August 14, 2008
Category: Blogging news
Chris Condayan, ASM's public outreach and media guru (and the guy behind the scenes of MicrobeWorld), has an editorial in the latest issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology. Cleverly titled "Culture media," Condayan encourages microbiologists to get involved sharing their knowledge online (and gives examples of ways they can do so). He notes:
As long as the internet remains free from regulation, every microbiologist has just as much access to online distribution as the BBC and CNN do. And in this day and age, if you don't start sharing knowledge and news online, you may run the risk of becoming irrelevant in the near future.
If you can't get your hands on the whole article, drop me an email and I can send it along.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 2:00 PM • 6 Comments
August 7, 2008
Category: Politics • Public health • Various bacteria
So, after almost a week of intense media scrutiny and finger-pointing at USAMRIID scientist Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks, the FBI has now released its documents pertaining to the case, and declares that Ivins was indeed their man. However, a lot of unanswered questions remain--about the investigation itself, the whole mess surrounding the anthrax attacks and what they meant to the "war on terror," and the science itself that linked the attack strain to Ivins' lab. A few of the remaining issues are discussed below...
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Posted by Tara C. Smith at 2:50 PM • 15 Comments
August 1, 2008
Category: Infectious disease • Politics • Public health • Various bacteria
Real life work has once again stepped in, so I won't have the Helicobacter posts up until next week. However, in the meantime, a big story has broken regarding the 2001 anthrax attacks--a potential suspect, and his suicide before he could be arrested. Will we ever actually get to the bottom of this? More discussion below...
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Posted by Tara C. Smith at 1:40 PM • 16 Comments
July 30, 2008
Category: General biology • Various bacteria
An interesting new paper is just out today in PLoS ONE. You recall the announcement a few years back that soft tissue that resembled organic tissue had been isolated from a Tyrannosaurus femur. This started off a huge controversy in the field (and beyond)--researchers disagreeing with each other whether the structures seen were indeed blood cells and vessels; creationists crowing about how this finding represented "proof" that the earth was indeed young and dinosaurs had existed just a few thousand years ago; and of course, talk of cloning and DNA analysis. On the side of "soft tissue = dino blood" were findings that reported identification of the iron-containing protein heme (potentially from the red blood cells) and morphology of cells and vessels similar to that seen in modern-day ostriches and emu. However, the new paper by Kaye et al. provides an alternative explanation: that the structures aren't actual vessels and cells, but are instead iron-rich bacterial biofilms. More on that below.
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Posted by Tara C. Smith at 10:35 AM • 14 Comments
July 29, 2008
Category: Cancer epidemiology • Infectious disease • Various bacteria
Helicobacter pylori is, by bacteriological standards, a relative newcomer to medicine. Although its pathogenesis has been studied for only about the past 20 years, there are reports from as far back as the late 19th century of small, helical bacteria in the stomachs of some patients. Largely these anecdotal reports were relegated to the "hmm, interesting" file and not followed up for many years. It wasn't necessarily that others didn't follow (or care about) the research; the lack of studies on them, despite occasional reports in the literature, is probably due more to the fact that we hadn't figured out yet how to culture them outside of the body. Prior to the era of molecular biology, this made studies of bacteria such as Helicobacter difficult, if not impossible.
However, studies began in the late 1970s by Robin Warren and Barry Marshall led initially to the culture of Helicobacter pylori (previously designated Vibrio rugula and Campylobacter pylori) from human stomachs--and a quarter-century later, a Nobel prize for their discovery and subsequent work showing the relationship between Helicobacter pylori and gastritis and gastric ulcer disease. The bacterium has also been shown to play a role in the development of several types of gastric cancers.
Additionally, Helicobacter research has extended far beyond the stomach, providing clues about the development of other diseases and even human migration. I'll write more about these topics later this week, highlighting two new papers featuring this fascinating gastric bacterium.
Image from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/EMpylori.jpg
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 1:15 PM • 4 Comments
July 28, 2008
Category: Conferences and meetings
After this year's meeting was cancelled due to flooding, both the Evolution of Sex and Recombination and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meetings will be here in Iowa City next year, May 31-June 7. John and RPM will be there; I smell scienceblogger meetup...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 5:40 PM • 1 Comments
July 25, 2008
Category: Housekeeping
Thomas asks in the comments:
"More after the jump..." WTF? Why must people insist on using this trite, meaningless phrase? Don't they know it immediately makes people hate them for using it? I'm pretty sure people know how to scroll down to see if the article continues. And when all that "jump" is is a double-spaced line... WFT!?
I'm not a big fan of this phrase either, but I started using it after talking with readers who 1) came in from the home page and it wasn't always clear from the portion of the post appearing there if there was additional text at the link; and 2) read via RSS feed and would only click through if it was also obvious there was more to read that way. I realize, though, that it makes it a bit awkward for readers coming in via a link from the Sb home page or elsewhere, though--so I'm certainly open to any suggestions.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 9:45 PM • 23 Comments
Category: General Epidemiology • Public health • Science education
As I've mentioned, this has been a busy year. In the span of 3 months, 3 small grants were funded; enough to keep me busy for the next year. Though my training prior to arriving here was almost exclusively in bench microbiology (mostly molecular microbiology/molecular epidemiology), I knew when I took my current job that I wanted to expand that and go beyond just examining whatever samples someone else had on hand, and set up my own studies. Being Iowa, a big focus of our work is rural health and agriculture, so this has taken me out to cattle and pig farms--previously with a technician who worked for me, and a large animal veterinarian who we work with. This summer so far it's been just me, my grad student, and our summer interns (including some who'd never been on a farm before)--pictures included after the jump.
Read on »
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 11:00 AM • 6 Comments
July 23, 2008
Category: Public health
So it's not quite a colonoscopy on live TV, but Janet's done the public health world a favor and blogged her mammogram.
However, one commenter notes:
How about a discussion of the ethics of this particular screening method since it's fairly equivocal whether it's actually worth the hassle and all the false positives in women aged 40?
I don't follow cancer diagnostics enough to be able to comment with any authority on that, so I'd be interested in hearing more from people out there with expertise in that area. However, a 2007 review and meta-analysis says this:
Meta-analyses of randomized, controlled trials demonstrate a 7% to 23% reduction in breast cancer mortality rates with screening mammography in women 40 to 49 years of age. Screening mammography is associated with an increased risk for mastectomy but a decreased risk for adjuvant chemotherapy and hormone therapy. The risk for death due to breast cancer from the radiation exposure involved in mammography screening is small and is outweighed by a reduction in breast cancer mortality rates from early detection. Rates of false-positive results are high (20% to 56% after 10 mammograms), but false-positive results have little effect on psychological health or subsequent mammography adherence. Although many women report pain at the time of the mammography, few see pain as a deterrent to future screening. Evidence about the effect of negative screening mammography on psychological well-being or the subsequent clinical presentation of breast cancer is insufficient.
Personally, I'd rather have to deal with a false positive than wait for a mammogram, but ideally the patient would be presented with the pros and cons of the screening procedure so they know what they're getting into. For me, the decrease in death rate justifies the potential false alarm, but others may be more freaked out than I am about a potentially positive result.
[Edited to add] And just as I publish this, Janet steps in with a follow-up post on the pros and cons of mammography for breast cancer screening in her age group (under 50). Go check hers out for more of the nuances...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 12:55 PM • 9 Comments
July 16, 2008
Category: Misc.
Back out swabbing today (noses this time, not asses). Heading out with 3 grad students who've never done field work before, so should be a fun day. Meanwhile, just got another manuscript submitted last night; that makes four currently under review with still a few other in draft. In the meantime, don't feel [or feed--TS] the troll(s)--I'll be back to clean up when I can.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 8:30 AM • 8 Comments
July 15, 2008
Category: Science education • Science journalism
So, as you've probably heard and read around here on Scienceblogs and elsewhere, filmmaker Randy Olson has made a new film about climate change. It's billed as a "mockumentary," and it's certainly a mock...something. There are several nuggets of good stuff in the movie, but they unfortunately get lost in the distractions. More after the jump...
Read on »
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 5:00 AM • 18 Comments
July 14, 2008
Category: Iowa/area news
How about over a billion dollars in Cedar Rapids (where flooding affected 9.2 square miles--roughly 1/7th of the city) alone?
City officials last night estimated the cost to clean up and repair or replace flood-damaged city buildings and other infrastructure at $504 million.
In addition, the officials estimated that it would cost another $810 million to protect the city against future floods through an assortment of mitigation efforts like levees, floodwalls, a possible reservoir and property buyouts.
City Manager Jim Prosser called the numbers "staggering."
He spoke in billions: half a billion dollars for cleanup, repair and replacement; $1.3 billion in total including future flood protection.
Here in Iowa City, damage to the University was recently estimated at almost a quarter of a billion dollars, and it will likely reach close to that figure by the time the final tallies are finished. Damage to the city properties isn't included in that total. Damage to agriculture in the midwest has been estimated at 8 billion dollars--half of that in Iowa. And in some areas, clean-up haven't even begun; the river just officially dropped below flood stage only a few days ago. Many roads remain closed due to either flood waters or the damage said waters inflicted, and in areas where cleanup has begun, the landscape is awash with dumpsters and buildings stripped down to the studs. And some of the flooded houses likely won't ever be repaired:
Increasingly clear, though, Bell said, is that the city is apt to see many houses sitting empty because they have sustained too much damage and are too costly to repair.
She reported that 51 percent of those who have registered here for flood relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are over the age of 60. Some of those people owned their houses outright, didn't have flood insurance and live on fixed incomes.
And as I mentioned previously, infections and injuries associated with flooding have been reported, and unfortunately few people seem to be heeding (or remembering) flood safety instructions.
The specter of the Great Flood of '08 will cast a pall over this area for a long time to come...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 8:00 AM • 2 Comments
July 11, 2008
Category: General Epidemiology • Outbreak • Public health • Various viruses
Marburg is a filovirus; a cousin of Ebola. Both cause hemorrhagic fever; both have been recently discovered in fruit bats; both have hit Africa in a small number of human outbreaks. Both also remain largely mysterious; we know very little about their ecology in the wild; how frequently they really infect humans (and other animal species; Ebola especially has taken a toll on great apes); and their mode of transmission from their wild reservoir to primate hosts. These enormous gaps in our knowledge remain despite recently passing the 40-year mark since the discovery of filoviruses in a lab in Marburg, Germany. Now it seems the Marburg virus has re-surfaced in Europe, in a Dutch tourist who recently traveled to Uganda. More after the jump...
Read on »
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 11:55 AM • 24 Comments
June 30, 2008
Category: Misc. • Politics
I rarely talk politics here, but I received this email from a cousin the other day:
According to the Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuassive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal.... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destory everything. Is it OBAMA??
The email itself, unfortunately, isn't out of the ordinary; many of my family members believe we're in the End Times. What made this one unique is that the Washington Post has an article up about my hometown (Findlay, Ohio, "Flag City USA") discussing this phenomenon; more after the jump.
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Posted by Tara C. Smith at 1:20 PM • 54 Comments
June 28, 2008
Category: Antibiotic resistance • Book & movie reviews • Ecology • General biology • Infectious causes of chronic disease • Infectious disease
Balance is a tricky thing to find in area, and medicine is notorious for its trade-offs. A drug that may make you well in the long run may also have side effects that make taking the medicine difficult. Even drugs that we often think of as typically innocuous, such as antibiotics, can have an enormous cost associated with their use, both at the individual and the population level. Sachs covers our love-hate relationship with antibiotics and germs in general in her book, Good Germs, Bad Germs. More after the jump...
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Posted by Tara C. Smith at 11:00 AM • 5 Comments
