The fly eye

Dr Edward Duca will start off with a story: the life of a fruit fly. How it goes from birth to adolescence, then like the butterfly, forms a structure around itself to develop into the adult. Unlike the butterfly, a rather ugly fly emerges instead of technicolor wonder. Once grown up the male fly needs to dance, sing, and woo females any way it can to produce children. How the fly develops has taught us humans how we develop, and what happens when things go wrong: the specter of genetic disease.

Pharmaceutical companies study the effects of new medicines on the fruit fly. They test them on fruit flies that have been changed slightly to show diseases like obesity, motor neuron disease that Stephen Hawking and Mao Zedong suffered from, and brain degenerating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. These models let pharmaceutical companies test new drugs quickly and cheaply before trying them in mice (followed by humans). They also let scientists find out why these diseases develop, hoping that they are translated into cures for human disease.

The fruit fly might be tiny, but it has been a treasure trove of discovery.

Fly fat cells with fat stained green and DNA blue

‘Flies, sex and lies’ will be held at the Music Room, St. James Cavalier, at 7.15pm, Thursday 8th December by Malta Cafe Scientifique and supported by The Malta Chamber of Scientists. The talk will be given by Dr. Edward Duca, followed by an open discussion. Email maltacafescientifique@gmail.com or find us on Facebook for further information. Entrance is free and a free drink and nibbles will be provided to all attending. No special science background is required.

Science Event Running 28th September, 2012

Submission for Art Installation

Aims:        1. To show how science is all around us and that researchers are normal human beings with an extraordinary job.

2. To develop art inspired by a scientific concept or idea, perhaps even science happening locally.

3. Interaction with the public

4. Located between the streets and buildings of St. James Cavalier, St. George’s Square and possibly Manoel Theatre in Valletta, Malta

Pluses, but not essential:

art can be replicated in more than one street

It can be retained longer than one night (around one week— a month)

What we need from you (1–3 pages long—short and sweet):

Art Project Summary — most important part to showcase your idea, focus on what is most important for your project.

Background and objectives —  details on the theory developed, scientific theory it is based on or exploring

Execution (Methods) — location, type of art, what it consists of

costings (including breakdown of costs) — materials, hours and so on. In Euros, inc. VAT.

Evaluation — How would you gauge if the audience liked it, and how much did they take back from it. This will need to be co-ordinated with the whole event, but have a think about it, it might not be feasible depending on the artwork.

Outcomes — how many people are you expecting to reach, target audience, what will audience take from the art.

Deadline: 1^st December 2011 (extended till 8^th December). Proposal will then be chosen by the board to be sent for funding. The result of the funding would be received by end of February.

Types of Art accepted: anything innovative and creative.

Contacts: please send your proposals to: info@lilyagiusgallery.com. For more information: Lily Agius (info@lilyagiusgallery.com; Mob: 9929-2488) or Edward Duca (scienceisculture@gmail.com ; Mob: 9923-9974).

Selection of proposals it will be judged on:

Location — in Valletta and close to the main events
Science — how well-grounded/inspired by science?
Innovation (creativity) — how artistically creative and ground-breaking is the idea?
Cost — not necessarily the lowest, but cost-effective considering what is being provided
Reach — how many people are reached by the art

Most Weight will be given on the Science and Creative criteria.

Please sign and date your proposal

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system causing inflammation, loss of myelin sheets, and the eventual degeneration of neurons. These symptoms are linked to specialised cells of the immune system called helper T cells. A subset of helper T cells, T helper 17 (Th17), release interleukin-17 (IL-17), a key inflammatory factor in the development of multiple sclerosis.

Neural Progenitor Cells (NPC) help to reduce disease progression of MS. The researchers found that NPCs secrete a factor which inhibits specific cells in the immune system. The picture shows spinal cord sections, on the left untreated diseased tissue, on the right treatment with NPCs. © Cell.

The role of IL-17 in disease progression was cleared observed in several studies performed using mice with chemically induced multiple sclerosis (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; EAE). Removal of IL-17 delayed disease onset and reduced its severity. On the other hand, the disease was worsened by the increased expression of IL-17 or a greater number of Th17 cells.

So, how do NPCs reduce multiple sclerosis? Currently, they are thought to migrate to damaged neurons and differentiate into myelin sheets that protect the neurons. However, only 5–10% of NPCs form myelin sheets. To discover any additional mechanisms, the researchers injected NPC cells into diseased mice. The cells migrated to the spleen and reduced symptoms by inhibiting Th17 cell formation, which suggested that the NPC cells must release a secreted factor. This was confirmed by treating the mice with irradiated NPC cells and an NPC cell supernatant, which also inhibited the disease.

To identify the factor responsible, the researchers tested several NPC secreted proteins on Th17 cell differentiation, identifying LIF. Recombinant LIF was then injected into diseased mice that suppressed disease progression. These mice had lower levels of Th17 cells, but normal levels of other immune cells. Conversely, inhibiting LIF with a neutralising antibody reserved this recovery.

Further studies showed that LIF works by binding to CD4+ T cells and preventing their differentiation into Th17 cells. Upon binding to the LIF receptor, LIF triggers the extracellular signal-regulated MAP kinase (ERK) signalling pathway that increases the level of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3). SOCS3 prevents the phosphorylation of Janus kinase-2 (JAK-2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) inhibiting differentiation of the Th17 cells.

Finally, the researchers tested whether LIF has the same role in humans. They first purified healthy CD4+ T cells and then added either recombinant human LIF or NPC supernatant. Similarly to the mouse, these treatments prevented Th17 cell differentiation, which was negated by adding a LIF-neutralising antibody. These results were repeated in cells from 18 subjects with multiple sclerosis, confirming their relevance to human disease.

This important work shows how LIF inhibits Th17 differentiation in both mice and human models. The advantage of LIF is its selectivity — it specifically inhibits Th17 cells and does not affect other immune cells. Other studies specify how LIF can stimulate a neural repair mechanism, which also improves neuronal survival. The researchers suggest that this dual action makes LIF a strong candidate to develop a better therapy to treat multiple sclerosis.

References
Cao, W. et al. Leukemia inhibitory factor inhibits T helper 17 cell differentiation and confers treatment effects of neural progenitor cell therapy in autoimmune disease. Immunity 35, 273–284 (2011).

doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2011.06.011

These are placental mammals (Wisconsin Historical Images; http://tinyurl.com/6ekftw7)

Biologists obsessed with mammalian evolution have been having a debate that sometimes gets nasty. They’re fighting over when placental mammals, that includes you and I, diverged from the marsupials, those cute and cuddly kangaroos, koalas and Tasmanian devils. But a new fossil unearthed in China [http://tinyurl.com/6dh5poy] by Zhe-Xi Luo in the USA and researchers in Beijing might force them to put their gloves down.

This debate has been raging on for quite a while, in March 2002 a small, 125 million year old, tree-climbing mammalian fossil was found. This pushed back mammalian evolution by around 50 years. Placental mammals were much older than anyone expected.

By 2007, even this date was being challenged. DNA sequences from several different placental mammals, marsupials, monotremes (platypus and short-beaked echidna) were compared to each other, which pushed back the marsupial-placental split another 20 million years.

This challenged the dogma that marsupials and placentals diverged recently and that the death of the dinosaurs allowed them to flourish. It’s a logical conclusion, but this is another case of truth being stranger than fiction.

This is a marsupial mammal (OZinOH; http://tinyurl.com/5scay8r)

The recent find by Zhe-Xi Luo and co-workers puts the nail in the coffin on this idea. They unearthed a fossil called Juramaia sinensis (Pictured), a tiny tree-climbing mammal that weighs in at around 12 to 15 g. It’s really tiny. Its teeth, jaw and heel bones are similar enough to ours to be grouped with us. On the other hand, it is different enough from other placental fossils to be stamped an ancestor. With enough fossils evolution can become very clear. Remarkably its also 160 million years old.

Juramaia Sinensis a 160 million year old placental mammal (from: http://tinyurl.com/6dh5poy)

Such an old time frame matches the molecular data perfectly, and it also pushes back our own ancestors by another 35 million years. Placental mammals diverged from marsupials in the Middle to Late Jurassic before flowering plants existed; when Allosaurus roamed, the big meat-eating daddy preceding T. rex; when the 40 ton long-necked giant sauropod Supersaurus roamed America; and, when Archaeopteryx was testing its wings (As a side note: Archeropteryx is no longer the ancestor of all birds, just closely related — instead other vegetarian dinosaurs are their ancestors). J. sinensis must had had a tough time competing with these dinosaurs and was even smaller than some of the insects they might have been trying to eat. But, was a mammals life really that tough?

The evidence suggests differently. It seems that in the early and middle Jurassic, a few million years leading up to J. sinensis, mammalian evolution was exploding. Several different mammalian forms developed, though in true Darwinian fashion, only a few survived. By around 100 million years ago, they were petered down into three classes: the monotremes, placentals and marsupials. After 100 million years ago, the dominance of mammals might just have been inevitable. The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was simply a lucky break.

Sources

A Jurassic eutherian mammal and divergence of marsupials and placentals

The delayed rise of present-day mammals

Robust Time Estimation Reconciles Views of the Antiquity of Placental Mammals

Evolution of birds: Digging up the roots

In 1932–1933, 5 to 10 million people died throughout the USSR. The dignity of people was stripped off when they ate dogs, cats, field mice, birds, tree bark and each other. This was not caused by the greatest drought man has ever seen but by Stalin, Lysenko and the policies of the USSR.

Unfortunately history has a habit of repeating itself, and humanities drive to bend nature to its will has resulted in the suffering of countless people to this day. But let us cast back to the late 1950s – early 1960s China as a case study on why humanity needs a new political system that takes into account flower power ideology like zero growth and sustainability.

In the 1950s China had just emerged from a brutal civil war that killed over 3 million people. This was preceded by an even more atrocious Japanese invasion during World War II leaving around 10-20 million dead. A century before, China was humiliated by the colonial west when it piecemealed imperial China. At the start of the 1950s, this history left China bankrupt and humiliated but reunified by Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. Reunification and the idealism of Chairman Mao made the future seem limitless and millions of Chinese from overseas migrated back to rebuild China. So how did this lead to the greatest man-made famine ever seen?

Chairman Mao was brilliant as a military leader and helped to industrialise and modernise China. In 1951 Mao he advanced the creative arts with the campaign, “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom”, followed by an emphasis on academic debate through, “Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend”. This brief renaissance was cut short by the anti-rightist movement (1957-1958), with the brief of denouncing capitalists, Malthusians and the bourgeois. Over half a million intellectuals were affected. They were publically criticised by students and peers, forced to self-criticise, and either kept under house arrest, or re-educated through labour – many committed suicide. China had suffered one of the greatest brain drains in history in just two years.

Cynically, some observers think that the Hundred Flowers Campaign was a lure to identify opposition to Chairman Mao’s next grand plan: The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961. This cynicism was not wholly unwarranted since Mao’s thoughts in his ‘little red book’ are strikingly similar to one of the three pillars of Chinese thought: legalism. Legalism was expounded by Qin Sin Huangdi (221-207BC), the first to unify China and who also burned countless books, built the Great Wall and was buried with the Terracotta Army. Legalism places the state above individual needs. The ruler is also meant to be charismatic, his thoughts mysterious and most importantly revered. The philosophy was one of dominance and submission. Mao attacked nature with the same viciousness he attacked the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist Kumintang.

The Great Leap Forward brought a plethora of slogans meant to achieve a great social mobilisation to modernize China. Mao Zedong Thought held that socialism could reshape the material world by sheer willpower. The masses of China (over 600 million at this point due to the overpopulating policy of Ren Duo, Lilang Da – with many people, strength is great) would unleash raw labour with the slogan “Man Must Conquer Nature” – Ren Ding Sheng Tian.

The first campaign was, “Wipe out the Four Pests” – Chu Si Hai, started in May 18, 1958, with the declaration by Chairman Mao: “The whole people, including five-year old children, must be mobilised to eliminate the four pests.” The four pests were rats, sparrows, flies and mosquitoes. Sparrows were thought to eat grain, so a synchronized tujizhan “shock attack” was launched with people banging gongs, using ladders to knock them out of nests, breaking eggs or simply whacking them with a stick. By 1959 sparrows were not found in local markets, whilst more insects, which the sparrows ate, resulted in more grain infestations. Chu Si Hai is still used to this day; thankfully cockroaches have replaced sparrows.

August 1958, a few months after the Four Pests campaign, and Mao declared that within 15 years China’s steel production would surpass that of the U.K. To achieve this aim, 100 million people, or 1 in 6 Chinese were prevented from farming to smelt iron and steel. Useful pots, pans, farming equipment and any iron object or materials, were used to try and achieve this quota providing raw material to make identical (mass manufactured) items. Adults and children alike smelted iron day and night in backyard furnaces, but these furnaces were not hot enough to produce high quality steel. So although production was doubled in one year, half of that steel was of unusable quality. When coal was unavailable, furnaces burned wood. In Yunnan province alone, this resulted in the loss of 30,000-40,000 square kilometres of forest cover. This was greater than the amount of forest cleared, within a comparable time period, in the whole Amazon.

China had silenced its own intellectuals, but revered Soviet ideology. The Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko—who used Stalin’s favour to cause the death of numerous scientists—forced socialist ideas on biology that were partly to blame for the devastating famines of the USSR. His ideas became sacrosanct in China. He emphasised deep ploughing, up to 10 feet deep, and close planting. In China, close planting was taken to an extreme when up to 5,000 cotton, 20,000 sweet potato or 12,000 corn seeds were sowed per sixth of an acre. Such practices lead to widespread decay of plants and subsequent infertility of the soil. Infamously pictures of plump children were shown supported by rice plants where, officials claimed, one sixth of an acre could produce 27.8 tons of rice. These children were later revealed to have been sitting on a bench. Such fabrications were performed to outcompete other officials, to please Chairman Mao, and to avoid persecution. Distorting facts had become common practice.

Even under Mao’s draconian regime, some Chinese intellectuals still opposed each one of these great leaps. For example, Professor Hou Guangjun had managed to increase agricultural yield through no-till agriculture or ziran miangeng. However, each time Mao’s anti-science stance silenced them. These policies resulted in people being pulled off collective farms to forge inferior iron. The farmers who remained had to deep plough and close plant the land to the point of infertility. The nail in the coffin was that harvested grain became infested. Hindsight makes the greatest famine the world has ever seen – with deaths estimated at 36 million – seem so easily avoidable.

This was one of the greatest human catastrophes in history. It did not change Mao’s stance of “War Against Nature”. It intensified it. In the 1960s and 1970s Mao coerced the Chinese to attack, forests: huilin kaihuang – destroy the forests, open the wastelands; lakes: weihu zaotian – encircle lakes, create farmlands; deserts: zhisha zaotian – manage the sand and create farmland. Even mountains could be tamed: cong shitou fengli ji di, xiang shitou yao liang – squeeze land from rock peaks, get grain from rocks. This caused widespread and irreparable destruction of the environment. Inner Mongolia lost 3 million acres of land due to these efforts, Hubei known as the land of a thousand lakes (1,065) lost over half of them, and Shanxi whose forests covered 60 percent of the province lost most of them.

The examples that could be cited are endless, highlighting the extreme attitude of Maoist China. The situation in China has changed; it currently is the largest investor in green technology. However it also happens to be the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, has hundreds of so called cancer villages, and the largest number of polluted cities worldwide. China’s future is bright but faces many challenges. What does all this mean for Nature?

China has three pillars of thought. Mao is linked with extreme legalist ideas. The current government, whilst still evoking the legalists also has a strong dose of Confucianism, as evidenced by the numerous government-funded Confucius centres found globally. Confucianism unfortunately promotes a patriarchal society. Yet it holds education, self-improvement and a strict moral code as its shinning light. Its view on nature is highly condescending accentuating how the ruler needs to take care of the environment since it is very useful to mankind, in China’s case, to maintain natural ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.

The current Chinese government’s treatment of nature seems highly in line with this practical human-first ideology. However there is a third pillar of Chinese thought, Daoism. Daoism describes harmony among man, society and nature. Humans and nature are linked, therefore it is wrong to exploit nature to satisfy oneself and everything has to be done in deference to natural laws. Since the Way (every Daoist’s wet dream) imitates nature and people are part of nature, harming a blade of grass is a grave offence. Needless to say, this viewpoint is extreme, although it wasn’t all so far fetched. For example there were clear prohibitions against hunting animals that were rearing their young.

A modern and less extreme reinterpretation of Daoism could lead to ideas of recycling, zero-growth, no-till and organic farming. Humanity would seek not to over-exploit and plunder nature’s riches, but to work with nature. Conversely, capitalism, the world’s current ideology, emphasises that economies must be in constant growth, relentlessly exploiting the environment. This is the essence of the consumption-oriented society we all live in today. It is impossible for the world to sustain this status quo. Economic growth cannot occur at the expense of the environment indefinitely.

The World Wildlife Fund has just released a report showing that by 2007, the world was consuming 1.5 Earths worth of resources every year. At this rate, oil will run out, as will rare metals, whilst population growth remains exponential. Economically this is also detrimental. “Scarcity of resources and degraded natural systems will increase the price of food, raw materials and other commodities,” says David Nussbaum of WWF-UK. Even politics cannot escape the changing environment. A few days after the New Year was celebrated, riots in Tunisia sparked by increases in the price of food led to governmental collapse and the Arab Spring. When people’s basic needs are not met, unrest follows. The environment is intertwined with a functional society.

Economic growth is also vital for a countries well being. These diverging needs force upon humanity a need to incorporate a Daoist ideology within our current state of capitalism. Greater scientific knowledge and technological advances need to be coupled to the political will necessary to create sustainable economies that are prosperous but do not need constant exploitative growth. This demand applies not only to China, but also to every country in the world to prevent the horrors of our shared history.

Further Reading

Mao’s War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China (Studies in Environment and History) by Judith Shapiro — Main Source and a brilliant read.

What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard — a great modern update on Chinese politics

On Daoism — Chuang Tsu and Tao Te Ching 

This was the first person I met, strangely I made a friend in one day. And, it was just the beginning. I’m at the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Doha, Qatar, which is amazing [add gorgeous picture of Doha here]. It has the highest GDP per capita, is advanced, clean, ordered, safe and has the most amazing architecture I have ever seen — and I’ve been to Beijing’s Olympic Village.  Though Doha is a strange place, only 20% of it’s citizens are from Qatar the rest are migrants.  But, this doesn’t feel like a function city, it feels like a perfect city.

Back to the bus leading to Education City — a series of huge complex whose architecture are simply astounding [show picture of education city] that the Qatar foundation is building to put this country on the science map. By 2030 Qatar will become a knowledge based economy – much better vision for oil wealth than Iran (have to admit).

I walked in late, scurried to the back of the room, no places, tip toed to the front. Nancy Shute was talking about online resources for science journalists, most are free:

• 10000words.net
• Mashable.com
• ReadWriteWeb.com
• Amy Wbb Webbmedia.com free and paid sections
• WGBH lab sandbox for independent filmmakers
• TECH.TV.MIT.EDU

Find more on: NANCY SHUTE (multimedia) – find on slideshare.com/nancyshute nancy@nancyshute.com @nancyshute

Then Beryl Benderly talked about how to get good reliable sources for science journalism:

• NIh.gov — The best!
• Pubmed Central — classic academic tool, if you can understand the paper it is the best source
• Free medical journals.com
• Science.gov — stuff like all earthquakes in last 7 days)
• Data.gov — information dump
• newswise
• eureka alert (publish science mag, releases on studies, embargoed release service. This resource sounds great!
• National library of medicine

Then we had a great exercise in podcasting by John Bohannon a science correspondent for science magazine. Great guy, so gave us a few good tips: Podcasting is cheap and easy, all your need is great content, decent equipment. Also remember not to speak to fast and give a decent intro. He got us to talk about a made up science story, ours: A pepertual motion machine as been built and energy has seeped into inanimate objects making them come alive. Rock monsters in Ghana and baby-eating carpets in Saudi Arabia. Idea adapted from Terry Pratchett.

This was followed by Diane Finch on data visualisation. Data visualisation is a process to display information in a manner understandable to a general audience. For a science journalist this means you got to do some research. Find the data, run some stats, find some interesting story within the data. Then Visualise it. A good picture is an easy sell.

Find data from Worldbank or WHO.

There is lots of software she recommended:

• Excel
• filemaker pro
• Google refine for BIG messy data

Another tip: geomap the data. This links your XML file (a spreadsheet from excel) to a location, turning it into a .KML file. Will help you connect data with neighbourhoods. Best tools for this seem to be google maps, google eat and google fusion tables. (also geocommons, openheatmap and GAPminder.org). More software for geo mapping and data visualisation:

• ARCview
• ArcGis
• Quantum GIS – MapWindow
• Phython/Django and R —more advanced and FREE (SPSS has become redundant)

• For Timelines: Simile and Timeline software

Then we had Randy Olson talking about science films and documentaries. This guy was yet another great speaker, very succinct, best to list tips:

STORYTELLING:

1. Why? (non literalism)
2. What? (is a story, what is not)
3. How? (Study structure)
4. Why (Film/Video)
5. The Nerd Loop – (refers to 4 organs)

What is a story? A story is a fact wrapped in an emotion ( Fact — literal, emotion — nonliteral)

A story has 3 structures A Beginning a Middle and an End.

Act not think = emotion, plus there are 4 organs for acting. The head which is cerebral and its ideas must go to the muscle (action), the gut (instinctual) and the genitalia (visceral) i.e. must have sex appeal. Sex sells.

A very important point to film making, writing, podcasting — is that story telling comes from the Greeks (and other ancient cultures). To remember a story orally it had to be riveting to the speaker, so the Greeks had tragedy and comedy, plus Simple Ideas and a good take home message. This is really the Hollywood formula — Hollywood unfortunately has no brains.

It is more important to arouse people with film and video, than bombard with messages. This is why Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has failed to change the minds of so many. Sadly enough. Randy Olson’s answer was Sizzle. We had a free screening, and it was a fusion of Borat interwoven with a climate change message i.e. MENTAL!

I loved this movie, and I’m a scientist. Apparently most climatologists hated his film, because Randy’s approach is so unique and clever. First he lets you listen to the skeptics. Then shows them up for what they really are: charlatans, petroleum drunk, cocky, aggressive and liars. Watch this film, it’s a must.

By the end of the day I met people from Malaysia to Mexico to Nambia to Denmark. If science journalists from so many nations can be in one room and enjoy each others company, why can’t our politicians and the countries they represent?

So that’s it for today. I hope these tips help in the quest to find the next story that simply must be told. Please note that this is a very very rough draft and I hope to expand/flower/shorten this. Comments are welcome

Follow me on Twitter: username DwardD for real time updates on the conference, just search #WCSJ2011

For some Photos Samuel has already uploaded mine to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2200291491520.130734.1374292926

Edward Duca,

Doha, Qatar

26th July 2011

WCSJ2011

Two airplanes have defected to Malta, two helicopters have also arrived and there are reports of a warship defecting — currently denied.  The East of Libya seems to be under complete control of the protesters and it seems most of the tribes — apart from Gaddafi’s own tribe — are fighting his regime.   However there are reports that Gaddafi has transported thousands of African mercenaries. Therefore even though he’s lost a significant chunk of his army, he still has billions of oil wealth (estimates indicate the Gaddafi family has $70 billion) to draw from and hire resistance.

There are also rumours that he is or will destroy oil pipelines to the outside world and unleash islamic militants on his own people – why they would kill the rebels is beyond me.  It seems to me that Gaddafi is on his last legs, but will go down with the blood of thousands on his hands.

I’m very disappointed with how the EU, US and even African Union have reacted.  Whilst they condemn the violence, they are not doing much about it.  If the West really is so pro-democracy it needs to show more support to these demonstrators.  It needs to send the signal that if you support democracy the West will support you — perhaps by the EU or US declaring Libya a no fly zone and shooting down any airplanes — Gaddafi is using them to strafe his own people.

Everyone is very afraid, Malta — my homeland — is afraid that war is on it’s shores, the EU that it will be flooded by migrants.  That there are 10,000 EU citizens in Libya is probably making them worry like hell.  Getting these EU citizens out of their should be the EU’s priority, but so should supporting the democracy and these demonstrators.

I have lived in Libya around 1994-1996, a few years after sanctions were imposed by the US and Western world.  The place was peaceful, barren, but it appeared dead to me, both during the day and at night.  Few people were on the streets, most were around the kebab shops.  The atmosphere felt wrong.  Now I realise why, the people were afraid.

Fourty years the Libyan people have lived in fear, they have finally risen against Gaddafi like never before.  Gaddafi has given other countries the perfect excuse to intervene.  Our governments should help put an end to this bloodshed, perhaps even genocide.

If the West does not have a stronger voice and take more decisive actions then it will be fodder for extremists.  No one knows who will rise to power in the revolting Arab states, will they get a true democracy (respectful to Islam) or an Islamist theocracy (another dictatorship).  The Arab world must decide for itself, but it will only be motivated to elect a true democracy if the West gives fewer reasons for the Arab people to hate it, otherwise no amount of money will reduce terrorism.  Our actions today will be suffered or celebrated by our children tomorrow.

Further info:  The BBC are running a fantastic up to date series on the events. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

Al Jazeera are getting some of the latest reports out of Libya: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/libya/

For people’s accounts, just search for #Libya #Gaddafi on Twitter (http://twitter.com/)

Edward Duca.

The villain of this story is an Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) that has a single-copy of a growth hormone gene from the Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) inserted into its genome.  This growth hormone is under the control of an antifreeze gene promoter from the eel-like ocean pout (Zoarces americanus).  The promoter keeps growth hormone production switched-on all year round instead of only in the warmer months.  So this salmon can go from an egg to your plate in just 18 months instead of the normal 3-year process.  Simply more fish in less time; economically it’s pretty brilliant.

The consumer should get more fish at a lower cost, however consumer groups are roaring “[they] jammed up the White House telephone lines last week protesting any approval” said Eve Mitchell, European food policy adviser at Food and Water Watch Europe.  The two main concerns about GM fish are its effects on human health and the environment.

I’ve read over 20 articles about these fish and most journalists seem to assume that GM fish are bad for you, and implied that these fish might be highly allergic since the human body has never been exposed to this salmon before.  My opinion: wishy-washy bull****, no data backs these claims, most proponents link allergenicity with seafood being highly allergic.  The only decent article that discussed health was Henry Miller’s ‘Turning gene science into a fishy business’ in The Observer.  His conclusion? Till now GM food has not resulted in huge health epidemics, although some cases of earlier imprecise genetic techniques, such as traditional crossbreeding, have resulted in new vegetable varieties with elevated toxin levels or disease weaknesses.

The FDA have given this GM salmon a clean bill of health, and the FDA has made the data publically available to appease critics.  On the other hand, AquaBounty claims a lot without backing it up with publically available data (that I could easily find): Ron Stotish, the chief executive of AquaBounty “This is perhaps the most studied fish in history … Environmentally this is a very sustainable technology.”  So my concerns started rising here.

The greatest fear is that these salmon could escape and cause the collapse of wild Atlantic salmon stock.  This fear is based on the ‘Trojan Gene’ hypothesis initially coined by Howard and Muir in their seminal PNAS study in 1999.  They inserted a salmon growth hormone gene into the Japanese medaga (Oryzias latipes) that makes the fish grow bigger and stronger.   Predictably this resulted in dominance over wild type males and more less fit young being produced from GM males.  The data was plugged into a computer model and extended over multiple generations.  The result was extinction in nearly 50 generations if the GM males have a 4-fold mating advantage over wild type fish.

If applied to AquaBounty’s GM salmon an escape could lead to quick extinction of wild type Atlantic salmon.  AquaBounty have already predicted this scenario and their facility is land-based.  Unless these fish start evolving very quickly there is little chance they will escape.  AquaBounty also subject their eggs to high pressures that results in eggs with 3 sets of chromosomes and 98% of adult salmon are rendered sterile.

The problem is that for AquaBounty to become profitable they need to sell their eggs to be raised on other farms in a number of countries. The U.K. has already banned GM fish from being grown in sea- or river-based pens, but will other countries have the appropriate legislation?  Escapes are not uncommon.  In the U.K. 100,000 farmed Atlantic salmon escaped in March.  If these were Aquabounty’s GM salmon potentially over 2,000 fertile adults could of escaped into the wild, a catastrophe.

AquaBounty says that even if they do escape their GM salmon are more susceptible to the environment.  They also say that male salmon do not gain mating advantages due to size.  A study by Thomas et al. (1997, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B) proves them wrong.  Such blatant misinformation coupled with the companies desire not to release all of its data simply breeds mistrust.

AquaBounty are also trying to sell the idea that these fish are environmentally sustainable since they remove pressure on wild fish stocks.  Theoretically this makes sense, replace our need and love of that pink flesh from wild salmon to GM salmon.  The GM salmon will be cheaper, people will buy more, and so less wild salmon will be caught.  Wrong.  Since the 1990’s fish have become harder and more expensive to catch.  Fish stocks have been dwindling worldwide.  On the other hand, governments have been subsiding fisherman to keep them afloat and consumers are willing to pay more for their wild fish.

GM salmon are also unlikely to relieve wild fishing pressures any time soon, since farmed salmon are fed on fishmeal and fish oils that are made from wild stocks of makerel, sardines and smaller fish.  Until this changes the proposed environmental benefits are very opaque.

These companies are only shooting themselves in the foot.  People just won’t believe the data from AquaBounty, but no other third party research has been allowed on these salmon.  Greater openness and collaboration with academics is sorely needed for the environmental (perhaps even health) issues to be addressed.  Otherwise we will all be doomed to read about yet more Frankenfoods and the PR catastrophe that was GM crops will be repeated.  If GM foods are truly harmless then they should be labelled and the public informed.

There are currently a dozen GM fish in the pipeline, 2 produced in China and Cuba.  There is also a cow that has been modified for resistance to mad-cow disease and a so-called Enviropig.  As its name suggests this pig is beneficial to the environment since it produces less phosphorous in its faeces.  But unless we have more information and good scientific research performed on these animals I doubt anybody is going to be convinced about wanting to eat Enviropig bacon, no matter how good, cheap or beneficial they are.  The anti-GM scare journalists are too great.

Delirious mindsets force us to unequivocal concepts.

Happiness is delineated by mystical veils.

The widow cries

A man dies

A lonely lust

Devious delight.

We All dream of insolence in beautiful mindset.

Concepts coalesce forming useless beauty.

Leaning hand

Bent form

Hunchback

Velvet glove.

The blood-red sunset shrouded the scene.

Politicking determined their unalluring faith.

Clasped hands

Mischievous smiles

Broken doors

Police Beckon.

The government has a right to what happens in the bedroom.

State welfare is burdened by unwanted offspring.

Social demise

Iron fist

Stubborn mindset

Illicit trysts.

What you say, What you think is wrong.

A black shroud falls on creativity.

Gears clog

Engines sputter

Society stalls

Conservative smiles.

Nothing changes here,

we’re all happy,

we’re all right,

we’re all free,

said the politicians’ glum children.

Edward Duca, 2010.

I’m enjoying the return and it’s teaching a lot about myself.

This is all me, me, me, me what about thesis, thesis, thesis? Ha! 3 weeks after I was meant to start and this is the only week I’ve managed to actually get some work done.

Materials and methods: 90% done, 1st draft (Francesca – the post doc who rescued my PhD – suggested a lot of changes so I had to notch it down from 100% to 90% – I hadn’t been slacking off that much!)

Mitochondria Chapter: 70% ready.

Figures for all Chapters 60% ready.

Meeting deadlines: 1 month late…

A month a whole bloody extra month. I’m pretty pissed off with myself. Will that provide motivation, will I finally sit down, switch of twitter, facebook, msn, skype, emails and get cracking on it. Hardcore cracking, that’s What i’m referring to. Will power! That’s what I need, but how do you force yourself to do something you do not want to do. Now that’s something to ponder. Or is it another desperate attempt at procrastination?

ED