FuturePundit function OpenComments (c) { window.open(c, 'comments', 'width=480,height=480,scrollbars=yes,status=yes'); } function OpenTrackback (c) { window.open(c, 'trackback', 'width=480,height=480,scrollbars=yes,status=yes'); } FuturePundit Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution. 2009 January 08 Thursday New Method Releases Adult Stem Cells From Bone Marrow A more powerful method to call up the stem cell repair troops and send them into battle. Scientists have tricked bone marrow into releasing extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream, a technique that they hope could one day be used to repair heart damage or mend a broken bone, in a new study published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell. When a person has a disease or an injury, the bone marrow mobilises different types of stem cells to help repair and regenerate tissue. The new research, by researchers from Imperial College London, shows that it may be possible to boost the body's ability to repair itself and speed up repair, by using different new drug combinations to put the bone marrow into a state of 'red alert' and send specific kinds of stem cells into action. In the new study, researchers tricked the bone marrow of healthy mice into releasing two types of adult stem cells – mesenchymal stem cells, which can turn into bone and cartilage and that can also suppress the immune system, and endothelial progenitor cells, which can make blood vessels and therefore have the potential to repair damage in the heart. While the scientists haven't shown that pushing more stem cells into the bloodstream leads to more healing they have shown they can boost stem cell release by a factor of 100."We hope that by releasing extra stem cells, as we were able to do in mice in our new study, we could potentially call up extra numbers of whichever stem cells the body needs, in order to boost its ability to mend itself and accelerate the repair process. Further down the line, our work could lead to new treatments to fight various diseases and injuries which work by mobilising a person's own stem cells from within," added Dr Rankin. The scientists reached their conclusions after treating healthy mice with one of two different 'growth factors' – proteins that occur naturally in the bone marrow – called VEGF and G-CSF. Following this treatment, the mice were given a new drug called Mozobil. The researchers found that the bone marrow released around 100 times as many endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells into the bloodstream when the mice were treated with VEGF and Mozobil, compared with mice that received no treatment. Treating the mice with G-CSF and Mozobil mobilised the haematopoietic stem cells – this treatment is already used in bone marrow transplantation. It isn't always going to be the case that just putting a large number of stem cells onto the scene of injury will lead to some or all needed repairs. Additional work might be necessary to implant signaling chemicals to direct stem cells to the right places and further to instruct them on which types of cells to convert into.We are going to see stem cells become useful therapeutic tools for at least some problems in the next 10 years and for a lot more problems in the following 10 years. By Randall Parker 2009 January 08 10:33 PM Biotech Stem Cells Entry Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) Two More Reports On Pluripotent Stem Cells From Adult Cells Yet another paper on how to create pluripotent stem cells by genetically programming adult cells.The study, which appears in the December 18 online version of Cell Stem Cell and the January 2009 print edition of the journal, provides proof of principle that alternative sources of stem cells can be created. The team, which included scientists from Scripps Research, Peking University, and the University of California, San Diego, conducted the studies to establish novel rat induced pluripotent stem cell lines (riPSCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (hiPSCs) by using a specific cocktail of chemicals combined with genetic reprogramming, a process whereby an adult cell is returned to its early embryonic state. Pluripotency refers to the ability of a cell to develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body. The ability to create pluripotent stem cells (i.e. cells just as flexible as cells removed from embryos) from adult cells promises to allow us to create immunologically compatible replacement organs and stem cell therapies.Here is still another paper on the same theme. (Boston) -- A Boston University School of Medicine-led research team has discovered a more efficient way to create induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, derived from mouse fibroblasts, by using a single virus vector instead of multiple viruses in the reprogramming process. The result is a powerful laboratory tool and a significant step toward the application of embryonic stem cell-like cells for clinical purposes such as the regeneration of organs damaged by inherited or degenerative diseases, including emphysema, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and Alzheimer's Disease. Their research titled "iPS Cell Generation Using a Single Lentiviral Stem Cell Cassette" appears on line in the journal Stem Cells. Prior research studies have required multiple retroviral vectors for reprogramming -- steps that depended on four different viruses to transfer genes into the cells' DNA – essentially a separate virus for each reprogramming gene (Oct4. Klf4, Sox2 and cMyc). Upon activation these genes convert the cells from their adult, differentiated status to what amounts to an embryonic-like state.Research papers on easier and better ways to create pluripotent stem cells keep coming and coming. Restrictions on creation of pluripotent stem cells from embryos are going to matter less and less as these alternative ways to create such cells keep getting better. By Randall Parker 2009 January 08 10:25 PM Biotech Stem Cells Entry Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) 6 More Obesity Genes Identified If you can't keep your weight down at a healthy level then you've got an increasing cast of genetic actors to blame for your excess fat. The 6 latest discoveries all are active in the brain.The international GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Parameters) consortium works on the discovery of obesity genes. So far, the scientists have analyzed two million DNA variations in 15 genome-wide association studies with a total of more than 32,000 participants. The hereby identified candidate genes were validated in 14 further studies including 59,000 participants. In addition to the FTO and MC4R genes already known, it was now possible for six more obesity genes to be identified: TMEM18, KCTD15, GNPDA2, SH2B1, MTCH2, and NEGR1.Gene expression analyses have shown that all six genes are active in brain cells. Also the previously known two obesity genes, FTO and MC4R, show a similar expression pattern; in case of the MC4R gene, a genotype-dependant influence on the behavior of appetite is already established. Scientists of the German National Genome Research Network (NGFN), Prof. H.-Erich Wichmann and Dr. Iris Heid from the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Epidemiology, who lead the German participation of this consortium, emphasize: "Definitely, the two main causes for obesity are poor nutrition and lack of physical activity. But the biology of these genes suggests genetic factors underlying the different reaction of people to lifestyle and environmental conditions."With the exception of the SH2B1 gene, which plays a role in the leptin signalling and thus in the regulation of appetite, none of the other five genes was hitherto discussed as obesity genes. Iris Heid and her collegue Claudia Lamina from the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München are enthused: "The purely statistical approach of the genome-wide association analysis can depict new aspects of the biology of weight regulation, which were previously unanticipated."As a next step, the scientists evaluate other anthropometric measures, in order to shed light on different aspects of obesity. In addition, they will expand and include further studies into their analysis as they have realized that the individual studies are all too small, and only by means of collaboration, is it possible to achieve further success here.This project was financed by the German National Genome Research Network (NGFN, head of the Obesity Network: Prof. Johannes Hebebrand, University of Duisburg-Essen; Project Leader Helmholtz Zentrum München: PD Dr. Thomas Illig), the National Institutes of Health, USA, and the Munich Center of Health Sciences of the LMU Munich. The genotyping was carried out at the Institute for Human Genetics of the Helmholtz Zentrum München under the leadership of Prof. Thomas Meitinger.What I would like to know: How many of these genes regulate appetite? My guess is that most or all play roles in appetite. But maybe some of them control our propensity to exercise by, for example, controlling how much pleasure we experience when exercising or by making us more or less fidgety. By Randall Parker 2009 January 08 10:09 PM Brain Appetite Entry Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) 2009 January 07 Wednesday First Genetically Engineered Animal Nears Approval Why make complex chemical plants to produce pharmaceuticals when you can genetically engineer some animals to do it in their own internal chemical factories? The US Food and Drug Administration will soon approve the first genetically engineered animals created for commercial use. For some applications the milk must be processed to extract the drug. But you can easily imagine cows and goats who produce a milk that you drink to get the drug.In a surprise move, it seems likely the first genetically engineered animal approved for commercial use won't be a fast-growing salmon, as was expected, but a goat that produces an anti-clotting drug in its milk.We've already got genetically engineered plants working for us. We'll have many genetically engineered animals working as chemical factories in the future. We'll also eventually have genetically engineered service animals to help us in daily tasks. Genetic engineering will speed up the breeding of animals that humans have been doing for thousands of years. By Randall Parker 2009 January 07 11:39 PM Biotech Tissue Engineering Entry Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) Method To Reduce Wind Farm Output Variation Varying levels of wind farm energy output cause both short-term and long-term problems with demand matching. Some U Wisc-Milwaukee engineers propose a method to dampen the variation of output of wind turbines over shorter time periods.Now, Asghar Abedini, Goran Mandic and Adel Nasiri at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Power Electronics and Motor Drives Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have devised a solution to the electricity grid susceptibility to changes in wind speed. The researchers have devised a novel control method that can mitigate power fluctuations using the inertia of the wind turbine's rotor as an energy storage component. Simply put, they have created a braking control algorithm that adjusts the rotor speed so that when incoming wind power is greater than the average power, the rotor is allowed to speed up so that it can store the excess energy as kinetic energy rather than generating electricity. This energy is then released when the wind power falls below average. This approach, the team explains, precludes the need for external energy storage facilities such as capacitors and the additional infrastructure and engineering they entail. Their method also captures wind energy more effectively and so improves the overall efficiency of wind farming potentially reducing the number of turbines required at any given site.An obvious way to try to store wind energy is to make heavier rotors. This would give the rotors more momentum. But that would increase the mass needed for the towers that hold up the wind turbines and propellers. An alternative would be to run a belt of some sort from the propeller to the ground to have the heavier rotor and electric generator at ground level. But the belt to do this would cost more money. My guess is that wind farm design engineers have considered these ideas and I wonder what impracticalities prevent their use. By Randall Parker 2009 January 07 11:18 PM Energy Wind Entry Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) 2009 January 06 Tuesday Clioquinol Slows Brain Aging? Clioquinol might help against a few neurodegenerative diseases by slowing aging.Recent animal studies have shown that clioquinol – an 80-year old drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders – can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Scientists, however, had a variety of theories to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders. Researchers at McGill University have discovered a dramatic possible new answer: According to Dr. Siegfried Hekimi and colleagues at McGill's Department of Biology, clioquinol acts directly on a protein called CLK-1, often informally called "clock-1," and might slow down the aging process. The advance online edition of their study was published in Oct. 2008 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "Clioquinol is a very powerful inhibitor of clock-1," explained Hekimi, McGill's Strathcona Chair of Zoology and Robert Archibald & Catherine Louise Campbell Chair in Developmental Biology. "Because clock-1 affects longevity in invertebrates and mice, and because we're talking about three age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases, we hypothesize that clioquinol affects them by slowing down the rate of aging."Does clioquinol get inhibited by calorie restriction?I do not recommend you start taking this drug. Clioquinol varies between species of animals and even between dog breeds. It might cause neurotoxicity by chelating metals. But at lower doses that same chelation might be beneficial for some. It might be the cause of subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy (SMON) in 10,000 people in Japan. A recent Cochrane review of the use of clioquinol against Alzheimer's Disease does not find that studies to date show a clear benefit.Let the researchers mess with this one. If you want to slow your brain aging there are lots of lower risk ways to do that with more certain benefits. Start with more fruits, vegetables, and fish. Then spice it up with turmeric for the curcumin. By Randall Parker 2009 January 06 11:05 PM Aging Drugs Entry Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) 2009 January 05 Monday Brain Scans Show Some Remain Deeply In Love For Decades The brain scans tell the story of love.Stony Brook University researchers looked at the brains of Bernstein and 16 other people who had been married an average of 20 years and claimed to be still intensely in love. They found that their MRIs showed activity in the same regions of the brain as those who had just fallen in love.Social psychologist Arthur Aron says that researchers simply didn't believe those who claim to feel intensely for each other after decades of marriage."But in survey after survey we always have these people who have been together a long time and say they are intensely in love. It was always chalked up to self-deception or trying to make a good impression," he said.What I'd like to know: Do the people who maintain this feeling for decades carry genetic variants that have coded for them to bond much more heavily than the average person? I'd like to see these people compared with people who've been divorced at least twice using vasopression and oxytocin genes for starters. The delivery of vasopressin receptor gene therapy into the ventral pallidum of male voles made them more monogamous. In the future I expect some ladies will surreptitiously deliver gene therapy into the brains of their boyfriends to get them to stay around. But if the guy is already playing the field he might bond to another women he's bedding. So use of this sort of therapy requires careful staging to achieve the desired outcome.Another future option: Women who want to stay in love forever who have the bonding brain genes could test prospective mates to choose guys who have the genes that'll keep them in love for a long time. By Randall Parker 2009 January 05 11:41 PM Brain Sexuality Entry Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) Type 2 Diabetes Reduced By Very Low Carbo Diet For people with type 2 (insulin resistant) diabetes a diet with very little carbs lowers blood sugar more than a diet with low glycemic index carbs.DURHAM, NC -- In a six-month comparison of low-carb diets, one that encourages eating carbohydrates with the lowest-possible rating on the glycemic index leads to greater improvement in blood sugar control, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. Patients who followed the no-glycemic diet experienced more frequent reductions, and in some cases elimination, of their need for medication to control type 2 diabetes, according to lead author Eric Westman, MD, director of Duke's Lifestyle Medicine Program. The findings are published online in Nutrition and Metabolism. "Low glycemic diets are good, but our work shows a no-glycemic diet is even better at improving blood sugar control," he says. "We found you can get a three-fold improvement in type 2 diabetes as evidenced by a standard test of the amount of sugar in the blood. That's an important distinction because as a physician who is faced with the choice of drugs or diet, I want a strong diet that's shown to improve type 2 diabetes and minimize medication use." Eight-four volunteers with obesity and type 2 diabetes were randomized to either a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (less than 20 grams of carbs/day) or a low-glycemic, reduced calorie diet (500 calories/day). Both groups attended group meetings, had nutritional supplementation and an exercise regimen. After 24 weeks, their glycemic control was determined by a blood test that measured hemoglobin A1C, a standard test used to determine blood sugar control in patients with diabetes. Of those who completed the study, the volunteers in the low-carbohydrate diet group had greater improvements in hemoglobin A1C. Diabetes medications were reduced or eliminated in 95 percent of the low-carbohydrate volunteers, compared to 62 percent in the low-glycemic group. The low-carbohydrate diet also resulted in a greater reduction in weight.Eating low glycemic index carbohydrates is a good bet if you are going to eat carbohydrates. Probably for someone who does not have obesity or type 2 diabetes a ketogenic very low carb diet is too extreme. There are risks with putting your body into ketosis.Type 2 diabetes is worth controlling for a number of reasons. For example type 2 diabetes impairs a couple of types of cognitive function.WASHINGTON — Adults with diabetes experience a slowdown in several types of mental processing, which appears early in the disease and persists into old age, according to new research. Given the sharp rise in new cases of diabetes, this finding means that more adults may soon be living with mild but lasting deficits in their thought processes. A full analysis appears in the January issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers at Canada's University of Alberta analyzed a cross-section of adults with and without adult-onset Type 2 diabetes, all followed in the Victoria Longitudinal Study. At three-year intervals, this study tracks three independent samples of initially healthy older adults to assess biomedical, health, cognitive and neurocognitive aspects of aging. The Neuropsychology study involved 41 adults with diabetes and 424 adults in good health, between ages 53 and 90. The research confirmed previous reports that diabetes impairs cognition and added two important findings. First, it teased out the specific domains hurt by diabetes. Second, it revealed that the performance gap was not worse in the older group. Thus, the reductions in executive function and processing speed seem to begin earlier in the disease. Healthy adults performed significantly better than adults with diabetes on two of the five domains tested: executive functioning, with significant differences across four different tests, and speed, with significant differences or trends across five different tests. There were no significant differences on tests of episodic and semantic memory, verbal fluency, reaction time and perceptual speed.Another example of the high stakes for controlling type 2 diabetes: Type 2 diabetes at least triples risk of heart attack.Men with type 2 diabetes and men with previous heart attack or stroke had a 3 to 4 fold risk of cardiovascular death compared to men without either disease in the years following the first acute event, according to a study in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg40.pdf. The study underscores the high risk of diabetes, as "men with type 2 diabetes and no previous cardiovascular disease had a 3-fold cardiovascular mortality risk compared with men with neither cardiovascular disease nor diabetes at the beginning of the follow-up," write Dr. Gilles Dagenais and colleagues from Laval University and the University of Montreal. However, the study was limited to white men and diabetes was self-reported in two-thirds of cases. Stay skinny, get a lot of exercise, and eat healthy food so that you do not develop type 2 diabetes. It'll age you more rapidly. Worth avoiding. By Randall Parker 2009 January 05 11:17 PM Aging Diet Heart Studies Entry Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) 2009 January 04 Sunday Guide Horses Better Than Guide Dogs For Blind A blind guy with the name Wilbur should obviously get a guide horse named Mr. Ed. (and if you are too young to get the reference you are unknowingly suffering from cultural deprivation)The woman, Ann Edie, was simply blind and out for an evening walk with Panda, her guide miniature horse.There are no sidewalks in Edie’s neighborhood, so Panda led her along the street’s edge, maneuvering around drainage ditches, mailboxes and bags of raked leaves. At one point, Panda paused, waited for a car to pass, then veered into the road to avoid a group of children running toward them swinging glow sticks. She led Edie onto a lawn so she wouldn’t hit her head on the side mirror of a parked van, then to a traffic pole at a busy intersection, where she stopped and tapped her hoof. “Find the button,” Edie said. Panda raised her head inches from the pole so Edie could run her hand along Panda’s nose to find and press the “walk” signal button.Edie isn’t the only blind person who uses a guide horse instead of a dog — there’s actually a Guide Horse Foundation that’s been around nearly a decade. Go, Panda, go! This is a much better Panda than the South Park Sexual Harassment Panda.Assorted animals are out there helping people in all sorts of real and questionable ways. This is leading to legal battles over rights of disabled people to use service animals to help them with their disabilities. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go.Some people enjoy running into an occasional primate or farm animal while shopping. Many others don’t. This has resulted in a growing debate over how to handle these animals, as well as widespread suspicion that people are abusing the law to get special privileges for their pets. Increasingly, business owners, landlords and city officials are challenging the legitimacy of noncanine service animals and refusing to accommodate them. Animal owners are responding with lawsuits and complaints to the Department of Justice. This August, the Arizona Game and Fish Department ordered a woman to get rid of her chimpanzee, claiming that she brought it into the state illegally — she disputed this and sued for discrimination, arguing that it was a diabetes-assistance chimp trained to fetch sugar during hypoglycemic episodes.Another case in the article involves a bipolar guy with psychotic and homicidal tendencies whose parrot calms him down. Read the description of him in the article. I wouldn't want him as a neighbor.Sadie rides around town on Eggers’s back in a bright purple backpack specially designed to hold her cage. When he gets upset, she talks him down, saying: “It’s O.K., Jim. Calm down, Jim. You’re all right, Jim. I’m here, Jim.”If a guy with homicidal tendencies (he admits to them) gets calmed down by a parrot then I say let him walk around with a parrot. I realize they can be noisy. A breeding pair of parrots got lose in Santa Barbara several years ago and as a result sometimes around dusk a dozen parrots nest in a tree near where I live and they chat up a big loud conversation. Definitely lends a more exotic jungle atmosphere to the area. But a parrot that calms down a neurologically messed up and dangerous guy is a parrot that is doing a good job.The ability to classify pets as service animals has been abused and the article reports airplanes becoming modern day Noah's Arks. Well, so far I haven't had the luck to go on a flight that has chimps and parrots in passenger seats. How about you?Looking into the future (a futures angle is a requirement here) one can see where all this leads: genetically engineered service animals. Granted, stem cell therapies, gene therapies, and tissue engineering will solve a lot of problems with blindness, severed spinal nerves, shriveled muscles, and deteriorated joints. So human disability should become much more rare. But I see a big future for animals genetically customized to serve important functions like "woof woof" to indicate you are about to hit people in a cross walk or that car that has braked ahead of you while you were engrossed in a cell phone conversation. Pets are going to need to pay attention for us as our gadgets become ever more alluring distractions.Some might choose chimps as driving assistants. I figure with enough genetic enhancement that chimps could take over the actual task of driving. Then people will be able to text message in their cars without risking a ticket or charge of involuntary manslaughter for doing it.But the genetically engineered service animals will eventually face stiff competition from artificial intelligences. Will the A.I.'s take over before pet genetic engineering hits full swing?Update: Okay, I see that people outside of America are especially unlikely to know the legendary Mr. Ed. He's important because he dramatizes the future of horsedom.Here's another excerpt. By Randall Parker 2009 January 04 01:36 PM Evolution Animals Helpers Entry Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) 70 Year Old Indian Woman Has IVF Baby, Wants Another The world's fertility rate will bounce back due to advances in biotechnology (and natural selection).Rajo Devi, 70, had a baby girl, Naveen Lohan, weighing 3lb 4oz, by caesarean section on Nov 28. "Now," she said, "I want a boy."Rajo and her husband Bala Ram, 72, who live on a farm in the tiny village of Badhu Patti in Haryana, India, are hoping controversial IVF doctor Anurag Bishnoi will help them have a son. Within 30 years (and probably sooner) I predict stem cell therapies will rejuvenate reproductive organs well enough to allow most women to have babies in their 40s, 50s, and even beyond. Cell manipulation techniques with gene therapies will enable the creation of a woman's own egg rather than use donor eggs.If a poor farmer in India can afford IVF treatment the prospects for world population control grow dimmer.Her husband mortgaged all his crop of rice and bamboo for next year and took out high interest loans to pay for the £2,000 IVF treatment. IVF pregnancy initiation rates continue to grow (note some of these pregnancies abort).And the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society says the pregnancy rate for in vitro fertilization was 35 per cent in 2007, up nine percentage points since 1999, when the group first started collecting these statistics.On the bright side, in the next 10 years we are going to find out which genetic alleles contribute to differences in intelligence. So at least some of the IVF babies of the future will be a lot smarter. We are going to need lots of smarts to solve some of the problems caused by overpopulation.Not all the problems caused by overpopulation will get solved though. You might want to burn up some of the dwindling supplies of fossil fuels to go visit and see animals in the wild that'll go extinct in a few decades. Ecotourism ahead of extinctions and habitat loss is now the rage.From the tropics to the ice fields, doom is big business. Quark Expeditions, a leader in arctic travel, doubled capacity for its 2008 season of trips to the northern and southernmost reaches of the planet. Travel agents report clients are increasingly requesting trips to see the melting glaciers of Patagonia, the threatened coral of the Great Barrier Reef, and the eroding atolls of the Maldives, Mr. Shapiro said.The most notable long term pattern in human evolution has been humanity's growing capability to dominate all ecosystems. The rest of nature is not capable of restraining us and I do not expect we will restrain ourselves as our powers continue to grow. By Randall Parker 2009 January 04 10:08 AM Bioethics Reproduction Entry Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) 2009 January 02 Friday Vitamins C, E, Beta Carotene Fail To Cut Cancer Risk Simple antioxidant pills for cancer risk reduction aren't looking like a good bet.Women who took beta carotene or vitamin C or E or a combination of the supplements had a similar risk of cancer as women who did not take the supplements, according to data from a randomized controlled trial in the December 30 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.People who eat lots of fruits and vegetables get less cancer. But other people do not like to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. They'd rather chow down on a Big Mac, a Whopper, or maybe some Twinkies with a chocolate milk shake. Still, veggies and fruits really are the ticket.Epidemiological studies have suggested that people whose diets are high in fruits and vegetables, and thus antioxidants, may have a lower risk of cancer. Results from randomized trials that address the issue, however, have been inconsistent and have rarely supported that observation.The problem is knowing what in the foods cut cancer risks. Could be fiber. Could be non-vitamin antioxidants such as polyphenols. Could be minerals like magnesium. Or maybe the veggies with lower glycemic index just reduce the sugar surge after meals and therefore reduce the surge in insulin and other hormones that can stimulate cells to become cancerous. Probably the answer is multiple factors in fruits and vegetables mean it is hard to find a shortcut.In the current study, Jennifer Lin, Ph.D., of the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues tested the impact of antioxidant supplements on cancer incidence in a randomized controlled trial. A total of 7,627 women who were at high risk of cardiovascular disease were randomly assigned to take vitamin C, vitamin E, or beta-carotene. With an average of 9.4 years of follow-up time, there was no statistically significant benefit from antioxidant use compared with placebo in terms of disease risk or mortality due to cancer. Overall, 624 women developed cancer and 176 died from cancer during the follow-up time. Compared with placebo, the relative risk of a new cancer diagnosis was 1.11 for women who took vitamin C, 0.93 for women who took vitamin E, and 1.00 for women who took beta carotene. None of these relative risks was statistically significantly different from 1.Eat good food. Some day scientists will come up with a way to make The Six Dollar Burger and hot dogs as beneficial as cabbage, eggplant, and arugula. But that day hasn't come yet. By Randall Parker 2009 January 02 11:20 PM Aging Diet Cancer Studies Entry Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) More Evidence For Asteroid Clovis Extinction A mere 12,900 years ago Clovis civilization in North America got brought down by an asteroid.Abundant tiny particles of diamond dust exist in sediments dating to 12,900 years ago at six North American sites, adding strong evidence for Earth's impact with a rare swarm of carbon-and-water-rich comets or carbonaceous chondrites, reports a nine-member scientific team. These nanodiamonds, which are produced under high-temperature, high-pressure conditions created by cosmic impacts and have been found in meteorites, are concentrated in similarly aged sediments at Murray Springs, Ariz., Bull Creek, Okla., Gainey, Mich., and Topper, S.C., as well as Lake Hind, Manitoba, and Chobot, Alberta, in Canada. Nanodiamonds can be produced on Earth, but only through high-explosive detonations or chemical vaporization. Last year a 26-member team from 16 institutions proposed that a cosmic impact event, possibly by multiple airbursts of comets, set off a 1,300-year-long cold spell known as the Younger Dryas, fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and led to the extinction of a large range of animals, including mammoths, across North America. The team's paper was published in the Oct. 9, 2007, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (News release on the 2007 paper is available at: http://tinyurl.com/82988t, with link to a copy of that paper.)We really should develop a much bigger asteroid detection and tracking system and an asteroid defense system. Really, I'm serious. This is more important than the manned space program and more important than probes that go to other planets. Heck, there's even a scientific angle because knowing a lot more about asteroids will provide insights into the solar system's development and even identify asteroids useful for terraforming Mars. By Randall Parker 2009 January 02 10:20 PM Dangers Asteroids Entry Permalink | Comments ( 11 ) Inorganic Phosphates Boost Lung Cancer? Think processed foods are bad for you? Not sure why exactly? One possibility: inorganic phosphates in food might boost the growth of lung cancer.New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease.The study also suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may play an important role in lung cancer treatment. The research, using a mouse model, was conducted by Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Seoul National University, appears in the first issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society."Our study indicates that increased intake of inorganic phosphates strongly stimulates lung cancer development in mice, and suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung cancer treatment as well as prevention," said Dr. Cho.Of course, if you are eating a diet high in vegetables and fruits and low in processed foods you do not need to know why exactly the processed foods are bad for you. Whether this study has identified a real reason to avoid processed foods or not we already know that drinking colas or other sodas isn't good for us and neither is eating processed cheese spread. By Randall Parker 2009 January 02 09:04 PM Aging Diet Cancer Studies Entry Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) 2009 January 01 Thursday Facial Expressions Are Innate For Expressing Emotions We do not learn to associate emotions with contorting our faces in particular ways.San Francisco State University Psychology Professor David Matsumoto compared the facial expressions of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. More than 4,800 photographs were captured and analyzed, including images of athletes from 23 countries. "The statistical correlation between the facial expressions of sighted and blind individuals was almost perfect," Matsumoto said. "This suggests something genetically resident within us is the source of facial expressions of emotion." Matsumoto found that sighted and blind individuals manage their expressions of emotion in the same way according to social context. For example, because of the social nature of the Olympic medal ceremonies, 85 percent of silver medalists who lost their medal matches produced "social smiles" during the ceremony. Social smiles use only the mouth muscles whereas true smiles, known as Duchenne smiles, cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise. I expect we will eventually have imaging processing software that we can use when watching politicians and other figures on TV that would let us know things like when we are seeing social smiles versus Duchenne smiles. Automated emotional interpretation such as lie detection by facial expression reading The high point in belief that environment is the source of all behavior was reached a long time ago with B.F. Skinner. I can't believe the guy was ever taken seriously. By Randall Parker 2009 January 01 12:52 AM Brain Innate Entry Permalink | Comments ( 6 ) Fewer Dopamine Receptors Means More Novelty Seeking Thrill seeking and increased risk of drug abuse might stem from having fewer of a type of dopamine receptor.NASHVILLE, Tenn.--For risk-takers and impulsive people, New Year's resolutions often include being more careful, spending more frugally and cutting back on dangerous behavior, such as drug use. But new research from Vanderbilt finds that these individuals--labeled as novelty seekers by psychologists--face an uphill battle in keeping their New Year's resolutions due to the way their brains process dopamine. The research reveals that novelty seekers have less of a particular type of dopamine receptor, whichmay lead them to seek out novel and exciting experiences--such as spending lavishly, taking risks and partying like there's no tomorrow. The research was published Dec. 31, 2008, in the Journal of Neuroscience. The neurotransmitter dopamine is produced by a select group of cells in the brain. These dopamine-producing cells have receptors called autoreceptors that help limit dopamine release when these cells are stimulated. "We've found that the density of these dopamine autoreceptors is inversely related to an individual's interest in and desire for novel experiences," David Zald, associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study, said. "The fewer available dopamine autoreceptors an individual has, the less they are able to regulate how much dopamine is released when these cells are engaged. Because of this, novelty and other potentially rewarding experiences that normally induce dopamine release will produce greater dopamine release in these individuals."The researchers used positron emission topography (PET) brain scans to help them reach this conclusion.The researchers used positron emission topography to view the levels of dopamine receptors in 34 healthy humans who had taken a questionnaire that measured the novelty-seeking personality trait. The questionnaire measured things such as an individual's preference for and response to novelty,decision-making speed, a person's readiness to freely spend money, and the extent to which a person is spontaneous and unconstrained by rules and regulations. The higher the score, the more likely the person was to be a novelty seeker. The researchers found that those that scored higher on the novelty-seeking scale had decreased dopamine autoreceptor availability compared to the subjects that scored lower.If it becomes possible to use a drug to increase the number of dopamine autoreceptors will some thrill-seekers or perhaps some drug abusers opt to change their brain in such a fundamental way in order to gain greater ability to control and restrict their own actions? I can imagine compulsive spenders opting for such a treatment. But skiers, skydivers, and other thrill seekers might decide they'd rather continue to pursue extreme sports. By Randall Parker 2009 January 01 12:48 AM Brain Addiction Entry Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) 2008 December 31 Wednesday Neanderthals Lost Out From Competition Not Climate Change The Neanderthals were out-classed by the upstarts and just couldn't compete.In a recently conducted study, a multidisciplinary French-American research team with expertise in archaeology, past climates, and ecology reported that Neanderthal extinction was principally a result of competition with Cro-Magnon populations, rather than the consequences of climate change. The study, reported in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE on December 24, figures in the ongoing debate on the reasons behind the eventual disappearance of Neanderthal populations, which occupied Europe prior to the arrival of human populations like us around 40,000 years ago. Led by Dr William E. Banks, the authors, who belong to the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, l'Ecole Pratique d'Hautes Etudes, and the University of Kansas, reached their conclusion by reconstructing climatic conditions during this period and analyzing the distribution of archaeological sites associated with the last Neanderthals and the first modern human populations with an approach typically used to study the impact of climate change on biodiversity. This method uses geographic locations of archaeological sites dated by radiocarbon, in conjunction with high-resolution simulations of past climates for specific periods, and employs an algorithm to analyze relationships between the two datasets to reconstruct potential areas occupied by each human population and to determine if and how climatic conditions played a role in shaping these areas. In other words, by integrating archaeological and paleoenvironmental datasets, this predictive method can reconstruct the regions that a past population could potentially have occupied. By repeating the modeling process hundreds of times and evaluating where the errors occur, this machine-learning algorithm is able to provide robust predictions of regions that could have been occupied by specific human cultures. In a few weeks I'm going to review an exciting new book that, among other claims, argues humans benefited from an introgression (in flow) of Neanderthal genes that helped humans evolve more rapidly. So not only did our ancestors wipe out Neanderthals but humanity even gained genetically from the interaction.Why didn't Neanderthals instead take some of our genes and out-compete early modern humans? Not sure. I can think of some possibilities. Even if the hybrids possessed some advantages they existed in small numbers. The beneficial genetic alleles humans gained from Neanderthal genes might not have become widespread until well after Neanderthal numbers had greatly dwindled. Humans might have had such large competitive advantages that Neanderthals couldn't absorb beneficial human genes fast enough to be able to compete. Also, maybe the hybrids were more often born in human communities than in Neanderthal communities. Or maybe humans were more accepting of raising hybrids.Anyone have a clue on this? By Randall Parker 2008 December 31 03:40 PM Evolution Primates Entry Permalink | Comments ( 8 ) Fresher Blood Cuts Cancer In Animals Transfusions with fresher blood might improve outcomes of cancer surgery.“New blood” can revitalize a company or a sports team. Recent research by Tel Aviv University finds that young blood does a body good as well, especially when it comes to fighting cancer.The TAU researchers, led by Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu from the Department of Psychology’s Neuroimmunology Research Unit, discovered that a transfusion of “young” blood — blood which has been stored for less than 9 days — increased the odds of survival in animals challenged with two types of cancer. This finding, reported in the journal Anesthesiology, may solve an age-old mystery as to why some blood transfusions during cancer-related surgeries may lead to an increased recurrence of cancer and others do not.“There is anecdotal evidence pointing to the fact that some surgeons really prefer to use younger blood units. They insist on it. Our research shows their reasoning might be sound,” says Prof. Ben-Eliyahu, explaining that the oldest blood in a blood bank usually sits on the shelf anywhere from 40 to 42 days before it expires.Using an animal model, the researchers conducted tests on rats with leukemia and breast cancer. The odds of surviving the cancer, they found, were only compromised if the transfusion blood had been stored for nine or more days.This result is not surprising. A group at Wake Forest University discovered that some mice have immune systems that are very effective against cancer and that group later discovered that rare people have extreme anti-cancer immune systems and that immune systems decline in their ability to attack cancer cells as we age. Blood that has not been stored as long probably is more capable for immune response.I think the Wake Forest work demonstrates that not only should doctors use fresh blood with cancer patients but that they should use blood from younger donors and especially from donors which assays show to have especially effective immune responses against cancer.The future development of immune system rejuvenation therapies will cut the incidence of cancer. Also, those rare people who have especially anti-cancer immune systems probably have genetic sequences for antibodies or perhaps for other parts of the immune system that make them fight cancer especially well. The eventual discovery of what makes their immune systems more effective will lead us toward the development of gene therapies or cell therapies to allow us to rev up our immune systems to protect against cancer. By Randall Parker 2008 December 31 12:15 AM Biotech Cancer Entry Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) 2008 December 30 Tuesday US Policy To Shift Toward Insulation For Heating Subsidies Better to reduce the need for heat than subsidize the purchase of oil, natural gas, and other sources of heat.Correct those flaws, and heating and cooling costs are typically cut by 20 percent to 30 percent, a saving of more than $1,000 annually in some households. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions and the strain on the national electric and gas systems are reduced.About 140,000 houses will be weatherized with public help this year, a total that President-elect Barack Obama has promised to raise to one million, to reduce energy consumption and cut energy costs for households and taxpayers, who often absorb those costs for the poor. This would represent a historic shift in emphasis for the federal and state governments, reducing poor people’s energy bills instead of helping to pay them.One can argue whether governments should subsidize home heating. But leave that aside. If a government is going to subsidize heating I'd rather in subsidize insulation rather than fuel supply. Insulation is far more cost effective. It reduces pollution, reduces waste, and cuts our dependence on dwindling supplies of imported oil.I've made this argument in the past. A lot of leaky older houses are cheaper to seal up and insulate than to pay higher costs for heating for many years. What would help this process: more automated methods to measure heat leaks and detect their sources. Lots of contractors will quote assorted ways to improve a house's insulation. But uncertainty about how much such work will cut energy bills reduces the motive of home owners to upgrade their insulation. 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