Yale researchers identified a fungus with a rainforest habitat that has enzymes that are able to breakdown polyurethanes, the main component of plastic. As it is right now, nothing else is able to do this work and much of what fills our landfills are plastic or plastic based products. This fungus is also anaerobic, so it would be able to do its work in the low oxygen conditions of landfills.
What do you think of this? How should scientists procede? Are there any dangers associated with moving too quickly with research of this kind (thinking of biotechnology and genetic engineering)?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Frostbite on Piddy Pads?
Why is it that dogs don't get frostbite on the pads of their feet? That's pretty tough skin, but in the cold arctic winter, or even the relatively mild winters of the Midwest, dogs don't get frostbite or even suffer much if any damage to their pads when outside. Researchers have some up with a reason why they can MAINTAIN HOMEOSTASIS in the exposed regions of their pads. It has to do with a phenomenon called countercurrent exchange. This is something that is relatively common in different animals for heat exchange (like the dog's pads).
Read the article and comment upon the research and what you think they'll find if they look in other species (think both cold climate and hot climate species). Also identify some other ways that organisms use countercurrent exchange. One more, see if humans have used this in any inventions and comment upon that.
Read the article and comment upon the research and what you think they'll find if they look in other species (think both cold climate and hot climate species). Also identify some other ways that organisms use countercurrent exchange. One more, see if humans have used this in any inventions and comment upon that.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Illness - Taking one for the Team!
This Discover magazine blog post explains why humans (and other vertebrates) are not affected the same way by the same virus. I have often wondered why some people would get very sick from a virus that hardly affects someone else. My dad would often say 'because we're from hearty stock', but I didn't really believe it. This article explains it much better!
What this study found was that viruses tend to evolve so that they target mice with specific sets of MHC proteins. Once a virus had evolved to wreak havoc in mice with one set of MHC proteins—possibly by changing its own molecules just enough to avoid notice by those particular proteins, or some other work-around—it had a really hard time infecting mice with a different set of proteins, which, of course, could still sniff it out just fine.
Have you experienced this? What does this reinforce about what you learned earlier this year about viruses and how they infect cells? How can scientists use this to improve medicines?
What this study found was that viruses tend to evolve so that they target mice with specific sets of MHC proteins. Once a virus had evolved to wreak havoc in mice with one set of MHC proteins—possibly by changing its own molecules just enough to avoid notice by those particular proteins, or some other work-around—it had a really hard time infecting mice with a different set of proteins, which, of course, could still sniff it out just fine.
Have you experienced this? What does this reinforce about what you learned earlier this year about viruses and how they infect cells? How can scientists use this to improve medicines?
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