The Ed's Up #37
Coincidental killers <-- If you read one piece, read this one.
Some human diseases are caused by microbes that have become infectious through evolutionary accidents. They didn’t evolve to infect us, and to reproduce at our expense. Instead, they evolved to fend off competitors or predators or to survive in harsh environments. And by coincidence, the adaptations that help gained make them better at harming our health. For example, a thick coat that stops a microbe from being digested by hungry amoebae might also protect it from our immune system. This is the coincidental evolution hypothesis, and it’s the subject of my new feature in Aeon. (Image: CDC)
Does Your Microbiological Age Match Your Biological One?
"If you watch a newborn island, or perhaps a landscape scoured by fire or lava, you’ll see that living things colonise the land in predictable stages. Simple pioneering plants like lichens and mosses arrive first. Grasses and small shrubs come next, followed eventually by taller trees. Ecologists call this succession, and it happens in an infant’s gut too. [One team] has developed ways of measuring the maturity of an infant’s microbes. They then used those measures to work out how malnourishment in early life affects the growth of our bacterial partners, and whether we can do anything about it. It’s a more comprehensive way of looking at human development--it's about looking at a child not just as an individual, but also as an ecosystem." (Image: Mark Knobil)
Why Have Female Hurricanes Killed More People Than Male Ones?
According to the authors: implicit sexism. That is, we don't take female hurricanes less seriously. According to my piece: a statistical fluke that doesn't need explanation. This study made landfall all over the media, and most reports took it at face value. Here's a detailed look at some of its flaws. The comments are worth a read too - not all of them, but check out the ones from Harold Brooks in particular, and this thread, in which someone accuses me of not having read or understood the paper, and then admits to not having done so himself. (Image: Mark Trenchard)
Testing Vaccines On Captive Chimps To Protect Wild Chimps—Is It Worth It?
"In February 2011, a team of scientists led by Peter Walsh at the University of Cambridge injected six captive chimpanzees with an
experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus. At first glance,
the study looked like a lot of other medical research, in which drugs
that are meant for humans are first tested on other animals. But this
was different. These scientists were working with chimps to help chimps." (Image: Afrika Force)
The Silence of the Crickets, The Silence of the Crickets
"In 2003, Marlene Zuk
travelled to the Hawaiian island of Kauai and heard something very
strange—nothing. A disquieting quiet. An absence of chirping. A silence
of the crickets." Two populations of crickets on neighbouring islands independently evolved to be silent during courtship to avoid an eavesdropping parasite. They did it at the same time, and in the blink of an evolutionary eye. (Image: G. McCormack)
The Only Way To Hide From A Sea Catfish Is To Stop Breathing
"The Japanese sea catfish's barbels are also pH meters. They are so sensitive that they can pick up
the tiny changes in acidity produced by a breathing worm. When this
predator swims ahead, a simple exhalation gives its prey away." I love the end of this story where the researcher says: "Here are some unanswered questions but all of us are retiring/retired, so SEE YA!" (Image: Jens Petersen)
Scientists Urge Study of Environmental Factors That May Speed Aging
""People have focused on slowing aging, which always struck me as premature," says Sharpless. Even if scientists announced tomorrow that they'd discovered an antiaging pill, he says, people would have to take it for decades. "Getting [healthy] people to take medicine for a long time is challenging, and there are always side effects," Sharpless says. "If you identify stuff in the environment that affects aging, that's knowledge we could use today.""
More good reads
- Can farmed fish feed the world without breaking the oceans (and can we feed farmed fish)? Great Nat Geo feature.
- This sea creature lives life nearly invisible--until you touch it.
- Why it’s so hard for men to see misogyny: Amanda Hess on the eye-opening #YesAllWomen hashtag
- Great interview/profile of Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who identified HIV as the cause of AIDS.
- Bruce Lee's one-inch punch: a beautiful fusion of neuroscience and biomechanics. And punching. By William Herkewitz
- Proof: The Science of Booze is a new book on alcohol by Adam Rogers, one of the best science writers around. Check it out. And here’s an interview with the man himself.
- DNA shows that tiny fish with bizarre ornaments are the larvae of adults that look completely different. By Jennifer Frazer.
- A boy suffers a mysterious illness that stumps doctors. Then a new DNA test saves his life. Awesome story from Carl Zimmer
- “Martin Bromiley is a modest man with an immodest ambition: to change the way medicine is practised in the UK. He doesn’t command your attention, though you find yourself giving it. Neither is he a doctor, or a health professional of any kind. Bromiley is an airline pilot. He is also a family man, with a terrible story to tell.” Amazing story from Ian Leslie.
- Behavioural genetics is winding its way into the courtoom. Virginia Hughes passes sentence.
- "In 2009 the decades-old mystery of 'Little Albert' was finally solved. Or was it?" Superb storytelling from Tom Bartlett.
- Intriguing Maria Konnikova piece on the neuroscience of handwriting.
- As we fall asleep, our brains start neglecting half the world, much as in a common form of brain damage. By Mo Costandi.
- "Discharge the storm clouds! The snow instigateth not lugubriosity within me." A surprisingly fascinating piece on translating Frozen into Arabic.
- New research tool can track one animal among many, without marks or trackers! This opens up a massive world of research. By Greg Miller
More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science
You can also follow me on Twitter, find regular writing on my blog. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you can sign up yourself.
And that's it! Thanks for reading.