Future Perfect


While armchair cruising with the Holiday Spirit and in between opportunities for overindulgence, I began to ponder on the importance of epigenetics in our lives. The subject has been active for about twenty years, although the origins go back to the 1890s. What is so fascinating is that things that we do today can affect our gene behavior, and we can pass that on down to our grandchildren without changing our basic gene make-up. The original study (turn of the nineteenth century stuff when people took meticulous notes) showed that a winter of Norwegian gluttony shortened the lifespan of the kids and grandkids. Now there’s a powerful message! The phrase ‘digging your grave with your teeth’ is probably one that those of us who are comfortably padded have heard in one form or another when cowering before the dreaded white coat at our annual medical inspection.

How does this work? Sections of our DNA can be de-activated either chemically or physically without altering its underlying structure. These aren’t mutations so the effects wear off over time, but I might not be able to wait long enough to outlast the effects of this season’s gluttony. In terms of short-term natural advantage, this ability to turn the dimmer switch up or down on parts of our gene messaging activity can help us cope with short-term changes in our environment. I should note that by ‘short-term’, I’m referring to geological time, not TV advertising time.

With the New Year about to start and the opportunity for resolutions around self-control, we should remember that the damage of those extra ten pounds of fat may last longer than the six-months of gym-time that it takes to remove them – our children born next Fall may have to live with the effects as well. That’s a scarier thought than most Christmas ghost stories.

Business As Usual


Life is back to normal on the ponds now that the survey is finished. The cormorants are back in charge of their logs, and the ducks and geese are sailing sedately around in circles, practicing for a Christmas pageant perhaps, as is appropriate for the spacious, genteel living on the Ponds. Not at all like the high-density log-life on the pond at the back of Fern Ridge Dam with eight cormorants to a log – no room to stretch a wing there.

The news media appears to be buzzing with the DNA results from the Denisovanian finger bone and wisdom tooth. Apparently the hominin trek north from Africa half a million years ago resulted in the usual macho male discussion about directions. The westward bound turned into Neanderthalers whilst those that went towards the sunrise became Denisovans. Both groups were successful and spread over large areas of the landmass. The Denisovans covered an area from Siberia to New Guinea. There is a 4.6% match of the modern New Guinea people with that from the wisdom tooth. This means that there was some canoodling going on with the modern humans who left Africa much later. Similar mixing occurred with the Neanderthals and modern humans in the west. These exciting results lead us to the idea that these mixes are to be found most strongly in the genes of the World’s politicos who are still arguing over whether East or West is best. Folk memories fade very slowly apparently.

Winter's Tale


Winter solstice and a total lunar eclipse – we’re spoilt this year. It has been 370 years since we last had this combination. But now we can huddle down for winter; as Blake said: ‘winter is the time to endure’. If Emperor penguins can do it, we can surely handle a few flakes of snow and ice.

A plant survey has interrupted the pond excitement with the waterfowl moving away to the far side of the ponds. The geese are the least fazed and now seemed to have settled into formal pairs. No disputes apparent, the season of goodwill is here.

While trawling through the outer reaches of the news machine today, I read about research on a new treatment for coughs using theobromine to calm that recalcitrant vagus nerve responsible for chronic coughs. The problem that I have with this is that the theobromine is found in chocolate, but it will be extracted so there won’t even be a flavor of chocolate left.

 I plan to reject this solution completely. When my next cold and cough strike, I will be prepared to stay at home, all wrapped up in front of the TV with a large box of chocolates. When chewed slowly, I’m sure my vagus nerve will get the benefit of the theobromine with the bonus of molten chocolate. An additional source of theobromine is black tea, so this will complete my cold cure program – warmth, lots of hot tea, chocolates and daytime TV. The TV is there to drive me back to work at the earliest opportunity, otherwise I might turn into a pneumo-viral hypochondriac. A warning note here though, chocolate has had an age-old reputation as an aphrodisiac, so warn your significant other of your plan.

Snail-s-Pace


An idle glance through world news items indicates that snails are getting a deal of attention. Todays feast of gastropodial news features the water snail,  Hinea brasiliana, and its bioluminescent behavior; see the link for details:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9287000/9287789.stm
It gives off flashes of fluorescent green light, that are amplified by its shell, when threatened by hungry denizens of the 'hood'. Now I know that many teenagers these days won’t eat anything that’s green in case it might turn out to be broccoli, but giving the green light to predators seems a little perverse. Apparently the shells don’t amplify red light so how are they going to flash out a welcome to amorous neighbors?
  
The image of the lonely polar bear on an ice float has had good use as a global warning awareness advertisement, but we need to think about the bear interface. City University of New York scientists have seen grizzly bears in polar bear habitat in northern Manitoba. The bear facts of life become interesting as one hybrid has already been shot. Both species are federally listed. Does the concern carry over to a Grolar; does it halve or does it double the federal concern? This is a question that should be sent to
    http://lawandthemultiverse.com/
for the lawyers to answer. It would seem to me to be of as much a matter of moment as whether Superman’s x-ray vision violates a person’s right to privacy when judged in the light of current modifications to airport security screening.