BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Author: michael2012

Walking on Walls

 

Photo Credit: dirk huijssoon flickr

Have you ever wished you could walk on walls? Ever wished you could get your new plasma TV on the wall and be able to easily move it later? Well, now you can do both of those things. Using the gecko‘s feet as a model, scientists were able to replicate the adhesive mechanism that geckos use to get around.

The gecko’s feet can stick to almost any smooth surface whether it be vertical, horizontal, slanted, or curved. In addition, they never leave any sticky residue behind and never have trouble moving. The ability to put things, particularly heavy things, on walls and easily remove them later without any damage is something that everyone would like to be able to do. Scientists researched the intricate mechanisms in the geckos feet to determine how the gecko can firmly stick to smooth surfaces and move so easily. They determined that it was a combination of the pads on the gecko’s feet along with the arrangement of tendons and muscles in the feet. This new idea allowed scientists to develop an adhesive, “Geckskin”, that could stick to a smooth surface, hold 700 pounds, and be easily removed. This new adhesive is still being perfected but soon you could actually be able to walk on walls, just like the gecko.

CHIPping away at Disease

Photo Credit: ngineerit flickr

Many people suffer from chronic illnesses that require daily, even hourly, injections of medication. These injections can be frustrating, annoying, and dangerous. However, after 15 years of work, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima finally created a microchip that can be implanted once and can distribute dosages of medicine for extended periods of time. The device delivers the same dosages as the injections. In fact, Cima and Langer found that the chip delivered the dosages at a more consistent and accurate rate than the injections.

The chip would be a major help to people who need injections of medicine because it wouldn’t give them any reason, such as pain, to skip their dose. The chip can be implanted in about 30 minutes and in a trial study there were no side effects. They implanted seven women from 65 years of age to 70 years of age who suffer from osteoporosis. The chip diligently delivered their medicine for four months. This new technology can be expanded to deliver several medications for longer periods of time. It could save millions of people from daily pain.

Learning to Love

Photo Credit: Victoria Made Flickr

For years, scientists have believed that the nurture and love we receive from our parents when we are an infant, determines how we are when we are older. We learn very early on to trust and love and the relationship you have with your parents when you are a baby can affect relationships you have later in life. For example, researchers say that a mistreated infant may turn argumentative in stressful situations, while nurtured babies tend to deal with stress more skillfully.

Researchers Simpson, Collins, and Salvatore put babies and their mothers in high-tension situations and then years later researched the babies’ relationships. The researchers found that there is a link between the situations babies are put in and the relationship to the mother, and later relationships and stress management. However, they also found that although there is a link, it is not an extremely strong factor. You can learn to love, trust, and throughout your life, even if something traumatic did happen in your infancy.

Tricky Viruses

Photo Credit: Foto_di_Signorina Flickr

           Strong viruses, such as HIV, make the body work for them. Researchers in Copenhagen have been studying how these viruses manage to take over the body. The virus takes over one cell and then uses the RNA to influence the DNA, giving the virus complete control over the cell. The RNA of the virus is similar to the RNA of the cell. Therefore, the ribosomes of the cell copy the sequence from the virus instead of the actual RNA. This causes the cell to produce the virus’ proteins.

                The RNA of the virus has what is called a pseudoknot. Pseudoknots are places on the RNA that the ribosomes must decipher before it can move on. The pseudoknot holds the sequence for key destructive proteins of the virus and once the ribosome deciphers it, those proteins are produced. This is how HIV can spread so rapidly in the body and can take such a hold over the host; it doesn’t do any of the work.

Turtle Telepathy

Photo Credit: Me

 

Have you ever heard of twin telepathy? Ever wished that you could communicate telepathically? Well, Australian River Turtles have their own form of telepathy. Female turtles dig a hole in the sand of a beach to lay their eggs. They then cover the hole with sand to protect against predators and leave their eggs to mature. The baby turtles mature on their own without the help of a parent, obviously they develop a special bond because the eggs wait until everyone is ready to hatch.

 

When the eggs are in the hole in the sand, the eggs on the bottom are colder in temperature than the eggs above them. Therefore, the eggs on top mature faster than the eggs on the bottom. However, if some eggs mature faster than others, then why do all of the eggs hatch at the same time? The answer is that they wait for each other. The turtles communicate with each other while they are still in their eggs through the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the hole. When the eggs on top are more mature, they breath more, raising the level of carbon dioxide in the hole. The increase in carbon dioxide triggers a metabolic response in the underdeveloped eggs; it speeds up their metabolism. Ricky-John Spencer in Sydney, Australia believes that this communication can be attributed to evolution because if all of the turtles hatch and head to the ocean together, they have a lesser chance of being eaten by predators. Therefore, the eggs that hatched in a batches or around the same time had a higher chance of living than the eggs that hatched at all different times.

Antibodies to the Rescue!

Photo Credit: RambergMediaImages Flickr

 

 

HIV is an extremely dangerous virus because our own antibodies cannot effectively attack it. HIV uses a coat of sugars to hide itself from our antibodies. Although the body cannot effectively fight HIV, it does its best by making new antibodies to try and attack this powerful virus. These new antibodies attach to different spots on the sugar coating of the virus. It uses the sugar coat to bind to a site on the virus where amino acids are exposed. Then the antibody attacks the virus from that site, disabling it.

 

The discovery of this antibody and the way it binds to the virus is important because it can lead to advances in a cure and a vaccine. It gave scientists key information about binding sites made out of sugars and amino acids. They can use this information, as well as information from other projects and discoveries to make a more effective vaccine. In fact, some recent tests have shown that the antibodies play an important role in the health of someone infected with HIV.

Text Away!!

Credit: samantha celera Flickr

Most of us worry, or at least acknowledge, that our beloved cell-phones may contribute to the forming of tumors. Fortunately, a recent study on the link between cell phone use and tumors found that there was actually no link!

The previous studies on cell-phones and tumors had been inconclusive and were prone to error. This new study, with probably some faults of its own, says that cell-phones do not contribute to the forming of tumors in the body. Danish scientists compared the cancer risk for all of the Danish cell-phone users, all 420,095 of them, from 1982 to 1995 and then compared it to the risk from 1996 to 2002, when more people had cell-phones. The study showed that there was not a link between cell-phones and tumors. They then extended the study to include cell-phone users from 2002 to 2007 with still not definitive link.

The researchers found that 10,729 people had tumors between 1990 and 2007. Using this number, they funneled it to just people who had been using cell-phones for more than 13 years. The rate of people with tumors was unrelated to whether or not they had a cell phone.

Unfortunately, the study did not focus on each person’s particular usage of their cell-phone or on people who have had cell-phones for more than 15 years. So, it’s probably best not to always be glued to the phone, but hey, one more text can’t hurt!

Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Credit: Fillmore Photography Flickr

Can you imagine having TWO life threatening diseases? Well, for some in Cambodia, that is the case. HIV and TB are two very common diseases that plague Cambodia, as well as other countries. Typically, a patient would go through TB treatment for two months and then begin HIV treatment. However, a new study done by Dr. Anne Goldfeld, the Program in Cellular and Molecule Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, and the CAMELIA (Cambodian Early versus Late Introduction of Antiretrovirals) shows that people with HIV and TB can benefit by being introduced HIV Treatment two weeks, instead of two months, after TB treatment was started. 

Doctors and researchers used to believe that the two medicines too much for the body to handle. Combining these two treatments would include taking seven, yes seven, pills a day. In addition, the pills would actually work against each other, the TB pills would work up the immune system to attack the TB and the HIV pills would suppress the immune system to stop the HIV from getting worse. This would put a massive strain on the body. However, this new study shows that the combination of the treatments can actually benefit the patient.

As of now there is no specific research or answers as to why the combination of the TB treatment and the HIV treatment is so effective. However, the study’s results are definitive. The patients that started the HIV treatment two weeks after starting the TB treatment had a better survival rate than those that started the HIV treatment later, 33% greater, to be exact.

Although the study did not give the exact reason behind this beneficial combination, it opened the door to a multitude of possibilities for HIV and TB sufferers around the world.

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