Day: January 16, 2013

HIV mutation opens another pathway to halt AIDS

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Queensland researchers believe they’ve hit upon a “light switch” protein within the HIV virus, which can be flicked off to stop it developing into full-blown AIDS…

“This has the possibility – not to eliminate the virus – but hopefully to allow us to reconstitute a human immune system that is resistant to HIV,” Associate Professor David Harrich said.

He said they experimented on a normal protein usually used by the HIV virus to replicate itself in human cells and mutated it to create the “Nullbasic” protein.

“We now have a very potent protein that can stop HIV from growing in cells,” he said…“Instead of being an activator of HIV, it’s an inhibitor of HIV…”

“The reason we got so encouraged was because of just how well this protein worked in the cell culture, so we’re fairly convinced the animal model study will be successful,” he said.

With animal then human trials predicted to take five to 10 years, Associate Professor Harrich said the ultimate goal would be to develop a gene therapy treatment – similar to therapies provided to people with cancer – that would replace current regimes of antiretroviral drugs.

“With a single therapy that you would have long-lasting protection from the virus and could lead a drug-free life,” he said.

Step by step the longest march can be won.

Neo-Con in Congress now stands for Neo-Confederate

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In the current issue of Vanity Fair, Todd Purdum equates the current era with the decades before and after 1500 during which the New World was discovered and explored, trade became a global enterprise, the Reformation broke the religious monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church, the feudal system gave way to nation states and movable type and the printing press created the first form of mass communication.

The introduction to Purdum’s column sums up his thesis: “Not in 500 years has the world seen such revolutionary change as it is now witnessing: the Internet, genetic engineering, mass migration, climate change, worldwide economic dislocation, a new global elite, and more.” Then comes this kicker: “Yet our leaders don’t seem to take any of it seriously.”

Well, a few of our leaders do. But our political system does not, in general, reward politicians who bust up our comfortable myths by acknowledging, as Abraham Lincoln did, that “we must think anew and act anew” in order to save our country. The reactionaries of Lincoln’s day did not see him as a visionary who would lead the country on a more enlightened path. They saw him as a dangerous radical and, to preserve the rotten, wicked, entrenched old system, they drove the country into civil war.

Today, there are quite a few very vocal neo-Confederates who think gun rights, states rights, the protection of white American culture and elimination of “excessive” taxation on the rich are the nation’s preeminent concerns. Their anti-bellum mindset makes it impossible for them to accept scientific reality — climate change, evolution, the true age of the planet — and political reality — America is becoming a more diverse, tolerant nation that does not share their fear-driven philosophy.

One of our two great political parties has been captured by the neo-Confederates and, because so many of them have been elected to Congress, the political system is gridlocked. Big problems are either ignored — climate change, deterioration of infrastructure, the toxic greed in the financial system — or kicked down the road to be fixed another day.

Horsey completes his analysis with a hope for sanity and change. He believes our history of throwing forward movements and leaders to conquer the cowardice of clowns like our neo-Confederates will continue undaunted. I’m not convinced.

Do we have the capacity for change? Of course. Do we have the people in place to press for that change, to lead both the populace and lawmakers into action? I’m not convinced.

2013 Detroit Auto Show news

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The annual North American International Auto Show will showcase the state of the art in big pickups. The public will get its first look at General Motors Co.’s new Chevrolet Silverado, as well as Ford Motor Co.’s concept for the next Ford F-150. No wonder stocks of both companies are trading near 18-month highs. Cars will make big news, too: Toyota Motor Corp. is unveiling a model that hints at the look of its next Corolla, one of the world’s best-selling vehicles, while GM will unveil the much-anticipated seventh-generation Corvette

I’ve been a car nut all my life. That’s carried me through more experience than most in a range of vehicles – from wheels that are competitive and fun to race like Corvette and Morgan to mid-size luxury like the Cressida and Jaguar – and smartly-styled econo-wheels like the new Fiesta and every year’s latest Prius.

Can’t pass up several looks at the newest of the new. And I recommend CNET’s car geek podcasts, as well. I have them automagially downloaded along with the other IPTV shows I watch via iTunes and AppleTV.

18 human heads found in Chicago’s O’Hare airport shipment

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Investigators probing a shipment of 18 human heads intercepted at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport have determined they came from bodies donated for scientific research and were being transported for disposal…

U.S. Customs agents discovered the grisly package, which was shipped to Chicago from Italy shortly before Christmas, on Monday. Because the shipment’s paperwork was not in order, agents confiscated the heads and sent them to the Cook County Medical Examiner for safekeeping, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said.

The heads, which had been used by a medical research facility in Rome, were properly embalmed, wrapped and labeled when they arrived at the airport, said Mary Paleologos, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner. Foul play has been ruled out, she said.

Phew!

On Tuesday, the cremation company that was supposed to take delivery of the heads and dispose of them presented the missing paperwork to the medical examiner, Paleologos said.

The medical examiner said the remains would not be released to the company until federal authorities verified the paperwork.

In the meantime, the medical examiner is photographing and x-raying the embalmed heads for record-keeping purposes, Paleologos said.

One of my several careers was in logistics. In fact, some of that time spent at an International Airport. Never – I repeat, never – was I called in to examine and record a shipment like this one.

Tree rings reveal climate variability and human history

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Click to enlarge

Socio-cultural disruptions in Eastern Europe during the past millennium coincided with periods of decreased temperature, and recent temperatures in this region are warmer than at any previous time during this period. These two key findings derive from a dendrochronological study that was conducted by an international research team under the lead of Ulf Büntgen from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and the University of Berne. The scientists, for the first time ever, reconstructed Eastern European springtime temperatures continuously back into medieval times…

A total of 545 precisely dated tree-ring width samples, both from living trees and from larch wood taken from historical buildings in the northern Carpathian arc of Slovakia, were used to reconstruct May-June temperatures yearly back to 1040 AD. The tree-ring data from the Tatra Mountains best reflects the climate history of Eastern Europe, with a geographical focus on the Baltic. The tree-ring record reveals several cold phases around ~1150, 1400, and in the 19th century. Mild springtime conditions occurred in the first half of the 12th century, as well as from ~1400-1780. The amount of climate warming since the mid-20th century appears unprecedented in the millennium-long context.

In addition to the development of the tree ring-based temperature history, the interdisciplinary research team* compared past climate variability with human history. Plague outbreaks, political conflicts and migration movements often matched periods of cooler temperatures. Moreover, fluctuations in settlement activity appear to be linked to climate variability. The Black Death in the mid-14th century, the Thirty Years War between ~1618-1648 and the Russian crusade of Napoleon in 1812 are three most prominent examples of climate-culture interactions.

The new evidence from Eastern Europe partially confirms similar observations from previous dendroclimatological investigations in Central Europe. However, the lead author of both studies, Ulf Büntgen, is cautious about making simplified conclusions: “the relationship between climate and culture is extremely complex and certainly not yet well enough understood. Nevertheless, we now better recognize that well documented and carefully analyzed tree-ring chronologies can contain much more information than supposed so far”.

Students of climate science witness one confirmation after another. The two years I originally spent following the research done by the Max Planck Institute on climatology have never been countered by anything more than piddling featherweight challenges from ideological skeptics. Sometimes paid. Sometimes not. It’s not worth the time deciding whether an obscure pedant with a book deal is any less of a hypocrite than some fawning flunkie in the Texas Legislature. Neither ends up worthy of consideration.