Salon.com > Biology

Your body is intellectual property

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:52:00 +0000

On April 15, in the case of The Association for Molecular Pathology vs. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the United States Supreme Court heard arguments questioning the legitimacy of patents on human genes. A genetic testing company, Myriad Genetics, has patent claims on two human genes that influence a person’s risk for breast cancer. Myriad is being sued by a conglomerate of physicians, scientists, and patients who argue that Myriad has illegitimately patented a product of nature. While the lawyers and Justices delved into the arcana of patent law and molecular biology, many of the rest of us were wondering: how the heck can you patent someone’s genes?

“Traditional marriage’s” lamest defense

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:50:00 +0000

Heritage Foundation fellow Ryan T. Anderson’s defense of one-man-one-woman marriage in the Washington Post argues that Americans should affirm the “traditional” model of marriage for the good of the country. “Marriage is based on the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman,” he writes, “and on the social reality that children need a mother and a father.”

In other words, nature teaches that marriage is about complementarity between genitals, hormones, and gonads. To redefine marriage as something other than responsible parenthood would be to override nature’s law and give in to those selfish desires that undermine the common good.

Polar bears just might outlive us all

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

On January 24, 2004, in the frigid moonscape of an Arctic winter, wildlife biologist Steven Amstrup rode in a helicopter flying low over the ice. Using an infrared heat detector, he hoped to find polar bears in their dens. When the gun recorded a hit, Amstrup circled around for a closer look. What confronted him was something he had never seen in 34 years of research. The mouth of the den was open, and a smear of bright-red blood stretched away for more than 200 feet. At the end of a long drag trail in the ice lay the still-warm body of a female polar bear. The air temperature was 20 degrees below zero; this bear could not have been dead for more than 12 hours.

Polar bears do not have enemies. A male can weigh 1,500 pounds, with paws a foot wide and savage teeth. They are the unchallenged master predators in the harshest environment on Earth. A full-grown bear slaughtered in her den is far outside the ordinary.

Are we born with a sense of fairness?

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Evolutionary biologist Gordon Orians and I are working on a project to investigate the origins and evolution of the human sense of fairness, and the role it plays in modern social, economic, and political institutions. I recently gave a talk on the subject.

To begin the talk, I asked the audience members to recollect their first encounter with the concept of fairness. I had formed a fledgling hypothesis, and wanted to put it to the test.

As people raised their hands, I called on them to share their memories. A pattern quickly emerged:

“I had to take the rap for something my sister actually did!”
“My parents gave my brother a puppy, and I’m the one who loved dogs. He didn’t even like them.”
“I came from a family with nine siblings, and we had to fight each other for food.”
“I was an only child, and I really wanted a brother – all my friends had brothers.”
“I was foreign, and different, and all the other kids singled me out to pick on.”

Bees in desperate need of ZZZs

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:32:00 +0000

We're all familiar with the feeling—waking up from a restless night only to realize that this will be a very long, sleepy day. Recent research reveals that honeybees are also sensitive to sleep deprivation, and although a cup of coffee may give you a morning buzz, the bees aren't so lucky.

Neurobiologists at the Free University of Berlin have found that sleepy bees fail to remember lessons learned the day before, a finding that could help scientists discover the neural processes involved in sleep and memory formation. They present their research October 25 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

"We started with the idea that we could look for a neural substrate of learning and memory in bees, since they have a wonderful memory, can be easily trained, and we know their brain well at the neuronal level," says study co-author Randolf Menzel.

Study: Marijuana prevents spread of cancer

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Two scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco have found that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-toxic marijuana compound that delivers many of weed's benefits without the high, might stop metastasis in aggressive cancer, "potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever."

The pair, molecular biologist Pierre Desprez and researcher Sean McAllister, mixed CBD and cells with high levels of ID-1, the gene that spreads cancer, in a petri dish. What happened next was a bit of a miracle: ID-1 cells stopped spreading and returned to normal.

"What we found was that his cannabidiol could essentially 'turn off' the ID-1," Desprez told the Huffington Post.

The duo have been studying CBD's effects on cancer for years, and they first published a paper about the finding in 2007. The results just keep getting better.

Where does gluttony come from?

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:33:00 +0000

How much is too much chocolate? Desperately devouring 5 percent of one's body weight might sound extreme, but scientists tinkering with the brain chemistry of rodents have found it's certainly possible.

Scientists at the University of Michigan (U.M.) have identified how a brain region plays a role in our pursuit of sweet temptations. As they describe in the September 20 issue of Current Biology, a surge of chemical compounds resembling opium in this area can trigger the impulse to gorge on a treat without restraint.

The region in question is the neostriatum. In humans, this area is split into two parts, behind the eyes and below the folds of the cortex near the front of the head. It's just above the brain's well-studied reward circuitry, which includes the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens. Traditionally, the neostriatum has been studied in movement and habitual motor behaviors. Although no previous research had found a clear causal link between the region and motivation to eat, some human studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging have suggested that the neostriatum is active when an overweight subject looks at food or an addict views a drug of choice.