Real Space Lego

I was very impressed with the Lego-astronaut of Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad. These two seventeen year olds from Scarborough sent a Lego man 24km above the surface of the earth. Using a weather balloon, some long ropes, a cellphone GPS, Styrofoam, cameras and some patriotic Lego they captured some spectacular footage. The footage has captured widespread media attention. It is amazing that the technology for what is essentially an unmanned space probe is within the budget of two smart seventeen year olds.

Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA

The recent call for a 60 day moratorium on engineered avian flu virus research reminded me about the Asilomar Conference.
The Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA was held in 1975 and its purpose was to establish guidelines for safely working with new recombinant DNA technology. The need for such a conference was instigated in 1974 by the construction of a bacterial plasmid that was deemed potentially hazardous. This plasmid contained elements from the monkey virus, SV40, which had been shown to cause cancer in mice. The idea of transforming this plasmid into a bacterium caused enough concern that a worldwide moratorium on recombinant DNA technology was called for by American scientists. The goal of the Asilomar Conference was to establish the conditions under which research in this area could continue. Many recommendations for experimental protocols were agreed upon. Additionally, three kinds of experiments were to be deferred until a later date. These experiments that were deemed too risky were cloning of genes from highly pathogenic organisms, cloning of toxic genes, and large scale production of gene products harmful to humans, plants or animals. Some of these kinds of experiments are now done routinely, and I do not know if there was ever a consensus of when it was determined these experiments were safe.
By taking initiative, the Asilomar Conference avoided potential governmental or other regulatory involvement that may have severely limited recombinant DNA technology in the long term. Instead, a timely relaxation of the guidelines, as knowledge about the true risks of these experiments accumulated, was a perfect fit for scientific progress.
Interestingly, I have spoken with scientists who were doing recombinant DNA research at the time who said that, in reality, the moratorium was not observed. Research continued in the field as it was an exciting and competitive time. I was also told during this time recombinant plasmids were exchanged between researchers by drying them on paper and mailing them, a practice still done occasionally today.
While there are some definite differences between these two calls for halting research, the current call for a moratorium on avian flu virus research has similar goals as the moratorium on recombinant DNA research. I think it would be a success if it had similar outcomes to the Asilomar Conference.
Certainly the moratorium has different goals than the censorship of two recent H5N1 papers, which is directed at stopping the dissemination of information about specific transmission determinants of H5N1. I have read a couple of articles that seem to get confused about the goals of this censorship and the goals of the recent moratorium. Indeed the current call for a moratorium doesn't mention the word terrorism or suggest censorship as a security measure.

Ski Wax Science

According to a thesis published in 2006, ski wax is snake oil. Leonid Kuzmin is the author of a couple of papers, both included in his thesis from Mid Sweden University (pdf), that demonstrate that many practices designed to decrease friction between nordic skis and snow are counterproductive. It is the authors assertion that waxing practices evolved when skis were made of wood and that a critical re-examination of these practices was lacking when wood was replaced with modern plastics. The data in the thesis suggest that there is no advantages to waxing skis. At best, the data suggests, an improvement in glide is observed for the first 200m. After this point, a waxed ski picks up debris increasing friction with the snow to the point where it becomes slower than an unwaxed ski. The thesis also pokes holes in two other commonly held beliefs, that wax protects skis from water penetration and offers protection from abrasive wear. While this work was done exclusively with nordic skis, it is the authors belief that the findings hold true for alpine skis.
It is not hard to find lots of passionate anecdotes refuting his findings, however I was surprised that there was no real scientific studies demonstrating benefits of waxing skis.

From the thesis:

Skis treated with any established waxing procedure loose their glide ability faster than the reference skis (dry skis).

A typical counterpoint found in internet forums:

I was in a hurry to get to Sun Peaks a while ago. My skis needed waxing but I didn't do it so we could get on the road. On our first day I was having trouble getting a good slide going and I had to continuously pole and skate to get up over a hump to get to a particular face. That night I waxed my skis. The next day with essentially the same snow conditions I flew over that hump so fast I had to brake at the top, and I certainly didn't need to pole or skate. Wax works.

Despite this thesis, now 5 years old, most skiers get their skis waxed or do it themselves. I wonder if this is a case where the mantras and anecdotal evidence are winning in terms of acceptance or if the studies just did not get publicized well. Perhaps the first 200m where a waxed ski glides better is the source of much of the anecdotal arguments for waxing. Personally, I think much of the resistance to accept these findings is due to the fact that waxing skis can be an enjoyable process. Waxing your skis gets you excited to go skiing. I actually miss it.

The Drag Effect

The skip of my curling team competed in the Brier a few years ago. I make him look pretty talented. Recently he was talking about the drag effect. The only thing I understood about it during our match is that when two stones are touching they do not behave exactly like billiard balls.
Take a look at this shot.



That is not how billiard balls would have behaved in that situation. Basically, the struck rock and the yellow rock behind it were frozen together on their striking surface. The struck rock then transfered some of its momentum to the yellow rock. A more detailed explanation of the drag effect is available here.

Flynn Effect

The Flynn Effect is the observed steady, widespread increase in IQ over generations. In some places this has been occurring for at least 100 years. In fact, if you were to give your great grandparents a modern IQ test, they would test below 75 and be considered mentally challenged. The Flynn Effect is not simply an increase in "crystallized" intelligence due to the increasing availability of knowledge. The way in which IQ scores are increasing is described in a recent Wired article:

1) Scores have increased the most on the problem-solving portion of intelligence tests.
2) Verbal intelligence has remained relatively flat, while non-verbal scores continue to rise.
3) Performance gains have occurred across all age groups.
4) The rise in scores exists primarily on those tests with content that does not appear to be easily learned.

The reason why IQ test results are increasing is a mostly unresolved question and presents some paradoxes described by Flynn and summarized here.

The intelligence paradox: The Flynn Effect suggests that we are getting smarter relatively quickly, but it’s not obvious (and some would say flies in the face of certain evidence) that kids today are so much smarter than their parents or grandparents (except perhaps when it comes to home electronics). As Flynn writes:

If huge IQ gains are intelligence gains, why are we not stuck by the extraordinary subtlety of our children’s conversation? Why do we not have to make allowances for the limitations of our parents? A difference of some 18 points in the average IQ over two generations ought to be highly visible.

The mental retardation paradox: If the rate of change in IQ is extrapolated backwards, it suggests that people in 1900 had a mean IQ score somewhere between 50 and 70 judged by today’s standards. An IQ level of 75 is typically considered ‘mentally retarded.’ Flynn puts this one nicely, too: ‘Either today’s children are so bright that they should run circles around us, or their grandparents were so dull that it is surprising that they could keep a modern society ticking over.’

The identical twins paradox: Twins raised apart tend to have very similar IQ scores, typically considered strong evidence for a genetic basis for differences in IQ. The Flynn Effect instead suggests that intelligence, if it is being measured by IQ, is more malleable and subject to environmental effects. [Clearly there is no genetic evolution basis for the Flynn effect, mostly obviously because the effect occurs too fast, over a single generation.]

The most popular theories as to the cause of our collective increasing genius include:

1. Increased schooling and test familiarity – This seems like an obvious cause, however it has been shown that previous generations with similar levels of education still score lower than subsequent generations.
2. Generally more stimulating environments – Our world is increasingly complex, potentially increasing exposure to problem solving situations.
3. Nutrition – Improved nutrition has increased human stature. It is therefore possible that improved nutrition is also responsible for increases in IQ. Recent evidence outlined in the previously linked Wired article suggests that both ends of the bell curve are showing equal increases in IQ. An increase in IQ of those at the right side of the bell curve argues against a solely nutritional cause as those with a high IQ are likely not undernourished to begin with.
4. Infectious diseases - The decrease in infectious diseases experienced during development of the brain may be responsible for the Flynn Effect. Fighting off a disease and brain development are both metabolically costly and perhaps early childhood infections might come at a cost to brain development. This perhaps has the same problem as the case for a nutritional cause outlined above.
5. Heterosis - The genetic component of IQ is so great that some argue that environmental causes would have a minimal effect. Essentially the idea is that the increased mixing of human populations has lead to a "hybrid vigour" effect in population IQ.

These are not the only ideas for a cause of the Flynn effect. It is very possible that the Flynn effect has a complex combination of causes.

Another very interesting aspect of the Flynn Effect is that it has stopped in many developed nations. The cause is unknown.

Infectious salmon anemia

The poor 2009 sockeye salmon return in the Fraser River, mentioned previously on the bayblab, prompted the Cohen Commission in order to better understand what happened. The final report of the Commission is due this year but in the meantime there is a large amount of information about the ongoing findings of the Commission available here. Many potential causes are being examined, however much of the media coverage of the commission has focused on the possible role of infectious salmon anemia (ISA). The possibility of the presence of this virus in wild pacific salmon has become very political and has resulted in accusations of attacks on scientific credibility. It would certainly have implications for the controversial salmon farming operations in the area.
As the name implies the virus causes anemia by infecting red blood cells of infected salmon and has an extremely high mortality, as high as 90%. This virus is commonly associated with atlantic salmon farms and has affected farming operations all over the world in recurrent epidemic outbreaks. Spread of the virus between farms can be examined by correlations between seaway and genetic distances between viral isolates.
ISA is an Orthomyxovirus, like influenza, and therefore has a small segmented negative sense single stranded RNA genome. This genome arrangement allows for reassortment when a cell is superinfected, and confers the ability of the virus to rapidly change in a population, much like influenza. Hopefully this virus is unlike influenza and will not successfully cross the species barrier and maintain a high mortality in pacific salmon.
On a positive note, it is possible that a local ISA strain has been in pacific salmon species for years. It would be interesting to know to what degree it is genetically related to the ISA found in atlantic salmon farms. Fortunately it has also been demonstrated that pacific salmon are highly resistant to previously characterized ISA (pdf).

Cancer Carnival #50: Host and Post

The next edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival (#50!) will be hosted at The Beaker - the blog of the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. Be sure to get your posts in. The Carnival will appear October 7.

Cancer Carnival #49

Welcome to the Cancer Research Blog Carnival #49. The carnival hits the big 5-0 next month, and we have a new host lined up as well, so be sure to get your posts in! But first, this month's edition:

Recently, Canadians across the country were affected by the disease when Jack Layton, federal National Democratic Party leader and Leader of the Official Opposition died of cancer. His family released letter to Canadians, or you can read an excerpt at Confessions of a Science Librarian. The public outpouring of support was tremendous. In the wake of his passing, the Globe and Mail published an article challenging the current language equating the illness with a war or a battle.

But to those touched directly by cancer, equating the illness with a war against the enemy, fighting an adversary, or suffering in order to survive can diminish understanding of the challenges and complexities faced by patients and their families.

In other recent news friends and colleagues recently published in Nature describing the results of a recent clinical trial of oncolytic poxvirus.

Here we show in a clinical trial that JX-594 selectively infects, replicates and expresses transgene products in cancer tissue after intravenous infusion, in a dose-related fashion. Normal tissues were not affected clinically. This platform technology opens up the possibility of multifunctional products that selectively express high concentrations of several complementary therapeutic and imaging molecules in metastatic solid tumours in humans.

This paper has received a lot of attention in the press, though surprisingly not much in the blogosphere.

But since this is a blog carnival, we should get to the posts written our readers. First up, and sticking with the virus theme, is ERV with a post about measles and cancer.

So some kinds of measles can use PVRL4 to infect cells... and well, measles kills the cells it infects... including the tumor cells! Especially adenocarcinomas, apparently! Its not that we could use measles to deliver an anti-cancer drug or gene to tell the tumor to commit suicide or something-- measles is naturally lytic, thus 'naturally' oncolytic! It just kills the cancer, all on its own.

Still at Scienceblogs, Orac has a two-part post on the complexity of cancer and how quacks take advantage

Johnson's article has been used as the basis of an argument that, because our understanding of cancer has changed significantly over the last decade, "conventional" scientists don't understand cancer, the implication being that the quacks do. Today, in part I of what will be a two-part post, I'll discuss the NYT article, its good, its bad, and its indifferent, hopefully in the process illuminating how complex cancer is. Tomorrow or Thursday, I'll lay some not-so-Respectful Insolence on a quack who uses this article as a jumping off point to argue for cancer quackery, particularly his hilarious criticisms of the article's "shortcomings."

Next up is a post about recent research into using dogs as cancer detectors. This is something we've written about on the Bayblab before. From the post:

However, the fact that the sniffer dogs were able to detect lung cancer, even in the presence of interference from other conditions such as COPD as well as tobacco smoke, points to the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer that may eventually be isolated. Researchers told WebMD that the dogs' accuracy surpassed even that of combined CT scan and bronchoscopy.

Our friend Walter at HighlightHEALTH has a similar post up.

That's it for this month's Cancer Research Blog Carnival. Stay tuned for an announcement of next month's host. For older editions, visit the Carnival Homepage. Don't forget, the CRBC has subscription options; you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. For a broader collection of science-related blog carnivals, sign up for the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed.

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #48

Welcome to the Cancer Research Blog Carnival #48 (4 years of the Cancer Carnival!) I think it's becoming clear that getting these up on Fridays just isn't working for me, so it may be time to switch to a Saturday post date. Either way, without further ado, here are the posts:

Starting things off, our friends at the MolBio Hut (formerly MolBio Research Highlights) send us a post on adult stem cells and cancer relapse. This post is part of a blog feature that consists of posts on new research written by the authors of those papers. This is a great idea, and hopefully there will be many more in the series.

Given the fact that these “relapse-causing cells” are long lived and able to regenerate whole tumors, we sought out to find whether there was a relationship between cancer recurrence and intestinal stem cells. In this “Direct Connection”, I will describe our work entitled “The Intestinal Stem Cell Signature Identifies Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells and Predicts Disease Relapse”, published earlier this year on Cell Stem Cell.

Genome Engineering sends us s couple of posts for the carnival. First is discussion of new research into a broad spectrum cancer vaccine.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. It is generally a slow growing form of cancer, though some men have a more aggressive form of the disease. Conventional management of prostate cancer includes ‘watch and wait’, surgery or radio-or chemotherapy. Animal studies of a prostate cancer DNA vaccine have suggested a new approach to cancer treatment that may have potential to stabilise or cure tumours.

Of course this is still in very early stages and hasn't moved beyond animal models. Next is new research published in Nature on genes associated with estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer.

Breast cancer can be divided into two main types – oestrogen receptor-positive and oestrogen receptor-negative. Up to a third of breast cancers are oestrogen receptor-negative and are generally harder to treat because they are not responsive to treatments such as tamoxifen or other hormone-related treatments. There have been fewer advancements in therapeutics for this group. US researchers have linked a gene with this form of cancer and published the results in Nature.

Sticking with cancer-related genes, also check out brief posts on leukemia genome sequencing to identify recurrent mutations and analysis of ovarian cancer genes in the Cancer Genome Atlas.

Over at Bionews, we have a post describing research into gene silencing that may have implications for cancer treatment.

Some cancer drugs already work through demethylation, but this process is non-specific, which can cause side effects and other problems, Dr Alfonso Bellacosa, an associate professor at Fox Chase, explained. Using a specific process it could be possible to turn on incorrectly silenced genes, leading to potential cancer therapeutics that target the mechanisms underlying cancer development.

Finally, we have a two part piece on peer-reviewed research searching for new cancer drugs (part 1, part 2)

Metastasis—the spread of cancer from the place where it first started to another place in the body—is the most common reason that cancer treatments fail. To metastasize, some types of cancer cells rely on invadopodia, cellular membrane projections that act like feet, helping them “walk” away from the primary tumor and invade surrounding tissues. To determine how cells control invadopodia formation, Sanford-Burnham scientists screened a collection of pharmacologically active compounds to identify those that either promote or inhibit the process. They turned up several invadopodia inhibitors that target a family of enzymes called cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks), revealing a previously unrecognized role for Cdks in invadopodia formation. These findings appeared online July 26 in Science Signaling.

Keep an eye on that blog as the host of a future edition of the Cancer Carnival.

That's it for this month's Cancer Research Blog Carnival. For older editions, visit the Carnival Homepage. Don't forget, the CRBC has subscription options; you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. For a broader collection of science-related blog carnivals, sign up for the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed.

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #47

Welcome to the Cancer Research Blog Carnival #47! Between Canada Day and other obligations, we're a bit late this time, so let's get right to it.

First up is a post from the 23andMe blog, The Spittoon, about ethnicity and prostate cancer.

Consider this: rates of prostate cancer in African American men are 1.5 to 3 times higher than for men with non-African ancestry, and African Americans have a two-fold higher mortality rate from the disease compared to European Americans. Non-genetic factors surely play a role in these differences, and chances are that genetic factors contribute, too. But nearly all of the genetic research in prostate cancer has been in populations of European descent. Our knowledge of prostate cancer genetics in African ancestry individuals specifically — a group especially affected by the disease — is progressing much too slowly.

The post discusses recent research from PLoS and Nature Genetics discussing genetic variants associated with prostate cancer risk. ERV also talks about prostate cancer and using vaccines (with everybody's favourite VSV) to eliminate existing tumours.

They took tissue from a normal human prostate, and generated cDNA (you just want DNA versions of all the RNA the cells is making-- not every cell is making all the same RNA/proteins). They then put that cDNA into Vesicular stomatitis viruses (VSV)-- Every VSV had a different cDNA artificially inserted into its genome. So, when that virus goes on to infect a cell, it will make all the VSV proteins and it will make the little bit of normal prostate protein due to the cDNA in the viral DNA. The prostate proteins will then be presented in the infected cells MHC I molecules-- 'normal' in an inappropriate context can generate an immune response... sooo... youre basically vaccinating against 'prostate'.

Of course treating cancer in mice is different from humans, and ERV advises tempering expectations.

Over at hematopoiesis.info, Alexey continues a series of posts on trends in cancer stem cells.

But what are niches for cancer stem cells? We still have very little understanding of how tumor-initiating cells communicate with their environment. [...] I’ve summarized our current knowledge and added some interesting recent findings on this subject.

Alexey also asks, at stemcellassays.com, whether the teratoma assay is still the gold standard to assess pluripotency in stem cells.

Finally, Health and Life had a couple of posts up about new cancer drug advances. The first reports on recent research identifying a potential new drug target in breast cancer. The second describes a drug that targets a genetic mutation in 50% of melanoma patients, and has been shown to increase survival rates.

That's it for this month's Cancer Research Blog Carnival. For older editions, visit the Carnival Homepage. Don't forget, the CRBC has subscription options; you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. For a broader collection of science-related blog carnivals, sign up for the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed.

Schmidt Sting Pain Index

Justin O. Schmidt has a pain index (Schmidt Sting Pain Index) for insect stings. Talk about sacrifices for qualitative science.
"3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail."
Unfortunately I don't find I get stung nearly enough to find this useful.

Cancer Research #46

Real world responsibilities prevented me from getting the Cancer Carnival up yesterday, so without further ado, here is the latest from the world of cancer research.

The big news of the past week has been a WHO press release indicating that cellphones are a "class 2B carcinogen". Orac at Respectful Insolence explains what the press release really means and summarizes his thoughts on the credibility of a cancer-cellphone link.

There are a lot of problems with the claim that cell phones cause cancer, not the least of which is that the science and epidemiology just don't support it. In particular, the INTERPHONE study, whose results were reported last year, showed no evidence of a link between cell phone use and glioblastoma or meningioma. In fact, to me the decision by WHO is exceedingly puzzling because, if anything, over the last several years the evidence has been trending more and more towards being inconsistent with with a link between cell phone use and brain cancer--or health problems of any kind, other than getting into car crashes because of texting or talking while driving.

PZ Myers weighs in as well, noting that the WHO statement is based on the same data that showed there was no credible cancer risk to cell phone use.

"Limited" and "inadequate" are the strongest words they use to describe their own data. They mention one study with the strongest effect…in other words, they highlight the outlier. That's odd and makes me instantly suspicious.

Also, I recognize those numbers: this is a reworking of the INTERPHONE study from last year, in which the final conclusion was that there was no credible evidence of a cancer risk. What happened? Why has their assessment changed? There is no explanation.

PZ continues on a roll, taking on the "dichloroacetate is a cure for cancer" myth that came out of an Alberta study a few years ago.

The simple summary is this: that claim is a lie. There have been no clinical trials of dichloroacetate (DCA) in cancer patients, so there is no basis for claiming they have a cure; some, but not all, cancers might respond in promising ways to the drug, while others are likely to be resistant (cancer is not one disease!); and there are potential neurotoxic side effects, especially when used in conjunction with other chemotherapies.

PZ then goes on to very nicely explain the science of why DCA *has potential* and how it works, as well as how actual trials might proceed without the involvement of industry who would have nothing to gain financially from DCA as a treatment.

Over at The Spittoon, the blog of personal genome service 23andme, we have a discussion about the importance of cancer genomics.

A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the addition of a PARP inhibitor — a drug that blocks a protein involved in DNA repair — to chemotherapy helped improve survival in patients with an aggressive type of breast cancer. Studies such as these, based on knowledge of cancer genomics, are now allowing us to begin personalizing the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer.

The post goes into detail about specific ways cancer genomics are changing our approaches to the disease.

Finally, for those who are interested, HighlightHEALTH is collecting all tweets from or about the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting which is running until June 7, 2011.

That's it for this month's Cancer Research Blog Carnival. For older editions, visit the Carnival Homepage. Don't forget, the CRBC has subscription options; you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. For a broader collection of science-related blog carnivals, sign up for the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed.

Visit your local museum

We've finally hit some consistent nice weather here in Ottawa, so spending the day inside isn't at the top of everybody's list. Still, there are a couple of cool exhibits coming up at local museums that are worth a look.

First up is Living in Space which opens at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum Thursday May 12.

Be part of the adventure and learn how to adapt to the rigours of daily life in space for months at a time on board the International Space Station (ISS). Discover how astronauts in the weightless environment work, entertain themselves and tackle such basics as personal hygiene, eating and sleeping among the stars. Become inspired by the engineering of this space station that sustains life and Canadian scientific experiments that reap a myriad of benefits. This modular, highly interactive exhibit incorporates multimedia with various objects, replicas and components used daily by astronauts during a mission to present the technical, psychological and physical challenges of life in space. Experience the extreme conditions on board the ISS-an incredible ecosystem in itself. So, are you up for the challenge?

You can read more about it here. It sounds like it's worth a visit.

Later this summer, the Canadian Museum of Nature will be hosting Extreme Mammals.

From the largest land mammal, to the smallest, to the just plain weird, Extreme Mammals explores the surprising and often extraordinary world of extinct and living mammals.

Find out what makes a mammal "extreme". Learn why some species died out while others thrived. And discover what you have in common with all other mammals.

An incredible array of specimens—including the museum's own "missing link" discovery, Puijila darwini—add up to an extremely exciting experience.

I had the privilege of attending a preview of this exhibit before it first opened two years ago at the American Museum of Natural History. Since then, it's been on tour and will be in Ottawa starting June 3, for the duration of the summer and beyond (June 3 to November 6, 2011).

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #45

The latest edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival (#45!) is now live. You can go check it out here.

What does a Harper majority mean for science?

The federal election is in the books, with Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party winning a majority, the NDP having their best-ever showing, and the first ever Green Party member elected to parliament. Over at The Intersection, guest blogger David Ng, a science literacy academic at UBC, muses about what the Harper majority means for science:

As is the norm for any democratic action, this is good and bad depending on your perspective and ideals. Those who make their homes in the business or economic front generally see the result as a positive; whereas those who value fairness, ethical government practices, and social issues tend to look upon the election as a daunting and frustrating setback. In this mix, however, is the scientific point of view. And speaking as a Canadian scientist, I want to use this space to make the case that all things being considered, this is a fundamentally bad moment in history for Canadian science.

What follows is a 4-point argument about the Harper government's past attitudes and actions towards science.

Dark Matter for Dummies

A couple of details here in a video about dark matter that I didn't know, phdcomics style.

The Green Party is Confused

Larry over at Sandwalk has a post up about the "Anti-science Green Party", pointing out some unscientific tendencies and focusing on their promotion of homeopathy and naturopathy.

Unsurprisingly, the Green Party also as a strong opinion on the subject of genetically-modified (GMO) crops. Back in February, they released a statement calling for independent health testing of GMO crops and more peer-reviewed research on the subject, as well as more research to develop high-yield non-GMO seed for farmers. While, to my knowledge, there are no documented safety issues surrounding GMO food, it's not an unreasonable position. With an election looming, it's interesting to see how they plan to follow up on this position. From their proposed budget

Cut all federal biotech funding to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada and 10% of funding (amount going to GMO biotech) from NSERC and NRC.

So the way to get better research and products (including their desired high-yield non-GMO seed) out there is to cut science funding? The Green Party seems confused about how to get what they want - assuming they mean it when they say they want independent GMO research and better non-GMO technology.

Basic Research is "Waste"

Newsflash: academic researchers don't patent as much as IBM. In a letter to Nature entitled "Scientists Should Cut Waste Too", Matthew Kumar calls on scientists to do their part in helping reduce the $1.3 trillion US budget deficit by reducing waste and inefficiency and working within their means (in this case, reduced federal funding). Of course on the surface, this doesn't sound too bad. Certainly everybody should be working to reduce waste and inefficiency. The problem is what Kumar views as "waste":

Unlike companies, non-profit academic institutions deliver a paltry return on taxpayers' investments. In 2010, after spending nearly $3.1 billion of taxpayers' money on intramural research, the NIH received $91.6 million in royalties and was issued with 134 patents. By contrast, in 2009 IBM spent $6.5 billion on research and development, generated $15.1 billion in revenue and was issued with 4,914 patents.

There's a lot to pick at here. First of all, NIH funded research versus IBM R&D? We could at least try to compare health research with health research if we want to attempt a fair comparison. Of course picking a pharmaceutical company might undermine the point. And nevermind the fact that patent production isn't necessarily the metric a non-profit academic institution would use as a measure of productivity. Or the fact that academic institutions also have other functions, like teaching the next wave of uber-productive, patent-producing scientists at for-profit companies (and the "wasteful" ones that stay in academia. But the worst part is the implication that basic research is a waste - that if you're not generating revenue or patents, it's not worth it. In my mind, Carl Sagan said it best (click the link for the full passage):

Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter, but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?

I wonder how productive these model companies would be without that wasteful basic research to build on.

Apply the Leeches!

Sifting through a pile of abstracts, I came across this 2010 case report of a man managing his cancer pain through application of leeches.

The patient was lost to follow-up and then showed up 2 months later at a visit in good condition. The patient’s pain was greatly improved, and he was using paracetamol 500 mg occasionally for mild discomfort. The patient informed us that he has applied seven leeches to the lumber region for 2 days a month: four leeches at the first day and three leeches at the second day. His neighbor had advised him on the use of leeches for pain treatment, and the leeches were applied by his son. He has bought the leeches from a pet market.

Now that's a home remedy. The authors point out that leeches can be (and are) used for a variety of other indications. The report also includes this description:

Leeches have got suckers at the front and rear of their body. At the front, the animal has three jaws each and a jaw contains 100 teeth. Leeches can suck nearly 5–15 mL
of blood at one attachment; if the leech’s intestinal tract is opened with a small incision, the sucking capacity can be increased. Leeches are armed with a range of pharmacologically active ingredients

It seems the reason for pain relief is still unclear - it could be one of the "range of pharmacologically active ingredients or, as the authors point out, it could be placebo effect based on strong expectations of the patient. Anybody up for a clinical trial?

Cheaper Vaccines

From Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo,

Hello / Bonjour,

In an effort to develop a novel method to make vaccine production more affordable for developing countries, I have recently submitted a video application for the 2011 Grand Challenges Canada : Rising Stars in Global Health competition with the help of my colleague Dr. Fabrice Le Boeuf (the camera-man). How can you help you ask? Well, quite simply, follow the link below and vote for me by clicking on the "thumbs up"! If you are actually interested in knowing more about what I am proposing to do with the grant money and want to see an oscar-worthy acting performance, by all means watch the 2-minute video as well!

http://gcc.eyeptv.net/blog/2011/03/08/egg-free-production-of-influenza-vaccines-using-viral-sensitizer-technology-a-reliable-and-affordable-solution-for-developing-countries/

Thanks in advance for your help and interest (and also for spreading the word so others will also vote!),

Jean-Simon Diallo - actor, director...scientist ;)
______________________________

______

Pour les francophones maintenant,

Comme je disais an anglais, je tente de développer une nouvelle methode pour produire des vaccins plus abordables pour les pays en voie de devloppement. Pour ce faire, j'ai produit avec l'aide de mon collègue Dr. Fabrice Le Boeuf (le caméra-man), un vidéo pour participer à la compétition Grands Défis Canada : Étoiles Montantes Canadiennes en santé. Comment pouvez-vous m'aider vous dites? C'est simple, suivez le lien ci-haut et cliquez sur l'icône montant un poing fermé avec le pousse pointant vers le haut pour voter pour mon vidéo! Si vous vous intéressez à ce que j'ai à proposer pour ce projet et que vous voulez voir une performance digne d'un oscar, je vous invite à regarder le vidéo qui dure à peu près 2 minutes!

Merci pour votre aide et de votre intérêt (et n'hésitez pas à répandre le message pour en faire votr d'autres aussi!),

Jean-Simon Diallo - acteur, réalisateur,...scientifique ;)