Countries all over the world are taking serious steps to stop the swine flu pandemic. China began its mass vaccination last week. And by October 5, the United States will distribute the first wave of swine flu vaccines, good for 6 million to million people. But the swiftness of government health agencies and the World Health Organization to address this issue is evidence about how rapid the H1N1 influenza virus has spread.
It bears repeating that we need to take precautions in protecting ourselves and our families against the H1N1. What symptoms do you look for in swine flu? The …read more

Closely related species of Pairie dog don’t live together (Photo credit Imperial College) Ever wondered why family feuds result in fighting relatives keeping their distance … often for a very long time? Well, reseachers at Imperial College, UK have observed that steering clear of your rels may have evolutionary beginnings. Mammals cannot share their habitat with closely related species because the need for the same kind of food and shelter would lead them to compete to the death. This idea that closely related species would be unlikely to be found together because they compete ferociously was first put forward by Charles Darwin …read more

(Photo credit: www.marinebio.org) 
At the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Bonn nearly 200 countries agreed on measures to protect the world’s most threatened wildlife.  They pledged:
1. To set up a deep-sea nature reserve and increase by tens of millions of hectares the area of land protected (the resulting protected area would be twice the size of Germany).
2. To ban experiments to boost plankton growth to reverse climate change, because of the potential risks to other animals.
3. To set global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been blamed for deforestation.
But environmentalists said the progress achieved at the conference was still failing …read more

Different types of skin cancer
(Photo credit: http://melanoma.blogsome.com/category/skin-image-processing)
University of Minnesota researchers looking to answer the question ‘why does ultraviolet light induce skin cancer?’ believe they have found how sun-induced skin cancer starts.  They found the cancer starts in receptor molecules or molecular “hooks” on the outer surface of cells that also pull cannabinoid compounds found in marijuana out of the bloodstream.
These receptor molecules are protein structures that are components of a cell’s outer membrane. They act like receiving docks and catch specific compounds from the blood and enable the cells to engulf or  interact with the compounds.
The researchers found that two receptors for cannabinoids also responded …read more

(Photo credit: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/PhotoGallery/Primates/7.cfm )
Scientists have long wondered why early primates inhabited forest canopies, given that climbing appears to consume more energy than walking. However Duke University researchers studying primates walking on treadmills found that there was no energy consumption difference in small primates.
This suggests that ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys may have taken to the trees because of their small body size to exploit a new environment giving them an evolutionary advantage compared to fellow mammals.
Early primates, which would have been about the size of large rats, then underwent a number of evolutionary changes as they adapted to their new environment. …read more

Charles Darwin
Following my recent article about Darwin’s 150th Anniversary, the first draft of his book, “The Origin of Species” which changed the world’s attitude to evolution is available for the first time online.  Papers which led to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution were previously only available to scholars at Cambridge University’s library.
This release makes his private papers, mountains of notes, experiments and research behind his world-changing publications available to the world for free.
The online archive about Charles Darwin is so vast it would take someone two months to view it all if they downloaded one image per minute!
Here’s the link….
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

H3N2 flu virus (Courtesy www.primidi.com) 
Each year, somewhere between five and 15 percent of the world’s population becomes infected during influenza A epidemics. These flu outbreaks are linked to as many as a half a million deaths annually, according to WHO. While vaccinations can be effective, influenza viruses often evolve so rapidly that creating effective vaccines can be difficult.
WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance Network — consisting of more than 100 labs in 80 countries — tracks influenza virus evolution in order to try to decide which strains should be used in seasonal vaccines. But the data can also contribute to a better …read more

 Drosophila flies
I just loved this article along with accompanying videos appearing in the BBC news website.
Scientists have managed to give genetically modified fruit flies a sex-change just from a pulse of light to group of 2,000 brain cells responsible for directing courtship displays.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7350403.stm
Oh that it was so easy in humans!
Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

(Photo credit: Flu viruses among cilia – National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
US scientists have discovered a possible reason why the flu virus is seasonal and tends to infect people mostly in the winter. It has a jacket that melts in the summer causing the virus to die off, and stays hard in the winter, until it enters a host where it melts and gets to work. The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent and treat the flu.
Neuroscientist Joshua Zimmerberg and colleagues, based at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics (LCMB) in the National Institute of Child Health and …read more

HIV-2 Virus. Reference: http://www.csend.hu/magazin/0102/hiv2.jpg
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has discovered a gene that is able to block HIV, and in turn prevent the onset of AIDS.  Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus.

Stephen Barr (Courtesy of University of Alberta, Canada)
Barr says “interestingly, when we prevent cells from turning on TRIM22, the normal interferon response (a natural defense produced by our cells to fight infection by viruses …read more