Oscar Nominations

( The 77th Annual Academy Awards: Nominee List )

(*yawn*)

ETA:
rucchi informs me that his friend worked on the short animated film "Gopher Broke" - so I will be rooting for that!

Science Tuesday - Floaters, Mosquitoes and Ticks

(this one's for alaskadanielle)
When Shadows Float Before Your Eyes
By JONATHAN KOLATCH, The New York Times

My introduction to floaters came on a sunny September afternoon in the orchard. I was high on a ladder picking Jonagold apples when I felt a pop in my left eye, followed by blurriness. I thought that maybe a branch had slapped across my glasses, dirtying the lens, and I went inside to clean it. But the blurriness - a sort of floating haze - persisted overnight.

After hearing the symptoms, my ophthalmologist, Dr. William Kirber, diagnosed a posterior vitreous detachment, one of several causes of floaters, sensations that many people describe as specks, bugs or cobwebs floating in their fields of vision. In 85 percent of cases, the floaters caused by posterior detachment are mere annoyances, but when they occur suddenly, immediate medical examination is essential.
( Read More )

Millions of Lives on the Line in Malaria Battle
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times

Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $43 million to efforts by a California biochemist to genetically re-engineer bacteria to grow a malaria drug normally grown in six-foot-tall plants in Asia.

Also, recently, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a public-private partnership in Geneva, said that the leading candidate among 21 next-generation drugs it was testing was a synthetic trioxolane known for the moment as OZ277, or just "Oz."

The search for new cures for malaria is never ending.
( Read More )

(OK, this one is just funny, especially the last line)

Patterns: The Exit Polls for Lyme Disease
By JOHN O'NEIL, The New York Times, VITAL SIGNS

A map showing results from the last presidential election is "remarkably similar" to a map of the distribution of cases of Lyme disease, a brief article in the current Lancet medical journal points out.

The 19 "blue states" - those won by Senator John Kerry - account for 95 percent of the cases of Lyme disease reported in 2002, they wrote. The disease, caused by bacteria that are carried by deer ticks, is concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest.

An accompanying letter, from Dr. Robert B. Nadelman and Dr. Gary P. Wormser, epidemiologists at the New York Medical College at Valhalla, also pointed out that many of the cases reported in "red states" were probably something else. The illness there is usually preceded by the bite of the Lone Star tick, which cannot transmit the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, although it produces a rash that is identical. The two doctors suggest naming the disorder Stari, for southern tick-associated rash illness.

Lyme disease is spreading faster than Stari, Dr. Nadelman said. On the other hand, the last three Democrats elected to the White House were from states where Stari is dominant, while three of the four most recent losing candidates came from Lyme disease states.

Dr. Nadelman concluded, "We do not believe, however, that tick-borne diseases are likely to be a major factor in the 2008 presidential election."