Horse Sense


In the laboratory, mice and rats are frequently used as test models for humans, but the use of horses is unusual. Dr. Hausberger and her team at the Universite´ de Rennes have used a group of horses to determine if their type of work affects their personality (1). Sharing with us problems such as suppressed emotions and interpersonal conflicts makes them a good model.

This was a paper that I had to read. Expecting to see huge differences between a carthorse’s personality and that of a racehorse, I delved deep. No dawn to dusk heavy work or pampered athletes in this study, though. The work ranged from dressage, through show jumping to voltige. Makes sense of course, as the extremes would be an easy guess.

The results are interesting as they show marked differences in the way they expressed their emotions. The voltige horses were very laid back, and I guess running around a ring all day, while some scantily clad human does gymnastics on your back, would give you a “whatever” approach to life. The dressage beasts were the most tetchy and emotionally uptight. The rationale was that the utterly complete, tight control by the rider of every movement that the horse makes, while having to be sensitive to the slightest indication of the rider's intention and act accordingly, would make anyone anxious and stressed.

The more I read, the more the parallels with life at the office stand out. The question remains though, why do so many of us clamor for the high stress ‘dressage life’ when the ‘voltige life' would only make us laid back and calm?

1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014659

Mob Rule


Working with flocks of Polish ravens, Dr. Selva has shown that life is stressful for juveniles. The received wisdom was that as the juveniles go around in gangs, sharing food and generally raising hell, their troubles would start once the grew up and settled down with a soulmate for life. Squabbling with neighbors and bringing up the next generation were assumed to be heavy duty with respect to stress. On the other hand, the young had it easy, just hanging out with their friends taking no responsibility. 

Doesn’t this sound familiar? It is a line going back to the start of our written records, that human adults have been complaining about their young as being lazy, not taking responsibility and generally having an easy time.


The Polish study shows that corticosterone is present at a higher level in the juvenile ravens. This hormone is produced in the adrenal gland as is cortisol, (the stress hormone that we hear so much about) and was used as a measure of the higher stress levels experienced by the young members of the raven gang. I seem to remember that growing up was pretty stressful and being encouraged to get married and settle down.  Gang life has never been low stress due to all the squabbling and jockeying for position and general nonsense that goes on as juveniles mature. Poland clearly needs a raven outreach program in the Bialowieza Forest to bring these raving ravens back onto the straight and narrow.

Ants and other social insects have gang life down to a fine art, though. They all do their own thing and don’t squabble over group decisions. They utilize a system of quorum sensing to recruit their fellows to the same occupation. We’ve all experienced the same sort of things at meetings where it’s difficult to be the hold out and not go along with the majority. Dr. Franks of U of Bristol studies this process in ant colonies. When enough ants start doing the same thing, cognition reaches colony level and the decision is made. Then the colony goes with the flow. Very democratic, no partisan squabbling. Of course, we also have things to learn from lemmings.

Reflections


The fogging over of the bathroom mirror by the steam from the morning shower is one of nature’s kindnesses, for which most of us are truly grateful. When wiping a small circle to reflect my chin for its shaving trauma, I now am reminded of the chatty mirror in ‘Snow White’ and I’m waiting for the new generation of speech-enabled and programmable bathroom mirrors that will have the details of our fitness challenges and give us daily advice and encouragement.  The bathroom may then take on the character of the confessional. Our iPhones will naturally come to the rescue here. There is already an app to help the Catholic penitent with a checklist to fill out so saving time when going to confession.

However, our personal fitness regimens are probably taking a hit now that we are several weeks away from our New Year Resolution commitments. But the view in our mirrors should keep us up to the mark and help pushback the ravages of age.

It is a pity that we don’t have the ability to fatten up our telomeres. These protect the ends of our DNA and their lengths are critical in our ageing process. Short is bad, long is good. The activity of the enzyme, telomerase, increases telomere length but we don’t seem to be able to control this yet. A paper published yesterday by Cayuela et al (1) describes the use of zebrafish as a model. If the fins of this fish are cut off, they regrow and during the re-growth, the telomerase activity is high and the fish’s telomeres were elongated, especially if the fins are repeatedly chopped off. This seems a hard way to stay young. Maybe if I keep cutting my hair and finger nails, I will tweak my telomeres and look younger. That’s my best shot as anything else that gets chopped off won’t regenerate.



1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016955

Future Tech


As I suffer from a non-ostentatious form technophilia, I read with interest and a modicum of concern about the big new EU project called RoboEarth. Mark Ward of the BBC reports that this grand project will provide domestic robots with their own broadband internet which will enable them to share a veritable Wikipedia of knowledge about…er what?

Dr. Waibel of SFIT, Zurich, suggests that one domestic robot finding an unusual situation could find solutions suggested by other robots elsewhere. A noble intention, I guess. The scene is worth exploring a little further though. For the foreseeable future, domestic robots will be mainly enabled appliances. Refrigerators for example which can monitor inventory, flag up expired items and at least print out a shopping list if not place the order for delivery. Perhaps your web connected 52inch HD TV will be monitoring your heart rate and other vital signs while you are working out with MS Kinect, and tweeting the data to the robot in your Family Doctor’s surgery. Sounds wonderful, or does it?

My mind rapidly moved on to my robotic vacuum cleaner gossiping via Robotwitter with my neighbor’s refrigerator, about what it found under my bed and that silly refrigerator posting the gem on its Robofacebook page so that the snippet goes viral by lunchtime. Of course the robots should come with privacy settings, but they will need to be variable depending on which device they are talking to, but can I rely on my refrigerator keeping the confidences shared with it by my robotic medicine cabinet?

Wild Goose Chase





With waterfront property getting scarce and crowded, an expansion westward is beginning to take place. I met with this pair of pioneer homesteaders staking out a claim to the grass verge by the sidewalk. I attempted to explain the hazardous nature of the environment to the gander, and how this wasn’t an ideal spot to bring up goslings, but all he would do was to hiss me quiet so as not to worry his goosefriend, who had complete faith in his ability to handle any and all situations.

The transformation of the Ponds to a regular river–flood plain habitat has taken a leap forward this winter. The landfill for the riparian benches along the ponds, which reduce the steepness of the banks, are now sporting some sparse grass and the planting of the native species of trees and shrubs is well under way. Clearly, it is well on the way to becoming the nature wonderland envisioned in the original plan of six years ago. I do worry about our goosey friends and their ilk though. They are no match for the hungry predators that rush up and down the road. True, the Western Pond Turtle that I rescued from the road last year is still keeping his head down, but our Canada friends seem pretty determined to push the frontier.

Talking Heads


Today, I would like to commend to you Abraham’s article and give its URL (1). It is celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Dr. Head who was head of the journal Brain ahead of Dr. Brain who was head of Brain from 1954-67 and who wrote an essay about Head in Brain on the centenary of Head's birth. Never mind that I am a few days late, it is a worthy read. It had quite slipped my mind that Dr. Brain had been honored and was Baron Brain of Eynsham.

Whilst doffing my cap to such scientific worthies, I thought about our gestures in general and how nearly all species indulge in these although they may not be universal, even among a single species. Dr. Laidre, while studying Mandrills (2), observed that one community had developed a gesture that was unique amongst Mandrills. They will raise their arm with their elbow stuck out in the manner of the military and cover their eyes with their hand. This is clearly not a passing acknowledgement as say, in a military march past, as they will hold this eye-covering gesture for up to half an hour. It is a “Do not disturb” indicator. This I thought was strange, until I read that they live in a wildlife park in Colchester, England. I am digging deeper to see if there is a gestural timing coincident with the screening of either “Britain has Talent” or “Prime Minister’s Questions” on TV.

Another interesting gesture that has been studied by Dr. Feldman of Cambridge U, is the rolling about of cats. She concludes that it is either a sexy ‘come on’ or a sign of submission – depending who is there. With the many cats that I have met, this has either been an invitation to play or a request for a tummy-rub. I usually know which afterwards as my hand is either dripping blood or is unscathed.


1.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/24/improbable-research-brain-journal

2. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014610;jsessionid=55B556879D0F7952C7CEB6C2B597FBF2.ambra02

Artful Access


Today I discovered Google’ tour of some of the worlds major art galleries and got lost in the wonder of the masterpieces of world spread over my 27 inch screen. You can zoom in to check out the brushwork and get some brief viewing notes on each painting or sculpture. There is a 3D mode but glasses are needed. Perhaps this is in preparation for future advances in technology.

You can click onto a museum and land in one of its galleries. In what is now classic Google-fashion, you can look around just as you do in G-Earth’s street view. ‘This is great,’ I thought as I proceeed to struggle to get through doors to explore further. Being gaming-impaired it took me some time (I won’t say how long) to understand the difference between a rectangle and an ellipse.  Click with the ellipse and you are dragged through the door into a new gallery with transmigrational visuals rather reminiscent of Star Trek.

My jar of quarters now has a purpose. The hot things at this year’s Consumer Electronics show were web-enabled huge screen HD TVs.  Google’s Art Project is clearly what they have been designed for. Try it: http://www.googleartproject.com/. 

By the time my quarter-jar has enough in it, they will also have 3D without the need for glasses. I will have to start planning now. The first thing to do will be to move my refrigerator next to my recliner and then….

Its a Wrap


This morning, returning from a quick run for my daily caffeine transfusion, I slink past the large glass tanks that are the car showrooms along both sides of the road. Clearly, it is early. The schools of ravenous salesmen are assembling and peering out, looking to snap up the unwary. Stepping into a lot to look at a vehicle would certainly mean instant capture with no escape possible. Further along, I pass two humongous trucks, nose to nose with their hoods agape; clearly kissing cousins, getting revved up by sharing bodily currents.

Further along, the trees on both sides of the road are filled with birds jeering at me. They are not going to let me forget my error. I was reminded in the coffee shop, and am now feeling crushed and deflated by the fact that I missed National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day (1). Last Monday, whilst the rest of the Nation was bursting with excitement, I was staring at my screen, ear buds in place, with ‘Lady Gaga’ drowning out the pop culture surrounding me. I was aware that it was Thyroid Awareness Month, and was doing my bit for National Hot Tea Month, but clearly did not have my daily structure properly in place, mia culpa, indeed. Even the geese sound like they are laughing at my chagrin


My neglect of the important things in life brings the term ‘bird brain’ to mind. Though it cannot be put at the feet of exposure to radiation as has been found with the birds living in the woodland surrounding the Chernobyl site. Dr. Møller and his colleagues have found that the bird’s brains are 5% smaller than their brothers and sisters living elsewhere (2), and the speculation is that their cognitive ability is similarly reduced. Perhaps their nest sites were described as hot properties by their avian realtors.


References
1.    http://www.brownielocks.com/january.htm
2.   http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016862

Random Walk


When one starts a web-walk there are always surprising discoveries at every turn, sometimes inspiring, sometimes funny or strange and often sad. Today, I was sort of inspired by the news of Clyde Space and their plan for production of their mini-satellite, UKube1 (1). My first unworthy thought was that the ube1 was an indication of a Star Wars connection but I quickly pushed that aside. The inspiring part of the story is that Clyde Space in Scotland has a large part of the market for manufacturing bits and pieces for satellites such as solar panels. Strange for a country where I heard in Lochalsh that ‘If you can see Skye, it’s going to rain shortly, if you canna see it, it’s raining already’.

Tripping happily along the web to Africa I came on the news about a new anti-pollution law in Malawi, which has sparked a high profile argument between the Justice Minister and the Solicitor General. The Justice Minister insists that any occurrence of flatulence in public is illegal; it is a form of noxious air pollution that is no longer allowed. From now on the population will have a clenched up look rather than a buttoned up expression. It is just as well that the two largest cities, Lilongwe (the capital) and Blantyre (the economic center), do not have very many high rise blocks or else the numbers of new recruits as Elevator Police would put a huge load on the exchequer.

Moving swiftly on to other more fragrant environmental matters, there is a new public access spectra database that enables one to look at a flower and see as a bee sees (2). In clarification, it is a website where you have to submit raw reflectance spectra data that you have recorded to get the full picture. Interesting because bee’s vision works into the ultraviolet and they see things that we can’t. The nectaries on plants are clearly marked for bees with landing strips laid out on the petals and targets for them to stick proboscis in.

Unfortunately when hitting the PLoS ONE journal site, the anesthesiology and pain management section comes up first and a decapitation study (3) tripped me up. The question asked: is decapitation humane? The subjects were ‘obsolete’ rats in the Netherlands. The methodology was using EEG with anesthetized and wide-awake animals. The results indicated that consciousness decreases with time at the rate: C(t)=exp(-t/6), which means that the half-life of being awake after the blade falls is 4 secs. Even more spine chilling was that the EEGs of the anesthetized subjects indicated that the process woke them up. Where are we going with these experiments? Bearing in mind that animal experiments are used as a human model, the Netherlands has a euthanasia provision and is right close to France with “Madame, La Guillotine”. Mmm.. I’ll have to stop watching horror movies and reading historical spine-chillers!


1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-12334344
2. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014287
3. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016514

Tail Tale



There was a beautiful sunrise this morning, which lasted just for a few minutes as the clouds broke and the earth turned. The old adage of a red sky in the morning being a warning – for sailors or shepherds, depending where you’re from, has proved false today with beautiful blue skies, with the occasional streaky cloud, and sullied only by slowly expanding vapor trails. However, the surrounding hills are hazy and its these airborne droplets that spread the bright reds and oranges of the sunrise across the horizon, after the greens and the blues had been scattered by the air molecules and the nano-sized dust particles

The main pond reflects the blue and the water is now clear and sediment-free as the incoming water has been reduced to the flow of a small creek. The sub-ponds are looking uninspiring with black mud and the dead reeds blackening. A group of ten guys are busy planting a dense forest on the banks and islands of the most westerly ponds. It will be interesting to see if these survive.

I’m not sure what the plant species are. They will be native to the Northwest I assume and interesting in their own way. However, probably not as curious as Cytinus visseri, a South African parasitic plant that hides away in its host but produces dark red flowers that need pollinating. Not trusting the insect world to do the job, they recruit our little mammalian friends with mouthwatering scents. The chemicals that they emit are ketones and esters; heptanone and ethyl butyrate are examples. (Think pear drops and your mind will have your nose in the general direction.) The picture of the little mice running around to their candy stores is not the end of the story though as there is a twist in the tale. Honey bee alarm pheromones are also made up of ketones and esters. Typical ones are hexanone, pentyl acetate and butyl acetate. Certainly to my untutored nose, hexanone and heptanone smell the same and I doubt if I could separate the ester mix either. So I worry about the poor mice in search of the sweet life making a decidedly poor life choice.

Of Mice and Parrots


Today my attention was caught by some rather interesting work from Sven Petersen and his team (1) who have shown that the bacterial load in the gut has a marked effect on behavior. The work was with mice, not men, but my first thought was ‘Well, yes’, what’s going on in my gut certainly affects my behavior, whether its after a high dose of broad spectrum antibiotics or a meal of tainted chicken. However, reading in a little more detail shows that not only do hormone levels change, but also gene expression is altered which affect the neuronal circuits. The result is the mice are much more adventurous, running about all over the place, showing much less anxiety.

The critical period for the micro-flora to be affecting the brain development was the prenatal and early postnatal period. In my January 31st post I drew attention to the work on the ablation of the paternal Grb10 gene giving rise to dominant behavior. One is left to wonder what was Mighty Mouse’s mom eating?

With the thought that reporting on the research of others is simply ‘parroting’ the information comes the urge to share the findings of Dr. Brown of Macquarie U in Oz. His work shows that the parrots in Oz are either right or left footed. The surprise though is that sulfur crested cockatoos are all left footed. Humans are the only other species to show strong limbic preference, with 90% being right handed. Our daily squawk is something else we have in common, although some are more raucous than others.

Reference
1. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/01/26/1010529108

Harmony Abides


My Oregon Grape has opened its first flower but no insect is brave enough to come out and admire it. The clear sky is a strong cobalt color overhead and drifts to a pastel baby blue at the horizon. The sun is bright but the breeze chill is winning at this time in the morning.

It’s two days since I paid attention to the ponds and in my absence our bridge-to-nowhere has been tagged by a couple of no-talent graffiti-ists. Also someone has flushed the ponds and the water level is now about two and a half feet lower than when I last saw it. The waterfront nesting properties now have lengthy beaches of black mud and pebbles. Large stretches of the ponds consist of exposed mud and grey, sad looking reeds.

The geese seem to like it however, and a large number have returned from their sojourn on the grass. There are a lots of white rumps pointing at the sky as the long necks can now reach the tasty morsels on the bottom of the pond. Peace and harmony seem to be the rule, save for a couple of geese engaged in a noisy courting ritual, which involves a lot of neck contortions and honking; the goose equivalent of teenagers perhaps?

The car lots have their New Year models on display in long lines with trucks lined up, wheel arch to wheel arch, like an army with the large aggressive grills that are favored as this years fashion but which look as attractive as a wood-chipper looks to a freshly pruned branch.

Of Mice and Frogs


The gene scene today is again interesting. A new paper by Dr. Ward and his colleagues (1) describes some work with mice and the Grb10 gene were the father contribution has been switched off so that the imprinting possibility is solely from the maternal allele. In this case the adult developed a marked dominance, nibbling off some of their fellows fur and whiskers and generally being the Genghis Khan of their mouse world. It is interesting to remember that we too have the Grb10 gene, but I’m stuck with chewing my own whiskers.

Following on with unexpected genetic developments is the news item on Gastrotheca guentheri, a frog that prefers to live in trees (2). It is the only frog that has a full set of teeth. Frogs evolved to loose their lower set about 200 million years ago. Now our tree frog re-evolved the bottom set about 20 million years ago and has been happy with that ever since.

Already I can here the clamor ‘Why is this important unless you’re G guentheri?’ Well, it has provided a loophole in Dollo’s law. Louis Dollo was a Belgian paleontologist, who in 1893 taught us that evolution is irreversible. This has provided a good subject for discussion. The argument for the view is that evolution is the result of many different genetic changes resulting in a survival advantage but the route is not necessarily optimal and reversing that route would give too many options for there being a significant probability of getting back to the same starting point.

The possibility of ongoing genetic development, combined with an evolutionary advantage to have a full set of teeth, if you are a frog living up trees, seems a perfectly reasonable idea to me and that there is no need to reverse the total genetic evolutionary process. However, a rash minute or two following the threads on the blogosphere, rapidly take one down intelligent design rabbit holes insisting on the reversibility of time. A very scary proposition, which again leaves me chewing on my whiskers, and trying not to think about the reversing of my eating lunch.


References:
1. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v469/n7331/full/nature09651.html

2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9365000/9365076.stm

Wow!


I have been reading today about Susie, who is a refugee from Sumatra and an orangutan. She has just had her genome sequenced by Dr. Locke and his international team and they have concluded that her genetic make up means that she is more closely related to our common ancestors than either chimps or other people that I’ve known. The observations that peeked my interest were that the study indicated that the genes involved with the metabolism of glycolipids and those involved with visual perception were some of the most involved in the differentiation of our ancestral lineage. Both of these bits of information chimed with other  items of news today.
                               
 image courtesy: Jamie Goodwin; 
 http://jamies-art-blogg.blogspot.com

Firstly, John Hurt for the BBC’s Human Planet gives us a recipe for kiviaq, a highly nutritious food that is rich in glycolipids and comes from northern Greenland. Glycolipids are a source of energy, which is in great demand in the long north Greenland winters. Packing auks inside sealskins and allowing them to ferment during for the summer months, until food is short in the winter, is how we should make Kiviaq. It apparently tastes like strong Gorgonzola cheese, but I can’t confirm that as I am still waiting to try it.

Secondly, the visual perception issue has come to the fore with the rapid expansion of 3D films, games and TV sets to show them on. The BBC Click Newsletter reports that there is grave concern over the health effects of watching 3D images. The concern over very young children may be reasonable, although I suspect exposing 2 or 3-year olds to some of the movies might be bad, even if they weren’t in 3D. However, the concern over the exposure of senior citizens, and especially those who have had a beer or two, seems a little bizarre. Most seniors that I know who are stuck in front of a movie, 3D or not, after a few beers have their eyes closed and will be quite protected from perceptual overexcitement.

Return to Salt Creek Falls



The weather in the Northwest turned warmer and drier than usual so another trip to the mountains to see how the snow looked was called for. A comparison of the state of the Salt Creek Falls looked interesting. Snowshoes were still de rigueur but the snow base had dropped markedly. The melt is well under way with the snow surface having an icy cap and untrod areas make for easier walking.


The falls are now clear of ice and are spectacular in full flow. Strangely, when looking at the falls from the top, the near three hundred foot drop doesn’t look as awe inspiring as I was expecting.


Lookdown the valley and the full drop can be appreciated as you watch the raging water rush down the serpentine, steep and narrow canyon. The lack of snow is clear in this view with just a few patches remaining.

A sidetrack on the return takes us towards Diamond Creek Falls, which is named for John Diamond of Coburg, who also gave his name to Diamond peak. Unfortunately there are no diamonds in the creek save for the ephemeral ones due to sunlight refracting through water droplets.


The bridge over the creek leading to Salt Creek Falls still has a thick carpet of snow although the edges are melting. Whilst organizing my camera, the fellow member of the expedition dropped my hiking pole into the water. We had to rush to catch up with it as the cork handhold bobbed along in the turbulent water until it reached a bend where the torrent quieted and the pole hit a snag. A few minutes of excitement over the icy water and it was returned to it proper place. Around the next bend and it would have been over the falls. Retrieving it from the canyon at the bottom would have been a tad tedious.