Are we joiners or thinkers?

In the third installment of the Biology 4243g lecture series, Dr. Graham Smith from the department of geography at University of Western Ontario talked about ecomyths, specifically global warming. The key points in his lecture were:

•Smith beliefs Global Warming is a myth created by politicians for power and money.
•Smith claims that climate is very dynamic and complex therefore is poorly understood.
•He claims that governments use media such as emotive pictures to promote alarmism, in order for people to belief on an idea such as global warming and thereby justifying government spending.
•Says that CO2 is not to blame as it is a trace gas in the air.
•He also defined two key terms Climategate which is the misconduct by scientist to manipulate data in favour of global warming and Axiomatic Dogma which are statements that sound too evident to question or provide proof.
•Finally, Smith says that politics and science are not the same, and when they mix, they take advantage of the public’s criteria.

What I learned from Dr Smith was that we should not conform with one view, just because our government leaders promote an idea or say that something is not good for us, doesn’t mean we have to believe them. We should permit ourselves to hear both sides of the coin and draw our own opinion.
Something I found intriguing was that according to Dr Smith, politicians benefit from Global Warming, to an extent that they have to manipulate scientific data to sound convincing, making everyone reach one consensus and regulate their economy. Something I found controversial was that the sceptics, the ones that don’t believe in Global Warming are gaining as much as the pro-global warming crowd. Because companies pay sceptics to denying global warming, so companies don’t have to start making new changes. Believing this is a myth also causes people to be lay back about the way they are living today. Thus, over spending sources like hydro, oil and water.
I haven’t made up my mind yet, if Global Warming is a myth or not, but I don’t agree with Dr Smith that natural disasters and climate fluctuations happen naturally. I think everything happens for a reason. The fact that things are happening simultaneously in many places is not coincidence. For example the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the massive snow storms in Europe and North America, and the unstoppable rains and floods in Colombia, Venezuela and Australia.
Even though CO2 is a natural component of our air and it is important for photosynthesis, I think that CO2 is partly to blame, because the lack of threes to clean the air has caused accumulation of CO2 and everything in excess is not healthy. One thing that I do agree on is that politics want power and  meetings such as Copenhagen or Cancun are a waste of time and money. Governments never reach to an agreement, they only talk and no actions or improvement are seen. Also the media, which is a way for politicians to induce fear, always keeps saying that the world is coming to an end.
In collusion, just because something sounds right or intelligent doesn’t mean it is true, we cannot just support a cause because someone higher in academic knowledge than us says is right or not. We should investigate and agree on what we consider is moral. Just keep in my mind that if we choose  not to belief in Global Warming, doesn’t mean we should stop caring and worrying for the environment and how future generations will handle it.

Found! Genes responsible for hair loss!

 by : Karen Peralta

In the article: “Professor has discovered the genetic basis for hair loss” by John H. Tucker, Tucker talks about Angela Christiano a professor from the University of Columbia in New York city working at the dermatology and genetics development department.  In 1996 Christiano was diagnosed with a disease called Alopecia Areata (AA). AA is a condition where hair falls out in patches. This condition affects 2% of the population about 5.3 million people in the U.S and the second most popular form of hair loss after male-pattern baldness. Chistiano decided to study hair loss due to her experience and minimal information there was about the genes that cause hair loss. Earlier this year she conducted a research study, where her team discovered that immune genes in AA are similar to some common diseases like celiac disease, diabetes type 1 and rheumatoid arthritis. This finding has given hope that drugs used to cure these diseases could be used for AA; in particular rheumatoid arthritis’ drugs.

AA works differently than male-pattern baldness because it has an unknown onset; patients loose hair not only from the head but other parts like their legs, eyebrows or eyelashes. AA is an autoimmune response disorder; this means that the immune system of the body has turned against the body, attacking organs in good condition. In this case the organ that is being attacked is hair throughout the body. Christiano’s team of researchers found a gene called ULBP3 through a genome wide association study (GWAS); a method that studies many SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) to locate genes that causes a disease. The gene ULBP3 is turned off in normal hair follicles, but in AA ULBP3 is turned on. This is a bad sign because ULBP3 acts as a signaling light to immune killer cells. Immune killer cells carry a receptor called NKG2D which triggers an autoimmune response causing hair follicles to fall off. Even though Christiano’s team has started to find solutions, some of these are: blocking the NKG2D receptor using antibody drugs or using soluble receptors to block ULBP3 from being turned on. Besides AA, Christiano studies hypertrichosis (abnormal hair growth). According to Christiano, hair loss is one of many emotionally devastating diseases according to its quality of life index score. Recently she spoke at the AA foundation conference in Indianapolis; where she shared her experience and research. She also declared that these findings will open doors to find a solution for AA. More details can be found in her research paper published in Nature’s July 1^st /10 issue.

 This is a great article; it gives information about a disease that is not widely known and in need of funding. Christiano’s team not just informed us about AA, but showed us what they are doing to target it; by presenting the location, mechanism and solutions which many articles sometimes lack. This is a breakthrough in science; because this novel gene (ULBP3) not only opens doors to combat hair loss, but also to develop drugs or creams that induce hair loss for beauty purposes or people with hypertrichosis (excess hair). The fact that AA not only occurs in the head but other parts of the body would make women be first in line willing to pay for these types of treatments. Maybe knowing about both AA and hypertrichosis can complement each other in treatment by analyzing these diseases and tinkering with them until a solution is found. This article was interesting as it made me aware of something new. Plus, I like how it combines genetics with immunology which are two subjects I am currently studying.

 

Figure 1.  Alopecia Areata (AA) patient. Source: Hair Center 2010.

Figure 2. Many women struggle with hair removal products AA genes could help develop products to remove hair permanently. Source: The Fashionable house wife 2010.

Figure 3 Hypertrichosis or Werewolf syndrome is the abnormal excess of hair growth disease, Studying AA could help people that suffer Hypertrichosis by perhaps activating genes responsible fo AA and vice versa. Source: www.xenophilius.wordpress.com 2010.

The news article:

http://news.columbia.edu/record/2191

Primary Research Paper:

Petukhova L, Duvicm M, Hordinsky M, Norris D, Price V, Shimomura Y, Kim H, Singh P, Lee A, Chen WV, Meyer KC, Paus R, Jajoda CAB, Amos CI, Gregersen PK , Christiano AM. 2010. Genome-wide association study in alopecia areata implicates both innate and adaptive immunity. Nature 466:113-118.

PMID: 20596022