Friday, April 13, 2007
Watch Out for Coughing Cowboys!
This ain't your grandfather's gonorrhea. Due to careless antibiotic use and of course to careless sexual practices, the US is seeing a ginormous rise in proportion of drug-resistant strains of this STD. Currently only one class of antibiotic seems to remain effective, and how long that will last no one can guess.
Speaking of making babies, a UK group claims to have grown immature sperm from bone marrow stem cells, potentially hinting at future fertility treatment advances. Gives new meaning to the concept of "boning" somebody...
But what genes get passed on? Hopefully not a faulty copy of FTO, which greatly increases risk of obesity. We may also soon know a good bit more about how genes evolve and change over time from the newly sequenced macaque genome.
Finally, if you thought bird flu and monkey pox were bad, wait till you hear about cow tuberculosis! It appears that this potentially lethal infection is, contrary to previous thought, transmissable from human to human. D'oh!
Speaking of making babies, a UK group claims to have grown immature sperm from bone marrow stem cells, potentially hinting at future fertility treatment advances. Gives new meaning to the concept of "boning" somebody...
But what genes get passed on? Hopefully not a faulty copy of FTO, which greatly increases risk of obesity. We may also soon know a good bit more about how genes evolve and change over time from the newly sequenced macaque genome.
Finally, if you thought bird flu and monkey pox were bad, wait till you hear about cow tuberculosis! It appears that this potentially lethal infection is, contrary to previous thought, transmissable from human to human. D'oh!
Labels: antibiotic resistance, bacteria, bird flu, bone marrow, bovine, cowboys, cows, evolution, fertility, genes, genome, gonorrhea, macaque, obesity, sex, sperm, STDs, stem cells, TB, tuberculosis
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Things Not To Try
Sometimes, people get ideas that are so astoundingly stupid that I just have no words for it. For instance: a Maryland inmate was hospitalized for extreme drunkenness (a BAC of .33) due because he drank hand sanitizer. Yes: he was drunk on Purell. Aside from the stupidity of his own actions, the event was apparently so shocking to people that it merited publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, and a front-page mention from WaPo online. Including talk about the DANGER! of hand sanitizer use.
The real danger of hand sanitizer use - growth of more resistant bacterial strains - doesn't even seem to register next to the horror (The Horror!!!) that people might get high on it. Priorities, anyone?
Another pair if substances you might not want to put on your body, especially if you're a young boy, are tea tree and lavender oil. Another NJEM study found that some boys using shampoo and lotion containing these grew breasts. The oils appear to act as estrogens, and their effects on older males, and females are unclear. But the lesson here is: just say no to hippie hair products!
The real danger of hand sanitizer use - growth of more resistant bacterial strains - doesn't even seem to register next to the horror (The Horror!!!) that people might get high on it. Priorities, anyone?
Another pair if substances you might not want to put on your body, especially if you're a young boy, are tea tree and lavender oil. Another NJEM study found that some boys using shampoo and lotion containing these grew breasts. The oils appear to act as estrogens, and their effects on older males, and females are unclear. But the lesson here is: just say no to hippie hair products!
Labels: alcohol, bacteria, breasts, development, estrogen, lavender, prison, Purell, tea tree oil
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Ultimate Feminist Ideal: Two-Headed Reptiles
Female reptiles don't really need males for much of anything, including reproduction. Recent (possibly) virgin births by komodo dragons represent the first time we've seen parthenogenesis in that species, but it is quite common amongst other reptiles. There's a catch though, ladies: the parthenogenic offspring are all male!
Speaking of strange offspring, researchers in China have found a two-headed reptile fossil. It appears as though the specimen died very young, and so was probably just the product of a birth defect, not a man-eating dragon.
Humans have offspring too, of course, but for us the process is made rather more complicated by (among other things) busybodies who want to dictate 'morality' on us all. Despite all the preaching, it seems that the vast majority of Americans are having premarital sex. Needless to say, the usual suspects are decrying the research, and demanding that more money be spent on 'abstinence education.'
Once human kids are conceived, that's really just the start of their problems - it's increasingly likely that they'll grow up to be fat and suffer from some chronic disease, et cetera. Many factors influence how fat people get, including exercise, diet, and, it seems, the bacteria in their guts. US researchers have found that obese people (and mice) seem to have higher proportions of certain natural gut bacteria, which allow for better absorption of calories from food. This is really a cool concept, and one that, if it turns out to be a major factor, could maybe be pretty easy to treat.
Also, living in the suburbs makes your kids fat. Duh.
The good news? More vitamin D may reduce risk of developing multiple sclerosis - a nasty autoimmune disease which ravishes the nervous system, and high blood alcohol levels may actually help you survive the car crash you caused by driving drunk. Very interesting, but weird.
Speaking of strange offspring, researchers in China have found a two-headed reptile fossil. It appears as though the specimen died very young, and so was probably just the product of a birth defect, not a man-eating dragon.
Humans have offspring too, of course, but for us the process is made rather more complicated by (among other things) busybodies who want to dictate 'morality' on us all. Despite all the preaching, it seems that the vast majority of Americans are having premarital sex. Needless to say, the usual suspects are decrying the research, and demanding that more money be spent on 'abstinence education.'
Once human kids are conceived, that's really just the start of their problems - it's increasingly likely that they'll grow up to be fat and suffer from some chronic disease, et cetera. Many factors influence how fat people get, including exercise, diet, and, it seems, the bacteria in their guts. US researchers have found that obese people (and mice) seem to have higher proportions of certain natural gut bacteria, which allow for better absorption of calories from food. This is really a cool concept, and one that, if it turns out to be a major factor, could maybe be pretty easy to treat.
Also, living in the suburbs makes your kids fat. Duh.
The good news? More vitamin D may reduce risk of developing multiple sclerosis - a nasty autoimmune disease which ravishes the nervous system, and high blood alcohol levels may actually help you survive the car crash you caused by driving drunk. Very interesting, but weird.
Labels: abstinence, alcohol, bacteria, fat, genes, genetics, komodo dragons, MS, obesity, parthenogenesis, policy, premarital sex, reptiles, science, sex, sprawl, suburbs, trauma, virgin birth, vitamin D
