CMC's NEWS REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca

News' title: Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People.

Date of publication: 3^rd of February, 2015

Source of information: New York Times

 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?_r=0)

Scientific field: Genetics (biology)

Extract:

British lawmakers voted to allow in vitro creation of babies with the DNA of three people. They are still discussing whether it should be put in practice or not.

This technique could prevent genetic diseases in women with mithocondrial defects, such as muscular dystrophy, loss of vision or even premature death. By using in vitro creation, the embryo would have nucleous DNA from the child's parents but mithocondrial DNA from a donor.
Despite all this advantages, this situation has lit a fierce debate. There are people who are in favour of allowing it. For example, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, highlights the benefits it would provide, though others are not so sure. The Human Genetic Alert, for example, has said that we are crossing an ethical threshold, and that this technique shouldn't be put in practice.

Critical appraisal: Where the limit is?

When science collides with such sensitive issues as the ones related to humans' lives, it's very difficult to determine which is the good thing to do. The ethical limits of science are pretty unclear, and the opinions related to this matter are varied. Should we leave poor babies in the hands of natural selection? Or should we interfere and try to prevent the possible diseases they carry with them?

On one hand, if we approved this technique, we could prevent most of the genetic diseases. Science has advanced enormously last decades, and it has developed pioneer

procedures which could help humans' lives to improve. This technique could be applied to women with defects in the mitochondria. By doing this, they could make sure that its son wouldn't suffer a genetic mitochondria disease, which would be great.

Despite this advantage, bioethics may not be in tune with this kind of techniques. It's true that it could prevent lots of pathologies but, on the other hand, babies would be genetically modified.

I think we shouldn't do anything against nature laws. Science is capable of doing incredible things, but I believe this advances shouldn't go in the opposite direction to what nature establishes. Furthermore, if we start giving support to this kind of pioneering techniques, we might be tempted to create DNA modified babies in the future, and that wouldn’t be ethical. We shouldn't «design» our babies under any circumstance. Does it really matter whether your son will have blue or brown eyes? We may stop caring about such things and embrace the gift of life as its given to us.

Glossary:

Threshold: the sill of a doorway.

In vitro: made to occur in a laboratory vessel or other controlled experimental environment rather than within a living organism or natural setting.

DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid: an extremely long macromolecule that is the main component of chromosomes and is the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms.

Womb: the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals.

Kidney: either of a pair of bean-shaped organs in the back part of the abdominal cavity that form and excrete urine, regulate fluid and electrolyte balance, and act as endocrine glands.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII)

Mice can teach us about

 human disease

Student Society for Science                                                                                              27-2-15

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/mice-can-teach-us-about-human-disease?mode=topic&context=39

SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Humans & Health

SUMMARY:

Scientists understand what fewer than one-fifth of human genes do; probing mice can help fill the gaps.

Zorana Berberovic works at the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics (FEE-no-geh-NO-miks) in Toronto, Canada. There she and other scientists are working together to figure out the function of every mouse gene.

That's because between the mouse and humans even they look and act very differently  85 to 90 percent of our genes are the same or at least very similar. So by understanding the instructions in every mouse gene, people should get a pretty good idea of the instructions in virtually every human gene too.

As we can see in the article Zorana uses the pee oh the mouses to research humans diseeses:

Zorana Berberovic coaxes a mouse to pee into a vial. Later, she will test its urine for signs of illness that could be related to "knocked-out" genes.

Berberovic and her fellow researchers even want to know which genes affect pee. They especially want to know whether chemicals that the body dumps into urine can tell us how healthy — or sick — an individual might be.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL: 

For a long time a lot of animals experiments were made. The humans normally use mouses, cows, goats...as an objects wich gives us profits.

In the article it's said that many scientists are looking well beyond pee. Their research may tease out which genes affect an animal’s size, weight, behavior — even lifespan. Matching a gene with the effect it has on those characteristics or traits is called phenotyping. But then what is the price? The death of thousands of mouses for their experiments?

It's true that we demostrate that the DNA is the genetic material with the Griffith's experiment or that we could cure some diseeses through animals but many of them die or have to be self-sacrificing for the sake of science.

Then is when we enter in the world of the bio ethics. We can kill animals if then we save lives? If we can, why not experiment with humans? Where's the limit? 

In my opinion we have to go on in science. Experience more and no matters the way. The limits? Humans. The animals, even I'm not agree at all are a little price that takes us to the glory and discovery.

GLOSSARY:

beneficiaries    The individuals who receive money, better health or some other type of benefit from some activity, decision or process.

DNA  (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

ethics    A code of conduct for how people interact with others and their environment. To be ethical, people should treat others fairly, avoid cheating or dishonesty in any form and avoid taking or using more than their fair share of resources (which means, to avoid greed). Ethical behavior also would not put others at risk without alerting people to the dangers beforehand and having them choose to accept the potential risks.

gene    A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

phenotype  (in biology) A term derived from the Greeks terms for “to show” and “type.” It refers to all characteristic features of an organism that can be observed. This would include its size, shape, color — even how it would typically behave. These traits stem both from its genes (what it inherited from its parents) and its “environment” — including its diet. Although individuals of a species — or even a subgroup, such as a strain —may vary somewhat, the common traits of the entire group will be its phenotype.

(The video explains the Griffith's experiment and what 

happens with the mouses used)

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VII)

Marc Dorca Fernàndez

Summary:
By measuring the rotation of gas and stars that make up our galaxy, scientists have found that there is a lot of dark matter between the Solar System and the center of Milky Way. 

According to calculations by the researchers is five times more abundant than ordinary matter. The problem with this enigmatic matter is that it is very difficult to detect because it does not emit visible light or other radiation so, the question is, how scientists achieve to demonstrate that dark matter exists.

The existence of dark matter was firmly established in 1970. Scientists has observed that, comparing the rotation velocity, something was wrong so thay thought that it would exsists another kind of matter, the dark one. By measuring the rotation of gas and stars that make up our galaxy, scientists have found that there is a lot of dark matter between the Solar System and the center of the Milky Way.

Critical appraisal:

Scientists are always discovering new things. The dark matter is one of the most difficult science field to investigate. It's good for us that they can discover more properties about this kind of matter because it could be so dangerous. So if we know where is this matter, how can it react and which are the hazards of this matter we'll understand lots of things about universe because dark matter hide a lot of information.

Glossary:

Dark matter:  Dark matter is a hypothetical kind of matter that cannot be seen with telescopes but accounts for most of the matter in the Universe.

http://www.lavanguardia.com/ciencia/20150209/54427051567/halladas-pruebas-presencia-materia-oscura-via-lactea.html

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VI)

9/2/2015

Is your toddler really smarter than a chimpanzee?

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141012-are-toddlers-smarter-than-chimps

Summary: 
The article tells us that we aren't the unic specie that learns in a large time, the chimpanzees does it too. We learn a lot of things that seems difficult but there are really simple, there are cognitive abilities that has got a great many species. 
While time pass, our abilities are more complex that the chimpanzees one, of course but, in a battle of  wits, who will win it?
All of yours are thinking that it will be win by a person but that's not true at all, it depends from the battle. In reality, when it comes to cognitive development, the divide between infant chimpanzees and infant humans is often small. A trained animal should can distinguish about a Picasso an a Monet.
Many skills that we consider complex are in fact the result of relatively simple cognitive abilities shared by a great many species.

Critical appraisal:
I think that that's not true at all. Of course that a chimpanzee can be so clever but i think that human are more intelligent that chimpanzees could ever be because, we are the most developed specie that have ever been in the Earth. We create societies, cars, houses, trains... and we were as stupid than chimpanzees a thousand years ago so we developed because we're cleverly than they in all directions.

GLOSSARY:
Cognitive abilities: are brain-based skills we need to carry out any task from the sim­plest to the most com­plex.
Startlingly: To cause to make a quick involuntary movement or start.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VII)

A new ‘spin’ on concussions

Student Society for Science                                                                                                         31-1-15

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/new-%E2%80%98spin%E2%80%99-concussions?mode=topic&context=39

SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Brain & Behavior 

SUMMARY:

Rugby and football players, boxers, mixed martial arts ... They are people whose sports involve too much contact.In this article Hernandez explains that how these people can brain injury with a tackle and he shows us how many hits they receive.Hernandez and his team recruited football players, boxers and a mixed-martial-arts fighter for their study. Each athlete was fitted with a mouthguard. He or she wore it to practices and in competitions. The researchers also recorded video during those times. This allowed the scientists to view head movement when sensors recorded strong acceleration events. More than 500 head impacts occurred. Each athlete was evaluated for evidence of a concussion caused by those head impacts. Only two concussions emerged.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL: I'm a rugby player, and is not true at all that we receive 500 head impacts! Rugby, football, boxing...maybe aren't the safer sports in the world but they aren't risky as it seems to be in the article. The methods used to measure head impact forces are not yet reliable enough for doctors to use to diagnose a likely head injury. It means that the experiment is not reliable at all. So in my opinion the hole experiment is useless. I think that using a mouthguard with a sensor and recording a matc we can't know why the injureds are cause or how. Another fail of the experiment is the fact that they create a  a computer program that modeled the head and brain. It showed what brain areas were most likely to twist or suffer some other type of strain but is not reliable at all. To sum up, it's true that we've to take care with our brain but we can't exaggerate things.

GLOSSARY:computer program  A set of instructions that a computer uses to perform some analysis or computation. The writing of these instructions is known as computer programming.concussion  Temporary unconsciousness, or headache, dizziness or forgetfulness due to a severe blow to the head.strain  (in physics) The forces or stresses that seek to twist or otherwise deform a rigid or semi-rigid object.

sensor  A device that picks up information on physical or chemical conditions — such as temperature, barometric pressure, salinity, humidity, pH, light intensity or radiation — and stores or broadcasts that information. Scientists and engineers often rely on sensors to inform them of conditions that may change over time or that exist far from where a researcher can measure them directly.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VII), by Marina Dorca

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VII), by Marina Dorca

News' title: Plastics at sea create raft of problems.

Date of publication: January the 7^th, 2015.

Source of information: Student Society for Science:

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/plastics-sea-create-raft-problems

Scientific field: environmental biology.

Extract:

A piece of plastic scooped from the North Atlantic Ocean. It shows the tell-tale bite marks of a fish.

Recent studies have estimated that seas contain about 5,25 trillion pieces of plastic.

Scientists found this results worrying, as plastic can cause lots of problems in marine ecosystems. First of all, fishes and other species can ingest plastic by mistake. Previous studies showed that plastics can soak up toxic chemicals which are released when ingested, triggering health problems. Besides, they can get entangled in plastic bags.

Scientists ask companies to set up systems to recycle plastics. They also would like to see governments pay fishermen to bring back lost nets and buoys that they find floating in the ocean.

Turtle trapped in a plastic bag.

Critical appraisal: Taking care of the environment

This article reveals the enormous problematic related to the plastic thrown in oceans and seas. The studies results have surprised me enormously, because I didn't expect seas to contain so much plastic, triggering awful consequences for sea life.

In first place, I'd like to say that I don't agree with the companies that throw away its waste. They get rid of them by leaving them in fields or directly throwing them to sea. Although it's obviously easier, they should recycle its waste if they want to save the environment. I really think governments should force this enterprises to have its own recycling plan, and fine the ones that don't do so. Moreover, they should write firm laws about this matters in order to control the situation.

Secondly, I think that we should take more care of our planet. Maybe we don't realise, but the earth we live in is all we have and we should value it more and be thankful with it. Despite the fact that we are not going to live forever, I believe that we should leave our world as pure as we can because future generations don't deserve to live in such a contaminated world. Although we are used to say that our actions won't make a difference, if we all do something we can go far.

Besides, there's the sea ecosystems issue. If we carry on like this, plastic could cause a decrease in sea life. This may even suppose the extinction of some species. As we don't want so, we have to join forces in order to reduce the amount of plastic in our seas. It's the sum of little actions that will help enormously our oceans and its live.

Luckily, amid this reality there are many individuals and groups aware of the environmental issue which are cooperating to improve this reality. Coastal clean-ups is one of the numerous initiatives that are being held in cities like San Francisco. I think we should all get involved in this kind of campaigns or promote them in our cities in case there isn't any being done.

Who has never been heartbroken with the photo of a poor turtle trapped in a plastic bag? So, if you are sensible enough to feel sorry for this animal, then you should surely be able to do something with this situation. Everyone can put his two cents.

Glossary:

Buoy A floating device anchored to the bottom of a body of water. A buoy may mark channels, warn of dangers or carry instruments to measure the environment.

Debris Scattered fragments, typically of trash or of something that has been destroyed. Space debris includes the wreckage of defunct satellites and spacecraft.

Embrittle To make brittle.

Filter feeder A water-dwelling animal that collects its nutrients or prey by filtering them out of the water. Some of the best known examples are bivalves, such as clams and mussels. But some whales use long plates of baleen to essentially do the same thing. They suck in water and then use their filtering structures to catch and retain edible materials that had been in the water.

Gyre (as in the ocean) A ring-like system of ocean currents that rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Many of the biggest, most persistent gyres have become collection sites for floating long-lived trash, especially plastic.

Ingest To eat or deliberately bring nutrients into the body by mouth for digestion in the gut.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VI)

Black holes are on collision course

Student Society for Science                                                                                                         18-1-15

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/black-holes-are-collision-course?mode=topic&context=60

SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Space

SUMMARY:

Black holes are regions of space where the gravitational field is so intense that no matter nor light can escape. In the center of a distant galaxy — a massive collection of stars — two supermassive black holes are now preparing to face off. The two are closer to each other than any other known black-hole duo. And they are providing astronomers a first peek at the final stages of a possible collision. 

The two black holes live roughly 3.7 billion light-years away so they aren't a problem for us . Their home is a quasar witch brightness typically varies randomly. But for the last two decades, light from this quasar has not. It has varied.

Its thought that it happened because of the two black-holes. 

A distance of just a few hundredths of a light-year separates the black holes. So they seem destined to spiral together and eventually merge. This smashup will likely result in a single, behemoth black hole. But don’t hold your breath awaiting the fireworks. This collision is still roughly 1 million years off.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL:

When we are travelling by car we always complain because our destination is too far. When we talk about space distances we can't imagine how far are two things that appear to be very closer.

This review makes me think in the inferiority of our brains. We can't imagine everything that happens around us and a black holes merge is one of this things. We aren't able to see them but we try to understand them.

The space is something unknow. Maybe, one day, the sun kills us whit a solar-ray or maybe a meteorite destroy the Earth by accident. 

We won't be able to know everything that happens outside our solar system.

GLOSSARY:

black hole:  A region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter nor radiation (including light) can escape.

light-year: The distance light travels in one year, about 9.48 trillion kilometers (almost 6  trillion miles). To get some idea of this length, imagine a rope long enough to wrap around the Earth. It would be a little over 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) long. Lay it out straight. Now lay another 236 more that are the same length, end-to-end, right after the first. The total distance they now span would equal one light-year.

quasar: Short for quasi-stellar light source. This is the brilliant core of some galaxy (massive collections of stars) that contains a super-massive black hole. As mass from the galaxy is pulled into that black hole, a huge quantity of energy is released, giving the quasar its light.

random:  Something that occurs haphazardly or without reason, based on no intention or purpose.