As Global Temperatures Rise, World's Lizards Are Disappearing: 20 Percent of All Lizard Species Could Be Extinct by 2080

-For many lizards, global climate change is a matter of life and death.
-Rising temperatures have driven 12 percent of the country's lizard populations to extinction.
-Scientists predict that a full 20 percent of all lizard species could be extinct by the year 2080.
-Studies in Mexico indicate that the temperatures in those regions have changed too rapidly for the lizards to keep pace.
-Lizards are far more susceptible to climate-warming extinction than previously thought because many species are already living right at the edge of their thermal limits, especially at low elevation and low latitude range limits.

Reflection: I think it sucks that different species are being affected by all the bad that we do in the world. The pollution and other ways we are destroying the ecosystem is ruining the lives of other animals. It's a shame that some people don't even realize the destruction we are doing to the world. It should be a way more talked about problem, as it concerns everyone and everything on the planet. We should all be very careful and try to minimize our bad impact on the world because one day it might come back to haunt us.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100513143447.htm

Picture: http://www.metalmorphosis.biz/decorative/lizards_geckos/images/lizards_double_thick_c.jpg

Citation: American Association for the Advancement of Science. "As Global Temperatures Rise, World's Lizards Are Disappearing: 20 Percent of All Lizard Species Could Be Extinct by 2080." ScienceDaily 13 May 2010. 17 May 2010 .

Mutations That Cause Parkinson's Disease Prevent Cells from Destroying Defective Mitochondria

- Mutations that cause Parkinson's disease prevent cells from destroying defective mitochondria
-Mitochondria are often dysfunctional in Parkinson's disease, but how Parkin stimulates mitophagy and whether the pathway goes wrong during pathogenesis is unknown
-Researchers found that cells expressing mutant forms of Parkin failed to clear their mitochondria after the organelles were damaged.
- Both pathways rely on microtubules, HDAC6, and p62,providing a common link between the two main features of the neurodegenerative disorder.
-The clearance of defective mitochondria is proven to be similar to the removal of damaged proteins.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100510121215.htm

Picture: http://www.topnews.in/health/files/Parkinsons-disease2.jpg

Citation: Rockefeller University Press. "Mutations That Cause Parkinson's Disease Prevent Cells from Destroying Defective Mitochondria." ScienceDaily 10 May 2010. 17 May 2010 .

New Hope Exists in Treating Inherited Disease by Suppressing DNA Mutations

-Scientists are getting progressively closer to producing drugs that fix the disrupted protein pathaway, drastically improving the treatment of genetic diseases
-The experimental drug Ataluren may help to treat some cystic fibrosis patients. Ataluren also holds promise in treating more than 2,400 different genetic disorders caused by nonsense mutations.
-the key consideration when treating a genetic disease with suppression therapy, is the fraction of the missing protein that must be restored to yield a therapeutic benefit
-An estimated one-third of gene defects responsible for human disease are thought to come from nonsense mutations.
-Ataluren is now being tested in humans for its effectiveness in treating Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, hemophilia A, hemophilia B and other conditions.

Reflection: This article was interesting but kind of hard to get. I had to re-read certain parts of this in order to fully understand the article. I think the just of it is about the experimental drugs Ataluren and how it helps re-build certain proteins that are not made correctly before child birth.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100426131435.htm

Picture: http://whyfiles.org/212elect_ID/images/prescription_bottle.jpg

Citation:Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. "New Hope Exists in Treating Inherited Disease by Suppressing DNA Mutations." ScienceDaily 26 April 2010. 17 May 2010 .

Live Evolution Witnessed In Controlled Environment Of Microbial Predator And Prey

• Under certain conditions, certain prey become resistant to it’s predator.
• Eventually the predator itself evolves so that it can attack this new prey.
• Scientists tried to recreate this concept using bacterium and a liquid medium.
• After the experiments were over the scientists found that the predator was only able to adapt to get to one of the prey, and the other remained untouched.
• Whatever makes prey resistant and predators capable of attacking them again remains weakly understood and relatively unclear.


Reflection:
I thought that this article was pretty interesting, but it was kind of hard to understand because it was very complex. Finding an arms race on these news websites was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But eventually I found this one and I decided to stick with it. What’s good about this article is that it really paints a mental picture of what’s going on, even if sometimes the picture was unclear. Next time I do a “science in the news, I’m going to try and pick an article that is less sophisticated, so it will suit me better and be easier for me to understand.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305150917.htm

Citation:CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange). "Live Evolution Witnessed In Controlled Environment Of Microbial Predator And Prey." ScienceDaily 10 March 2009. 16 May 2010 .

Picture:http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/03/090305150917-thumb.jpg

Causes of Death in AIDS Patients

- Of the 11876 deaths that occured,50% of the people who had HIV eventually went on to die of Aids
-New research shows that Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) continues to dramatically reduce rates of mortality from HIV infection in high-income countries.
-Because deaths from AIDS decline with time for patients on ART, non-AIDS-related deaths exceeded AIDS deaths after patients had been taking ART for approximately four years.
-A prominant killer in patients was cancer
-Results imply that the process of aging will become a dominant factor in HIV mortality in the next decade.

Reflection: I thought that this article was interesting. It teaches you certain things about HIV, which in turn makes you want to do anything you can to prevent yourself from getting it. If theres one thing I took away from this article it was that HIV is extremely dangerous because it attacks your immune system. With a weak immune system you body is extremely susceptible to other virus and loses its ability to defend itself. We touched upon this in Bio class but its important to learn more about certain STD's because knowledge is Power. The more you know about them the more likely you are to protect yourself from them.




Link:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428101441.htm

Picture:http://www.hanci.com/app/webroot/files/World_Aids_Day_Ribbon.png

Citation: University of Bristol. "Causes of Death in AIDS Patients." ScienceDaily 29 April 2010. 16 May 2010 .

Modified Crops Reveal Hidden Cost Of Resistance

• Cultivated squash is susceptible to a variety of viral diseases
• Ecologists worry there might be certain hidden costs associated with the modified crops.
• The researchers discovered that as the viral infection swept the fields containing both genetically modified and wild crops, the damage from cucumber beetles is greater on the genetically modified plants.
• The modified plants are therefore more susceptible to the fatal bacterial wilt disease.
• When both the bacterial and viral pathogens are present, the beetles tend to avoid the smaller viral infected plants and concentrate on the healthy transgenic plants.


Reflection
I chose this article because it reminded me a lot of what we watched in class today and all through last week. The whole controversy over the Hawaiian papaya was somewhat similar to this because that scientist faced adversity at first but he later overcame in and his genetically modified papayas might have a chance to save the multimillion dollar papaya farms in Hawaii. I think if these guys keep working on fixing there plant they can over come their problems too. You can do anything if you try.


Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916153147.htm

Citation: Florida State University. "Single Missing Protein May Result In Down Syndrome And Other Human Chromosomal Birth Defects." ScienceDaily 17 September 2009. 16 May 2010 .

Picture: http://redgreenandblue.org/files/2008/11/cornfield.jpg

Single Missing Protein May Result In Down Syndrome And Other Human Chromosomal Birth Defects

• The Florida State University found that when a key molecular player known as Pds5 goes missing, chromosomes fail to segregate and pair up properly, and birth defects such as Down syndrome can result.
• To produce a genetically balanced gamete, the cell must contend with two sets of chromosome pairs.
• During normal meiosis, the process of division that halves the number of chromosomes per cell, Pds5 regulates the pairing and synapsis (joining together) of 'mom and dad' homologs.
• Removing Pds5 during meiosis triggers a chromosomal catastrophe.


Reflection
I chose this article because in the 8th grade we learned a little bit about birth defects and chromosomal disorders. We just went over what they were but not how they happen. That was some I found out more about that by reading this article. I thought it was interesting to find out that one protein had such a big impact on the body and could cause something like Down syndrome. That kind of also has an in depth saying about the world. One person can have such a big impact on the world and everybody gets a chance to leave their mark.

Picture: http://thevibe.socialvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/chromosome.jpg

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916153147.htm

Citation: Florida State University. "Single Missing Protein May Result In Down Syndrome And Other Human Chromosomal Birth Defects." ScienceDaily 17 September 2009. 16 May 2010 .