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Q & A: Spreading Smallpox
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
Q. Would it really have been possible for Europeans to infect Native Americans with the smallpox virus by giving them blankets used by other victims? How long could the virus live on a blanket?
A. It would be at least theoretically possible, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, though some historians doubt that the plan to infect enemy tribes, which the British general Lord Jeffery Amherst notoriously wrote about in 1763, during the French and Indian War, was actually carried out.
( Read More )
Epic of Human Migration Is Carved in Parasites’ DNA
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
A human body is not the individual organism its proud owner may suppose but rather a walking zoo of microbes and parasites, each exploiting a special ecological niche in its comfortable, temperature-controlled conveyance. Some of these fellow travelers live so intimately with their hosts, biologists are finding, that they accompany them not just in space but also in time, passing from generation to generation for thousands of years.
The latest organism to be identified as a longtime member of the human biota club is Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay. From samples collected around the world, Dr. Page W. Caufield and colleagues at New York University have found that the bacterium can be assigned by its DNA to several distinct lineages. One is found in Africans, one in Asians and a third in Caucasians (the people of Europe, the Near East and India), his team reported in last month’s Journal of Bacteriology.
The geographical distribution of these lineages reflects the pattern of human migration out of the ancestral homeland in Africa. If the tooth decay bacterium spreads easily from person to person, any geographical pattern would soon be blurred. But Streptococcus mutans is transmitted almost entirely from mother to child, preserving its lineages over thousands of years. The bacteria apparently infect the infant during birth, beginning the work that provides the dentistry profession its livelihood. “We’ve never seen father-to-child transmission,” Dr. Caulfield said. Thanks, Mom.
( Read More )
Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, March 12, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 11 (AP) — The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water, top scientists are likely to say next month at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Tropical diseases like malaria will spread, the draft says. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.
The draft document, the second of a series of four being issued this year, focuses on global warming’s effects. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.
( Read More )
Judge Stops Sale of Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Alfalfa
By ANDREW POLLACK, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
A federal judge revoked the government’s approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa yesterday, ordering a halt to seed sales and banning any planting of the crop after March 30.
The decision, by Judge Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court in San Francisco, came after a ruling he made a month ago that the Agriculture Department had violated the law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement before approving the crop in June 2005.
( Read More )
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
Q. Would it really have been possible for Europeans to infect Native Americans with the smallpox virus by giving them blankets used by other victims? How long could the virus live on a blanket?
A. It would be at least theoretically possible, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, though some historians doubt that the plan to infect enemy tribes, which the British general Lord Jeffery Amherst notoriously wrote about in 1763, during the French and Indian War, was actually carried out.
( Read More )
Epic of Human Migration Is Carved in Parasites’ DNA
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
A human body is not the individual organism its proud owner may suppose but rather a walking zoo of microbes and parasites, each exploiting a special ecological niche in its comfortable, temperature-controlled conveyance. Some of these fellow travelers live so intimately with their hosts, biologists are finding, that they accompany them not just in space but also in time, passing from generation to generation for thousands of years.
The latest organism to be identified as a longtime member of the human biota club is Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay. From samples collected around the world, Dr. Page W. Caufield and colleagues at New York University have found that the bacterium can be assigned by its DNA to several distinct lineages. One is found in Africans, one in Asians and a third in Caucasians (the people of Europe, the Near East and India), his team reported in last month’s Journal of Bacteriology.
The geographical distribution of these lineages reflects the pattern of human migration out of the ancestral homeland in Africa. If the tooth decay bacterium spreads easily from person to person, any geographical pattern would soon be blurred. But Streptococcus mutans is transmitted almost entirely from mother to child, preserving its lineages over thousands of years. The bacteria apparently infect the infant during birth, beginning the work that provides the dentistry profession its livelihood. “We’ve never seen father-to-child transmission,” Dr. Caulfield said. Thanks, Mom.
( Read More )
Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, March 12, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 11 (AP) — The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water, top scientists are likely to say next month at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Tropical diseases like malaria will spread, the draft says. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.
The draft document, the second of a series of four being issued this year, focuses on global warming’s effects. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.
( Read More )
Judge Stops Sale of Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Alfalfa
By ANDREW POLLACK, The New York Times, March 13, 2007
A federal judge revoked the government’s approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa yesterday, ordering a halt to seed sales and banning any planting of the crop after March 30.
The decision, by Judge Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court in San Francisco, came after a ruling he made a month ago that the Agriculture Department had violated the law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement before approving the crop in June 2005.
( Read More )
