getting in between a female salamander and her eggs is almost just as bad as getting between a bear and her cubs. In the article "Its Not the Size of the Salamander, Its the Size of the Fight in the Salamander" scientist have studied the behavior of the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander, a very small amphibian that lives in North America in damp and wet areas, to be very protective of its babies. Researchers say that its protective behavior increases the closer it gets for the eggs to hatch. At this stage the Red-Backed Salamander is more protective of its eggs rather than its territories or even its own food. At first the natural reaction for the Salamander after just having her babies are to curl up beside her eggs, but as the days go on the first reaction becomes more aggressive. The Salamander will snap, chase, or even bite its intruder repeatedly until there were no more signs of it being a threat. The number of eggs in her nest didn't make a difference towards the aggression level, so if the salamander had one eggs or even four eggs she still would protect them just the same. This protecting the mother gives to her eggs actually helps the population of this animal.


Biology 101
Trey Pitt
12/3/10

Moderate Alcohol Consumption Lowers Risk of Metablolic Diseases

Moderate Alcohol Consumption Lowers the Risk of Metabolic Diseases, Study Suggests
I did my research on this alcohol consumption study and how drinking alcohol may or may not affect the body in a bad way. Because of the increase in obesity worldwide and type 2 diabetes this study was done to see if alcohol consumption helped prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes. The study had over 6000 subjects aged from 35-75. They were tested on different levels from non-drinkers, low alcohol consumption, moderate alcohol consumption and high alcohol consumption. The people in the low alcohol consumption area drank (1-13 drinks a week), medium-to-high-risk (14-34) and very-high-risk (= 35) drinkers. 73% of participants consumed alcohol, 16% were medium-to-high-risk drinkers and 2% very-high risk drinkers. The results showed that low and moderate alcohol consumers were at lower risks for these types of diseases. The results also showed that people in the low to moderate range also had lower blood pressure, lower weight, and lower cholesterol. So in all reality this study shows that drinking is not a bad thing unless done in high consumption.

Benjamin Hartman

A burly lineman can sweat through upward of nine pounds of fluid

The article I chose was titled, “How Much Water Weight Can a Player Lose during a Game?” by The Editors from Scientific America, November 11, 2010. The article is on how football players to reach the pro level must be extremely cautious about their health. Meaning they have to eat and drink right. The article then asks “just how much water can players sweat through?” During exercise the body loses moisture through perspiration and respiration this speeds up as the body tries to cool off by sweating. This then evaporates from the skin and taking heat with it and by breathing harder to get oxygen to the muscles.

Trainers subtract a player’s post game weight from his pregame weight to estimate the amount of moisture a player has lost. They try not to let player’s lose more than 3 percent of their overall body weight during a practice session. If a player has lost more than 3 percent of their body weight they would have to rehydrate after that game or practice session. Their intake would be more than the daily water intake recommendations for physically active adults. Fruits and vegetables also provide a source of fluids and make up about a fifth of people’s daily water consumption.

I chose this article because I have went through this playing college football. In high school we never had to weigh or anything of that nature. Once I came to college we had to weigh before practice and after practice. It was a very serious matter also, because if one of my teammates were to not weigh the entire team would have to be punished. Coaches and also trainers told us constantly to get fluids and keep them. By doing this we didn’t have any problems with dehydration.

LeRon Cameron-Fuller

Family First:Family History Better at Predicting Disease Risk than Screening

Research was led by Dr. Charles Eng to see wither it was better to do family history or a genetic test to predict the risk of cancer for an individual. The Genomic Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic found through research it is better to do a thorough family history then a genomic screening to predict the risk of cancer. Eng said that “Evaluation of family health history still remains to be the gold standard in personal disease risk assessment. The article tells us that genomic screening is not the same as genetic testing. Genomic screening uses portions of a person’s genetic makeup to determine wither there are genetic variants that put people at a higher risk to develop any particular type of diseases. Genetic testing is where people are screened for the presence of an entire gene known to cause a disease. Eng and her colleagues tested 44 people on their risk for developing breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer by using their complete family history and by using a genomic testing tool. The research that was found was that the genomic screening did not identify nine people who were at high risk for colon cancer because of their family history. Doctor’s said that knowing a patient’s family history can determine how a patient will respond to different treatments. Obtaining the information for family history is easy to do and may cost little to no money. One downfall is the time the doctors are put under to conduct this test. Another downfall is that they may not take a thorough enough exam. Dr. Bruce Korf, president of American College of Medical Genetics, said “ There is also potential for misuse and or misinterpretation of results, particularly given the lack of professional counseling that accompanies the results in some cases, and most of the results do not lead to clear actions to modify risk.” Eng stated “personal genomic screening tests could potentially be more effective and accurate if combined with family health history information and used as a complementary tool for cancer risk assessment.” I think that a family health history screening will be better anyway so that you will know more about the situation and how it affected that person who is close to you.
-Danielle Crews-

New plant species in Bolivia

Blog assignment
Eight New Species Discovered in Bolivia National Parks

In the Madidi National park and the surrounding areas scientists from the Missouri Botanical Garden and their colleagues discovered eight new plant species. These plant species were found on the slopes of the Andes Mountains in Northern Bolivia. The scientists have been conducting an inventory of all of the plant species in the park. Prestonia leco, Passiflora madidiana, Siphoneugena minima, Siphoneugena glabrata, Hydrocotyle apolobambensis, Weberbauerocereus madidiensis, Styloceras connatum and Meriania horrida are the names of the plant species that were discovered in the park. All eight of these species of plants were given vulnerable status because they are only found in certain places in the park.
For the entire inventory since 2000 the scientists and their colleagues have discovered 132 new plant species, 32 of theses plant species have been published as new species and these eight most recent plant species that were discovered are all in preparation to be published as new species as well. Once these plants get published as new species they will most likely be put under the vulnerable status as well because of their remote location.
The Andes mountains is one place that has the potential for many new plant species to be discovered because of the remoteness of the park and the areas that have yet to be explored. Other areas in the world like Madagascar, the Amazon Jungle, and the Congo Jungle all have the potential for many new species to be discovered. The discovery of these new plants and animals can lead to many great things. Most importantly the discovery of new plants is key because of the potential for cures to diseases and sicknesses that can be rendered from certain plants in the jungles of the world. Plants are the key to the discovery of many new substances and medicines.

- Justin Hall

Boa Constrictors Can Have Babies Without Mating, New Evidence Shows.

This article discusses a new discovery at North Carolina State University, where a female boa constrictor gave birth to not one but two broods of all female young who were essentially clones of their mother with a rare recessive coloration they obtained from the mom. In other words this female who has reproduced sexually before, switched over and reproduced using parthenogenesis. They know this because snake males have two ZZ chromosomes and females have a Z and a W chromosome. Well these babies were born with two WW chromosomes a combination thought impossible until now. This genome has only been obtained before through complex lab manipulation, but even then they hadn’t been able to do it with snakes just in fish and amphibians. They are unsure why this occurred, stress normally is the trigger for asexual production in species that are capable of it, but this female was under no stress. In fact males were presented too her she just didn’t mate with them, she chose to reproduce by herself. They are unsure of what will happen to these young snakes as they age, they are most interested in how they will reproduce when they get older. Will they reproduce strictly by parthenogenesis or will they do both like their mother? I find this particularly interesting as I have been studying sexual and asexual reproduction in my Biology 315 class. For the most part we have only seen insects that reproduced this way so to see a large mammal reproducing this way is astonishing. Also makes me wonder what percentage of the boa constrictor population is capable of doing this and whether or not it is a recent development? This discovery is obviously going to call for big redo in the way we look at boa constrictor reproduction. Though it is possible that this is just a one of a kind female, it is unlikely that such an ability would work its way into a population at pure random. I think they have been doing things this way for a while we just never noticed it because they don’t do it often. After all if there are suitable males present then why should they reproduce asexually?

Adam Morehead.

Smoke from a Distant Fire

Smoke from a Distant Fire
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/64474/title/Smoke_from_a_Distant_Fire

This article is about how large wild land fires can be contained into the stratosphere and then develop into the atmosphere. The smoke is also known to cause dangerous weather and can be carried a long ways before being released. The smoke in the stratosphere were cent to cause random volcanic eruptions and also the smoldering of a fire causes the smoke to release in the stratosphere. The planes that fly over the fires to dump water takes a numerous number of gas to run and the gas is considered to be released into the stratosphere also. Scientist think that smoke causes numerous amount of precipitation and this is what causes thunderstorms. I feel that the smoke heats up the atmosphere while it is being cooled down at the same time but the other clouds are cooling the earth's surface. Also the fuels from the planes flying over causes gases to get into the stratosphere along with the fire's smoke combining together to make terrible weather. The smoke from these fire's build up and flow up stream to the stratosphere but while building up it also pulls in the humid air around it. This then moisturizes the earth's atmosphere and then a random volcanic eruption can occur at any time. I also feel that this article was interesting because it help audience's view how smoke can create bad weather and also create volcanic action in the atmosphere. The why that scientist determined that smoke from fire's causes this action to happened was that these fire's set of different amounts of satellite's. Each satellite had a different reason to go off and the smoke set all the satellites off that were placed by the wild land fire.

Zack Bossio

Sound Waves Too Loud in the Ocean?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=noise-reduces-ocean-habitat-for-whales
The article I chose was titled, "Noise Reduces Ocean Habitat for Whales [Video]" by Elizabeth Grossman from Scientific American, October 22, 2010. This article is about how human interference and technology is creating noise pollution in the oceans of the world, which is harming the oceanic life living in the waters. I choose this article because I have had an interest in whales and marine life for years.

The problem this article discusses is that ships, boats, offshore drilling, and other human activities in the ocean are creating sound that is traveling throughout the ocean. The ocean carries sound waves very easy. There are natural sounds that travel through the ocean from waves, wind, movement and sounds of marine life, etc. However, human-made sounds interfere with these natural sounds and make it harder on the marine life. These sounds create a barrier of the marine life's sound waves. Many creatures in the ocean use sound as a way to establish their surroundings, find food, call to each other and their young, as well as to mate. When outside sounds block their sound waves, it makes them unable to communicate or to find food, which then becomes a major threat of their survival. According to John Hildebrand, a professor from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the stress this causes the marine life may also affect developmental and immune system heath, which then endangers them even more.

I believe that humans are interacting in the ocean too much and we are becoming more and more of a disturbance to the natural life present there. In some areas of the ocean, Chris Clark, director of Cornell University's Bioacoustics Research Program, has seen pods of whales leave an area solely due to noise pollution. They will even leave a rich food source just to get away from the noise. Humans are endangering animals all the time with our reckless behavior that we do not always understand the effects and consequences of. However, when the evidence presents itself, like it has in this situation, I believe it is best for us to do whatever it is we can to stop our endangerment and harmful effects on other species. We should be striving to preserve life, not destroy it.

Joy Doughty

Old tracks show protodinosaurs emerged millions of years earlier than previously though

Before a few months ago, scientists believed that the oldest set of fossils found after the massive Triassic extinction was around 248 to 242 million years ago. Recently, paleontologists have found fossils that date all the way back to about 250 million years ago. Scientists have taken samples of the three sets of tracks in modern day Poland and have discovered that the fossils cover a span of four million years and lived in three different ecosystems. These fossils that were found are not from bigger dinosaurs like the T-Rex but from smaller dinosaurs.The tracks that were found in Stryczowice were from a dinosaur that was around 20 millimeters long. The second set of tracks found in Baranow were around 120 to 140 millimeters long and date back to 246 million years ago. This find represents the earliest find of bipedality in dinosaurs which is basically using two limbs to move around instead of four. The last set of tracks were found in Wiory and date back sometime in between those that were found in Stryczowice and Baranow. Dinosaur tracks are often rare finds and most known fossils were left by the bigger dinosaurs which lived for the first 20 to 30 million years of dinosaur history and were more like their crocodile-like cousins. The oldest dinosaurs were small and very rare. Scientists believe that dinosaur tracks might be an important place to look for nw clues about earlier dinosaurs, especially since the fossil group is so small. I bleieve that this article is important because it not only has to deal with ancient creatures that lived on earth, but also evolution in those creatures. There will always be those people who think evolution is a scam but for those of us who believe it, finds like these can help us better understand how evolution works and how long it takes for it to take place.

-Bryan Poole

Desperation Drives to Bubious Autism Treatments

I chose to read and discuss the article pertaining to autism, because many people are poorly informed about the disease and no one knows exactly how to treat this medical illness. Unfortunately the diagnosis of Autism has been increasing over the last couple of years. Many parents in today society are dealing with the trials of raising a child with autism. An example of a family facing this unfortunate situation is the Laidlers and their oldest son Benjamin who was diagnosed with autism. The Laidler family had gone from physician to physician looking for something to cure their son’s autism. Jim Laidler and his wife looked for help but the neurologists were telling them that they didn’t know what the cause was and they didn’t know what the outcome would be for Benjamin. They searched the web and found dozens of biomedical treatments that promised to improve or even cure Benjamin’s inability to talk, interact socially, and control his movements. They tried everything including the vitamin B6¸ digestive hormone secretions and chelation. Benjamin also had a younger brother who was diagnosed with autism. None of the treatments worked except for dieting. From this post I learned that there are currently no prescription medications that help with symptom of autism. There are certain vitamins and diets that show promise in weakening the symptoms of autism but research continues to try and find a real cure. Scientist are currently searching for the cause of this devastating disease that effects hundreds of families every year. Currently about seventy five percent of autistic children are receiving alternative treatments not developed by a conventional medicine. Autism has affected the lives of millions over the year and is becoming increasing more common. I think that this disease deserves more attention from the national media so that we can find a cure immediately.
-Danesha Walton

Science News-For the First Time, Monkeys Recognize Themselves in the Mirror, Indicating Self-Awareness

In this article, scientist talked about how they were trying to figure out if monkeys of all kinds noticed themselves and their reflections when looking in a mirror.They don’t seem to recognize that it is their own image though when they see their selves in the mirrors. Its almost as if they just think it’s another monkey. The way that the scientist tested this was with the mark test. The mark test is when the scientist places something on the monkey as marking or “implant” as they stated in a spot where the monkey would most recognize the mark. They then place the monkey in front of a mirror to see if the monkey notices it or not. The main monkeys that pass the test are Chimpanzees and scientist believes this because they are the closets to the human species. The ones that notice it, as mentioned in the article, may even turn upside down to grasp a better look at their own image.
After reading this article I learned that, some monkeys obviously recognize these markings and some don’t.A study that was published in September stated that a scientist did an experiment on the rhesus macaque monkey and said that this monkey would normally fail the “mark test” but under certain circumstances the monkey would still recognize itself in the mirror. The reason I picked this article is because monkeys are one of my favorite animals. Also, I think its cool as of the fact that monkeys can somewhat have the same “mind set” as humans do such as the mark test. Even though the monkey may not completely know what is going on, some of them recognize when there is something abnormally on their face just as humans do. Why wouldn’t we recognize something on our face?


Shelbie Hall

Scientific American: "How We Are Evolving"

When people hear the word evolution they often automatically think of the beginning of time or the Darwin Theory. Recent genetic studies have proved that the human race is still evolving. Thousands of years ago when some of the early nomadic people migrated to the Tibetan Plateau. The plateau is located in central Asia in the alps.They were not only faced with cold temperatures and scarce resources but a high altitude that made it hard for the new comers respiration. The altitude resulted in altitude sickness and a high infant mortality rate. The recent study on the Tibetans showed that a genetic variation that altered their red blood cell production enabling them to be able to cope with the low oxygen levels. This shows how they evolved over time just like other cultures have done for thousands of years to adapt to different climates. The proof of the peoples immunity to the high altitudes can really be seen when foreign climbers that try and face Everest are left breathless compared to the well tuned Tibetan guides. We can still see evidence of humans evolving today. For example, some people are more capable of handling cold temperatures than hot and vice versa depending on genes of past generations and where the family is from. This article can show a lot on how genetically different people are all over the world. Even more so is the fact that climate can alter such a complicated system as the biology of a human body over a period of time. Its pretty amazing what humans can go through to survive. Most of us in the U.S. have no idea of the harsh conditions that some people live in every day. These conditions to them have become just a part of everyday life whether it is having to walk miles to a source of water every day or relying on a fire to provide for life in the colder climates.

New Anti-Obesity Drug Dismissed by FDA Panel

The drug lorcaserin was disapproved Thursday by the FDA panel. Lorcaserin is an anti-obesity drug. It acts on the brain's serotin, a neurotransmitter involved in appetite, digestion, memory, mood, and other function. The FDA requires new diet drugs to help people lose at least five percent more of their body weight than a placebo. People on on lorcaserin lost about 3.3 percent more weight than those on placebo. The drug did however meet another FDA criteria that at least twice as many people taking the medication lose five percent or more of their weight. The company that makes this drug is still trying to get approval from the FDA panel. Another drug Qnexa, was disapproved and Contrave is still waiting for approval or disapproval. A lot of these anti-obesity drugs are being pulled off the shelves due to being linked to strokes and heart attacks.

I found this article to be very interesting due to the fact that obesity is a big problem in the world today. It is a good thing to know that companys are making drugs to combat obesity however there is still a lot of research to do to make these drugs effective and safe at the same time. I learned that it takes a panel in the FDA to determine whether a drug is safe enough to hit the market or not.

Aaron White

Food for Pets

The article I chose to discuss comes from Science Daily and it is titled Veterinarian Says Natural Foods Not Always Best for Pets. The article is on a Kansas State veterinarian who thinks that all pet healthy pet foods that it is very important to pets to get a well balanced diet, not just a constant diet of fruit and vegetable based pet foods. The veterinarian is not trying to push a false statement in saying that the natural pet foods aren’t healthy because they are. Pets just need all parts of the food pyramid just like humans do.

The best way to make sure pets get a quality healthy amount of all nutrients is by making sure the food has an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement on its label. That organization has made sure that the food has a well balanced nutrient requirement or made sure the company has been threw feeding trials. The veterinarian also says it is important to know the difference between words like natural, organic and holistic. These words have no true definition in pet food terms under the Association of American Feed Control Officials guidelines.

The veterinarian said that it is important to monitor your pets’ health especially if you’re changing food products. It is important to look for the AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement on the products label and not to always think that natural/organic labeled foods are enough for your pets’ diet. I thought it was interesting that the organic labels really don’t mean anything when it comes to picking a healthy product for your pets. It doesn’t seem fair or even legal really because it is almost false advertisement. It is not fair to the buyer that goes out trying to find the best product pet and gets suckered in to buying something that might not be very good for their pet.

Matt Racer

Coral bleaching in Indonesia: Chris Wolfe

I chose an article about coral bleaching in Indonesia. I chose this article because both of my parents are scientists. My dad has taken a group of students to a very small island in the Bahamas for a week long marine biology trip since before I was born. I have gone every
year of my life except the last two. I know a majority of every fish,
creature, coral, and sponge that lives around that island. Over the
years I have seen the decline in living coral, and the abundance of
their limestone skeletons sweeping the ocean, from miles of huge,
dramatic, elegant elk horn coal, into graveyards. I think because I
have witnessed this first hand I have taken an interest to it. What a
lot of people don't know is that coral is an animal. A head of coral
is a limestone skeleton filled with small polyups, corals are cnidarians, just the same as jellyfish or hydras. I chose this article because I don't think this issue is addressed or as commonly known as it should be, or say an endangered bear or bird would be. In this article it says that
a large-scale bleaching event due to high ocean temperatures
appears to be underway off the coast of Sumatra, an Indonesian island.
Bleaching occurs when the coral becomes stressed for any reason. When
it becomes stressed, for an unknown reason, it expels it polyups. I
learned from this article that along with global warming effecting the
coral, ocean acidification is also contributing to it. The article
says that it is partially due to rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the
atmosphere and that it could prove more devastating in the long-run to
coral ecosystems than elevated sea temperatures, which I found
intriguing. It also says that 60 percent of corals were bleached and follow up assessments revealed one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded with 80 percent of some species dying.

Chris Wolfe

Talented Bacteria Make Food Poisoning Unpredictable

Article Chosen: Talented Bacteria Make Food Poisoning Unpredictable
Location: The Science Daily (September 5th, 2010)

Blog:

I chose to read and discuss “Talented Bacteria Make Food Poisoning Unpredictable” which I found in The Science Daily because it pertains to the lesson in which we have been covering in class. Within the past two classes we have covered the basic fundamentals within Biology. For example the make up of the different domains of life and the common features in which organisms have been categorized within the scientific field. This article talks about a new finding made by Professor Colin Hill a scientist who is now presenting his work at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting in Nottingham. He has found that the bacteria Listeria although it can be harmful to the human body, it does not always present itself in that manner. The article goes on to discuss the different factors in which Listeria and other bacterial use the human body as an aid to infect the stomach and therefore cause different levels of food poisoning. For example, “One of the biggest challenges faced by food-borne bacteria is acid. Acidic conditions, particularly in the stomach and in the gut will kill most microbes found in contaminated food..” This statement talks about the areas of the body which have enough of a harsh environment which the stomach acid can kill the bacteria. Although with Hill’s new finding he has shown that some bacterial dwell so far into some foods that the effects can still be found. Therefore explaining why food poisoning can never be predicted. I believe that this article coordinates with what we have been learning in class because of the different domains of life. Listeria would be considered a prokaryote and would be found in the “bacteria” domain.
I found this article to be interesting because of a past experience, which I had over the summer. I found that after having ate “peel and ready to eat” shrimp I because severely ill within the following 24 hours. Although that time I was in fact very ill, later at another date I once again tried the same type of shrimp and it did not affect me at all. I found it very interesting to read over the article and find some meaning behind why each time may or may not infect the body.


Blake DiMeglio

Welcome

Welcome to our biology in the news blog. This blog will be maintained by Dr. Gazdik’s Introductory Biology class at Ferrum College. Over the next few months students will be posting descriptions of a scientific news story that interested them. They will explain the science behind article, what they learned from it, and why it was interesting to them. Stop back weekly to find more postings about different topics and hopefully you can learn something from what these students have to share.