Reflectorites
Here are three Yahoo stories. The first is about antibiotic resistance in
bacteria being due to two genes for cell membrane repair which are
naturally selected.
The second is about the death of a `talking' gorilla named Michael who was
apparently an exponent of (modern?) art! Apparently Michael did not have
any memorable sayings to report, so the article mentions that another
gorilla named Koko "took to the Internet in what was billed as the first
`interspecies' chat, relaying pithy comments such as `I like drinks' through a
human interpreter to tens of thousands of online participants." I presume if
the interpreter was hungry Koko would have said "I like hamburgers"? :-)
The third story is perhaps the most interesting. It claims that by suppressing
genes in beetle larvae, they grew extra legs. It seems to be saying that
insects arose from centipedes by this mechanism. But that would seem to
be a *loss* of genetic information? This would mean that all the
information for the making of insects was already `front loaded' into
centipedes? But as my tagline quote says, "Aviation engineers look with
envy on...insects" because their wings are far more efficient than aircraft
wings. Insect wings "can exploit an intriguing loophole in the laws of
aerodynamics." So, the master genes which built centipedes bodies already
had encoded in them a plan for making insect wings in the distant future
which "exploit an intriguing loophole in the laws of aerodynamics." If this
is the case then this would be evidence for intelligent design by forward
planning, or as Paley put it "prospective contrivances":
"CHAPTER XIV. PROSPECTIVE CONTRIVANCES. I CAN hardly
imagine to myself a mere distinguishing mark, and, consequently, a more
certain proof of design, than *preparation*, i.e. the providing of things
beforehand, which are not to be used until a considerable time afterwards
for this implies a contemplation of the future, which belongs only to
intelligence." (Paley W., "Natural Theology," 1972, reprint, p.179.
Emphasis in original.)
Steve
================================================
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000424/sc/health_resistance_1.html
[...]
Yahoo
Monday April 24 5:04 PM ET Study Points to Drug Resistance Genes in
Bacteria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two genes help bacteria outwit
penicillin and switching off those genes makes the bugs completely
vulnerable to the antibiotic, researchers said on Monday.
Those findings could help scientists develop better infection-fighting drugs,
they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More than 90 percent of all strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the most
common cause of infections, now resist penicillin, U.S. government
researchers say.
The related S. pneumoniae is estimated to cause at least 6,000 cases of
meningitis, 50,000 cases of blood infections, a half million cases of
pneumonia and several million childhood ear infections in the United States
every year. Globally, staph infections kill a million people every year.
[...]
New antibiotics are being developed, but because bacteria evolve so
quickly, resistance is almost certain at some point. Therefore, scientists
have to keep adding to the arsenal.
Alexander Tomasz and colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York
have spent two decades studying how staph and other bacteria develop
their resistance to penicillin.
They found that bacteria can rebuild the cell wall breached by penicillin,
and homed in on the two genes, called MurM and MurN, involved in this
process.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they said
the genes are responsible for producing molecules called branched
muropeptides, which are important to the cell wall structure.
"We have now identified two genes that are responsible for making these
branched muropeptides, and we have shown for the first time that by
inactivating these genes we can restore penicillin's potency," Tomasz said
in a statement.
"This opens the door to the development of new drugs that would act
synergistically with penicillin by blocking the production of the branched
peptides."
E-mail this story
[...]
Copyright (c) 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
[...]
================================================
================================================
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000420/sc/life_gorilla_1.html
Yahoo!
[...]
Thursday April 20 2:55 PM ET One of Two 'Talking' Gorillas Dies in
California
Reuters Photo
WOODSIDE, Calif. (Reuters) - Michael, one of two lowland gorillas said
to have mastered basic American Sign Language, has died at the California
institute which had studied him since 1976. He was 27.
Officials at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, just south of San
Francisco, said Michael collapsed in his outdoor play area on Wednesday
and, despite efforts to resuscitate him, died shortly afterward.
Gorillas are susceptible to heart disease, although it was not clear on
Thursday if this is what killed Michael.
Dr. Francine Patterson, who cared for and taught Michael since he was
brought to California from Cameroon, West Africa in 1976, said he
expressed his artistic spirit through language, music and art.
"He has been an inspiration to us all," Patterson said in a news release
announcing the gorilla's death.
"He had a great facility with gestural communication and was a talented
artist. His work has been displayed in galleries around the country. He was
our group's silverback (dominant male) and we will miss his strong
presence a great deal."
[...]
Michael, who was said to have mastered more than 500 signs in American
Sign Language, is survived by one other "talking" gorilla, 29-year-old
Koko, and her male companion, Ndume, 18.
Koko and Michael achieved worldwide fame with their prowess in
American Sign Language, and were said by their human keepers to
understand some spoken English as well.
While some scientists remained doubtful about the claim, the two "talking"
lowland gorillas nevertheless became important ambassadors for their
species, which is threatened by logging and poaching in their native habitats
in central Africa. Their cousins, the mountain gorillas, number now fewer
than 500 in the wild.
In 1997, a San Francisco gallery exhibited paintings by both gorillas, saying
the acrylic-on-canvas work offered "an unprecedented glimpse of the joys,
frustrations and desires that they encounter in daily life."
In 1998, Koko took to the Internet in what was billed as the first
"interspecies" chat, relaying pithy comments such as "I like drinks" through
a human interpreter to tens of thousands of online participants.
E-mail this story
[...]
Copyright (c) 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
[...]
================================================
================================================
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000424/sc/science_legs_1.html
Yahoo!
[...]
Monday April 24 5:01 PM ET Study Shows How Insects Lost Extra,
Clumsy Legs By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A couple of genes helped insects evolve from
leggy millipedes and boring worms into flies, beetles and fleas and probably
helped them become among the most numerous creatures on the Earth,
researchers said on Monday.
When they suppressed the two genes in beetle larvae, the grubs grew extra
legs, although they did not work well, Randy Bennett and colleagues at
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah reported.
"We got legs everywhere," Bennett said.
[...]
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, shed light on how so many different animals developed and also
have implications for scientists studying human genetics -- even gene
therapy, Bennett said.
"They were central characters in the specialization of the insect body plan.
These two were involved in making the abdomen, the hind end of an insect,
special and different from the middle," Bennett said in a telephone
interview.
"We do see that there are a lot of similar genes involved in most animals,
and we are trying to see how they use these to make different body types."
Hundreds of millions of years ago, there were far fewer kinds of creatures
around, Bennett said. Only when they developed new genes could things
get interesting.
"Building a genetic toolkit that allows different animals to diversify, until
you have a certain number of tools -- genes -- in your toolbox, animals
could not do much but be sponges and jellyfish and flatworms," said
Bennett, a developmental biologist.
Once they got a few interesting genes, "then they could have fun."
Insects, which include flies, beetles, fleas and bees, have six legs on the
middle region or thorax of their bodies.
But fossils show that modern insects descended from animals that looked
more like centipedes, with many legs and sometimes multiple wings along
their bodies.
Bennett said the two genes, known as Ubx and abd-A, helped insects
develop the three-regioned body plan that is so familiar -- head, thorax and
abdomen. The thorax is the only region with legs and wings on it.
The genes belong to a family of genes, known as hox genes, that are
known to encode for master body plans.
They also play a role in humans.
"They don't do exactly the same thing," Bennett said. "They do help make
different regions of the body different from other regions. So if you look
down the spinal column, you see that cervical vertebrae are different from
the thoracic vertebrae."
He said his experiment would not create monstrous babies if tried on
human beings. "If we took (the genes) out of humans, we would not get
legs coming out," he said.
But the findings have implications for studying human genetics, because the
study shows that genes have complex relationships and that changing one
gene can alter the functions of many others.
And Bennett said the study helps illustrate how animals developed
evolutionary advantages. Winged insects have a clear advantage over
millipedes, he said.
"When you pick up a rock, when you look under a log, you find centipedes
or millipedes," Bennett said in a statement.
"You don't see them just everywhere, whereas insects we do see just
everywhere. So there seems to be an advantage to having wings and six
legs."
Photos of the insects can be found on the Internet at
http://www.byu.edu/news/releases/Apr/beetles/photos.html.
[...]
Copyright (c) 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
[...]
================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Aviation engineers look wide envy on birds and especially insects. Their
flapping wings lift and propel them far more efficiently than the fixed wings
of aircraft. One reason is their ability to exploit the subtleties of stalling.
If the angle of attack of a wing is increased, it ultimately stalls, with sudden
disastrous loss of lift. No fixed-wing aircraft dare risk stalling But an insect
with oscillating wings can exploit an intriguing loophole in the laws of
aerodynamics. Accelerated at a high angle of attack into the stalling
regime, a wing takes a short while to stall. And until it does, it generates
enormous lift. By speeding into stall and out again at each flap, an insect
wing develops amazingly high average lift. (Jones D., "The insect plane,"
Nature, Vol. 400, 5 August 1999, p.513).
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 02 2000 - 17:41:39 EDT