BIOL 1610 Spring 2018 Biology in the News

One of the main reasons I have chosen to get a degree in biology is to learn more about viruses and hopefully get a job in the future working with them. Because of this interest, I’ve chosen to do my blog post on an article about giant viruses; more specifically the mimivirus. I found an article on Nature ’s website called Mimivirus: Leading the Way in the Discovery of Giant Viruses fo Amoeba.  In most biology classes I’ve taken so far, there is always a moment during the semester when viruses are brought up and the professor either claims, “they’re not a living thing and are just a piece of nucleic acid wrapped in protein”, or “they are a living thing, and can be pretty complex”.  To me, this article shows that viruses are not only living, but can also be very complex and unique compared to everything else.  In 1980’s and 90’s, two scientists named Rowbotham and Birtles, were investigating outbreaks of Legionnaires disease. They were doing this by gathering amoebas that were kn

Scientific American: Our Understanding of the Labor Experience Is Overdue for Change By Krystal D'Costa on January 17, 2018 Review by Tanessa Farley The blog I selected discussed the topic of current treatments for woman in labor and the question of whether they are outdated or not. The article “ Our Understanding of the Labor Experience Is Overdue for Change” by Krystal D’Costa expounds on how some health practices being used in today’s healthcare are outdated and in need of improvement. D’Costa begins the article by summarizing “the complications tennis champion Serena Williams faced after the birth of her daughter” (D’Costa, 2018). Williams began experiencing a number of symptoms which led her to believe she needed certain medical treatment considering her own personal medical history and medications. When she expressed her concerns to a nurse, the nurse “assumed that the new mother was having an adverse reaction to her pain killers” (D’Costa, 2018). It took Williams cons

        Ben Bryson News blog 1/25/18           The article I read spoke of the new discovery that there are multiple species of giraffe. I chose this article because it shows how science can benefit the world we live in by helping us understand our surroundings and preserve nature and wildlife. In addition, I find it astounding that through genetic analysis, we are able to make a discovery that defies what we previously "knew." While it has widely acknowledged that there are sub species of giraffes, it is only recently that there are actual different species. In regards to this Professor Axel Janke stated, " We have studied the genetic relationships of all giraffe subspecies from across the continent. We found, that there are not only one, but at least four genetically highly distinct groups of giraffe, which apparently do not mate with each other in the wild. This we found looking at multiple nuclear genes considered to be representative of the entire genome.

A mother’s health  has a huge influence on the health of her unborn child, and it is easy to find many articles, books, and classes that teach mothers how to eat the proper balance of nutrients to nourish their babies while in utero. Many sources also instruct future mothers on how to prepare themselves before they conceive, and among the advice given is encouragement to eat well and take multi-vitamins. Having recently had a baby myself and having navigated through piles of books with “to-do” lists for mothers-to-be, I find it interesting that comparatively few sources discuss the impact that the health of a father has on a baby. But the lack of focus on a father’s health is quickly changing, especially since more and more research studies on this topic have been conducted in the last several years, which point to fathers having a strong influence on the health of their children, even before they are born. This article was particularly interesting to me because as a new paren

“The Problem Child of the Seasonal Flu”: Review by Paul S.            As I am currently a healthcare worker in a primary care setting, I have so far seen dozens of patients who have the flu this season, and one that was so sick we had them life flighted to the hospital where he was in the Medical ICU for a week. As I was reviewing possible articles, this one caught my eye with its title, “The Problem Child of Seasonal Flu”: Beware This Winter’s Virus.                                                                I had already been curious about why this years flu season has been so severe, and reading this article helped explain it for me.   It starts by saying that the H3N2 virus strain that is out and about this winter is deadlier than many of the other influenza virus strains, partially because it is especially hard on the health of seniors. The article states that the reason for that isn’t yet fully established, but they have a theory that peoples immune system

The article I read is found on biologynews.net and is about a new method of creating a vaccine for filo viruses, specifically the Ebola virus. The article explained the epidemiology of the Ebola virus and previous methods that have been researched to prevent the virus from spreading. The problem with the previous methods is they only were effective against one type of Ebola virus, and there are five different strains. This new method is projected to be effective against all five strains of Ebola virus. The key to theresearch was found in the epidemiology of the virus. An Ebola virus spreads through bodily fluids and can enter the body just by touching infected fluid. When the virus enters the body it, as all viruses do, searches for a point in which it can use the host's cells to multiply and reproduce. The Ebola virus specifically chooses a cell protein call Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1). When the virus comes in contact with a cell, the cell's membrane will seal it off in a lysosom