Entry tags:
Science Tuesday - Floresians, Plaque, Math, and MRSA's
Report Reignites Feud Over ‘Little People of Flores’
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
After the 18,000-year-old bones of diminutive people were found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the discoverers announced two years ago that these were remains of a previously unknown species of the ancestral human family. They gave it the name Homo floresiensis.
Doubts were raised almost immediately. But only now have opposing scientists from Indonesia, Australia and the United States weighed in with a comprehensive analysis based on their own first-hand examination of the bones and a single mostly complete skull.
The evidence, they reported yesterday, strongly supports their doubts. The discoverers, however, hastened to defend their initial new-species interpretation.
The critics concluded in an article in the current issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the “little people of Flores,” as they are often called, were not a newfound extinct species.
( Read More )
Q & A: Perils of Plaque
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
Q. Is there any correlation between the plaque that forms on teeth and plaque in the arteries?
A. Quite possibly. Though scientists have not drawn a straight line between the two kinds of plaque, there is a strong correlation between dental disease related to plaque and the incidence of hardening of the arteries, heart disease and stroke.
( Read More )
Four Are Given Highest Honor in Mathematics
By KENNETH CHANG, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
Grigory Perelman, a reclusive Russian mathematician who solved a key piece in a century-old puzzle known as the Poincaré conjecture, was one of four mathematicians awarded the Fields Medal today.
But Dr. Perelman refused to accept the medal, as he has other honors, and he did not attend the ceremonies at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid.
Sir John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, which is holding the conference, told The Associated Press that he did not think Dr. Perelman’s decision to turn down the award was intended as a snub. “I am sure he did not mean it that way,” he said.
The Fields Medal, often described as mathematics’ equivalent to the Nobel Prize, is given every four years, and several can be awarded at once. Three other professors of mathematics were awarded Fields Medals this year: Andrei Okounkov of Princeton; Terence Tao of University of California, Los Angeles; and Wendelin Werner of the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay.
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Concern Mounts as Bacteria Resistant to Antibiotics Disperse Widely
By KATE MURPHY, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
In April 2005, Sara Stephan, a 13-year old in Charleroi, Pa., developed what looked like a pimple on her cheek.
A blemish on a teenager is not exactly cause for alarm, but her mother, Carla Stephan, became concerned when it started to spread and swell. “Her whole cheek got big and red,” she said.
Next, a similar lesion above Sara’s eye. Then, she got one the size of a softball on her buttock, and several more on her thighs.
Tests showed that Sara had a particularly persistent and sometimes deadly bacterial infection known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, often abbreviated as M.R.S.A.
Intravenous antibiotics seemed to eradicate it, but Sara has had recurrences, requiring three additional hospitalizations.
“It’s been horrible,” Ms. Stephan said. “How would you feel being her age having to deal with this?”
Health care providers have been concerned about an increasing number of such cases for years. But they are now reporting infections in unexpected locales and among a bewilderingly diverse population.
( Read More )
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
After the 18,000-year-old bones of diminutive people were found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the discoverers announced two years ago that these were remains of a previously unknown species of the ancestral human family. They gave it the name Homo floresiensis.
Doubts were raised almost immediately. But only now have opposing scientists from Indonesia, Australia and the United States weighed in with a comprehensive analysis based on their own first-hand examination of the bones and a single mostly complete skull.
The evidence, they reported yesterday, strongly supports their doubts. The discoverers, however, hastened to defend their initial new-species interpretation.
The critics concluded in an article in the current issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the “little people of Flores,” as they are often called, were not a newfound extinct species.
( Read More )
Q & A: Perils of Plaque
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
Q. Is there any correlation between the plaque that forms on teeth and plaque in the arteries?
A. Quite possibly. Though scientists have not drawn a straight line between the two kinds of plaque, there is a strong correlation between dental disease related to plaque and the incidence of hardening of the arteries, heart disease and stroke.
( Read More )
Four Are Given Highest Honor in Mathematics
By KENNETH CHANG, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
Grigory Perelman, a reclusive Russian mathematician who solved a key piece in a century-old puzzle known as the Poincaré conjecture, was one of four mathematicians awarded the Fields Medal today.
But Dr. Perelman refused to accept the medal, as he has other honors, and he did not attend the ceremonies at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid.
Sir John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, which is holding the conference, told The Associated Press that he did not think Dr. Perelman’s decision to turn down the award was intended as a snub. “I am sure he did not mean it that way,” he said.
The Fields Medal, often described as mathematics’ equivalent to the Nobel Prize, is given every four years, and several can be awarded at once. Three other professors of mathematics were awarded Fields Medals this year: Andrei Okounkov of Princeton; Terence Tao of University of California, Los Angeles; and Wendelin Werner of the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay.
( Read More )
Concern Mounts as Bacteria Resistant to Antibiotics Disperse Widely
By KATE MURPHY, The New York Times, August 22, 2006
In April 2005, Sara Stephan, a 13-year old in Charleroi, Pa., developed what looked like a pimple on her cheek.
A blemish on a teenager is not exactly cause for alarm, but her mother, Carla Stephan, became concerned when it started to spread and swell. “Her whole cheek got big and red,” she said.
Next, a similar lesion above Sara’s eye. Then, she got one the size of a softball on her buttock, and several more on her thighs.
Tests showed that Sara had a particularly persistent and sometimes deadly bacterial infection known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, often abbreviated as M.R.S.A.
Intravenous antibiotics seemed to eradicate it, but Sara has had recurrences, requiring three additional hospitalizations.
“It’s been horrible,” Ms. Stephan said. “How would you feel being her age having to deal with this?”
Health care providers have been concerned about an increasing number of such cases for years. But they are now reporting infections in unexpected locales and among a bewilderingly diverse population.
( Read More )