Day: February 4, 2002

The BBC has a story about a picture generated by The Two Micron All Sky Survey which shows what our galaxy might look like if view from outside.

The Baltimore Sun carried a brief story over the weekend that suggests the U.S. government’s response to biological weapons fears might be worse than the weapons themselves. I have not seen this reported elsewhere, but the Sun reported that the U.S. Army has been conducting smallpox research over the past couple years, including infecting monkeys with a fatal form of the disease.

On the one hand, from a pure science perspective, this is an interesting advance. Although it exists in other species, only human beings typically die from small pox. That researchers have been able to create an animal model is an indication of just how far medical research techniques have progressed in the last 30 years.

On the other hand, the Sun quotes a couple prominent public health experts denouncing the research, and their case is compelling.

At the moment, the fear of a country using smallpox on the United States is largely hypothetical. We know the Soviet Union had weapons that it had outfitted with smallpox and aimed at the United States, but the Soviet threat is over and to my knowledge there are no credible reports of terrorists or anyone else possessing smallpox.

In that sort of situation, as Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Baltimore Sun, research into smallpox may be the biggest smallpox threat for a number of reasons.

First, if the United States begins conducting research on smallpox, other countries will inevitably follow. The worst possible scenario is if countries around the world gear up for smallpox research. Maybe the United States can prevent smallpox in the hands of the U.S. Army from being stolen by terrorists, but what happens when India, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries start emulating the U.S. research? It would seem to me the last thing the in the world the United States would want to do now is create conditions that promote smallpox research.

Second, smallpox research itself may pose unacceptable risks. The Soviet Union and the United States should have destroyed all remaining stocks of the disease when they had a chance. Now, aside from terrorists stealing such stocks, the largest risk to human populations is an accidental release. The odds of an accidental release from the Army experiments might be extremely low, but considering the possible outcomes of such a release combined with the limited benefit of learning more about a deadly disease that has already been eradicated — it is difficult to fathom why such research is being allowed to continue.

Source:

Scientists divided over smallpox research on monkeys. The Baltimore Sun, February 3, 2002.

In January, the BBC reported on a finding published in Nature about the role of “uncoupled proteins” in preventing damage to cells.

When the human body breaks down food into a form that it can use, it produces oxygen molecules called free radicals as a byproduct. Free radicals can cause cell damage and are believed to be responsible for a variety age-related health problems, including cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

The study published in Nature and conducted by the UK’s Medical Research Council’s Dunn Human Nutrition Unit in Cambridge found that chemicals called uncoupling proteins could prevent free radicals from damaging cells. The uncoupled proteins shuffle the free radicals off to a part of the cell where they won’t do any damage.

The BBC quoted Dr. Martin Brand who described the impact that this finding could have on controlling the aging process,

The role of uncoupling proteins could be fundamental to protecting against degenerative disease and aging. We hope that by understanding their role, we could find potential new ways to prevent or treat free radical linked diseases. For example, we might be able to decrease cellular aging by using chemicals witch switch these proteins on.

Sure beats starving yourself almost to death, which to date is one of the few ways that researchers have managed to substantially extend life span in animal models.

Source:

Ageing cells give up secrets. The BBC, January 5, 2002.

Three observations about the Super Bowl:

1. All year long the St. Louis Rams had told anyone who would listen that they were sick and tired of the knock on them around the league which is that they were a finesse team that would whither and wilt if you could hit them hard early on. If they really hated that label that much, why did they wilt away when the New England Patriots didn’t simply roll over and let them rack up 20 points in the first half? On offense, the Rams looked more like the New York Giants last year — completely petrified like they had no idea what to do with the ball until it was too late.

2. The field goal. John Madden told the world that if he were coaching the Patriots on that last possession, he would have played for overtime rather than try to march down the field for a field goal. Madden will obvioulsy be criticized for that statement, but I think he was absolutely right given the Patriots’ field position. The one thing Madden did not count on was that the Rams would suddenly drop into a prevent defense in a tied game and let the Patriots march down the field to win the game. What were they thinking? That strategy would have made sense if the Rams were up a touchdown, but tied?

The Rams defensive calls looked like the Rams coaches were as stunned as Madden was that the Patriots would try to get in field goal range. But come on — Kurt Warner had just thrown two touchdown passes in pretty short order. Would you want to risk giving him the ball again in overtime?

3. Am I the only person in the world who enjoys blowouts? I keep hearing that this was one of the best Super Bowl’s because it was so close. Blah. Boring. I want to see lopsided games where one team or the other totally dominates and crushes the will of its opponent.