Weight may not kill

by Kyle May
Be overweight and live longer:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

Contrary to what was previously assumed, overweight is not increasing the overall death rate in the German population. Matthias Lenz of the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Natural Sciences of the University of Hamburg and his co-authors present these and other results in the current issue of Deutsches Ärtzeblatt International (Dtsch Artzebl Int 2009; 106[40]: 641).

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At least Germans do not die at much higher rates when they are overweight. In fact, overweight men lave a slightly lower death rate. And the differences become less as people age.

To a large extent, most overweight people are actually pretty healthy. And they generally do not die at a higher rate. So why the huge focus on BMI, which have no real connection to overall longevity?

Could it be that so many people make so much money on the overweight?

Technorati Tags: Health

Winter weather

by Sister72

The bad boy is back:
[Via CEJournal]

A fresh El Niño shaping up in the Pacific will dominate U.S. weather this winter, according to a forecast from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released on Thursday.
A pool of warm ocean water has been building up in the equatorial Pacific ocean — a signature of El Niño. This usually “shifts the patterns of tropical rainfall that [...]

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A new El Niño will have significant effects on the weather of North America. Most of he country could have a warmer winter with the Pacific NW getting less rain. But California might get some much needed rain.

Could be a bumpy ride.

Technorati Tags: Environment

Having a camera at the right time in the right place

Tremendous fireball over the Netherlands:
[Via Bad Astronomy]

A couple of days ago, the Netherlands and Germany were treated to a spectacular fireball, a very bright meteor burning up over their skies. Photographer Robert Mikaelyan was at the right place at the right time and got tremendous photos of the bolide:

Wow! Click through to see the series; you …

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An amazing set of photos. Having a camera is key. One of the things I learned while taking pictures in college is to always have a camera.

Now, with the iPhone, we can. I found a nice site called The Best Camera. Chase Jarvis has written a book called the Best Camera Is The One That Is With You and he has an iPhone app also. He shows you how to use he iPhone to take great photos rather than the blurry ones so many of us have. And the app has really nice filters to make the photos look good.

Maybe not as good as the bolide ones but certainly they make the camera many of us have with us much better

Technorati Tags: Science

WIl be there

The Big-E Bang Theory:
[Via Bad Astronomy]

What happens when you take two of my favorite things in the whole world and put them together?

Why, you get my mancrush Wil Wheaton on The Big Bang Theory! Here’s the promo from CBS.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEjMjnHB4pY]

The episode airs Monday, October 19. Squeee!

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I’ll make sure I DVR it so I can watch it again and again. IN the last few months, Wil already made a great guest appearance on Leverage. Then on The Guild. Now this.

He is mostly a writer now and has a great blog to read. He has written about the experience without any spoilers (Here, here and here). His reaction to the promo is about as honest as any of us would be.

Reading his blog caused me to completely re-evaluate my feelings about Wesley Crusher. Wheaton is a good writer and a fine actor.

Technorati Tags: General

‘The sky cries for us’

from NASA

[An earlier version of this was posted at A Path to Sustainable ]

AutoTuned Sagan

[Via Cosmic Variance]

Oddly addicting…a million views and rising!

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I cried watching this. I miss Carl Sagan. No one else has done such an amazing job of demonstrating the joyous experience that is science. And this video definitely helps us understand better our place in the Cosmos.

It also demonstrates the amazing time we are living in. This video is being seen by millions that could never has seen it at all just a few years ago. The creator of the video used software tools that used to cost millions of dollars and required many specially trained people.

That they have been able to mash together bits of Carl Sagan and music into a wonderful, evocative production is simply amazing. But they needed the technologies that have been created over the last generation to be able to completely release their vision.

It is this democratization of virtually all things, the ability to put the tools of creativity and productivity into the hands of almost anyone, that may be the single most innovative/destructive thing in the world today.

Woody Guthrie had a guitar with the words “This machine kills fascists.” On Pete Seegar’s banjo are the words “This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It to Surrender.”

I wonder what motto will be placed upon these machines, these tools that are reducing the ability of authoritarian powers, either in business or politics, to control the flow of information and knowledge.

Perhaps ‘Information wants to be free‘ or ‘We can fact check, you ass.’

Epigenetics up front

by quapan
What drives our genes? Salk researchers map the first complete human epigenome:
[Via EurekAlert! - Biology]

(Salk Institute) Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn’t tell biologists much about how its function is regulated. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute provide the first detailed map of the human epigenome, the layer of genetic control beyond the regulation inherent in the sequence of the genes themselves.

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This is really interesting news. The researchers have devised ways to examine the methylation pattern in genomic sequences. They call it the methylome (I’m getting a little tired of adding -ome to everything but it sounds pretty cool in this case).

Epigenetics are processes that define the expression of genes while not being a part of the genetic sequence itself. Thus, simply knowing the DNA sequence does not necessarily define everything. Two people could have the same DNA sequence but epigenetic effects can result in very different expression patterns of the genes.

We know this since every cell has the same genetic sequences but have very different expression patterns, which results in so many different types of cell in our bodies.

DNA methylation has been documented before in the regulation of gene expression. But no one has ever examined this at the single base level in human genomes, which these researchers accomplished.

They did this by a nice combination of chemistry followed by molecular biology. When cytosine, one the 4 DNA bases, is reacted with sodium bisufite, it is chemically altered. But cytosine that has been methylated will not react with sodium bisulfite and remains a cytosine.

So, after reacting with sodium bisulfite, a variety of molecular biology procedures can be performed that will differentiate the chemically altered nucleotide bases from those that remain the same. This then tells the researchers which cytosines have been methylated (they still look like cytosines) and those that are not.

They were able to sequence directly the genomes of two different cell types: stem cells, which are non-differentiated types of cells, and fibroblasts, which are terminally differentiated. Their efforts covered about 94% of all the cytosines in the human genome. The chemical procedure allowed them to determine which cytosines were methylated and which were not.

Simply looking for which cytosines were similarly methylated or not in the two cell types informed them of differential epigenetic effects in the two cells. You directly examine this data because the Salk Institute has made it available. Pretty cool. Just a few years ago this data would have been pretty well inaccessible to even most scientists. Now anyone can see it. You can even download the data.

It is a fascinating paper. What they essentially found was that the types of methylation patterns were very different in the two cell types. What was seen with fibroblasts was generally what has been seen before. But stem cells have a completely different type of methylation pattern, one that was unexpected.

They went an checked another stem cell line at specific locations to see if it also had this unusual methylation pattern and it did. Of real interest was when they examined stem cell lines that had been created by altering differentiated cell lines (that is, the cell lines were made by reversing the normal differentiation process), they again saw the appearance of the unusual methylation patterns.

A possible conclusion is that stem cells, which are generally undifferentiated and can form a wide variety of other cell types, have a very unusual form of DNA methylation that is altered substantially when they become other cell types.

That will be where they next explore. How do the methylation patterns change as the cells become more differentiated?

What this also shows is that we still have along way to go before understanding how a genomic sequence actually determines what happens inside a cell. Different methylation patterns are one instance where knowing the sequence is not the whole story.

There will probably be more instances where we are surprised. There may be other ways that epigenetic factors manipulate the genome. We may not even know what some of these are yet.

Technorati Tags: Science

Report documents the risks of giant invasive snakes in the US

by USGS

Report documents the risks of giant invasive snakes in the US

[Via EurekAlert! - Biology ]

(United States Geological Survey) Five giant non-native snake species would pose high risks to the health of ecosystems in the United States should they become established here, according to a US Geological Survey report released today.

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It’s bad enough that the South has all those poisonous snakes. Now it looks like they may have a lot of dangerous constrictors. I wonder which would win – an alligator or a python?

By the way, the picture above is a 16 foot Burmese Python. You can download the report also.

More Deity fun

Mr. Deity gets squishy

[Via Bad Astronomy]

IIf you don’t know about Mr. Deity, then where have you been? It’s a satirical video series that assumes that God is something of a clueless high-level executive, running into all sorts of issues while constructing the Universe. It’s been around a while, and a new episode just came out called “Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor”. Mind you, it’s only a biological science advisor; Mr. D never talked to an astronomer before constructing the Universe. But the advisor looks like someone I know. I assume that must be coincidence. Or some sort of pareidolia.

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I just love Mr. Deity! And he has been having some great guest stars recently. Adam, Michael Shermer and now PZ. You learn as you laugh, as with all good satire

I’ve followed Mr Deity for some time now. Not only is his character great but so is ‘Jesse’ (Watch Mr. Deity and the Scripts) and Lucy (I have to say ‘More Lucy.’ Her exasperation with Mr. Deity’s cluelessness is just wonderful.)

And poor put-upon Larry just makes it all work. One of the more fun web series. In fact, it seems to me that this is something that could never work on TV, even cable, as it appeals to a pretty small demographic – well educated people with a twisted sense of humor who can understand why something like a banana is funny.

But it does show that we elitists can find humor in just the geekiest things. Please donate to Mr. Deity so they can make more of these.

Brain damage from football

by jdanvers

After reading this article about the cumulative effects on the brain from playing football, I am really glad I lost a kidney when I was 8. This kept me from playing football and probably kept me from doing serious injury to my brain.

The stories in the article are heartbreaking and seem to indicate that this trauma is an inherent part of the game, something that can not just be reduced by changing the rules or the equipment. It was fascinating to read about the helmets used at UNC which record data about every hit. Often players were not concussed due to a hard hit as due to the cumulative effects of many smaller ones.

Reading about the abnormal brains found in former football players was really hard. These people put their lives at risk in order to provide entertainment for the rest of us. Only boxing seems to destroy more brains than football.

I wonder how the brains of rugby or hockey players look? Is it something just about football or do all violent, physical games result in this sort of damage?

Education and authoritarian needs

byJim Linwood
Authoritarianism in American Politics

[Via FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right]

Authoritarianism & Polarization in American Politics, co-written by Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler. (Disclosure: Jon is a longtime friend; we were in grad school together at Univ. of North Carolina.) The book is an examination of how authoritarian tendencies among American citizens inform and explain attitudes toward government, public policies and their fellow citizens. It is impossible to summarize the book properly in a blog post, but I wanted to hit on some of the points that struck me, many of which were unsurprising and yet startling to see demonstrated empirically.

The first point Hetherington and Weiler make is that authoritarianism is really about order–achieving it, maintaining it, and affirming it–and especially when citizens are uncertain or fearful. This, they say, is why authoritarians seek out and elevate, well, authorities–because authorities impose order on an otherwise disordered world. They provide a useful review the existing literature on authoritarian traits, which have been connected to negative racist stereotyping, a belief in biblical inerrancy, a preference for simple rather than complex problem-solving, and low levels of political information.

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An interesting set of numbers. It explains why authoritarian leaders want to keep the electorate uneducated. The citizens with the strongest need for strongest authoritarian leaders come from those with the least amount of education.

The easiest way to stay in power for authoritarians is to make sure that few people get a college degree. In fact, those with a graduate degree respond even less to authoritarian pleas than any other group n the figure.

Keeping people ignorant and misinformed is the best recipe for continuing power for authoritarian leaders. Claiming an educated person is simply an elitist makes it easier to maintain power. Denigrating the efforts of educated people has been a common ploy of the populist authoritarian.

Thus education, particularly public, is one of the best ways to oppose these figures.

State mottos for $1000, Alex

Humor: Our motto’s better than your motto:
[Via Crosscut]

I seldom boast about Washington state, but we do have the best motto. Our state motto is “Alki,” from Chinook jargon meaning, roughly, “Hold on,” or “Not so fast.”

“Alki” may also be translated as “by and by.” During the Eisenhower years, a group of legislative prudes, all of whom had served as hall monitors in junior high school, attempted to introduce the odious mistranslation, “hope for the future.” Speakers of Chinook jargon quickly exposed this fraud with the withering comment, “Man kloshe kopa yaka lepush pe klale kopa yaka tumtum,” which is loosely translated as “white man speaks with forked tongue.”

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Alki is pretty cool. I like ‘Not so fast’ better than ‘by and by.’ Other state mottos are pretty funny, though.

Maryland for instance. ‘Manly deeds, Womanly words.’ Okay. How about Michigan. ‘Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you)’ Classic.

And reading about the controversial changes in Oregon’s motto (Alis volat propriis) is quite enlightening. And while the motto of Texas sounds like something a marketing consultant came up with (Friendship) it is actually derived from the Indian word meaning friends or allies which the Spanish pronounced as Tejas. So its motto is also the state’s name. Nice.

Technorati Tags: General, Government

A wonderful self appraisal of what worked and what did not at Health 2.0

by oxfam international
The ugly, the bad, the very good and the great at the Health 2.0 Conference:
[Via The Health 2.0 Blog]

So the Fall Health 2.0 2009 conference in San Francisco at the Concourse Exhibition Center is over. The bunting is down, the cocktails are drunk, and everyone can get back to the sanctity of the WiFi enabled office or home. (Yes, we’re sorry about that problem and need to stress that it was NOTHING to do with AT&T who graciously sponsored the conference but were NOT providing Internet access).

But it doesn’t detract from the fabulous experience of seeing perhaps the most amazing line-up of health technology ever in one hall together–not to mention some of the biggest names in the Health IT world going toe to toe. Health 2.0 had over a hundred speakers and nearly 80 live demos and technologies on display on stage–not to mention 30 more in the exhibit hall. We featured Health 2.0 Tools for doctors, ePatients telling us what they needed, and a stirring address from CTO of the US, Aneesh Chopra. Then there was some remarkable integration over unplatforms in the tools panel–(I don’t know how often Esther Dyson gives standing ovations but that was great to see). And there was so much more.

Congrats to Remedy Rx Ventures and Unity Medical–joint winners of Launch! But honestly we believe that everyone who presented had something important to show and say. Thanks to everyone who came, demoed, sponsored, spoke, volunteered and worked so so hard (especially the volunteers who stayed late on Wednesday to move tables and chairs).

We had a great time and we made a difference. There’ll be videos and more up here next week. For now, take the weekend off!

My more detailed comments are below the fold.

The Ugly: The WiFi came from the sole source vendor attached to the venue. There is no permanent WiFi or Internet in that building. In Fall 2008 we had a maximum of 200 simultaneous users and our attendee numbers were similar this year. We contracted for an average of 300 simultaneous users with the ability to handle several hundred more and paid a large extra fee for “over-engineering” in case of last minute requests. The Internet was set up on Monday afternoon and the WiFi only worked spottily. At that stage there were only about 15–20 computers in the building. The vendor told us that because the network was open multiple people outside were on it. We were also told that interference from other equipment was the problem and the only option to was to get a completely different vendor in to build a new network, but that might still not work. We then made the changes that you saw on Tuesday morning (more channels, passcodes, etc) and it failed again. Upon further conversation with the vendor it was determined that no amount of extra work or money could guarantee us securing adequate WiFi by end of day Tuesday, so we then made the strategic decision to protect the podium links, the sponsored Twitter lounge, the press area and the exhibitors as much as possible and laid down a whole new set up for them over the next 24 hours at a very substantial extra cost. We did that because we figured that people wanted to see the demos on stage more than they wanted to read their email or surf the web, especially given that most people have got a data plan that keeps them in touch on their cell phone.

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It is really nice to see what problems arose and how they were deal with, even if without success. Reading about the decision process not only helps those who were present but is useful for any group putting on a big conference.

Read the whole thing. I think every conference should have such a fresh review. It provides a wonderful insight into the entire process, something so often invisible for attendees.

Technorati Tags: Health, Technology, Web 2.0

In defense of catchers

by Tammra McCauley

I am not a big Posada fan but as an ex-catcher (with the bad knee to prove it) I want everyone to know that it was his part in the play last night that was critical and simply amazing.

In last night’s game between the Twins and the Yankees, there was a very important play that had a impact on the game. Everyone talked about Jeter’s heads-up play. Getting to the ball was awesome but after that, it was pretty routine.

Seeing how far the runner had rounded third, he did what everyone is supposed to do – throw the ball to the next base. In this case home. He made a good throw but he is a pro ball player so that is to be expected.

Posada threw a rocket to third to get the runner out on the tag. He put the ball in the one place it HAD to get to in order to get the runner out – low and on the outside of the bag so the runner has to go through the tag to get to the base.

A bit higher or on the inside of the bag and the runner would have been safe. That could have changed the game completely.

Jeter was a heads-up play by a great ball player. but Posada’s throw is what made the out. His precision on the throw made the game.

Catcher’s rule!

Technorati Tags: General

All sorts of fun data

Blood counts are clues to human disease:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

A new genome-wide association study published today in Nature Genetics begins to uncover the basis of genetic variations in eight blood measurements and the impact those variants can have on common human diseases. Blood measurements, including the number and volume of cells in the blood, are routinely used to diagnose a wide range of disorders, including anaemia, infection and blood cell cancers.

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Comparing large databases from blood workups with genomic data, the researchers identified several regions that may be responsible for things like diabetes and heart disease. One nifty little tidbit is that these regions were positively selected for in European populations about 3400 years ago, possibly because they conferred protection against infection.

I wonder what epidemic was running throughout europe about 1400 BC?

Technorati Tags: Health, Science

Well, that is just tough! – UPDATED

by le vent le cri

Another Republican Creationist Running for Office:
[Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars]
Little Green Footballs has a post about Marco Rubio, who is running for the Senate in Florida against Gov. Charlie Crist. Rubio makes the same old tired arguments, all of them perfect examples of special pleading. Like this one:

The “crux” of the disagreement, according Rubio, is “whether what a parent teaches their children at home should be mocked and derided and undone at the public school level. It goes to the fundamental core of who is ultimately, primarily responsible for the upbringing of children. Is it your public education system or is it your parents?”

Rubio added, “And for me, personally, I don’t want a school system that teaches kids that what they’re learning at home is wrong.”

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If what you are teaching them at home actually conflicts with objective facts, then they need to learn that you are wrong! Just because you are their parents does not mean you get a free pass lying to your children about reality.

The education system is there to educate our children. If parents want to miseducate their children, tough. Otherwise, why have schools?

Yet these guys keep getting elected. Tough for all of us, I guess. As Friedrich Schiller wrote “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.” (Look it up.) Let’s hope it is not in vain.

[UPDATE - Paul Krugman had an column recently that addressed our failing education system. Far from leading the world, we are actually slightly below average. Higher education is getting gutted.]

Technorati Tags: Education, Science