QDIS Blog

I have a passing interest in paleontology and had the opportunity several years ago to attend a class taught by Edwin “Ned” Colbert, the famous paleontologist who actually discovered the dinosaur known as Coelophysis. He was Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for many years. Here is a picture of him with a Coelophysis skeleton.

Click here for a larger image.

The best part was the class was taught in New Mexico at Ghost Ranch where the quarry was discovered (you can see photos of the are here).

Click here for a larger image.

The above photo is by UGAclint from his flickr account. This photo shows that at Ghost Ranch you can view a very large portion of the earth’s history as seen through the rock layers.

So I was very interested to read this recent article concerning some new developments with this very old dinosaur.

Myth Busted: Dinosaur Not a Cannibal - Yahoo! News

One of the famous fossils from there was one that distinctly looks like there are bones of a small dinosuar which looks like Coelophysis inside the abdomen of another large adult dinosaur. This is currently at the American Museum of Natural History and here is a photo of it. I have seen this one as well as another in the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology at Ghost Ranch.

Click here for a larger image.

Seems the bones inside the adult Coelophysis are NOT a infant Coelophysis but another small crocodilian species that lived during the same time period (early Triassic). So Coelophysis was NOT a cannibal! It’s too ad this happenedafter Ned Colbert passed away.

Here is a link to the abstract of the article from Biology Letters.

Prey choice and cannibalistic behaviour in the theropod Coelophysis

Here is the Edwin Colbert biography from Wikipedia.

Other Resources

“The Little Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch” (Edwin Harris Colbert)

“Digging into the Past” (Edwin Harris Colbert): great autobiography of Ned’s early life.
“Great Dinosaur Hunters and Their Discoveries” (Edwin H. Colbert)
Coelophysis- Enchanted Learning Software

Technorati Tags: Coelophysis, dinosaur, Ned Colbert, paleontology

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I reported on pharming before but wanted to point out this latest article from the Times of London.

‘Pharm’ goats give birth to new drugs - Sunday Times - Times Online

The drug being produced is ATryn, an anti-clotting drug used to treat patients with hereditary antithrombin deficiency (HAD). This makes the patients vulnerable to deep-vein thrombosis. The drug is being developed by a US company called GTC Biotherapeutics.

There is also mentioned another company developing the drug Rhucin for treatment of angioedema (swelling of soft tissue). This is being developed by the Dutch company Pharming.

It is great to note that these life-savings drugs are being approved. I would note that this really only applies to biologics. I can’t see small molecules being produced in this way anytime in the near future.

Other resources

• Transgenic Animals
• Transgenic animal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• GlaxoSmithKline: The role of transgenic animals in biomedical research
• Public Perception of Transgenic Animals (pdf)
• Barnyard 101: An Introduction to Transgenic Farm Animals

Technorati Tags: ATryn, GTC Biotherapeutics, pharming, Rhucin, transgenic animals

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It seems everything these days is becoming more and more polarized and it has me concerned. There are a whole variety of issues where this has come to the fore.

• Stem Cells
• Drug Pricing
• Global Climate Changes
• Alternative Fuels
• Drug Safety
• Teaching Evolution

I’m sure there are many more but these are the ones that came to mind that relate to issues I discuss here.

I am disturbed by the observation I’ve made that it seems that those who speak out loudest and most often are “right”. It seems many people don’t want to stop and think and just accept whatever they hear. Also, more and more, neither side is really interested in truly listening and hearing what the other side is saying. They are only concerned with being the loudest and getting heard as often as possible.

I think major media contributes to this problem. They want short, concise, black and white views put forth that fit into the 2-3 minutes they allot to each issue. This contributes to everyone speaking in sound bites and no real meat being added to the bones of the issue. Other than a few non-major media outlets, there is no real discussion of the issues. Some exceptions are Democracy Now and Radio Open Source.

Another issue that concerns me is all the talk about being “fair and balanced”. It seems no matter what the topic, you have to have a so called expert from each side. Now for some topics this may be appropriate but for other topics it gives a very misleading representation of where things stand. Take global climate change as an example. Almost every TV show wants to have someone from “each side” and they always seem to be able to dig up the one or two people who (for a variety of reasons I won’t go into) who disagree with the majority of scientists. This leads

All of this leads me to be less trusting of any source and to have to do research to find out where the “truth” lies. Fortunately, I am an information professional and so have experience in evaluating sources, but not every does that.

I am hopeful that things may change in the future but it will likely not be the near future. Maybe in the future there will be true debate on issues instead of the talking points and sound bites we currently get.

Technorati Tags: polarization

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The Journal of American Medical Assoc (JAMA) has released an article on renal and arrhythemia events related to Cox-2 inhibitors.

JAMA — Abstract: Adverse Effects of Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors on Renal and Arrhythmia Events: Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials, September 12, 2006, Zhang et al. 0 (2006): 296.13.jrv60015:

The drugs studies were rofecoxib, celecoxib, valdecoxib + parecoxib, etoricoxib, and lumiracoxib.
It should be pointed out that this is a meta analysis.

Here’s there conclusion.

In this comprehensive analysis of 114 randomized trials with 116 094 participants, rofecoxib was associated with increased renal and arrhythmia risks. A COX-2 inhibitor class effect was not evident. Future safety monitoring is warranted and may benefit from an active and continuous cumulative surveillance system.

Here is a link to the pdf of the full article.

Adverse Effects of Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors on Renal and Arrhythmia Events: Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials — Zhang et al., 10.1001/jama.296.13.jrv60015 — JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association

It seems the take home lesson is that Vioxx (rofecoxib) definitely has problems with both renal events and arrhythmia. Celebrex (celecoxib) did not show any increase in the risk of cardiovascular events. For the other drugs the results were unclear.

Other Resources

• Hotline: March, 2005 - The Safety of COX-2 Inhibitors
• Citebase - Practical approaches to minimizing gastrointestinal and cardiovascular safety concerns with COX-2 inhibitors and NSAIDs
• COX-2 Inhibitors – Cardiovascular and Gastrointestinal Safety (pdf)

Technorati Tags: Celebrex, COX-2 inhibitors, celecoxib, rofecoxib, Vioxx

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A recent press release from St. Jude Children’s hospital says they have found an early biochemical step that bacteria use to make their membranes.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital :: Solution to Bacterial Mystery Promises New Drugs:

This may lead to new drugs since this particular biochemical step does not occur in humans. They have discovered an enzyme that is vital to building the bacteria’s membranes and it is early in the biochemical sequence. This means it should be very effective and should not cause side effects in humans once drugs are identified to inhibit this enzyme.

Technorati Tags: antibiotics

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Seems there is more to the story I reported recently concerning Advanced Cell Technology techniques to produce stem cells without destroying the embryos.

Stem cell experiment killed embryos, researchers say - baltimoresun.com

Although it may be possible to extract stem cells without destroying embryos, in this case, they actually extracted cells several times and did indeed destroy the embryos in this case. The report was accurate but there seems to be a misunderstanding. Here is an excerpt from this article:

M. William Lensch, a stem cell researcher at Harvard, said using the method to create stem cell lines might be more difficult than the study implies because it’s not clear why only a small percentage of the extracted cells formed new lines.

“I think the study was written in a clever way so that it’s technically correct, but what they claimed beyond the paper, and on the Nature Web site and in the popular press, isn’t right,” he said.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Robert Lanza, the senior author, noted that he and his team never claimed the embryos survived the experiments. When the study was published, Lanza and other experts had noted in interviews that embryos routinely survive when single cells are extracted in genetic tests at fertility clinics.

It seems more work needs to be done but I feel it is a step in the right direction and the work should continue with the hope in the near future of actually accomplishing what was reported in the popular press.

Technorati Tags: Advanced Cell Technolgy, stem cell, stem cells

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Here’s another report on the situation on the article recently reported in the journal Nature regarding Advanced Cell Technology’s technique for creating new stem cell lines.

KRT Wire | 08/31/2006 | Journal will clarify human embryo study (Chicago Tribune)

This article outlines the fact that the journal Nature will add a statements to clarify what was actually meant.

Technorati Tags: Advanced Cell Technolgy, stem cell, stem cells

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While driving home from being away over the Labor Day weekend, I heard on the radio that Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, had died from a sting by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin pulled barb out of chest before death - Yahoo! News

At first this surprised me since stingray stings are usually not fatal. However, after arriving home and doing more research I found out it was reported that the barb went into the chest and likely penetrated the heart. It seems it was a freak accident.

I’ve always enjoyed his shows on Animal Planet and liked his enthusiasm and energy. His presence will be sorely missed by many.

I always loved his genuine love for animals and conservations and that he always did what he felt was best. He also put into practice what he preached using his wealth to further build the Australia Zoo in Queensland, Australia and to buy acres of the wild outback to protect the habitat for endangered animals. His wife Terry grew up here in Oregon a few hours from where I live. Sadly he leaves behind not only his wife, but also two small children, Bindy Sue age 8 and Bob age 3.

Rest in Peace Steve

(photo from Yahoo News)

Other News Resources

• Animal Planet :: The Crocodile Hunter
• Discovery Communications, Inc. Mourns Tragic Loss of Steve Irwin
• Post your condolences to the Irwin family. (due to overwhelming response the forum may be hard to reach)
• Yahoo! News Search Results for Steve Irwin
• Steve Irwin - Google News
• International Herald Tribune Obituary: Steve Irwin, TV celebrity and wildlife enthusiast - Asia - Pacific

Technorati Tags: Crocodile Hunter, puppy, Steve Irwin

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A newly announced technology related to stems cells has been in the news recently and some of those articles are listed below.

• The Stem-Cell War Heats Up - Newsweek Health - MSNBC.com
• TIME.com: Why the Stem Cell Advance May Not Be a Breakthrough
• Firm makes “ethical” embryo stem cells | Top News | Reuters.com
• Critic Alleges Deceit in Study On Stem Cells

The technique describes a method to remove embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo. While many think this gets around some of the ethical objections, I’m not as hopeful. It will be interesting to see how this develops and I think there will still be objections to this. It will b interesting to se what objections are now raised. My best guess is those opposed to stem cell research will suggest that after removing the stem cells the embryos may no longer be able to be implanted into a womb and therefore it is the same as killing them. There will be many questions raised and the goal for everyone should be to see if these are legitimate scientific questions or are they objections raised to prevent or slow further stem cell research. Look for phrases such as “we don’t know what will happen after a cell is removed from these embryos” or “we don’t know that the embryo is indeed viable” and further no effort made on their part to support such claims.

Technorati Tags: stem cells

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I heard on the Democracy Now podcast that it was reported that Evolutionary Biology is not on a list of approved majors to receive federal study grants for low income students. It is the second story from the end of that page.

This appears to be another attempt to politicize science again and attack accepted science that may not agree with the current administrations beliefs. While I tend to believe more in incompetence than in conspiracy, there has been a long trend of attacks on accepted science; global climate change is probably the most well known example.

Democracy Now mentions this was reported in the NY Times and so I tracked down the original article. The claim is that the omission was just an oversight and that it would be added back to the list, however as of this writing it still has not been added.

If you want to help me keep an eye on this and make sure it does get added back to the list, the list can be found online.

Technorati Tags: Democracy Now, evolutionary biology, NY Times

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