Reflectorites
Here are excerpts for the period 26 April-8 May 2000, from Yahoo!,
with my comments in square brackets.
Steve
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000508/sc/human_chromosome_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 8 ... Scientists Complete Map of Second Human
Chromosome ... LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists announced
Monday that they had deciphered the genetic code of chromosome
21 which will improve understanding of Down's Syndrome,
Alzheimer's disease and a range of other disorders. Chromosome
21 is the smallest of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes, with an
estimated 225 protein-coding genes, and only the second to be
completely deciphered. A consortium of international
scientists...mapped the sequence .... The genetic map will help
scientists develop more precise diagnostic tests and new
treatments for diseases linked to the chromosome, including a
particular type of epilepsy, auto- immune diseases and an
increased susceptibility to leukemia. "The challenge now is to
unravel the function of all the genes on chromosome 21," .... The
small number of genes on the chromosome and the 545 active
genes in chromosome 22, which was sequenced last year, have
also led the scientists to revise the estimated total number of
human genes to 40,000 from 70,000 to 100,000 genes. Up to a
third of chromosome 21 contained no genes. Both chromosomes
are small, but together they make up two to three percent of the
human genome, the basic blueprint of life. Each chromosome is
made up of a molecule of DNA in the shape of a double helix which
is composed of four chemical bases represented by the letters A
(adenine), T (thymine), G (guanine) and C (cytosine). The
arrangement, or sequence, of the letters determines the cell's
genetic code. The scientists mapped out the 33.5 million base pairs
of chromosome 21. The human genome contains three billion base
pairs of DNA ... The achievement is particularly significant for the
study of Down's Syndrome, which affects one in 700 live births. The
complex disorder is caused by an extra copy of the chromosome.
.... We have to design novel strategies because the problem of
Down's Syndrome is not a mutation. It is too much of something --
that is one more chromosome," .... In addition to Down's Syndrome,
chromosome 21 is also linked to the early onset Alzheimer's
disease, certain types of leukemia, a form of manic depression and
congenital heart disease. ... [Another *great* milestone. But
knowing the map does not tell one much about the real-life objects
represented by it, and their relationships. It might be many years
before any treatments are available based on this new knowledge.
And legal battles (see next story) might delay these still further.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000508/sc/genome_project_2.html
Yahoo! ... May 8 ... DoubleTwist, Sun Sell Analysis of Human
Genome By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two California companies said on
Monday they had teamed up to sell what they hope will eventually
be a complete map of the collection of human genes, as provided
by the publicly funded Human Genome Project. The companies,
DoubleTwist, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. ..., said their alliance
would allow subscribers to get a map and partial analysis of just
over half the genes and eventually all 100,000 or so human genes
off an Internet site. ... Researchers at the Human Genome Project
welcomed the news, saying it was what they hoped people would
do with their data. ... Couch said his company will be competing
with Celera Genomics ... which is doing its own sequencing and
analysis of the human genome and selling it to subscribers .... "With
today's announcement, the stage is set for a new era of discovery,"
.... "What the Web browser is to the Internet, DoubleTwist.com is to
the human genome. It makes this whole complex collection of
information easy to use." [This must be Celera's Craig Venter's
worst nightmare. If he can't patent the genome, anyone who has
the computer muscle can post it to their website and even give it
away for free, making a profit from it by advertising, as
Encyclopaedia Britannica is now doing. I expect Venter and others
might try to protect their investment by legal action.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000504/sc/safrica_aids_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 4 ... South Africa President Appoints AIDS
Dissidents By Steven Swindells PRETORIA (Reuters) - South
Africa, which has one of the world's highest AIDS infection rates,
waded into controversy ... by appointing two leading American
AIDS dissidents to a presidential advisory board on the epidemic.
The appointment of prominent U.S. scientists Peter Duesberg and
David Rasnick, who deny that HIV causes AIDS, is expected to
spark fresh international criticism of South Africa where one in ten
of the country's 43 million people are HIV-positive. Pretoria said the
decision to invite Duesberg, Rasnick and other so-called dissidents
to the 33-member panel of international scientists was to heighten
debate on how to tackle the epidemic and stop millions from dying.
... The panel, roughly balanced between orthodox scientists and
dissidents, will meet for the first time this weekend, after it is
convened by Mbeki, Pahad said. It will make its recommendations
to the president in July... But the appointment of high-profile
dissidents to the body so close to the presidency ... raises fears
that the government's attempts to fight the disease could be
blunted. ...Mbeki wrote a personal letter to President Clinton and
other world leaders last month comparing his critics in the scientific
community to the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition and the
apartheid regime that ruled South Africa for more than four
decades. Mbeki has said that the West's experience with dealing
with AIDS cannot simply be superimposed on Africa because of
poverty and because, he says, AIDS is predominantly transmitted
heterosexually in Africa, rather than homosexually. Mbeki's position
is that because there is no cure for HIV-AIDS and people die from
the complex disease, the search for a solution must continue and
the debate must be reinvigorated. Dissident doyen Duesberg, a
member of the National Academy of Scientists, has argued that
AIDS differs around the world, that it is a sociological phenomenon
and that cocktails of drugs used in the West to stem HIV are
dangerously toxic. .... See also:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000506/sc/aids_safrica_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 6 ... S. Africa Controversial AIDS Panel Starts Work
...The challenge facing scientists on the panel ... came from
Duesberg who said that that there was no sign of a new epidemic in
South Africa caused by AIDS. "There is no clear evidence of a new
epidemic," ... South Africa's birthrate was higher than ever, its infant
mortality had not gone up, deaths were not caused by HIV and that
those suffering from illnesses could be treated with "old solutions."
"Is there even a new epidemic? Is anything new happening? You
need to know what the cause is before you start treating it,"
Duesberg said. Panel member physician Christian Fiala from
Austria said figures for HIV-AIDS in Africa were being exaggerated
since people were being misdiagnosed as having AIDS when they
had treatable infectious diseases such as diarrhea caused by low
living standards. ... ; &
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000507/sc/safrica_aids_2.html
Yahoo! ... May 7 ...South Africa Gives AIDS Maverick Role in Task
Force ... PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa
appointed leading American "AIDS dissident" Peter Duesberg
Sunday to a powerful government team tasked with staging
experiments that could prove or reject orthodox science's view that
AIDS is caused by HIV ... Duesberg, professor of molecular and
cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has denied
orthodox science's view that HIV leads to AIDS. The cancer pioneer
has insisted that AIDS is caused by a breakdown of the immune
system caused by recreational and anti-HIV drugs such as AZT and
by poor living standards. Elected to the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences in 1986, Duesberg has since been ostracized by
mainstream science which rejects his theories and fears that
debate over HIV-AIDS merely wastes time in the fight to save
millions of lives ... he doubted South Africa was experiencing an
AIDS epidemic. ... [Hopefully this might finally sort out two different
but related questions: 1) what is the causal relationship (if any)
between HIV and AIDS?; and 2) are highly toxic drug cocktails the
best treatment, all things considered? It is possible that the
dissidents could be wrong on 1) but still be right on 2). Indeed,
whatever the outcome this might mark the beginning of a new
chapter in the history of science when the Third World begins to
challenge the influence of three centuries of Western cultural
dominance.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000508/sc/space_planets_2.html
Yahoo! ... May 8 ... Eight New Possible Planets Detected
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European astronomers on Monday
reported detecting signs that eight planets, some of them possibly
larger than Jupiter, may be orbiting stars outside our own solar
system. These discoveries bring the number of potential extrasolar
planets to more than 40. ... None of the planet candidates have
ever been seen by humans, but scientists believe they are there
because of the gravitational pull they exert on the stars they orbit.
Two of the eight new candidates may not be planets at all, the
European scientists said in a statement, but could instead be
brown dwarfs, which have a bit less mass than stars and
completely lack a star's interior nuclear power source. Three of the
new planet possibilities are about the size of Saturn or smaller,
three are one to three times the size of Jupiter and two are 10
times the size of Jupiter or larger. All of these are far larger than
Earth ... [While I have no problem if these do turn out to be planets
it seems scientifically inaccurate to actually claim that these stellar
orbital irregularities *are* planets, or even candidate planets, until
at least one such extrasolar planet has actually been observed.
This might turn out to be the 21st century version of the wished for
canals on Mars!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000503/sc/science_tools_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 3 ... Stone Tools Hold New Clues About Human Evolution
... LONDON (Reuters) - Ancient stone tools found on the Red Sea coast
of Eritrea in East Africa are providing new clues about the evolution and
migration of modern humans ... The 125,000-year-old tools unearthed by
American and Eritrean researchers are the earliest well documented
evidence of when modern humans adapted to a marine environment and a
new way of providing food. They also support the "out of Africa" theory --
that humans evolved from a common ancestor in Africa and spread across
the world. ... "We were able to date the sequence of coral and shallow
marine sediment in which the tools were discovered very accurately and
very precisely to 125,000 years ago," he added. ... "We are documenting
for the first time that coastal marine sites are viable places to search for
early human activity," said Walter. The research, reported in the latest
edition of the science journal Nature, also suggests possible routes for the
migration of modern humans out of Africa ...northward, along the coast of
the Red Sea into the Levant ... [or] ... a southern route along the Red Sea
close to the Arabian peninsula ... over a land bridge that may have
connected the two continents. ... Chris Stringer of the Natural History
Museum in London said the research implied that at least "one dispersal of
modern humans from Africa must have occurred during the Middle
Palaeolithic (100,000 years ago) and that characteristic elements of modern
human behavior existed by then." ... [More support for the "out of Africa"
theory. The migration of early modern humans to the Levant near is
perhaps concordant with the brief Biblical statement: "Now the LORD God
had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had
formed." (Gn 2:8)?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000503/sc/space_mars_2.html
Yahoo! ... May 3 ... NASA Mulls Mars Roadmap; Agency Policy
Questioned ... LAUREL, Md. (Reuters) - Exactly five months after
the loss of NASA's Mars Polar Lander, U.S. space agency officials
said on Wednesday they expect a "new architecture" for exploring
the Red Planet by year's end. U.S. space scientists plan to put up
an orbital Mars mission in 2001 and participate in the European
Space Agency's Mars Express project ... officials at NASA
headquarters are reassessing their goals and the means to achieve
them. The U.S. space agency has been doing some soul-searching
regarding Mars and other low-cost, unstaffed missions ... NASA's
strategic aim in exploring Mars remains the same: follow the water
in the search for traces of possible life on Mars, the planet that
most closely resembles Earth. Liquid water is considered a
prerequisite for life. This aim is unlikely to be achieved with one
mission that returns samples of the Martian surface to Earth, Cutts
said. "This is something that will require perhaps decades of
exploration," ..., along with vehicles that can dig beneath the
surface. "In the search for life we're unlikely to find what we're after
on the surface," ... NASA hopes to get a sample back from Mars by
2010. ... [NASA is still IMHO following a faulty `just-add-water'
misconception of what life is. If it were that simple, they could
recreate the necessary conditions in a lab on Earth and watch life
pop into existence! What needs to be explained is not just the
chemistry but also the *information*. Not just the hardware but also
the *software*.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000426/sc/apeman_safrica_3.html
Yahoo! ... April 26 ... S.African Apeman Skull Stirs Scientific Excitement
...JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African scientists
Wednesday revealed details about a pair of fossils, including the most
complete ape-man skull ever excavated, which they hope will shed light on
our distant origins. The pair, christened Orpheus and Eurydice after the
Greek mythological lovers, are 1.5 to 2.0 million years old and have been
identified as Paranthropus robustus, a hominid line that became extinct
about one million years ago. "They are not direct ancestors of modern
humans but are more like 'kissing cousins' of our ancestors," Lee Berger
told Reuters after a news conference, where the pair -- discovered in 1994
but revealed only now -were put on public display for the first time.
Scientists say the skull belongs to a female of the species while the other
fossil, a lower jawbone or mandible, belongs to a male. The fossils were
unearthed seven kilometers (four miles) from the renowned Sterkfontein
caves north of Johannesburg, which have yielded many hominid finds,
including the recent discovery of a complete 3.3 million-year-old arm and
head. ... Scientists say the significance of the find includes the fact that they
now know what a female Paranthropus robustus looks like and know the
difference between the male and female of the species. Those differences
are highlighted by a crest along the top of the male's skull to which the
muscles of the lower jaw were anchored. The female, apart from being
smaller, has no such crest -- a distinction found today in male and female
gorillas.... [If this crest is unique to modern gorillas today, then possibly the
latter have descended from P. robustus? One of the major problems of
primatology is the lack of fossil ancestors of modern apes. so maybe
paleoanthropologists have got *plenty* of fossils of modern apes'
ancestors, but they are misclassifying them as modern human ancestors?
There are two biases here which make this possible, if not probable. The
first is to assume by default that change is positive, i.e. evolution rather
than devolution. The second is the fame (and even fortune) which comes
from finding a human ancestor, as opposed to an ape ancestor.]
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Stephen E. (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ Email: sejones@iinet.net.au
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Web: http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
Warwick 6024 -> *_,--\_/ Phone: +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, Western Australia v "Test everything." (1 Thess. 5:21)
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