ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 503
April 25, 2016
Gene For Beak Size In Darwin’s Finches Identified
Photo credit:
Medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis). Peter R. Grant
After visiting the Galapagos, Charles Darwin proposed that species who compete for the same, limited food resources tend to diverge from each other to reduce competition. Seed-eating finches have hardy bills, for example, while those who drink nectar from cactus flowers have thin, sharp bills. This was called the principle of character divergence, now known as ecological character displacement. And nearly two centuries later, researchers have finally identified a gene that can explain differences in beak size.
NCSE and the Case of the Missing Pepper
A class action lawsuit over an ounce of pepper? Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
Screen grab from April 22, 2016: can you spot the problem?
But if it’s wrong to steal a million dollars from one person, isn’t it also wrong to steal one dollar from a million people? Of course it is. But as NYU professor Arthur Miller told NPR reporter Jacob Goldstein last week, “No lawyer is going to represent one person who lost a tiny amount of money. It just wouldn’t make economic sense.” And that’s the point of a class action lawsuit—to address small injustices that affect a lot of people.
So here’s the story, in brief. (You can listen to the whole Planet Money report, which aired on NPR’s Morning Edition on April 21, here.)
It seems that the McCormick spice company, which has a 43% share of the U.S. black pepper market (or 73% if you count the pepper that McCormick sells to grocery chains as house brands), recently reduced the weight of the pepper contained in each of its three main packages by 25%. So the standard four ounce tin now contains 3 ounces, the eight ounce tin 6 ounces, and the two ounce tin 1.5 ounces. The new quantity is listed right on the tins, which otherwise look exactly like the old tins. Strictly speaking, there’s no false advertising, because the quantity is accurate. That’s McCormick’s position, anyway. The lawyers filing the class action suit, however, say that using the identical tin is deceptive. (There’s a photo of the two tins on the NPR website.) And besides, non-functional slack fill—i.e., “putting a little bit of product in a big package for no reason”—is illegal.
You may be wondering—what does this have to do with evolution and climate change education?
Well, I was thinking about that initial proposition—that even though it’s clearly wrong to steal a little bit from a lot of people, it’s hard for those slightly harmed to get justice. And I realized that here at the National Center for Science Education, we face the same kind of challenge. Whenever a student is taught creationism instead of evolution, or that human activities aren’t affecting the climate, that student is harmed a little bit. And when that small harm is multiplied over thousands of classrooms and millions of students, the cumulative harm to our society’s capacity to understand how science works and how it can be used to help solve important problems is tremendous. You could say that this kind of educational malpractice is a sort of non-functional slack fill: replacing some of the limited time students have to learn about science with useless non-science.
Sometimes we can respond to these injustices with something like a class action suit; the decision in the Dover v Kitzmiller case that promoting intelligent design in public school biology classes is unconstitutional is one example. But generally, we have to go about our business addressing these small injustices one classroom, one school, and one community at a time. We help teachers get the support and training they need to teach these societally contentious topics clearly and confidently. We organize communities to support their local science teachers and advocate for integrity in science education. We recruit scientists to partner with teachers in local classrooms, and we monitor textbooks and oppose anti-science legislation.
NCSE and its members believe that we have to fight for educational justice for all students. If you agree, become a member and help us keep non-functional slack fill out of our nation’s science classrooms.
Scientists Have Sequenced The Genome Of Iron-Breathing Microbes
Photo credit:
The Chocolate Pot Spring in Yellowstone National Park gets its name from its color, which is a product of its iron. Microorganisms in its water live off this iron instead of oxygen. Nathaniel W. Fortney
It doesn't matter how metal you think you are, you'll never be as metal as a bacterium that breaths iron instead of oxygen. If you're a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, however, you can at least get in on the act by explaining how these microbes function.
Telescope Made From Water Allows Astronomers To Look Into The Extreme Energy Universe
Photo credit:
Shown is the HAWC observatory. Jordanagoodman/Wikimedia Commons
To truly understand the universe we need to look at it in every wavelength, and sometimes that requires some inventive methods. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory in Puebla, Mexico is one such example, and it’s helping scientists to look at the universe in gamma rays.
How Bacteria Make Ice
Photo credit:
Ice crystals on a window. Onischchenko Natalya/Shutterstock
The remarkable bacterium Pseudomonas syringae forms ice from water that would otherwise be too warm to freeze. This capacity has many effects, both beneficial and harmful, on our world, yet we are only just starting to understand how it performs this alchemy. A paper in Science has shed some light on the question.
Supernova Traces Are Showering Earth, Suggesting Multiple Explosions Nearby
Photo credit:
This bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud is made of material thrown off by a supernova. Subsequent nearby explosions can accelerate this material so that it rains down on nearby planets. Gemini South Telescope Composite by Travis Rector of the University
The distinctive products of supernova explosions have been detected passing through the Solar System, indicating the presence of recent supernova in our vicinity.
Scientists Are Recreating Some Of The Most Extreme Events That Have Ever Occurred In The Universe
Photo credit:
Artist's representation of laboratory astrophysics experiments. By mimicking fundamental physics aspects in the lab, researchers hope to better understand violent cosmic phenomena. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Understanding conditions across the universe has not always been easy, especially after the discovery of extreme environments, but technological advances are allowing scientists to recreate those scenarios right here on Earth. In the last six weeks, three papers associated with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California have showcased the importance of experimental astrophysics.
How To Run A Marathon (Hint: It’s All In The Mind)
Photo credit:
Be in the running. Padmayogini/shutterstock
Thousands of people graced the streets of London to run the annual marathon on Sunday, April 23. Runners spent weeks and months physically training alongside a carefully crafted diet plan to get them in top shape ahead of the big day.
With any marathon or long distance not only is physical preparation important but it is also crucial to prepare mentally for the gruelling number of miles. Because running a marathon is not just about the body – the mind also matters quite a bit as well.
April 24, 2016
The Dangers of ‘Polypharmacy,’ the Ever-Mounting Pile of Pills
By Paula Span
Dr. Caleb Alexander knows how easily older people can fall into so-called polypharmacy. Perhaps a patient, like most seniors, sees several specialists who write or renew prescriptions.
“A cardiologist puts someone on good, evidence-based medications for his heart,” said Dr. Alexander, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness. “An endocrinologist does the same for his bones.”
And let’s say the patient, like many older adults, also uses an over-the-counter reflux drug and takes a daily aspirin or a zinc supplement and fish oil capsules.
“Pretty soon, you have an 82-year-old man who’s on 14 medications,” Dr. Alexander said, barely exaggerating.
Geriatricians and researchers have warned for years about the potential hazards of polypharmacy, usually defined as taking five or more drugs concurrently. Yet it continues to rise in all age groups, reaching disturbingly high levels among older adults.
“It’s as perennial as the grass,” Dr. Alexander said. “The average senior is taking more medicines than ever before.”
Tracking prescription drug use from 1999 to 2012 through a large national survey, Harvard researchers reported in November that 39 percent of those over age 65 now use five or more medications — a 70 percent increase in polypharmacy over 12 years.
Lots of factors probably contributed, including the introduction of Medicare Part D drug coverage in 2006 and treatment guidelines that (controversially) call for greater use of statins.
But older people don’t take just prescription drugs. An article published in JAMA Internal Medicine , using a longitudinal national survey of people 62 to 85, may have revealed the fuller picture.
More than a third were taking at least five prescription medications, and almost two-thirds were using dietary supplements, including herbs and vitamins. Nearly 40 percent took over-the-counter drugs.
Not all are imperiled by polypharmacy, of course. But some of those products, even those that sound natural and are available at health food stores, interact with others and can cause dangerous side effects.
Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.
U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High
By Sabrina Tavernise
Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.
The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.
The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.
“It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser for health care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has identified a link between suicides in middle age and rising rates of distress about jobs and personal finances.
Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled. The number of girls who killed themselves rose to 150 in 2014 from 50 in 1999. “This one certainly jumped out,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the center and an author of the report.
Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.
ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog
- ريتشارد دوكنز's profile
- 106 followers
