The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2007
Foreign Policy magazines list of Top Ten stories that were overlooked during the past year.
Monday, December 31, 2007
A volunteer evacuates a villager after floods hit Ngawi, East Java
A volunteer evacuates a villager after floods hit Ngawi, East Java province December 29, 2007. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas. From picture of the day at http://www.alertnet.org/
Seriously, the cigarette makes the photo. Hey, just another smoking break from the office, and maybe I'll rescue a few people while I'm outside...
Sunday, December 30, 2007
DNA Tweak Turns Vole Mates Into Soul Mates
This is still one of my favorite articles. It is based on an article in the journal Nature.
Link to story below.
Times Staff Writer
June 17, 2004
Scientists working with a rat-like animal called a vole have found that promiscuous males can be reprogrammed into monogamous partners by introducing a single gene into a specific part of their brains.
Once they have been converted, the voles hang around the family nests and even huddle with their female partners after sex.
The results suggest that "a mutation in a single gene can have a profound impact on complex social behavior," said Larry Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University who reports the results in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The research, Young said, could help shed light on monogamy — a rare social behavior — and hints that perhaps specific genes could play a role in human relationships.
But don't expect gene therapy for human swingers.
"This is not something that we should be playing around with," Young said.
Voles, found in the wild throughout much of North America, have been particularly useful in studying monogamy, which in biology refers more to the complicated social bonds based on partnership than to absolute sexual fidelity.
One variety — the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) — pairs up like humans. Males may occasionally stray from their lifelong partners, but they inevitably return to their nests and help care for litter after litter.
In contrast, meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), a similar but separate species, prowl their habitat for any available female and show no interest in staying in touch.
The difference, it turns out, is a receptor for the hormone vasopressin. Prairie voles have such receptors in a part of the brain known as the ventral pallidum. Meadow voles do not.
To make promiscuous male meadow voles behave like their loyal prairie cousins, the scientists used a common gene therapy technique. They injected the animals' forebrains with a harmless virus carrying the gene responsible for expressing the receptors.
Each vole, a young virgin that had never before encountered a member of the opposite sex, then spent 24 hours caged with a female that had been injected with estrogen. They mated.
Each male was then placed in his own plexiglass complex. Leashed in one room was his original partner. Down the hall was another female primed for mating.
The 11 genetically altered voles overwhelmingly stuck to their first partner. The couples mated. They then nestled together and exchanged licks.
The voles in the control group did not consistently seek out their original partners.
What looks like romance, the researchers suggested, may be the product of two neural pathways in the pleasure center of the brain.
There is the gratification of sex, which depends on dopamine receptors in a part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens. But nearby, in the ventral pallidum, are the vasopressin receptors, which allow for individual recognition.
The result: sexual preference for a specific partner.
Fewer than 5% of mammals are monogamous. Monogamy has rarely suited males when it comes to propagating their own genes. More often it has been in their interest to reproduce with as many females as possible.
In some cases, however, monogamy makes sense. For example, if predators are particularly rampant, males are better off staying around their homes to protect their offspring.
Scientists believe that monogamy evolved from polygamy. The results released Wednesday suggested that flipping one genetic switch might have been enough to spur a massive social reordering, Young said.
But Evan Balaban, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, questioned whether a single gene could cause such a dramatic change. He said that in the wild, many genes were likely involved in the expression of vasopressin receptors.
In female voles, it is another hormone, oxytocin, that appears to be involved in pair bonding.
The same hormone systems also operate in all other mammals, including humans.
The genes that control expression of vasopressin receptors vary widely in healthy men.
Human relationships, of course, are complicated, and culture and socialization probably matter as much as biology. Even so, Young suggested that genetic differences could help explain why some men have trouble maintaining relationships.
Gene E. Robinson, head of neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cautioned against extrapolating the results to humans. "The behavior of animals is much simpler than the behavior of humans," he said.
Even if the findings could lead to an elixir for fidelity, a single gene would not solve every problem at home. The genetically altered meadow voles spent more time with their partners, but unlike their naturally faithful prairie relatives, they did not help care for the pups.
That, Young said, probably depends on other neural pathways.
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
THE NATION
DNA Tweak Turns Vole Mates Into Soul Mates
Promiscuous mammals become stay-at-home dads in a study. There's no cure yet for humans.
By Alan ZaremboTimes Staff Writer
June 17, 2004
Scientists working with a rat-like animal called a vole have found that promiscuous males can be reprogrammed into monogamous partners by introducing a single gene into a specific part of their brains.
Once they have been converted, the voles hang around the family nests and even huddle with their female partners after sex.
The results suggest that "a mutation in a single gene can have a profound impact on complex social behavior," said Larry Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University who reports the results in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The research, Young said, could help shed light on monogamy — a rare social behavior — and hints that perhaps specific genes could play a role in human relationships.
But don't expect gene therapy for human swingers.
"This is not something that we should be playing around with," Young said.
Voles, found in the wild throughout much of North America, have been particularly useful in studying monogamy, which in biology refers more to the complicated social bonds based on partnership than to absolute sexual fidelity.
One variety — the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) — pairs up like humans. Males may occasionally stray from their lifelong partners, but they inevitably return to their nests and help care for litter after litter.
In contrast, meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), a similar but separate species, prowl their habitat for any available female and show no interest in staying in touch.
The difference, it turns out, is a receptor for the hormone vasopressin. Prairie voles have such receptors in a part of the brain known as the ventral pallidum. Meadow voles do not.
To make promiscuous male meadow voles behave like their loyal prairie cousins, the scientists used a common gene therapy technique. They injected the animals' forebrains with a harmless virus carrying the gene responsible for expressing the receptors.
Each vole, a young virgin that had never before encountered a member of the opposite sex, then spent 24 hours caged with a female that had been injected with estrogen. They mated.
Each male was then placed in his own plexiglass complex. Leashed in one room was his original partner. Down the hall was another female primed for mating.
The 11 genetically altered voles overwhelmingly stuck to their first partner. The couples mated. They then nestled together and exchanged licks.
The voles in the control group did not consistently seek out their original partners.
What looks like romance, the researchers suggested, may be the product of two neural pathways in the pleasure center of the brain.
There is the gratification of sex, which depends on dopamine receptors in a part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens. But nearby, in the ventral pallidum, are the vasopressin receptors, which allow for individual recognition.
The result: sexual preference for a specific partner.
Fewer than 5% of mammals are monogamous. Monogamy has rarely suited males when it comes to propagating their own genes. More often it has been in their interest to reproduce with as many females as possible.
In some cases, however, monogamy makes sense. For example, if predators are particularly rampant, males are better off staying around their homes to protect their offspring.
Scientists believe that monogamy evolved from polygamy. The results released Wednesday suggested that flipping one genetic switch might have been enough to spur a massive social reordering, Young said.
But Evan Balaban, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, questioned whether a single gene could cause such a dramatic change. He said that in the wild, many genes were likely involved in the expression of vasopressin receptors.
In female voles, it is another hormone, oxytocin, that appears to be involved in pair bonding.
The same hormone systems also operate in all other mammals, including humans.
The genes that control expression of vasopressin receptors vary widely in healthy men.
Human relationships, of course, are complicated, and culture and socialization probably matter as much as biology. Even so, Young suggested that genetic differences could help explain why some men have trouble maintaining relationships.
Gene E. Robinson, head of neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cautioned against extrapolating the results to humans. "The behavior of animals is much simpler than the behavior of humans," he said.
Even if the findings could lead to an elixir for fidelity, a single gene would not solve every problem at home. The genetically altered meadow voles spent more time with their partners, but unlike their naturally faithful prairie relatives, they did not help care for the pups.
That, Young said, probably depends on other neural pathways.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Article licensing and reprint options
Article licensing and reprint options
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
New Russian made armor-piercing grenade causing US casualties in Iraq
Interesting blog article about Russian made military weapons being used against the US in Iraq:
New Russian made armor-piercing grenade causing US casualties in Iraq.
No links to the original CBS news report, but one to a website called The Raw Story.
Here is some info about The Raw Story website which purports to be "an alternative news nexus" where they state that their "goal is to unearth and spotlight stories underplayed by the popular press, in particular those which highlight betterment and open people’s eyes to injustice throughout the world."
Be forewarned that The Raw Story website has lots of pop-ups and advertising. Not exactly how you think the alternative press will look, but hey even outsiders have to make a living.
New Russian made armor-piercing grenade causing US casualties in Iraq.
No links to the original CBS news report, but one to a website called The Raw Story.
Here is some info about The Raw Story website which purports to be "an alternative news nexus" where they state that their "goal is to unearth and spotlight stories underplayed by the popular press, in particular those which highlight betterment and open people’s eyes to injustice throughout the world."
Be forewarned that The Raw Story website has lots of pop-ups and advertising. Not exactly how you think the alternative press will look, but hey even outsiders have to make a living.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
China's Big Year: 2008 & the Olympics
2008 is going to be a China's big coming out party as journalists and tourists descend upon China for the Summer Olympics.
For me, it seems like Tiananmen Square happened in the recent past and not almost nineteen years ago in 1989. What a difference a couple decades can make. The Chinese democracy movement has essentially disappeared or been effectively neutralized, depending on your viewpoint. The combination of the brutal oppression by a police state ruled by a small, secretive, omnipotent party, the suppression and censorship of the press, and the successful liberalization of the economy with a heady dose of capitalism have succeeded in quelling all dissent. It's an accomplishment the current Administration and its past and present cadre of Roves and Cheneys would aspire to and admire.
I have met some of China's youth, bright twenty-something professionals who have immigrated to the US, and they are different from past generations. They do not have terrible memories of China, being separated from parents, having family members jailed or not seeing them for years when they escape. This generation got on an airplane with a passport as smoothly as could be. And many of them want to go home, home to visit every year, home for retirement. They are buying investment property in China. They go clubbing when they visit Beijing.
There are no worries about the government. There are no fears about repression or censorship. There is no Tiananmen Square Massacre hanging over them.
But the dissidents, the Tibetans, the victims of the state are not entirely forgotten. This past Fall, I listened on local cable television to individuals speaking to the Pasadena City Council, asking them to reconsider and revoke the approval of the participation of the People's Republic of China in the Rose Parade. Each person gave their own story of oppression and imprisonment.
Some journalists are also pointing out the dichotomies of the People's Republic of China hosting the Olympics at a time when 'people's journalism' has become a powerful force on the internet, such as an article anticipating The 2008 Beijing Olympic Disaster.
The Chinese government made the argument in the 1990's that economic development had to come before democracy. Perhaps this is the year that argument will be tested. Economic development has arrived and progressed. How will China handle the free press and the 'people's press' reporting without censorship from inside their country?
The Great Digital Wall of China will be challenged by hordes of satellite connected journalists, and cell phone carrying, You Tube enabled bloggers.
For me, it seems like Tiananmen Square happened in the recent past and not almost nineteen years ago in 1989. What a difference a couple decades can make. The Chinese democracy movement has essentially disappeared or been effectively neutralized, depending on your viewpoint. The combination of the brutal oppression by a police state ruled by a small, secretive, omnipotent party, the suppression and censorship of the press, and the successful liberalization of the economy with a heady dose of capitalism have succeeded in quelling all dissent. It's an accomplishment the current Administration and its past and present cadre of Roves and Cheneys would aspire to and admire.
I have met some of China's youth, bright twenty-something professionals who have immigrated to the US, and they are different from past generations. They do not have terrible memories of China, being separated from parents, having family members jailed or not seeing them for years when they escape. This generation got on an airplane with a passport as smoothly as could be. And many of them want to go home, home to visit every year, home for retirement. They are buying investment property in China. They go clubbing when they visit Beijing.
There are no worries about the government. There are no fears about repression or censorship. There is no Tiananmen Square Massacre hanging over them.
But the dissidents, the Tibetans, the victims of the state are not entirely forgotten. This past Fall, I listened on local cable television to individuals speaking to the Pasadena City Council, asking them to reconsider and revoke the approval of the participation of the People's Republic of China in the Rose Parade. Each person gave their own story of oppression and imprisonment.
Some journalists are also pointing out the dichotomies of the People's Republic of China hosting the Olympics at a time when 'people's journalism' has become a powerful force on the internet, such as an article anticipating The 2008 Beijing Olympic Disaster.
The Chinese government made the argument in the 1990's that economic development had to come before democracy. Perhaps this is the year that argument will be tested. Economic development has arrived and progressed. How will China handle the free press and the 'people's press' reporting without censorship from inside their country?
The Great Digital Wall of China will be challenged by hordes of satellite connected journalists, and cell phone carrying, You Tube enabled bloggers.
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