November 2003

Three recent conversations: 1. While in a bookstore perusing the bicycling magazines at length (with only the vaguest intention to buy), a disheveled man beside me starts making loud pronouncements on the nature of time, triggered by the cover art on a popular science magazine. He catches my eye, and partly out of my British obligation to "good manners" and partly because I'll talk with anyone who has an opinion about science, we engage in a shouted exchange about how time is measured, and j

Ned Shaw It is not too much to say that science and the technologies that derive from it have altered the very nature of human society. It is surprising, then, if science is all that important in human culture, that people would seem indifferent about its nature. Considerably more attention is paid to how movies are made, novels are written, or great paintings are born than to how scientists make new knowledge. Given its centrality in modern life, shouldn't people be more interested in how sci

Insecurity Laws I appreciate the effort you put into the excellent article on Dr. Butler and others under attack for their efforts1 to protect us all. I am sure in the long run your article will be helpful not only to those about whom you have written, but others who will be vulnerable to attacks under the new security legislation. William B. Greenough, III, MD Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Baltimore, Md. 1. J. Miller, "Caught in the political crosshairs,"

Evolutionary Role of Left-handed Proteins Professor Graham Cook's suggestion1 that serine in the primordial soup played a role in determining the left-handedness of amino acids in organisms is complemented by the possibility that this amino acid played a critical role in initiating evolution of the genetic code.2 Serine-containing peptides form hydrogen bonds to the nucleotide base cytosine, as shown in the accompanying formulation. The presence of serine codons largely in the cytosine col

Faster, Stronger, Better In regard to your article on scientists living longer,1 could it be that scientists are just tougher all round? A similar argument (with apologies to those who are married) might explain why married people live longer than singles: They are just tougher; the less tough can't stand marriage and become (or stay) single. Leonard X. Finegold Physics Department Drexel University Philadelphia, Pa. L@drexel.edu 1. S. Sanides, "Researchers find key to long life: Doing

On Protein Folding One paragraph in this story1 contains confusing terminology. The use of the term nitrogen-hydrogen bond for amide-hydrogen is a simplification too far. "Hydrogen bonds" in proteins exist between the backbone amide nitrogen and carbonyl groups. Carbon monoxide groups are not present in proteins; I suspect the author meant carbonyl. N. Said Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy Medical College of Georgia, Augusta nsaid@mail.mcg.edu 1. P. Hunter, "Protein folding,"

Conscience Pause More hot air from scientists who persist in believing that they are "special" and deserve special rights.1 Sigh ... This has nothing to do with the public interest or the "sophistication of the scientific method;" rather, it is an expression of status anxiety in a group of people who, not so long ago (say, in the 1950s) were still notables but of late have become proletarianized. Specifically, if egregious violations of public health and safety rules are noticed by an emplo

Click for larger version of survey graph (22K) Some 425 readers told us about the influences that guided them to become scientists; they cited an average of three influential factors. By far the most important, according to 70% of our respondents, was innate curiosity. "I cannot help but poke things until I find out how they work," says one. Another notes, "I have known since I was a toddler that I would become a biologist." Secondary school teachers (46%), parents (46%), and college teacher

Foundations | The Birth of the Southern Blot, 1975 Courtesy of Ed Southern Gels used for electrophoresis of nucleic acids and proteins are permeable. This obvious fact didn't dawn on me until I tried to dissolve some agarose by floating it on a solution of sodium perchlorate and noticed a bead of liquid form on the top. I reasoned that if DNA molecules were carried through with the flow it would be possible to capture them on a nitrocellulose membrane, using the setup shown in the sketch.

First Person | Ann Graybiel Courtesy of MIT Talk to neuroscientist Ann Graybiel for a short period of time and she immediately generates certain impressions: The words tenacious, steadfast, and curious come to mind. Since 1971, Graybiel has stayed the course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying basal ganglia, discerning their architecture and describing their neurochemical organization. Known to the press as the woman who studies how behavior becomes habit, Graybiel is co

Science Seen | How the Visionless Dream Courtesy of Helder Bertolo  A congenitally blind person drew this scene, which was taken from a paper about visual dreaming.1 Up until now, such images were considered the sole domain of the sighted. 1. H. Bertolo et al., "Visual dream content, graphical representation and EEG a activity in congenitally blind subjects," Brain Res Cogn Brain Res, 15:277-84, 2003. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result

Off The Cuff | Your Life- or Lab-Partner in Scientific Terms With my life partner there can be some friction, but it's that gravity that keeps us together. --Leslie Hoyt (mlkh1@aol.com) Approximately 100-kg bilaterally asymmetrical male hominid currently imbibing 100-200 ml of aqueous 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine solution. (Lab partner drinking coffee) --Kevin J. Hricko Sr., Pfizer (kevin.hricko@pfizer.com) Qualitative analysis of external features reveal that the male specimen, Homo sapie

5-Prime | The Myriad Definitions of Self Courtesy of Larry H. Anderson The Biological Basis For each of the genome's thousands of genes, multiple alleles exist. No two people have the same combination of alleles, so each individual's genotype is unique. DNA, found in each cell, is both a genetic fingerprint and a genealogical record. It determines the phenotype--sex, blood type, hair and eye color, susceptibility to disease, and other features--that contributes to an individual's sense of

© Mehau Kulyk/Photo Researchers, Inc. A typical neuron's axons and dendrites, when loaded with dye and magnified, resemble long, untended tresses on an extremely bad hair day. They extend wildly, usually to one side, and then bend at weird angles as their ends split into branches and sub-branches. This neuronal coiffure must appear even more chaotic before the nervous system has undergone the developmental equivalent of a crew cut crossed with a topiary trimming. From the late embryonic

For centuries, philosophers and biologists alike dreamed of watching the brain operate to see its active response to sensations, actions, or even thoughts. In some ways, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides such a view. This technology essentially measures blood flow to areas of the brain, and presumably neural activity, in real time. The technique could help researchers specifically map the brain. The visual cortex, for example, appears to light up when a subject sees someth

A Sperm Finds Its Egg Courtesy of Richard Mooi For sea urchins, sex is an out-of-body experience. And in external fertilization, species-specific gamete receptors serve as one way to prevent cross-fertilization. The discovery of an egg protein responsible for this specificity ended a 25-year quest for Charles Glabe, molecular biologist at University of California, Irvine. Glabe and postdoc Noriko Kamei identified the glycoprotein on sea urchin eggs, called egg bindin receptor 1 (EBR1), whic

GADGET WATCH | Object Inspector in Your Pocket Protector Courtesy of Chris Chou Chris Chou wants you to put your microscope where no microscope has gone before: in your pocket. Chou is the inventor of the microscope pen, a portable, lightweight, but durable microscope that fits easily into a shirt or pants pocket and comes with a convenient pen clip to keep it there. Measuring 0.75 x 5.5 inches and weighing in at a mere two ounces, the microscope pen provides all-glass optics, 100x magnifi

File Photo To make it easier for scientists from Nordic countries to apply for multinational European Union grants, the Nordic Medical Research Councils and the Nordic Councils of Ministers launched a program in October that aims to encourage more collaboration across Scandinavia. The initiative has a budget of about $1.25 million (US), which will be divided among two to three research networks--the virtual Nordic Centres of Excellence in Molecular Medicine. The money will be given to researc

Courtesy of Heather Patisaul Only two months into my first postdoctoral position, I did something a good postdoc is not supposed to do: I got pregnant. I was thrilled to be expanding my young family, but I couldn't help but be apprehensive about how the news would go over among my science colleagues. As many of us already know, it is generally believed that science and family are not easily mixed; one usually suffers for the sake of the other. This wasn't my first foray into the forbidden. I

Homo sapiens has no shortage of distinguishing features: We alone among primates are furless (that most mammalian of characteristics); we are the only species clever enough to ponder why that might be; and we can ponder such matters while pacing back and forth on two legs. Our cleverness, however, hasn't helped us determine why we have these qualities, but as recent developments in the hirsute-less debate reveal, they make for interesting pondering. A mammal needs a good reason to discard it