This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three Americans for their discovery of the importance of telomerase in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer. Elizabeth H. Blackburn of UC San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School were the winners.
Cellular Biology Review: Telomerase is an enzyme that adds specific DNA sequence repeats to the 3′ end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. The telomeres are known as cellular clocks. As they degrade, the cells become closer to death. Grey hair is caused by telomere degradation to a certain degree.
Politicians’ low aims regarding climate change reform could be too little, too late, according to a new historical record of carbon dioxide levels. Using ocean sediments to research carbon dioxide levels, scientists determined that the numbers many politicians want to reach are not extreme enough.
Apocalypse Soon: Sea levels could become 25 to 40 meters higher than today’s levels.
Scientists have discovered how the two meter long strands of DNA code (one cell) are packed into the cells’ nucleus, which is 1/100 millimeter in diameter. The genes are organized into a tight, knotted ball to do so.
Fuzzy Math: Unravel your DNA and it would stretch from here to the moon: 3.85 × 108 m.
Cool Creature
A small glass lizard
A glass lizard (Scheltopusik) is commonly referred to as the snake lizard, because it resembles a snake. This lizard has no legs, but have a characteristic head shape, movable eyelids, and external ear openings. These characteristics are present in lizards, not snakes. They can grow up to 4 feet long. They will commonly eat insects and can be found in Southeastern Asia, North Africa, and the Southern United States.
Feature Story: Earthquakes
Admitedly, this post will be late, but still pertinent. More than 1,100 people have been killed and thousands more injured by the strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java. The quake, which occurred on the 3oth of September, measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. To put this in the perspective, imagine 2 atomic bombs being dropped simultaneously. This is the amount of destruction rained down on this little southeast Asian island. Fortunately, the earthquake’s epicenter was in the ocean, which created a buffer for the island. Geologists have long warned that Padang – a city of 900,000 people – could one day be completely destroyed by an earthquake because of its location.
Unfortunately, Java sits in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area famous for its high frequencies of earthquake and volcanoes. About 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 80% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. The ring consists of a 40,000 kilometer horseshoe shape where tectonic plates jut up against one another. The Western portion of the ring, where Java is located, is made up of several smaller plates which are all shifting on the earth’s liquid mantle. Usually, during an earthquake, one of these plates will dip at a fault and the other will rise: a dip-slip. An earthquake is essentially seismic waves created by the release of energy. This jerk causes the forces we feel: tremors, tsunamis, and landslides.
Cosmic Perspective
We live on a planet that is constantly in motion. Not only are we hurtling through space, the ground below us moves, slowly but surely. Sometimes, these slight movements create huge effects. When this happens, humans think of this as nature being against us. Nature must be out to get us because something in nature caused human death. And yet, I feel that humans pose a greater problem for humanity’s survival. We do more to kill ourselves off than any natural disaster. People must realize that nature is not inherently against or for us. Nature is. To quote The Big Lebowski: “The dude abides.” Nature’s forces reigned before we came into being and will reign afterwards as well.
I suppose this cosmic perspective would not be complete without a public service announcement. The amount of destruction in Java is terrible. We must help those affected by the tragedy. Do what you can, donate money, time, prayers, a smile. I like this Arlo Guthrie story:
Do you know the story of Joseph, you know, in the Bible. Well, Joseph is looking for his brothers, who aren’t where he thought they’d be, and while Joseph is going down the road, he asks some dude where his brothers were. Some unnamed person working in a field points and says, “They’re that way.” When he catches up to them, the brothers send him to jail in Egypt. While there, he helps his cellmates with troubled dreams. One cellmate goes on to advise the Pharaoh and when the Pharaoh has bad dreams, Joseph is summoned, and he helps predict a drought and helps Egypt prepare for it. From Joseph derives Moses, and from Moses comes the whole line of people down to Jesus, and all that — and it’s all because of that one guy who said, “They went that way.” Remember, if the world was wonderful: everyone has a BMW, health insurance, a nice family and a job, one would have to go a long way to make a difference. But in a world that sucks, like this one, well…there was never a time like this: where you could do so little and get so much done! And you can do so much with a hug, a gentle word, or a smile when you don’t feel like smiling.
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