In my never ending quest to keep you, my beloved reader, informed on the latest intestinal developments, I link you to another article in Science Blog about intestinal biochemistry. Intrepid researchers right here in River City have discovered just what the heck the molecule MR1 does. Apparently, mucosal-associated invariant t cells (MAIT cells for short and the squeamish) somehow rely on intestinal bacteria and MR1 to keep your gut infection free, a thankless but vital job. The research team has also set its sights higher, to the lungs, to see if MR1 is on the job there, too.
Archive for category Science
Another Intestinal Post
Mar 15
The Journal of Clinical Investigation published the results of an experiment using bone marrow stem cells to produce insulin. These cells, transplanted from a male mouse to female mouse, actually produced insulin and behaved like normal pancreatic beta cells. This was a significant experiment, and shows the possibilities in using adult stem cells.
Who Knew?
Mar 15
Science Blog reports that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that exposure to men’s perspiration can brighten women’s moods, reduce tension and increase relaxation, and also has a direct effect on the release of luteinizing hormone, which affects the length and timing of the menstrual cycle. I knew it was powerful stuff, especially when the male volunteers hadn’t used deodorant in four weeks, but I wouldn’t have predicted that it would make a woman’s day. In fact, based on my own experience, I would have predicted the opposite effect.
If you watched Survivor last night, you would have observed this effect in action; when Shawna’s tribe was all female, she laid around moaning all day that she was miserable and no one cared (the all female tribe was, if anything, distinctly less nurturing than the all male tribe). As soon as a trio of sweaty men entered camp, armpits uncovered, she perked right up and has been all smiles ever since.
I have to admit, instead of my humdrum existence making bombs fly, I wish I could get paid for devising weird science experiments (let’s daub male sweat under women’s noses and see how they react) and then carrying them out. I guess I have experimenter’s envy.
OK, a little engineering humor. Stress is the applied force, and strain is the resulting deformation. So it isn’t the stress that gets you, it’s your strain that’s harmful. In the category that a little is good, a lot is bad, put stress according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. They claim that stress responses can make people more susceptible to infection, constricted arteries, weakened muscles and thinner bones, as well as a greater tendency to a spare tire around the abdomen due to increased insulin levels. I can say from my own experience when I’m feeling the strain I’m more susceptible to illness, my cholesterol levels go up, and I put on weight. The problem is, I generally don’t have any control over the stress – I can only work on feeling less of the strain.
A Canadian study of drought in the Canadian and Northern US prairie indicates rapid changes in climate in 700 AD. The same researcher’s previous work indicated a periodic shift about every 1200 years. They note that similar shifts would pose a challenge for society today. Which makes me wonder – sometimes civilizations seem to collapse. Could sudden climate shifts, to much harsher conditions, be the culprit behind some of them? For instance, in 1000 AD there was a flourishing society across the river from St. Louis, cleverly called the Mississippians that up and disappeared. Could it have been the climate? Will we ever know? Anyway, the idea that climate is stable is flat out contradicted by the evidence. It changes, and often abruptly.
Two Shuttle Maps of America
Mar 11
Science Daily reports on a pair of maps made with the Shuttle’s Radar. You can even see a huge impact crater in the Yucatan. Way cool.
The China Youth Daily is reporting that China is planning on landing on the moon, first robots and then astronauts. They haven’t put an astronaut into space yet, but at least they’re making bold (even if they lack innovation) plans. Maybe a good old fashioned space race will spur our program on. Anyway, good luck China.
We Are Stardust
Feb 28
Space scientists right here in St. Louis have identified and analyzed stardust through a microscope instead of a telescope. The stardust was collected by NASA by airplane and was contained in larger grains of interplanetary dust. Cool.
Backyard Superfund Site?
Feb 10
The Consumer Products Safety Commission is reporting that wooden outdoor play equipment using lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) increases the risk of bladder and lung cancer in children by somewhere between 2 and 100 in a million. The range is due to the uncertainty about how often children put their hands to their mouths and how long they play on the equipment. So the wooden swing-set I built for my daughter nine years ago turns out to be a biohazard site. Great.
Well, Medical Science has found something bad about normal intestinal bacteria. It seems that endotoxins released by these bacteria during bypass sugery leads to cognitive decline in patients. Just for the record, I was the astute reader who tipped off Robert Musil to this finding. Yes, I enjoy him so much I remember posts of his from last August. It’s a gift.
