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Sleek? Well, No. Complex? Yes, Indeed.
By ERICA GOODE, The New York Times, August 29, 2006
It is a good thing the manatee has thick skin.
To the dolphins, the whales, the sea otters go the admiring oohs and ahs, the cries of, “How sleek!” “How beautiful!”
The manatee, sluggish, squinty-eyed and bewhiskered, is more likely to have its rotund bulk compared to “a sweet potato,” its homely, almost fetal looks deemed “prehistoric” — terms applied by startled New Yorkers this month to a Florida manatee that made an unexpected appearance in the Hudson River.
Cleverness is unhesitatingly ascribed to the dolphin. But the manatee is not seen leaping through hoops or performing somersaults on command, and even scientists have suspected it may not be the smartest mammal in the sea. Writing in 1902, a British anatomist, Grafton Elliot Smith, groused that manatee brains — tiny in proportion to the animals’ bodies and smooth as a baby’s cheek — resembled “the brains of idiots.”
Yet the conception of the simple sea cow is being turned on its head by the recent work of Roger L. Reep, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida at Gainesville, and a small group of other manatee researchers, including Gordon B. Bauer, a professor of psychology at New College of Florida, and David Mann, a biologist at the University of South Florida.
( Read More )
New Test Speeds Diagnosis of Lethal Avian Flu Strain
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, August 29, 2006
In an advance that speeds up diagnosis of the most dangerous avian flu, scientists have developed a detailed influenza test that takes less than 12 hours, federal health officials said yesterday.
The new technology, a microchip covered with bits of genetic material from many different flu strains, cuts the typical time needed for diagnosis of the A(H5N1) flu to less than a day from a week or more. In addition, rather than giving just a yes-or-no result, it usually reveals which flu a human or an animal has.
( Read More )
How a Vaccine Search Ended in Triumph
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, August 29, 2006
Nuns and Jews, cow warts and rabbit horns.
The common link: they were all crucial elements in the search for the world’s newest vaccine.
There are fascinating stories behind every advance in medicine, be it hand washing or brain surgery. But the 70-year history behind the creation of a vaccine against human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, is more fraught than most with blind alleys, delicate moments, humor and triumph.
( Read More )
Study Shows Hopeful Pause in Steady Loss of Bird Species
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, August 29, 2006
Efforts to protect imperiled bird species have blunted a centuries-long acceleration of human-caused bird extinctions, biologists say.
For the moment.
This is the first time biologists have gauged the effect of conservation efforts by assessing shifts in the prospects of species that were down to their last few members.
( Read More )
By ERICA GOODE, The New York Times, August 29, 2006
It is a good thing the manatee has thick skin.
To the dolphins, the whales, the sea otters go the admiring oohs and ahs, the cries of, “How sleek!” “How beautiful!”
The manatee, sluggish, squinty-eyed and bewhiskered, is more likely to have its rotund bulk compared to “a sweet potato,” its homely, almost fetal looks deemed “prehistoric” — terms applied by startled New Yorkers this month to a Florida manatee that made an unexpected appearance in the Hudson River.
Cleverness is unhesitatingly ascribed to the dolphin. But the manatee is not seen leaping through hoops or performing somersaults on command, and even scientists have suspected it may not be the smartest mammal in the sea. Writing in 1902, a British anatomist, Grafton Elliot Smith, groused that manatee brains — tiny in proportion to the animals’ bodies and smooth as a baby’s cheek — resembled “the brains of idiots.”
Yet the conception of the simple sea cow is being turned on its head by the recent work of Roger L. Reep, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida at Gainesville, and a small group of other manatee researchers, including Gordon B. Bauer, a professor of psychology at New College of Florida, and David Mann, a biologist at the University of South Florida.
( Read More )
New Test Speeds Diagnosis of Lethal Avian Flu Strain
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, August 29, 2006
In an advance that speeds up diagnosis of the most dangerous avian flu, scientists have developed a detailed influenza test that takes less than 12 hours, federal health officials said yesterday.
The new technology, a microchip covered with bits of genetic material from many different flu strains, cuts the typical time needed for diagnosis of the A(H5N1) flu to less than a day from a week or more. In addition, rather than giving just a yes-or-no result, it usually reveals which flu a human or an animal has.
( Read More )
How a Vaccine Search Ended in Triumph
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, August 29, 2006
Nuns and Jews, cow warts and rabbit horns.
The common link: they were all crucial elements in the search for the world’s newest vaccine.
There are fascinating stories behind every advance in medicine, be it hand washing or brain surgery. But the 70-year history behind the creation of a vaccine against human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, is more fraught than most with blind alleys, delicate moments, humor and triumph.
( Read More )
Study Shows Hopeful Pause in Steady Loss of Bird Species
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, August 29, 2006
Efforts to protect imperiled bird species have blunted a centuries-long acceleration of human-caused bird extinctions, biologists say.
For the moment.
This is the first time biologists have gauged the effect of conservation efforts by assessing shifts in the prospects of species that were down to their last few members.
( Read More )
