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University of Toronto Study Demonstrates Impact of Adversity on Early Life Development

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencebehavioural geneticist, biology, british columbia, childhood adversity, chris reaume, cifar, dna sequence, drosophila melanogaster, ebbd, Environment, enzyme, evidence, evolutionary biology, food, for, foraging gene, fruit fly, gene, gene robinson, human development, illinois, interaction, james burns, kindergartener, larvae, marla sokolowski, molecular genetics, Nature, neuroscience, pkg, pnas, pre programmed, protein, reproductive fitness, rna, rovers, sitters, tom boyce, toronto, transgenic manipulation, university

Study part of growing body of knowledge surrounding gene-environment interplay

TORONTO, ON – It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Biologists used to think that our differences are pre-programmed in our genes, while psychologists argued that babies are born with a blank slate and their experience writes on it to shape them into the adults they become. Instead, the important question to be asking is, ‘How is our experience in early life getting embedded in our biology?’” says University of Toronto behavioural geneticist Marla Sokolowski. She is co-editor of the PNAS special edition titled “Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergarteners” along with professors Tom Boyce (University of British Columbia) and Gene Robinson (University of Illinois). (more…)

Elevated Indoor Carbon Dioxide Impairs Decision-Making Performance

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Environmentcognitive function, energy efficient buildings, indoor carbon dioxide, poor ventilation

Berkeley Lab scientists surprised to find significant adverse effects of CO2 on human decision-making performance

Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density. (more…)

NASA Radar Penetrates Thick, Thin of Gulf Oil Spill

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Environmentimaging radar, marine oil spills, nasa radar, oil spill tragedies, oil spills

PASADENA, Calif. – Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a method to use a specialized NASA 3-D imaging radar to characterize the oil in oil spills, such as the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The research can be used to improve response operations during future marine oil spills. (more…)

Nettles — it’s what’s for dinner!

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Culture, Generalada de santis, american cooks, ancient egypt, arugula, bay leaf liquor, blackberry semifreddo, blackberry shoot, california, capers, chamomile, chicory, culinary history, dean, deluca, edible plants, english, escarole, Europe, fats domino, fennel, fennel field, gianpiero doebler, god apollo, greek mythology, greek word, italian, italian cuisine, italian gastronomy, john evelyn, los angeles, luigi ballerini, mallow, marathon, medical science, milan, myrtle berries, new york, nymph, point mugu, rosemary, salad, southern california, swiss chard, topanga canyon, united states, university, viagra, wild, wild asparagus, wild mint

UCLA scholar, culinary historian champions foraged foods in new book

Today, delicacies like capers, arugula and fennel are at home at Dean & Deluca, Whole Foods and fancy restaurants, but they haven’t always lived the high life.

These and other darlings of the foodie set started out as peasants’ fodder, foraged from rocky outcroppings, empty fields and roadsides, according to a new book by a UCLA professor.

Luigi Ballerini revisits this distant past in “A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants” (University of California Press), which celebrates the foraged foods that are currently enjoying a renaissance in Italy and elsewhere. (more…)

How Silver Turns People Blue

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Scienceabsorb, acidic environment, agnes kane, antimicrobial, argyria, base membrane, bioavailable salt, bloodstream, brown researcher, brown university, charged ions, disorder, electron, environmental impact, exposure scenario, frances liu, germs, gi tract, grayish blue, health tonics, jingyu liu, medical treatment, nanoparticle, particle, photochemical reaction, protein, robert hurt, salt ion, silver, silver atom, silver salt, skin, toxic, toxicity, zhongying wang

Ingesting silver — in antimicrobial health tonics or for extensive medical treatments involving silver — can cause argyria, condition in which the skin turns grayish-blue. Brown researchers have discovered how that happens. The process is similar to developing black-and-white photographs, and it’s not just the silver.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how ingesting too much silver can cause argyria, a rare condition in which patients’ skin turns a striking shade of grayish blue.

“It’s the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition,” said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown and part of the research team. “What’s interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren’t the particles that ultimately cause the disorder.” (more…)

Small Organisms Could Dramatically Impact World’s Climate

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environment21st century, atmospheric, carbon, carbon dioxide, christopher klausmeier, climate change, colin kremer, cycle, david garrison, diversity, element, elena litchman, equatorial water, evolutionary adaptation, food chain, global climate, impact, level, marine microorganism, michigan, mridul thomas, nitrogen, ocean, ocean floor, organism, phosphorous, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, population, science express, state university, temperature, tropical water, warmer

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Warmer oceans in the future could significantly alter populations of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that could have a major impact on climate change.

In the current issue of Science Express, Michigan State University researchers show that by the end of the 21st century, warmer oceans will cause populations of these marine microorganisms to thrive near the poles and may shrink in equatorial waters. Since phytoplankton play a key role in the food chain and the world’s cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and other elements, a drastic drop could have measurable consequences. (more…)

Ghost Busting

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceelectromagnetic field detector, ghost busting, ghost hunters, haunted houses, paranormal activity, paranormal entertainment, paranormal investigators

Study examines influence of media messages on perceptions of paranormal investigators’ credibility

The fourth installment of the Paranormal Activity films topped the box office last week. Television channel SyFy’s hit show Ghost Hunters scares up big ratings, and has spawned copycat series on networks ranging from Biography to Animal Planet. (more…)

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceancient dinosaur, antibodies, backbone, bone cell, brachylophosaurus canadensis, cellular structure, collagen, dinosaurian, DNA, dna molecule, evolutionary change, fibrous material, fibrous matrix, histochemistry, marshall bern, mary schweitzer, mass spectrometry, microbe, microscopy, north Carolina, origin, osteocytes, ostrich osteocytes, palo alto, parc, phex, protein, reactivity, research center, sample contamination, state university, tyrannosaurus rex, vertebrate, wenxia zheng

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells – and possibly DNA – in ancient remains.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen. (more…)

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