Core Bio                                                                                              Yasmeen Fahr

Current Event                                                                                               5.21.14

Pensoft Publishers. "New species of metal-eating plant discovered in the Philippines." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140509130040.htm>.

            For my current event, I read an article titled “New Species of Metal-Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines.” As explained in the title, scientists have discovered a new species of plant named Rinorea Niccolifera that, strangely enough, feeds off of Nickel. Professor Edwino Fernando notes that this plant can ingest up to 18,000 ppm without being poisoned. This plant’s strange ability is found to be incredibly unique, with only about 450 of the 300,000 plant species displaying it. This plant has been placed under the category “hyperaccumulators” which are plants that live in soil with a high concentration of metal.

            The discovery of this plant is extremely important because it shows scientists where they should look for new plant species and gives them hints as to what these undiscovered plant species might be like. For example, now that this new species has been discovered, scientists might begin to look for more hyperaccumulators that perhaps ingest a different metal, or that ingest the same metal in higher concentrations. The possibilities are endless.

            I found this article very interesting and well written, but a bit sparse in information. The topic was extremely interesting but with limited data and facts on it. Otherwise, the article was very informative and overall a great read!

Young Blood May Hold Key to Reversing Aging

Alex Szor

5/20/14

Current Event

Young Blood May be Key to Reverse Aging

           

            In a new study done by two scientists from Harvard and Cornell, there has been an experiment done on mice to look into reverse aging. This experiment consisted of the scientist removing blood from the younger mouse and putting it in the older mouse. When testing the scientist got results that showed that when the younger blood was transfused, the older mice started to show signs of reverse aging. After the experiment was done the scientist did research on why this was happening. The scientist found that there was a protein called GDF11 that was found in the younger mouse’s blood but not the older mouse. Scientists then researched the protein and found why the protein was making such a big difference. The protein was increasing the efficiency of stem cells in the older mouse. As you get older your stem cells start to become less effective which causes aging. This protein that’s found in the younger mouse speeds up the stem cells in the older mouse, which is why the ageing process was revered. A similar study was done several decades ago on rats however the reason for the results was unknown until this study was done on mice.  Stem cells play an important role because the more efficiently they operate the faster they make cells, which is why when your younger you heal much more quickly. Since the stem cells in the older mouse weren’t growing as fast, a lesser amount of cells were being made which is why the mouse was aging.

            This is very important and could have major implication on the human race. It can help cure multiple diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, among multiple other diseases. Not only can it help medically but also it could have a huge impact on the market. Since some of the richest doctors are plastic surgeons this could be an alternate to having surgery. This could also have a negative impact because of diseases transferred through the blood. It can also leas to multiple religious debates and over population.

            I really enjoyed this article and I thought it was really well written. I liked that there was opinions from multiple different doctors from multiple different medical centers. I also like that it gave a lot of fact and really gave you the big picture of this experiment. The only thing I wish they did was added more information on the stem cells and more detail on how they lead to aging. Besides that I really enjoyed this article and I learned much from it.

Zimmer, Carl. "Young Blood May Hold Key to Reversing Aging." The New York Times 4 May 2014. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/science/young-blood-may-hold-key-to-reversing-aging.html?ref=science>.

Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries

Biology                                                                                                                           Mia Bettino

Current Event Report                                                                                                            5/19/14

Schwarz, Alan. "Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 May 2014. Web. 19 May 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/us/among-experts-scrutiny-of-attention-disorder-diagnoses-in-2-and-3-year-olds.html?_r=0>.

            This article is about young children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder being diagnosed with medications like Ritalin and Adderall, which some doctors find very unsafe for small children and their developing brains. Based off of a report by Susanna N. Visser, it is estimated that ten thousand two- and three- year olds are being treated with such medications. She says that families with children that have behavioral issues are coming to the doctor for help and the children are being diagnosed with A.D.H.D. instead of making an effort to change their child’s learning environment. Some children are misdiagnosed, for behavioral issues are sometimes a result of a violent or neglectful home life. Dr. Doris Greenberg, a behavioral pediatrician, says, “You have children with depression and anxiety who can present the same way, and these medications [like Ritalin and Adderall] can just make those problems worse.” A 2006 study about the effects of methylphenidate (Ritalin) showed that these medications could help with A.D.H.D. symptoms, but the study was only performed on a small number of three-year-olds. Overall, it is very controversial as to whether or not these stimulant drugs on young children with A.D.H.D., especially since so many children are misdiagnosed.

            This article is very relevant to today. I have heard a lot about more and more children being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and that they are often treated with these drugs, but I had no idea that children were being given these medications as young as two years old! Since A.D.H.D. diagnoses are on the rise, it is very important that doctors are careful with what they are prescribing to young children and why. Behavioral pediatrician Dr. Lawrence H. Diller said, “People prescribing to 2-year-olds are just winging it. It is outside the standard of care, and they should be subject to malpractice if something goes wrong with a kid.” Obviously, some people are taking this controversy very seriously.

            I really enjoyed reading this article. It gave me good background information about the topic and went into detail about why this is such a big controversy. I learned that one in five boys will be diagnosed with A.D.H.D. during childhood! That is a huge number – that is way larger than I expected. This article was to the point but gave enough information so that I felt well informed about this topic after reading it. One question that arose while reading the article was: What are some things that could happen to a child if they respond badly to the stimulant drugs? I thought that this was key information that the author left out. However, the article was very well-written and has made me curious to find out more.

Stanford Researchers Discover Precursor Cell for Bone, Cartilage, Blood and Stromal Cells

Biology                                                                                                            Olivia Samios

Current Event                                                                                              May 19^th, 2014

           

            In this article, researchers explained how they discovered a stem cell that creates bone, cartilage, and stromal niche cells. These three tissues are essential to human life, as bone cells create bones, which we need to function in everyday life, cartilage allows our bones to move and be flexible, and stromal niche cells create bone marrow which creates blood cells. These three cell types are part of the hematopoietic system- the bodily system that includes organs and tissues such as bone marrow, spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes, and the production of blood. The hematopoietic system can be used in such a way to fight infections and cancers.

The researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, Michael Longaker, MD, and Charles Chan, PhD, supported by the National Institutes of Health, discovered the cell BCSP (Bone Cartilage Stromal Progenitor). These cells make blood cells and immune cells, stromal cells such as the one that supports blood and immune cells, one that supports the generation of an immune cell called the B cell, and another that supports another progenitor cell. The discovery of this stem cell allows scientists and researchers to understand how one cell can create many different kinds of cells. The researchers believe the interactions between stromal cells and blood cells can answer questions about certain diseases.

The discovery of the BCSP cell is relevant today because it allows scientists and doctors and other people of the medical world get closer to finding cures for diseases and caners, such as leukemia and other blood diseases. The finding of new stem cells lets scientists expand their knowledge of the human body and how it works, which leads them to long sought after cures for numerous diseases.

I found this article to be very remarkable, as it’s not every day one discovers a new part of the human body. The author explained clearly what the importance of finding this cell is and he talked a lot about what the BCSP cell does and why it is critical that researchers know about it. However, I had to look up a lot of the words in this article, such as “stromal niche” and “hematopoietic system.” In all fairness, this article was probably not written for high school students to read, most likely other researchers, doctors, etc. so the vocabulary was not suited to my level of understanding. Another thing that I found strange was that the author did not discuss the experiment or the way that the researchers found the BCSP cell. I would’ve liked to know what exactly they did to find a new stem cell. Perhaps if the author had explained the experiment or process and had been more specific with his terms, I would’ve found this article more informative, although there was a lot of great information and I learned a lot.

"Stanford Researchers Discover Precursor Cell for Bone, Cartilage, Blood and Stromal Cells." Bone Progenitor Cell. Standford School of Medicine. Web. 19 May 2014. <http://stemcell.stanford.edu/news/progenitor.html>.

Biology 10H                                                                                                   Taylor Sears

Current Event #2                                                                                          May 14, 2014

"Promising Solution to Plastic Pollution." N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2014.

            Recently researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering introduced a new bioplastic that comes from shrimp shells. The material that is so useful is the chitosan, which is a form of chitin. Chitin is the second-most plentiful organic material on Earth. The researchers use the chitosan to make shrilk, which is a compostable material. This article discusses the why this new shrilk bioplastic is better than the bioplastic made from renewable cellulose. One reason being the shrilk breaks down a lot fast. It only takes a couple of weeks whereas the current bioplastics don’t even fully degrade in the environment. Also, shrilk helps the environment by releasing nutrients that support plant growth.

            This article is important because there is a lot of pollution today and we need to find materials that will help the environment and not hurt it. Today, researchers have discovered that 34 million tons of plastic waste is generated each year and of that 34 million tons less than 7% is recovered for recycling. All the plastic that is not being recycled and being buried in landfills are threatening the marine life in all oceans around the world. Sooner or later species will become extinct because all the plastic is killing them. It is our job to find the least harmful plastic to use to make it safe for marine life. The Wyss Institute has done that. They discovered a bioplastic that will not harm the earth, but help it.

            Overall, I really liked this article and the topic of the article. I love animals and would not want to see any of them being harmed from things humans can prevent. I liked how the article used good statistics as facts to illustrate how badly plastics are affecting our environment. This article was not extremely challenging to read, but it wasn’t easy. There were a couple of words I had to look to double check what they were like, chitin and chitosan. Other then those words I thought they did a great job describing the new bioplastic. I particularly liked how they compared the new one to the old one. By doing this it shows how much better the new bioplastic is then the old bioplastic.

Current Events in Biology

Scientists Add Letters to DNA, Raising Hopes and Fears as reported in the New York Times. This field reports on the latest in the cutting-edge field of synthetic biology, tinkering with the code of life itself!

Promising solution to plastic pollution: Harvard's Wyss Institute creates bioplastic made from shrimp shells, as reported in the Harvard Gazette. Do you know about the island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean? Or the effects of all our plastic garbage on marine life? If not, you should!

New species of metal-eating plant discovered in the Philippines as reported in Science Daily. This article is very short, so you will want to click the link and browse the open-access journal article that describes the new species to get some more information if you plan to write a report on this topic. 

Happy reading!