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"title": "Hikers Use Smartphones to Capture Fire Recovery on Mt. Diablo",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16865\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire2-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16865\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Hikers are helping document landscape recovery after the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hikers are using smartphones to document landscape recovery after the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mt. Diablo State Park is making a gradual recovery after the Morgan Fire burned more than 3,000 acres in the area last September. A citizen science group is asking local hikers to help document that recovery with their smartphones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A huge burned swath still covers one side of the mountain, but green shoots are starting to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things are starting to grow especially now that we’ve that little bit of rain,” says Dan Rademacher, a co-founder of \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/index.html\">Nerds for Nature\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The all-volunteer group blends technology and the outdoors through projects like using drones to \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/bioblitz/\">document biodiversity\u003c/a> in Lake Merritt. They’ve posted \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/monitor-change/diablo.html\">a series of signs\u003c/a> along Mt. Diablo’s Summit Trail, designed to turn hikers into citizen scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been taking pictures,” says hiker Celia Mason of Danville, coming across the signs. “I came up here right up here after the fire and was just devastated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16868\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 340px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16868\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire3.jpg\" alt=\"Dan Rademacher of Nerds for Nature demonstrates how the citizen science project works on Mt. Diablo. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"340\" height=\"304\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Rademacher of Nerds for Nature demonstrates how the citizen science project works on Mt. Diablo. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The signs have an L-shaped bracket where hikers can place their smartphones to snap a picture. That way all the photos of the burned area are taken from the same angle. Then, they upload the photos to Flickr, Twitter or Instagram with a special hashtag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, it’s really cool and I’m really interested in the wildflowers that will be triggered by the fire,” says Mason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rademacher says they’re hoping to get hundreds of photos by the end of year to \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/monitor-change/diablo.html\">document the landscape’s recovery over time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically the hikers on these trails become a sort of distributed remote sensing network to create a time lapse of fire recovery here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The photos could also contribute to scientific studies being done on the recovery. A group of biologists and botanists has also volunteered to monitor the return of plants, mammals and reptiles in three ecosystems on Mt. Diablo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With fire suppression, fires aren’t as common as they should be naturally and people are excited when they can study what that natural cycle is,” says Anne Larsen, one of the volunteer botanists. “Months later, it’s green. It’s amazing to watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16871\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 315px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16871\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire4.jpg\" alt=\"Plants emerge in the remnants of the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"315\" height=\"309\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plants emerge in the remnants of the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Larsen says she’s seeing annual plants like whispering bells, manroots and poppies emerging because of the light and nutrients created by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is cool about the camera-stand project is that it’s capturing what we’re doing but at a higher level,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can’t get out here every day,” Rademacher says. “There are hikers out here every day. So citizen science can supplement the professional science that’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is just one example of how smartphones are becoming part of the scientific data collection process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More and more it’s species tracking or using social media to calculate the economic value of recreation in parks to help with quantifying climate change impact,” Rademacher says. “So there are a lot of different ways that mobile social media can turn into science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/imageslider/diablosliders.html\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"520\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Two photos taken in February and April at a citizen science monitoring station on Mt. Diablo show the fire recovery. (Images: Marie Cerda and Ken-ichi Ueda)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16865\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire2-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16865\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Hikers are helping document landscape recovery after the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hikers are using smartphones to document landscape recovery after the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mt. Diablo State Park is making a gradual recovery after the Morgan Fire burned more than 3,000 acres in the area last September. A citizen science group is asking local hikers to help document that recovery with their smartphones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A huge burned swath still covers one side of the mountain, but green shoots are starting to come through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things are starting to grow especially now that we’ve that little bit of rain,” says Dan Rademacher, a co-founder of \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/index.html\">Nerds for Nature\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The all-volunteer group blends technology and the outdoors through projects like using drones to \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/bioblitz/\">document biodiversity\u003c/a> in Lake Merritt. They’ve posted \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/monitor-change/diablo.html\">a series of signs\u003c/a> along Mt. Diablo’s Summit Trail, designed to turn hikers into citizen scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been taking pictures,” says hiker Celia Mason of Danville, coming across the signs. “I came up here right up here after the fire and was just devastated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16868\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 340px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16868\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire3.jpg\" alt=\"Dan Rademacher of Nerds for Nature demonstrates how the citizen science project works on Mt. Diablo. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"340\" height=\"304\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Rademacher of Nerds for Nature demonstrates how the citizen science project works on Mt. Diablo. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The signs have an L-shaped bracket where hikers can place their smartphones to snap a picture. That way all the photos of the burned area are taken from the same angle. Then, they upload the photos to Flickr, Twitter or Instagram with a special hashtag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, it’s really cool and I’m really interested in the wildflowers that will be triggered by the fire,” says Mason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rademacher says they’re hoping to get hundreds of photos by the end of year to \u003ca href=\"http://nerdsfornature.org/monitor-change/diablo.html\">document the landscape’s recovery over time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically the hikers on these trails become a sort of distributed remote sensing network to create a time lapse of fire recovery here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The photos could also contribute to scientific studies being done on the recovery. A group of biologists and botanists has also volunteered to monitor the return of plants, mammals and reptiles in three ecosystems on Mt. Diablo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With fire suppression, fires aren’t as common as they should be naturally and people are excited when they can study what that natural cycle is,” says Anne Larsen, one of the volunteer botanists. “Months later, it’s green. It’s amazing to watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16871\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 315px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16871\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/fire4.jpg\" alt=\"Plants emerge in the remnants of the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"315\" height=\"309\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plants emerge in the remnants of the Morgan Fire. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Larsen says she’s seeing annual plants like whispering bells, manroots and poppies emerging because of the light and nutrients created by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is cool about the camera-stand project is that it’s capturing what we’re doing but at a higher level,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can’t get out here every day,” Rademacher says. “There are hikers out here every day. So citizen science can supplement the professional science that’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is just one example of how smartphones are becoming part of the scientific data collection process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More and more it’s species tracking or using social media to calculate the economic value of recreation in parks to help with quantifying climate change impact,” Rademacher says. “So there are a lot of different ways that mobile social media can turn into science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/imageslider/diablosliders.html\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"520\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Two photos taken in February and April at a citizen science monitoring station on Mt. Diablo show the fire recovery. (Images: Marie Cerda and Ken-ichi Ueda)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Scientists Have Engineered a Version of Bird Flu That Can Spread Between Mammals",
"headTitle": "Scientists Have Engineered a Version of Bird Flu That Can Spread Between Mammals | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16622\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/ChickenMarket.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16622\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16622\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/ChickenMarket.jpg\" alt=\"Right now you can only get bird flu in places like this chicken market. Five small changes in the bird flu's genetic material can change that so you can catch it from another person. (Wikimedia Commons/M M (Padmanaba01))\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Right now you can only get bird flu in places like this chicken market. Five small changes in the bird flu’s genetic material can change that so you can catch it from another person. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicken_market_in_Xining,_Qinghai_province,_China.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">M M Padmanaba01\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2003, four people got sick and died from the\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1#Human_and_bird_cases\"> H5N1 strain of bird flu\u003c/a> in China. And that wasn’t the last time either. Every few years, new cases reappear and around \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/avian_influenza/en/\">60% of the infected people die\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, even when it isn’t infecting people, the bird flu continues to percolate in all sorts of domestic and wild birds, spreading and evolving. Millions of birds have died from the disease and millions more have been slaughtered, with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/04/14/national/112000-chickens-culled-at-kumamoto-farms-in-bid-to-curb-bird-flu-outbreak/#.U01y1vldVIF\">latest outbreak being in Japan\u003c/a> where they’ve just killed 112,000 chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since it first appeared, scientists have worried that the bird flu would turn into a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic\">pandemic \u003c/a>similar to the Spanish Flu that killed somewhere between 50 and 100 million people at the end of World War I. For now, the fact that it only spreads from birds to people has kept this deadly disease in check. But as a\u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24725402\"> new study\u003c/a> in the leading journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.cell.com/\">Cell \u003c/a>shows, this protection may not last forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this study, the authors find that it takes just five small changes in the virus’ genetic material to make it able to spread from one ferret to another. While the changes may not be the same ones to make a virus able to spread between people, odds are that a similarly small set of changes will be all that is required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16625\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Ferrets.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16625\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16625\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Ferrets.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists have engineered a bird flu that passes between ferrets. It was a bit too easy to do. (Wikimedia Commons/Viki)\" width=\"300\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists have engineered a bird flu that passes between ferrets. It was a bit too easy to do. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fretts_301004_selbstfotografiert,_GNU-FDL.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">Viki\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A search of all the viruses sequenced to date showed that a few of the necessary mutations are already out there in the wild. This means that while the odds are low that one virus would get all five changes, they are not zero. One day, a virus may appear in nature with all five changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily for us (and the ferrets), when this virus does mutate so it can spread from ferret to ferret, it becomes much less deadly. Doses that easily wiped out a ferret now have little or no effect. This is pretty common in the viral world—there is a tradeoff between deadliness and the ability to spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is no guarantee that the virus will be less deadly if it mutates to spread from person to person. And it may not have to be to still kill a lot of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I said, right now the virus is killing around 60% of the people it infects. The Spanish flu only needed to kill 10% of the people it infected to wipe out somewhere between 3 and 6% of the world’s population. So even if a version of the bird flu evolved to both spread between people and be six times less deadly, it could still be devastating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research like this is critical for monitoring the virus out in the wild. By identifying the changes that can cause the virus to be able to spread from person to person, we can keep a close watch on things and quarantine people if a virus ever does stumble on the right set of mutations. But research like this is also \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/22/172582712/to-keep-deadly-bird-flu-in-the-lab-feds-set-rules-for-scientists\">controversial\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Escaped and Engineered Viruses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16628\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Lab.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16628\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16628\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Lab.jpg\" alt=\"We could be in trouble if these viruses escaped the lab. Luckily there are lots of safeguards to keep this from happening. (Wikimedia Commons/Zuzanna K. Filutowska)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We could be in trouble if these viruses escaped the lab. Luckily there are lots of safeguards to keep this from happening. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laboratorium-biologia-molekularna.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">Zuzanna K. Filutowska\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big worry with this type of research is that a virus might escape the lab and spread out into the wild. There are a huge number of safeguards in place to keep the virus from escaping but nothing is 100%. There is a small chance it could get out. (It is important to note that there has not been a single smallpox outbreak despite almost 40 years of research.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second concern is that the wrong sorts of people may be able to use this freely available information to make an artificial virus to use as a weapon. This isn’t very likely either but is definitely possible. The researchers created a virus that could spread between ferrets on a machine in a lab which means other people might be able to do this as well. This capability has really only become feasible in the last few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is important to keep in mind that the viruses that have been made so far may pose little risk to people or even ferrets. But if they did get out, it might only be a matter of time before they build up the mutations they need to spread between people and then we may be in real trouble. These escaped or engineered viruses would have a head start which makes them more likely to stumble on the set of mutations that makes them lethal and highly infectious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government decided back in 2012 that this sort of research was OK if done with the right safeguards in place. They argued that the benefits of being able to nip a pandemic in the bud outweighed the risk of the research causing a pandemic on its own. So far this has turned out to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90oP2ez8l4k\">Lengthy discussion on the controversy of this research (YouTube) \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists were able to engineer a version of the bird flu that can spread between mammals, the first step towards turning this virus into a pandemic. This research is controversial as it has created something that is potentially dangerous.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16622\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/ChickenMarket.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16622\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16622\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/ChickenMarket.jpg\" alt=\"Right now you can only get bird flu in places like this chicken market. Five small changes in the bird flu's genetic material can change that so you can catch it from another person. (Wikimedia Commons/M M (Padmanaba01))\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Right now you can only get bird flu in places like this chicken market. Five small changes in the bird flu’s genetic material can change that so you can catch it from another person. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicken_market_in_Xining,_Qinghai_province,_China.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">M M Padmanaba01\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2003, four people got sick and died from the\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1#Human_and_bird_cases\"> H5N1 strain of bird flu\u003c/a> in China. And that wasn’t the last time either. Every few years, new cases reappear and around \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/avian_influenza/en/\">60% of the infected people die\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, even when it isn’t infecting people, the bird flu continues to percolate in all sorts of domestic and wild birds, spreading and evolving. Millions of birds have died from the disease and millions more have been slaughtered, with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/04/14/national/112000-chickens-culled-at-kumamoto-farms-in-bid-to-curb-bird-flu-outbreak/#.U01y1vldVIF\">latest outbreak being in Japan\u003c/a> where they’ve just killed 112,000 chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since it first appeared, scientists have worried that the bird flu would turn into a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic\">pandemic \u003c/a>similar to the Spanish Flu that killed somewhere between 50 and 100 million people at the end of World War I. For now, the fact that it only spreads from birds to people has kept this deadly disease in check. But as a\u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24725402\"> new study\u003c/a> in the leading journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.cell.com/\">Cell \u003c/a>shows, this protection may not last forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this study, the authors find that it takes just five small changes in the virus’ genetic material to make it able to spread from one ferret to another. While the changes may not be the same ones to make a virus able to spread between people, odds are that a similarly small set of changes will be all that is required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16625\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Ferrets.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16625\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16625\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Ferrets.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists have engineered a bird flu that passes between ferrets. It was a bit too easy to do. (Wikimedia Commons/Viki)\" width=\"300\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists have engineered a bird flu that passes between ferrets. It was a bit too easy to do. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fretts_301004_selbstfotografiert,_GNU-FDL.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">Viki\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A search of all the viruses sequenced to date showed that a few of the necessary mutations are already out there in the wild. This means that while the odds are low that one virus would get all five changes, they are not zero. One day, a virus may appear in nature with all five changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily for us (and the ferrets), when this virus does mutate so it can spread from ferret to ferret, it becomes much less deadly. Doses that easily wiped out a ferret now have little or no effect. This is pretty common in the viral world—there is a tradeoff between deadliness and the ability to spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is no guarantee that the virus will be less deadly if it mutates to spread from person to person. And it may not have to be to still kill a lot of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I said, right now the virus is killing around 60% of the people it infects. The Spanish flu only needed to kill 10% of the people it infected to wipe out somewhere between 3 and 6% of the world’s population. So even if a version of the bird flu evolved to both spread between people and be six times less deadly, it could still be devastating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research like this is critical for monitoring the virus out in the wild. By identifying the changes that can cause the virus to be able to spread from person to person, we can keep a close watch on things and quarantine people if a virus ever does stumble on the right set of mutations. But research like this is also \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/22/172582712/to-keep-deadly-bird-flu-in-the-lab-feds-set-rules-for-scientists\">controversial\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Escaped and Engineered Viruses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16628\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Lab.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16628\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16628\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Lab.jpg\" alt=\"We could be in trouble if these viruses escaped the lab. Luckily there are lots of safeguards to keep this from happening. (Wikimedia Commons/Zuzanna K. Filutowska)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We could be in trouble if these viruses escaped the lab. Luckily there are lots of safeguards to keep this from happening. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laboratorium-biologia-molekularna.jpg\" class=\"nofancybox\">Zuzanna K. Filutowska\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big worry with this type of research is that a virus might escape the lab and spread out into the wild. There are a huge number of safeguards in place to keep the virus from escaping but nothing is 100%. There is a small chance it could get out. (It is important to note that there has not been a single smallpox outbreak despite almost 40 years of research.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second concern is that the wrong sorts of people may be able to use this freely available information to make an artificial virus to use as a weapon. This isn’t very likely either but is definitely possible. The researchers created a virus that could spread between ferrets on a machine in a lab which means other people might be able to do this as well. This capability has really only become feasible in the last few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is important to keep in mind that the viruses that have been made so far may pose little risk to people or even ferrets. But if they did get out, it might only be a matter of time before they build up the mutations they need to spread between people and then we may be in real trouble. These escaped or engineered viruses would have a head start which makes them more likely to stumble on the set of mutations that makes them lethal and highly infectious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government decided back in 2012 that this sort of research was OK if done with the right safeguards in place. They argued that the benefits of being able to nip a pandemic in the bud outweighed the risk of the research causing a pandemic on its own. So far this has turned out to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90oP2ez8l4k\">Lengthy discussion on the controversy of this research (YouTube) \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Using new genetic technologies, scientists are trying to bring back extinct species. Researchers are working to revive the passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird in the world, and the woolly mammoth, which they say could slow down the melting of Arctic permafrost. It may be possible, but is it right to turn back the clock?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch our segment on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/newsroom/\">KQED Newsroom\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"single-video\">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is21pLJmQn8\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The half-hour documentary, Reawakening Extinct Species, will be \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/reawakening-extinct-species/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reawakening-extinct-species\">online\u003c/a> on Tuesday, April 22, and it airs on TV on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=15151\">KQED 9\u003c/a> on Wednesday, April 23 at 7:30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16638\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16638\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" alt=\"Endangered toads\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (\u003cem>Atelopus zeteki\u003c/em>) stands in for thousands of rare organisms. Should scientists kill one of these just to prove it’s not extinct? (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/\">Heather Paul/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “observer effect” is a 20th-century truism that observations can affect the phenomenon being observed. It’s common sense that taking a measurement affects what’s being measured. Sticking a thermometer in a bit of hot water cools the water at the same time the thermometer registers its temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists work hard to avoid observer effects in their science. They hide in blinds to observe wildlife, or use unobtrusive sensors to track a creature’s behavior instead of tromping around behind it. In today’s issue of the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/\">\u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, biologist Ben Minteer of Arizona State University and three coauthors ask whether one traditional practice is too harsh for today—”collecting voucher specimens,” or killing a creature to prove that it lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem can be acute when a species is almost extinct. Minteer cites the great auk, which died out in 1844. “As the bird’s numbers dwindled in the 19th century, ornithologists and curators increasingly prized great auk skins and eggs, with museums and universities sending out collection parties to procure specimens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then we’ve learned to prize biodiversity, but old habits die hard. For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilcreatures/a/coelacanths.htm\">coelacanth\u003c/a>, an order of primitive fish thought extinct for 60 million years, was found alive in the waters off South Africa in 1938, it’s fair to say that hundreds of museums craved one, and yet we all knew that coelacanths were rare. Fortunately they’re deep-water fish that taste bad and hide in caves, but private collectors are out there who would want one anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer cites the isolated \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro_Elf_Owl#Subspecies\">Socorro elf owl\u003c/a> as an example where “both professional and amateur scientists” were guilty of pressuring a rare population toward extinction. Plants are not immune either, especially species that live only on certain islands. Although ivory poachers and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/05/redwood-poaching-increasing/\">redwood-burl thieves\u003c/a> are more deplorable people, scientists set examples and ought to reconsider their own ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer studies tropical frogs and is well aware that many species have disappeared over the past century. When a surviving population of one of these species is found again (and Minteer points out that more than 350 species have been “rediscovered”), the temptation is strong to plop a specimen in alcohol and carry it out of the woods in triumph. It’s simple and traditional, but when every single individual is precious, there should be substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer names several up-to-date ways of documenting species. Good photos, recordings of mating calls, and genetic data from discarded feathers or a skin swab are all that science really needs—and sharing the information publically helps other institutions refrain from doing their own collecting. “Collecting specimens is no longer required to describe a species or to document its rediscovery,” Minteer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my own field of geology, there are similar pressures when it comes to fossils, and even rare minerals or unusual features in outcrops. Paleontologists in places like Grand Canyon National Park often rely on photographs to document a fossil that’s naturally weathering out of the rocks—if only to avoid the paperwork needed to excavate it legally. As an amateur geologist, I’ve found the value in \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/rockcollecting/qt/Code-Of-Hammering.htm\">leaving my hammer in the car and bringing home fewer rocks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Science exerts an influence on society by making certain things interesting and popular. It owes society the good example of practicing restraint to protect the commons.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16638\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16638\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" alt=\"Endangered toads\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (\u003cem>Atelopus zeteki\u003c/em>) stands in for thousands of rare organisms. Should scientists kill one of these just to prove it’s not extinct? (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/\">Heather Paul/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “observer effect” is a 20th-century truism that observations can affect the phenomenon being observed. It’s common sense that taking a measurement affects what’s being measured. Sticking a thermometer in a bit of hot water cools the water at the same time the thermometer registers its temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists work hard to avoid observer effects in their science. They hide in blinds to observe wildlife, or use unobtrusive sensors to track a creature’s behavior instead of tromping around behind it. In today’s issue of the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/\">\u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, biologist Ben Minteer of Arizona State University and three coauthors ask whether one traditional practice is too harsh for today—”collecting voucher specimens,” or killing a creature to prove that it lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem can be acute when a species is almost extinct. Minteer cites the great auk, which died out in 1844. “As the bird’s numbers dwindled in the 19th century, ornithologists and curators increasingly prized great auk skins and eggs, with museums and universities sending out collection parties to procure specimens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then we’ve learned to prize biodiversity, but old habits die hard. For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilcreatures/a/coelacanths.htm\">coelacanth\u003c/a>, an order of primitive fish thought extinct for 60 million years, was found alive in the waters off South Africa in 1938, it’s fair to say that hundreds of museums craved one, and yet we all knew that coelacanths were rare. Fortunately they’re deep-water fish that taste bad and hide in caves, but private collectors are out there who would want one anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer cites the isolated \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro_Elf_Owl#Subspecies\">Socorro elf owl\u003c/a> as an example where “both professional and amateur scientists” were guilty of pressuring a rare population toward extinction. Plants are not immune either, especially species that live only on certain islands. Although ivory poachers and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/05/redwood-poaching-increasing/\">redwood-burl thieves\u003c/a> are more deplorable people, scientists set examples and ought to reconsider their own ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer studies tropical frogs and is well aware that many species have disappeared over the past century. When a surviving population of one of these species is found again (and Minteer points out that more than 350 species have been “rediscovered”), the temptation is strong to plop a specimen in alcohol and carry it out of the woods in triumph. It’s simple and traditional, but when every single individual is precious, there should be substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer names several up-to-date ways of documenting species. Good photos, recordings of mating calls, and genetic data from discarded feathers or a skin swab are all that science really needs—and sharing the information publically helps other institutions refrain from doing their own collecting. “Collecting specimens is no longer required to describe a species or to document its rediscovery,” Minteer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my own field of geology, there are similar pressures when it comes to fossils, and even rare minerals or unusual features in outcrops. Paleontologists in places like Grand Canyon National Park often rely on photographs to document a fossil that’s naturally weathering out of the rocks—if only to avoid the paperwork needed to excavate it legally. As an amateur geologist, I’ve found the value in \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/rockcollecting/qt/Code-Of-Hammering.htm\">leaving my hammer in the car and bringing home fewer rocks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Science exerts an influence on society by making certain things interesting and popular. It owes society the good example of practicing restraint to protect the commons.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Health Trackers May Be the Rage, But How Useful Are They?",
"headTitle": "Health Trackers May Be the Rage, But How Useful Are They? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Christina Farr\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16542\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/07_wearing_necklace.jpg\" alt=\"The Shine wearable. (Misfit Wearables)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Shine is an activity monitor, sleep tracker and watch. (Misfit Wearables)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For months, technology entrepreneur Will Imholte was hell-bent on finding the best personal activity tracker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than browsing reviews, he decided to test the \u003ca href=\"https://jawbone.com/up\">Jawbone UP\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.fitbit.com/\">Fitbit Flex\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeplus-fuelband\">Nike FuelBand SE\u003c/a> and a litany of others to track his calorie count and weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But all these devices failed to sustain his interest for more than a week. Despite his best efforts, Imholte gave up on the burgeoning wearable trend. He found that a smartphone and a time-keeping Swiss watch were more than sufficient for his purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Trust me, I wanted to like wearables, but I stopped using them after a few months.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I’m a nerd that can’t get enough of the latest gadgets,” said Imholte, the founder of Prime, a startup that helps patients access their personal medical records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trust me, I wanted to like wearables, but I stopped using them after a few months,” he said. “I’m not training for a marathon or anything, so I didn’t really see much need for them in my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wearables are currently the darling of Silicon Valley and the majority of them, right now, are health devices, or have some wellness application. The new consumer electronics tools are allowing people to become their own researchers, trainers and medical advisers by monitoring such things as sleep, activity, heart rate and stress levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no one has quite nailed the technology just yet. Amid all the hype, it’s easy to forget that this technology is still in its infancy. For now, most of the devices on the market are glorified pedometers with a high price tag and short battery life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current slew of wrist bands, like the $99.95 Fitbit Flex or $299 \u003ca href=\"http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote3-gear/\">Samsung Galaxy Gear\u003c/a> smartwatch, are the first generation, with more sophisticated models still under development. Most devices today are adept at collecting data, but they fail to provide consumers with valuable health-related insights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Imholte, the data piqued his interest — he said it was intriguing to learn that he walked 1,000 steps on Monday — but only temporarily. Ultimately, he was disheartened by the lack of practical advice about how he could improve his health and fitness, without significantly altering his lifestyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skyrocketing Expectations\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all their limitations, technology investors have gone gaga for wearable devices. Investors poured $570 million into the space in 2013 alone, according to research firm CB Insights. On Kickstarter, a team asked for $100,000 to build a new smartwatch called \u003ca href=\"https://getpebble.com/\">Pebble\u003c/a>, and were stunned when backers invested over $10.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wearable devices are nothing new. For years, athletes have used basic activity trackers to help them train for competitions. But, unlike today, those devices did not connect with your smartphone and thousands of health-related apps. The current wearables craze was fueled, in part, by members of the “\u003ca href=\"http://quantifiedself.com/\">Quantified Self\u003c/a>” movement, who strive for self-understanding by collecting data about themselves. In cities across the U.S., some 30,000 quantified selfers regularly meet up to trade tips and tricks about the latest health-tracking tech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, wearables will no longer be the domain of athletes, fitness junkies and early adopters. Market research firm Canalys predicts that in 2014 companies will ship some 17 million wearable bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a computer on your wrist will become increasingly common,” said Canalys analyst Daniel Matte, in a statement.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nMeet the Woman With 27 Fitness Trackers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16557\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 266px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-16557 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/wearablesdevcon-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Kalmar models her activity trackers at the DevCon Wearables Conference. (Credit: DevCon Wearables Conference)\" width=\"266\" height=\"354\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Kalmar models her activity trackers at the DevCon Wearables Conference. (Credit: DevCon Wearables Conference)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To prepare for a stroll in San Francisco, Rachel Kalmar straps over two-dozen gadgets to her wrist and forearms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I first met Kalmar, she was wearing 22 clip-on activity trackers, including the Pebble, Fitbit Flex, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bodymedia.com/\">Bodymedia\u003c/a> and (my personal favorite) an antique pedometer from 1877. Now she has 27 trackers for both Android and iOS monitoring her every waking move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar isn’t a member of the cult of the quantified self, obsessed with tracking her bodily metrics. For Kalmar, it’s all in pursuit of research. For her day job, she’s a data scientist at\u003ca href=\"http://www.misfitwearables.com/\"> Misfit Wearable\u003c/a>s, maker of the Shine, futuristic jewelry that is popular with young women. The Shine acts as an activity monitor, sleep tracker and watch all in one. It can be worn as a necklace or on a clasp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar’s been wearing them every day for months, but she hasn’t derived ample benefit from these trackers — and doesn’t expect that you will either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought it would be a week-long project, but then it started getting more and more complicated,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Kalmar, Misfit chief executive Sonny Vu is one of the most vocal critiques of the wearables trend. He frequently speaks at conferences and describes these devices as “not that wearable — yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key challenge Kalmar’s unearthed is that the devices don’t speak to each other. When it comes to the human body, data about your steps, heart rate, sleep cycle and glucose levels don’t mean much in isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘I think of wearables today like the first cell phone cameras, which sucked.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“What we want is our devices to interact with other devices,” said Kalmer. “Interoperability is key.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not an easy prospect for the still-nascent wearables trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, Christ, we can’t even all agree on how to treat time zones in our data and databases,” Kalmar quipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Next for Wearables?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar hasn’t given up on wearables altogether — far from it. For now, she hopes that the Shine and other devices will inspire people to be more active. And she expects that the field will figure out how to make them more useful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think of wearables today like the first cell phone cameras, which sucked,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview from Misfit’s Vietnam offices, Kalmar offered several predictions for the future of wearables: The devices will eventually allow us to interact with other objects in our lives. (Imagine turning off your thermostat or unlocking your front door with a few taps of a smart watch.) Wearables will also increasingly be used to monitor patients with chronic health conditions. And they won’t be mostly bands; health-related smart glasses, sports bras and shoes are among the next generation of wearable sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Mobile technology has seen its day. Wearables might be what’s next.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another key to longevity, for wearable computers, will be to keep the attention of Silicon Valley’s technology behemoths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google has just released its futuristic eyeglasses called “Glass” to the public after a trial with developers, and Apple is rumored to be secretly developing a smartwatch, the “iWatch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m excited about what Apple is going to do next,” said Tommy Leep, an investor at San Francisco’s Rothenberg Ventures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike many of his counterparts, he has not invested in a wearable. But he is keeping a close eye on the space, as he believes that wearable tech is one of less than a handful of emerging platforms that have the potential to be the next big thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wearables in and of themselves aren’t hugely exciting right now,” he said. Leep said he hasn’t personally seen many gadgets that are a significant step beyond the iPhone, the smart computer already in millions of pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That said, many of us believe that mobile technology has seen its day. Wearables might be what’s next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Christina Farr is a San Francisco journalist covering health technology. She previously wrote for \u003c/em>Venture Beat, The Bay Citizen\u003cem> and \u003c/em>SFGate\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Low battery life, bulky appearance and lack of integration are some of the obstacles in the way before health trackers become the next gadgets we can’t live without. ",
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"title": "Health Trackers May Be the Rage, But How Useful Are They? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Christina Farr\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16542\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/07_wearing_necklace.jpg\" alt=\"The Shine wearable. (Misfit Wearables)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Shine is an activity monitor, sleep tracker and watch. (Misfit Wearables)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For months, technology entrepreneur Will Imholte was hell-bent on finding the best personal activity tracker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than browsing reviews, he decided to test the \u003ca href=\"https://jawbone.com/up\">Jawbone UP\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.fitbit.com/\">Fitbit Flex\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeplus-fuelband\">Nike FuelBand SE\u003c/a> and a litany of others to track his calorie count and weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But all these devices failed to sustain his interest for more than a week. Despite his best efforts, Imholte gave up on the burgeoning wearable trend. He found that a smartphone and a time-keeping Swiss watch were more than sufficient for his purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Trust me, I wanted to like wearables, but I stopped using them after a few months.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I’m a nerd that can’t get enough of the latest gadgets,” said Imholte, the founder of Prime, a startup that helps patients access their personal medical records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trust me, I wanted to like wearables, but I stopped using them after a few months,” he said. “I’m not training for a marathon or anything, so I didn’t really see much need for them in my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wearables are currently the darling of Silicon Valley and the majority of them, right now, are health devices, or have some wellness application. The new consumer electronics tools are allowing people to become their own researchers, trainers and medical advisers by monitoring such things as sleep, activity, heart rate and stress levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no one has quite nailed the technology just yet. Amid all the hype, it’s easy to forget that this technology is still in its infancy. For now, most of the devices on the market are glorified pedometers with a high price tag and short battery life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current slew of wrist bands, like the $99.95 Fitbit Flex or $299 \u003ca href=\"http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote3-gear/\">Samsung Galaxy Gear\u003c/a> smartwatch, are the first generation, with more sophisticated models still under development. Most devices today are adept at collecting data, but they fail to provide consumers with valuable health-related insights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Imholte, the data piqued his interest — he said it was intriguing to learn that he walked 1,000 steps on Monday — but only temporarily. Ultimately, he was disheartened by the lack of practical advice about how he could improve his health and fitness, without significantly altering his lifestyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skyrocketing Expectations\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all their limitations, technology investors have gone gaga for wearable devices. Investors poured $570 million into the space in 2013 alone, according to research firm CB Insights. On Kickstarter, a team asked for $100,000 to build a new smartwatch called \u003ca href=\"https://getpebble.com/\">Pebble\u003c/a>, and were stunned when backers invested over $10.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wearable devices are nothing new. For years, athletes have used basic activity trackers to help them train for competitions. But, unlike today, those devices did not connect with your smartphone and thousands of health-related apps. The current wearables craze was fueled, in part, by members of the “\u003ca href=\"http://quantifiedself.com/\">Quantified Self\u003c/a>” movement, who strive for self-understanding by collecting data about themselves. In cities across the U.S., some 30,000 quantified selfers regularly meet up to trade tips and tricks about the latest health-tracking tech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, wearables will no longer be the domain of athletes, fitness junkies and early adopters. Market research firm Canalys predicts that in 2014 companies will ship some 17 million wearable bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a computer on your wrist will become increasingly common,” said Canalys analyst Daniel Matte, in a statement.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nMeet the Woman With 27 Fitness Trackers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16557\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 266px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-16557 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/wearablesdevcon-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Kalmar models her activity trackers at the DevCon Wearables Conference. (Credit: DevCon Wearables Conference)\" width=\"266\" height=\"354\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Kalmar models her activity trackers at the DevCon Wearables Conference. (Credit: DevCon Wearables Conference)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To prepare for a stroll in San Francisco, Rachel Kalmar straps over two-dozen gadgets to her wrist and forearms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I first met Kalmar, she was wearing 22 clip-on activity trackers, including the Pebble, Fitbit Flex, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bodymedia.com/\">Bodymedia\u003c/a> and (my personal favorite) an antique pedometer from 1877. Now she has 27 trackers for both Android and iOS monitoring her every waking move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar isn’t a member of the cult of the quantified self, obsessed with tracking her bodily metrics. For Kalmar, it’s all in pursuit of research. For her day job, she’s a data scientist at\u003ca href=\"http://www.misfitwearables.com/\"> Misfit Wearable\u003c/a>s, maker of the Shine, futuristic jewelry that is popular with young women. The Shine acts as an activity monitor, sleep tracker and watch all in one. It can be worn as a necklace or on a clasp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar’s been wearing them every day for months, but she hasn’t derived ample benefit from these trackers — and doesn’t expect that you will either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought it would be a week-long project, but then it started getting more and more complicated,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Kalmar, Misfit chief executive Sonny Vu is one of the most vocal critiques of the wearables trend. He frequently speaks at conferences and describes these devices as “not that wearable — yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key challenge Kalmar’s unearthed is that the devices don’t speak to each other. When it comes to the human body, data about your steps, heart rate, sleep cycle and glucose levels don’t mean much in isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘I think of wearables today like the first cell phone cameras, which sucked.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“What we want is our devices to interact with other devices,” said Kalmer. “Interoperability is key.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not an easy prospect for the still-nascent wearables trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, Christ, we can’t even all agree on how to treat time zones in our data and databases,” Kalmar quipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Next for Wearables?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalmar hasn’t given up on wearables altogether — far from it. For now, she hopes that the Shine and other devices will inspire people to be more active. And she expects that the field will figure out how to make them more useful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think of wearables today like the first cell phone cameras, which sucked,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview from Misfit’s Vietnam offices, Kalmar offered several predictions for the future of wearables: The devices will eventually allow us to interact with other objects in our lives. (Imagine turning off your thermostat or unlocking your front door with a few taps of a smart watch.) Wearables will also increasingly be used to monitor patients with chronic health conditions. And they won’t be mostly bands; health-related smart glasses, sports bras and shoes are among the next generation of wearable sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Mobile technology has seen its day. Wearables might be what’s next.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another key to longevity, for wearable computers, will be to keep the attention of Silicon Valley’s technology behemoths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google has just released its futuristic eyeglasses called “Glass” to the public after a trial with developers, and Apple is rumored to be secretly developing a smartwatch, the “iWatch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m excited about what Apple is going to do next,” said Tommy Leep, an investor at San Francisco’s Rothenberg Ventures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike many of his counterparts, he has not invested in a wearable. But he is keeping a close eye on the space, as he believes that wearable tech is one of less than a handful of emerging platforms that have the potential to be the next big thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wearables in and of themselves aren’t hugely exciting right now,” he said. Leep said he hasn’t personally seen many gadgets that are a significant step beyond the iPhone, the smart computer already in millions of pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That said, many of us believe that mobile technology has seen its day. Wearables might be what’s next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Christina Farr is a San Francisco journalist covering health technology. She previously wrote for \u003c/em>Venture Beat, The Bay Citizen\u003cem> and \u003c/em>SFGate\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "World’s Largest \"Tentacles\" Exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium Will Cultivate Its Own Cephalopods",
"headTitle": "World’s Largest “Tentacles” Exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium Will Cultivate Its Own Cephalopods | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16252\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/flamboyant.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16252\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16252\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/flamboyant.jpg\" alt=\"Flamboyant cuttlefish\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flamboyant cuttlefish, native to the tropical Indo-Pacific, are being bred by aquarists for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibit, “Tentacles.” (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Flamboyant cuttlefish. Pygmy squid. Dumbo octopus. These cartoonish names belong to real animals, and you could see them live at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibit, opening April 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca title=\"Monterey Bay Aquarium - Tentacles\" href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/tentacles\">Tentacles\u003c/a>” will be the world’s largest, most diverse display of cephalopods—the suction-cupped, parrot-beaked, skin-changing group that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. But the aquarium can’t guarantee which exact creatures will end up on display. During a behind-the-scenes tour last month, aquarist Alicia Bitondo said, “We won’t know which animals are in which tanks until a couple of weeks before the exhibit opens.” She paused. “Or the day before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This anxious uncertainty is due to the short lifespans typical of cephalopods. The exhibit itself, which is scheduled to close on Labor Day 2016, will outlive nearly all of its inhabitants. Continuous display of any given species would require ongoing collection from the wild, and most species are native to distant seas—a severe challenge to both logistics and sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, there’s an alternative: grow them at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Up the Babies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16255\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 256px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/visitors-256x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16255\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16255\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/visitors-256x162.jpg\" alt=\"Bigfin reef squid\" width=\"256\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bigfin reef squid entertain visitors. (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The $3.5 million “Tentacles” is is the first exhibit since the Aquarium’s award-winning jelly displays to rely on constant laboratory culture of animals behind the scenes. Current eggs and hatchlings will be rotated through public display in the Egg Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these babies will eventually appear in grown-up exhibits, but others never will. For example, \u003ca title=\"Science 2.0 - Squid Who Make Glue\" href=\"http://www.science20.com/squid_day/squid_who_make_glue-84481\">pygmy squid\u003c/a>—fully grown at the size of your fingernail—oblige their keepers by laying eggs, but no one knows what to feed the minuscule hatchlings. And \u003ca title=\"Wikipedia - Sepia latimanus\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_latimanus\">broadclub cuttlefish\u003c/a>, each big enough to fill a carry-on suitcase, can at least be raised from hatching to 11 months—but not yet to full maturity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, both pygmies and broadclubs still require collection from their home ranges in the Indo-Pacific. But that could change over the next couple of years. Monterey aquarists seem to have a way of coaxing reproduction from the most reluctant critters—as in the case of the deep-sea dumbo octopus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years since their discovery, \u003ca title=\"BBC - Dumbo octopus\" href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Grimpoteuthis\">dumbo octopuses\u003c/a> have occasionally released unfertilized eggs in their death throes, but at the Aquarium two dumbo moms have now laid their eggs properly. These precious spheres, which may or may not be fertilized, are being kept in super-chilled, low-oxygen water to mimic the deep-sea environment. That means they can’t show up in the Egg Lab, but adult dumbos might make an appearance in a special deep-sea tank. Over the life of “Tentacles,” this tank could also house \u003ca title=\"The Cephalopod Page - Vampyroteuthis\" href=\"http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/vampy.php\">vampire squid\u003c/a>, \u003ca title=\"Wikipedia - Glass squid\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_squid\">glass squid\u003c/a>, or \u003ca title=\"ToL - Histioteuthis\" href=\"http://tolweb.org/Histioteuthidae/19782\">cock-eyed squid\u003c/a>, species that have never before been on public display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Struggling on Their Home Surf\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing animals in the lab is one way to protect wild populations from over-harvesting. But are any cephalopods truly at risk? None are currently listed as endangered on the \u003ca title=\"ICUN Red List\" href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/\">IUCN Red List\u003c/a>, the most comprehensive international database of conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, that’s largely because of missing information. Of the 73 cephalopods on the IUCN’s list, 59 are “data deficient,” which means we just don’t know enough to gauge how they’re doing. One species, the \u003ca title=\"IUCN Red List - Sepia apama\" href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/162627/0\">Australian giant cuttlefish\u003c/a>, is listed as “near threatened”—that is, likely to be become endangered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This somber prediction is largely driven by one particular population of giant cuttles, which has never recovered from overfishing in the 1990’s. It now faces habitat loss due to industrial waste and construction projects. “Tentacles” addresses these struggles, not through the species’ live display, but with an unusual aquarium that contains neither water nor animals. It’s a mechanical sculpture of cuttlefish in their altered environment, built by the artist \u003ca title=\"Nemo Gould\" href=\"http://www.nemogould.com/\">Nemo Gould\u003c/a> from found materials, including a boat motor, chandelier parts, shoe stretchers, egg slicers, and coffee pot lids. “I’ve been dying to use that boat motor for years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16256\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 243px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Nautilus_low_res2-990x659-243x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16256\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16256\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Nautilus_low_res2-990x659-243x162.jpg\" alt=\"nautilus diorama \" width=\"243\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This nautilus diorama by artist Nemo Gould represents the threat of overfishing. (Nemo Gould)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gould was commissioned by the Aquarium to create “three sculptures representing three species and three fairly specific threats.” The second sculpture is supposed to represent the threat of pollution to octopuses, a mandate that had the artist scratching his head at first. “How do you make a sculpture of chemicals?” he asked. In fact, little is known about chemical threats to wild octopus populations, although toxins such as \u003ca title=\"Toxic exposure to ethylene dibromide and mercuric chloride: Effects on laboratory-reared octopuses\" href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0892036288900876\">mercury\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Acute toxicity of crude and dispersed oil to Octopus pallidus (Hoyle, 1885) hatchlings\" href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135401005206\">crude oil\u003c/a> can certainly do damage in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final sculpture addresses \u003ca title=\"The Cephalopod Page - Nautilus\" href=\"http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/nautcon.php\">overfishing of nautilus\u003c/a>, the only living cephalopod with an external shell. Originally a defense against predation, these shells have sadly become its primary cause, as humans collect them for decorative purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould’s sculptures provide a beautiful counterpoint to such destruction in the name of aesthetics. He harvests rusty junk and broken parts from scrap yards, waiting for the right project to transform them. When he got the call from the Aquarium, he said, “My supplies were brimming with what I needed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Circling Back to the Suckers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16253\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 223px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquarist-223x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16253\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16253\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquarist-223x162.jpg\" alt=\"An aquarist interacts with a giant Pacific octopus\" width=\"223\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aquarist interacts with a giant Pacific octopus. (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Monterey Bay Aquarium - Giant Pacific Octopus\" href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals-and-experiences/exhibits/giant-octopus\">The Giant Pacific Octopus\u003c/a>, GPO to its friends, has been one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s most iconic exhibits since the refurbished cannery opened as a tourist attraction in 1984. At the time, the GPO was actually part of a whole “Octopus and Kin” gallery, where it kept company with two other local species, the red octopus and two-spot octopus. Aquarists had hoped to exhibit native squid as well, but they had to settle for cuttlefish from far-off seas. Nautilus, also non-native, rounded out the display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, the mix of local and exotic species didn’t fit with our Habitats Path exhibit plan,” said Ken Peterson, the Aquarium’s communications director. “Now cephs are back, bigger and better than ever!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that the Aquarium is attempting to raise and exhibit giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama). Aquarists are actually working with the world’s second-largest cuttlefish, the broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus).\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Monterey Bay Aquarium's new exhibit will be the world’s largest, most diverse display of octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. To pull it off, aquarists are coaxing reproduction from the most reluctant critters.",
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"title": "World’s Largest \"Tentacles\" Exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium Will Cultivate Its Own Cephalopods | KQED",
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"headline": "World’s Largest \"Tentacles\" Exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium Will Cultivate Its Own Cephalopods",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16252\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/flamboyant.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16252\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16252\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/flamboyant.jpg\" alt=\"Flamboyant cuttlefish\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flamboyant cuttlefish, native to the tropical Indo-Pacific, are being bred by aquarists for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibit, “Tentacles.” (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Flamboyant cuttlefish. Pygmy squid. Dumbo octopus. These cartoonish names belong to real animals, and you could see them live at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibit, opening April 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca title=\"Monterey Bay Aquarium - Tentacles\" href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/tentacles\">Tentacles\u003c/a>” will be the world’s largest, most diverse display of cephalopods—the suction-cupped, parrot-beaked, skin-changing group that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. But the aquarium can’t guarantee which exact creatures will end up on display. During a behind-the-scenes tour last month, aquarist Alicia Bitondo said, “We won’t know which animals are in which tanks until a couple of weeks before the exhibit opens.” She paused. “Or the day before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This anxious uncertainty is due to the short lifespans typical of cephalopods. The exhibit itself, which is scheduled to close on Labor Day 2016, will outlive nearly all of its inhabitants. Continuous display of any given species would require ongoing collection from the wild, and most species are native to distant seas—a severe challenge to both logistics and sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, there’s an alternative: grow them at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Up the Babies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16255\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 256px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/visitors-256x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16255\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16255\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/visitors-256x162.jpg\" alt=\"Bigfin reef squid\" width=\"256\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bigfin reef squid entertain visitors. (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The $3.5 million “Tentacles” is is the first exhibit since the Aquarium’s award-winning jelly displays to rely on constant laboratory culture of animals behind the scenes. Current eggs and hatchlings will be rotated through public display in the Egg Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these babies will eventually appear in grown-up exhibits, but others never will. For example, \u003ca title=\"Science 2.0 - Squid Who Make Glue\" href=\"http://www.science20.com/squid_day/squid_who_make_glue-84481\">pygmy squid\u003c/a>—fully grown at the size of your fingernail—oblige their keepers by laying eggs, but no one knows what to feed the minuscule hatchlings. And \u003ca title=\"Wikipedia - Sepia latimanus\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_latimanus\">broadclub cuttlefish\u003c/a>, each big enough to fill a carry-on suitcase, can at least be raised from hatching to 11 months—but not yet to full maturity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, both pygmies and broadclubs still require collection from their home ranges in the Indo-Pacific. But that could change over the next couple of years. Monterey aquarists seem to have a way of coaxing reproduction from the most reluctant critters—as in the case of the deep-sea dumbo octopus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years since their discovery, \u003ca title=\"BBC - Dumbo octopus\" href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Grimpoteuthis\">dumbo octopuses\u003c/a> have occasionally released unfertilized eggs in their death throes, but at the Aquarium two dumbo moms have now laid their eggs properly. These precious spheres, which may or may not be fertilized, are being kept in super-chilled, low-oxygen water to mimic the deep-sea environment. That means they can’t show up in the Egg Lab, but adult dumbos might make an appearance in a special deep-sea tank. Over the life of “Tentacles,” this tank could also house \u003ca title=\"The Cephalopod Page - Vampyroteuthis\" href=\"http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/vampy.php\">vampire squid\u003c/a>, \u003ca title=\"Wikipedia - Glass squid\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_squid\">glass squid\u003c/a>, or \u003ca title=\"ToL - Histioteuthis\" href=\"http://tolweb.org/Histioteuthidae/19782\">cock-eyed squid\u003c/a>, species that have never before been on public display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Struggling on Their Home Surf\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing animals in the lab is one way to protect wild populations from over-harvesting. But are any cephalopods truly at risk? None are currently listed as endangered on the \u003ca title=\"ICUN Red List\" href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/\">IUCN Red List\u003c/a>, the most comprehensive international database of conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, that’s largely because of missing information. Of the 73 cephalopods on the IUCN’s list, 59 are “data deficient,” which means we just don’t know enough to gauge how they’re doing. One species, the \u003ca title=\"IUCN Red List - Sepia apama\" href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/162627/0\">Australian giant cuttlefish\u003c/a>, is listed as “near threatened”—that is, likely to be become endangered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This somber prediction is largely driven by one particular population of giant cuttles, which has never recovered from overfishing in the 1990’s. It now faces habitat loss due to industrial waste and construction projects. “Tentacles” addresses these struggles, not through the species’ live display, but with an unusual aquarium that contains neither water nor animals. It’s a mechanical sculpture of cuttlefish in their altered environment, built by the artist \u003ca title=\"Nemo Gould\" href=\"http://www.nemogould.com/\">Nemo Gould\u003c/a> from found materials, including a boat motor, chandelier parts, shoe stretchers, egg slicers, and coffee pot lids. “I’ve been dying to use that boat motor for years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16256\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 243px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Nautilus_low_res2-990x659-243x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16256\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16256\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Nautilus_low_res2-990x659-243x162.jpg\" alt=\"nautilus diorama \" width=\"243\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This nautilus diorama by artist Nemo Gould represents the threat of overfishing. (Nemo Gould)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gould was commissioned by the Aquarium to create “three sculptures representing three species and three fairly specific threats.” The second sculpture is supposed to represent the threat of pollution to octopuses, a mandate that had the artist scratching his head at first. “How do you make a sculpture of chemicals?” he asked. In fact, little is known about chemical threats to wild octopus populations, although toxins such as \u003ca title=\"Toxic exposure to ethylene dibromide and mercuric chloride: Effects on laboratory-reared octopuses\" href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0892036288900876\">mercury\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Acute toxicity of crude and dispersed oil to Octopus pallidus (Hoyle, 1885) hatchlings\" href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135401005206\">crude oil\u003c/a> can certainly do damage in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final sculpture addresses \u003ca title=\"The Cephalopod Page - Nautilus\" href=\"http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/nautcon.php\">overfishing of nautilus\u003c/a>, the only living cephalopod with an external shell. Originally a defense against predation, these shells have sadly become its primary cause, as humans collect them for decorative purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould’s sculptures provide a beautiful counterpoint to such destruction in the name of aesthetics. He harvests rusty junk and broken parts from scrap yards, waiting for the right project to transform them. When he got the call from the Aquarium, he said, “My supplies were brimming with what I needed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Circling Back to the Suckers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16253\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 223px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquarist-223x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16253\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16253\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquarist-223x162.jpg\" alt=\"An aquarist interacts with a giant Pacific octopus\" width=\"223\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aquarist interacts with a giant Pacific octopus. (Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Monterey Bay Aquarium - Giant Pacific Octopus\" href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals-and-experiences/exhibits/giant-octopus\">The Giant Pacific Octopus\u003c/a>, GPO to its friends, has been one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s most iconic exhibits since the refurbished cannery opened as a tourist attraction in 1984. At the time, the GPO was actually part of a whole “Octopus and Kin” gallery, where it kept company with two other local species, the red octopus and two-spot octopus. Aquarists had hoped to exhibit native squid as well, but they had to settle for cuttlefish from far-off seas. Nautilus, also non-native, rounded out the display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, the mix of local and exotic species didn’t fit with our Habitats Path exhibit plan,” said Ken Peterson, the Aquarium’s communications director. “Now cephs are back, bigger and better than ever!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that the Aquarium is attempting to raise and exhibit giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama). Aquarists are actually working with the world’s second-largest cuttlefish, the broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus).\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Another Step Closer to Redesigning Life: Scientists Create Synthetic Chromosome in Yeast",
"headTitle": "Another Step Closer to Redesigning Life: Scientists Create Synthetic Chromosome in Yeast | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 642px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Yeast6.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16103\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16103\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Yeast6.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists have replaced one natural chromosome with a manmade one in a yeast like one of these. Who knows which beast will get one of its chromosomes redesigned next. (Jakob Vowinckel, Ralser Lab, University of Cambridge)\" width=\"642\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists have replaced one natural chromosome with a manmade one in a yeast like one of those pictured here. Who knows which beast will get one of its chromosomes redesigned next. (Jakob Vowinckel, \u003ca href=\"http://ralser.sysbiol.cam.ac.uk/\">Ralser Lab\u003c/a>, University of Cambridge)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A group of scientists and their army of undergraduate students has \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24674868\">completely replaced\u003c/a> one of the chromosomes of common baker’s yeast with an artificial one. Plans are underway to do the same with yeast’s other 15 chromosomes. In the not too distant future, we will have a strain of yeast with a set of chromosomes redesigned by us. (Hopefully, intelligently [re]designed…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now this isn’t just an act of scientific hubris. This new man-made strain of yeast will be incredibly useful to scientists in lots of different ways. Researchers will be able to quickly add new sets of genes or even new artificial chromosomes (above and beyond yeast’s current 16) to more easily get the yeast to make medicines, biofuels or whatever we want. Given all the\u003ca href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/jovenpakistani/importance-of-yeast\"> incredible things\u003c/a> we have already managed to do with natural yeast (the anti-malarial drug \u003ca href=\"http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/04/yeast-make-malaria-drug\">artemisinin \u003c/a>is just one example), this can only be a good thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way the new chromosomes have been redesigned also frees up one of the words of the genetic code to do with as we will. This may be an important way to increase production of yeast-based products by \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/\">preventing the yeast from being infected by viruses\u003c/a>. It will also allow scientists to go beyond the current repertoire of protein building tools so they can easily create useful biological molecules never before seen in nature. We will have incrementally changed the fundamental genetic code of life in a eukaryote (it has already been \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24136966\">done in bacteria\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We can now replace natural chromosomes with artificial ones\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The yeast have also been designed to more easily gain the traits we want in a more evolutionary way. The scientists have added a number of specific DNA changes that under the right circumstances will encourage the yeast to scramble its DNA more rapidly than it ever would in nature. This accelerated evolution means it will get to where we need it to go more quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given all of these changes, it is a bit surprising that yeast pretty much didn’t behave any differently with this synthetic chromosome. The researchers decreased the size of the chromosome from 316,667 base pairs to 272,871 base pairs, removed DNA damage hotspots including a whole class of genes and made thousands of small changes throughout the chromosome. Yeast is apparently amazingly resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So even without anything else, this is a big deal. Assuming yeast can survive a whole slew of similar changes spread out over its whole set of DNA, a useful workhorse of science and industry will have suddenly been made even better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is more to all of this than making a better yeast. This is an experiment that shows that we can replace natural chromosomes with artificial ones in a fellow eukaryote (i.e. everything except bacteria and archae). This may have far reaching impacts for us and for plants and animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Better Way to Redesign Plants and Animals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16117\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/DNAplayground.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/DNAplayground.jpg\" alt=\"The researchers didn't make the whole yeast chromosome at once. Instead, they replaced the natural one piece by piece. (Flickr/Ben Dalton)\" width=\"300\" height=\"341\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The researchers didn’t make the whole yeast chromosome at once. Instead, they replaced the natural one piece by piece. (Flickr/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/noii/3717801190/in/photostream/\">Ben Dalton\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2010, the Venter lab announced they had \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20488990\">synthesized the entire set of DNA\u003c/a> (with some changes) from the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides in the lab. Even more remarkably, they transplanted this artificial genome into a different species of bacteria, Mycoplasma capricolum, and this bacterium was transformed into Mycoplasma mycoides. They had now essentially created life in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the researchers in this study did in yeast was very different. First off, they actually changed less DNA overall. While Venter’s group made a 1.08 million base pair piece of DNA and transplanted it into a bacterium cell, the yeast folks only changed around 275,000 base pairs. This is still a lot but less than was done for bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yeast researchers also replaced the natural chromosome in a different way. Instead of making the whole thing all at once, they changed the chromosome one bit at a time. They had undergraduate students make 2,000-4,000 base pair mini-chunks of DNA that were then added at an average of twelve at a time to yeast. The researchers then let the yeast change its chromosome one section at a time. After eleven rounds, this piecemeal approach had changed the entire chromosome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This different approach is simpler and more applicable to higher order beasts like plants, animals and of course fungus. It gets around the problem of having to get huge pieces of DNA into a cell and have them end up properly packaged. The cell does it for us!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeast is very good at using homologous recombination to swap the DNA we give it for its own DNA. Luckily in the last few years, a new technique called \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/02/24/new-technology-allows-for-precise-genetic-engineering-in-primates/\">CRISPR \u003c/a>has come online that makes higher order beasts as good as yeast at DNA swaps. Everything is now in place to do something similar in plants and animals. If only the silly things didn’t have so much DNA!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Back Extinct Species\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16094\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Mammoth.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16094\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16094\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Mammoth.jpg\" alt=\"We have taken a small step towards bringing extinct species back to life. (Wikimedia Commons/Titus322)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We have taken a small step towards bringing extinct species back to life. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mammoth_Mammut_model.JPG\">Titus322\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year there was a lot of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/25/resurrection-biology-the-reality-of-bringing-back-extinct-species/\">hullabaloo \u003c/a>about bringing back extinct species like the passenger pigeon or even a wooly mammoth (sorry, no dinosaurs yet). The way that researchers replaced a natural chromosome with an artificial chromosome in yeast shows us one way we might change an elephant into a mammoth or a regular pigeon into a passenger pigeon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, scientists would need a complete readout of the extinct animal’s DNA. As DNA sequencing has improved, this is definitely possible especially if we can get samples as fresh as the \u003ca href=\"http://rt.com/news/mammoth-blood-ice-siberia-908/\">latest mammoth find\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next step would be to synthesize the DNA and then replace a living relative’s chromosomes one piece at a time in some sort of stem cell. Once it has all been replaced, the stem cell would be converted to an embryonic stem cell that is equivalent to a fertilized egg and put into the living relative. If everything goes as planned, the extinct species will be reborn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Easy on paper, hard in the lab. The yeast researchers managed to switch out a ~300,000 base pair chromosome. To give some idea of scale, the smallest human chromosome is chromosome 21 at 48 million base pairs. And that is just one chromosome. Humans have over 3 billion base pairs total compared to yeast’s 12.6 million. We are talking orders of magnitude difference here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, yeast is pretty easy to work with. Unlike us (or elephants or birds), they happily exist in a haploid form where they have just one copy of each chromosome instead of two. It is much easier to get the changes on one chromosome in a single cell as opposed to two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists would also need to make a male and a female version and mate them or many males and females to get the needed genetic variety to survive. Add that the stem cells would have to stay in a petri dish for an awfully long time as scientists change one bit of chromosome at a time, and you can see that we aren’t there yet!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this is real progress. And if we ever want to resurrect an extinct yeast cell, we can pull it off today!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A group of scientists has replaced a natural chromosome in yeast with an artificial one. This won't only make a more useful yeast, but it also opens the door to redesigning the DNA of more complicated beasts like plants and animals (or us) and maybe even to resurrecting extinct species like the passenger pigeon or wooly mammoth.",
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"description": "A group of scientists has replaced a natural chromosome in yeast with an artificial one. This won't only make a more useful yeast, but it also opens the door to redesigning the DNA of more complicated beasts like plants and animals (or us) and maybe even to resurrecting extinct species like the passenger pigeon or wooly mammoth.",
"title": "Another Step Closer to Redesigning Life: Scientists Create Synthetic Chromosome in Yeast | KQED",
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"headline": "Another Step Closer to Redesigning Life: Scientists Create Synthetic Chromosome in Yeast",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 642px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Yeast6.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16103\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16103\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Yeast6.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists have replaced one natural chromosome with a manmade one in a yeast like one of these. Who knows which beast will get one of its chromosomes redesigned next. (Jakob Vowinckel, Ralser Lab, University of Cambridge)\" width=\"642\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists have replaced one natural chromosome with a manmade one in a yeast like one of those pictured here. Who knows which beast will get one of its chromosomes redesigned next. (Jakob Vowinckel, \u003ca href=\"http://ralser.sysbiol.cam.ac.uk/\">Ralser Lab\u003c/a>, University of Cambridge)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A group of scientists and their army of undergraduate students has \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24674868\">completely replaced\u003c/a> one of the chromosomes of common baker’s yeast with an artificial one. Plans are underway to do the same with yeast’s other 15 chromosomes. In the not too distant future, we will have a strain of yeast with a set of chromosomes redesigned by us. (Hopefully, intelligently [re]designed…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now this isn’t just an act of scientific hubris. This new man-made strain of yeast will be incredibly useful to scientists in lots of different ways. Researchers will be able to quickly add new sets of genes or even new artificial chromosomes (above and beyond yeast’s current 16) to more easily get the yeast to make medicines, biofuels or whatever we want. Given all the\u003ca href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/jovenpakistani/importance-of-yeast\"> incredible things\u003c/a> we have already managed to do with natural yeast (the anti-malarial drug \u003ca href=\"http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/04/yeast-make-malaria-drug\">artemisinin \u003c/a>is just one example), this can only be a good thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way the new chromosomes have been redesigned also frees up one of the words of the genetic code to do with as we will. This may be an important way to increase production of yeast-based products by \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/\">preventing the yeast from being infected by viruses\u003c/a>. It will also allow scientists to go beyond the current repertoire of protein building tools so they can easily create useful biological molecules never before seen in nature. We will have incrementally changed the fundamental genetic code of life in a eukaryote (it has already been \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24136966\">done in bacteria\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We can now replace natural chromosomes with artificial ones\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The yeast have also been designed to more easily gain the traits we want in a more evolutionary way. The scientists have added a number of specific DNA changes that under the right circumstances will encourage the yeast to scramble its DNA more rapidly than it ever would in nature. This accelerated evolution means it will get to where we need it to go more quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given all of these changes, it is a bit surprising that yeast pretty much didn’t behave any differently with this synthetic chromosome. The researchers decreased the size of the chromosome from 316,667 base pairs to 272,871 base pairs, removed DNA damage hotspots including a whole class of genes and made thousands of small changes throughout the chromosome. Yeast is apparently amazingly resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So even without anything else, this is a big deal. Assuming yeast can survive a whole slew of similar changes spread out over its whole set of DNA, a useful workhorse of science and industry will have suddenly been made even better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is more to all of this than making a better yeast. This is an experiment that shows that we can replace natural chromosomes with artificial ones in a fellow eukaryote (i.e. everything except bacteria and archae). This may have far reaching impacts for us and for plants and animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Better Way to Redesign Plants and Animals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16117\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/DNAplayground.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/DNAplayground.jpg\" alt=\"The researchers didn't make the whole yeast chromosome at once. Instead, they replaced the natural one piece by piece. (Flickr/Ben Dalton)\" width=\"300\" height=\"341\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The researchers didn’t make the whole yeast chromosome at once. Instead, they replaced the natural one piece by piece. (Flickr/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/noii/3717801190/in/photostream/\">Ben Dalton\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2010, the Venter lab announced they had \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20488990\">synthesized the entire set of DNA\u003c/a> (with some changes) from the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides in the lab. Even more remarkably, they transplanted this artificial genome into a different species of bacteria, Mycoplasma capricolum, and this bacterium was transformed into Mycoplasma mycoides. They had now essentially created life in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the researchers in this study did in yeast was very different. First off, they actually changed less DNA overall. While Venter’s group made a 1.08 million base pair piece of DNA and transplanted it into a bacterium cell, the yeast folks only changed around 275,000 base pairs. This is still a lot but less than was done for bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yeast researchers also replaced the natural chromosome in a different way. Instead of making the whole thing all at once, they changed the chromosome one bit at a time. They had undergraduate students make 2,000-4,000 base pair mini-chunks of DNA that were then added at an average of twelve at a time to yeast. The researchers then let the yeast change its chromosome one section at a time. After eleven rounds, this piecemeal approach had changed the entire chromosome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This different approach is simpler and more applicable to higher order beasts like plants, animals and of course fungus. It gets around the problem of having to get huge pieces of DNA into a cell and have them end up properly packaged. The cell does it for us!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeast is very good at using homologous recombination to swap the DNA we give it for its own DNA. Luckily in the last few years, a new technique called \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/02/24/new-technology-allows-for-precise-genetic-engineering-in-primates/\">CRISPR \u003c/a>has come online that makes higher order beasts as good as yeast at DNA swaps. Everything is now in place to do something similar in plants and animals. If only the silly things didn’t have so much DNA!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Back Extinct Species\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16094\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Mammoth.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16094\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16094\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Mammoth.jpg\" alt=\"We have taken a small step towards bringing extinct species back to life. (Wikimedia Commons/Titus322)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We have taken a small step towards bringing extinct species back to life. (Wikimedia Commons/\u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mammoth_Mammut_model.JPG\">Titus322\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year there was a lot of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/25/resurrection-biology-the-reality-of-bringing-back-extinct-species/\">hullabaloo \u003c/a>about bringing back extinct species like the passenger pigeon or even a wooly mammoth (sorry, no dinosaurs yet). The way that researchers replaced a natural chromosome with an artificial chromosome in yeast shows us one way we might change an elephant into a mammoth or a regular pigeon into a passenger pigeon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, scientists would need a complete readout of the extinct animal’s DNA. As DNA sequencing has improved, this is definitely possible especially if we can get samples as fresh as the \u003ca href=\"http://rt.com/news/mammoth-blood-ice-siberia-908/\">latest mammoth find\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next step would be to synthesize the DNA and then replace a living relative’s chromosomes one piece at a time in some sort of stem cell. Once it has all been replaced, the stem cell would be converted to an embryonic stem cell that is equivalent to a fertilized egg and put into the living relative. If everything goes as planned, the extinct species will be reborn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Easy on paper, hard in the lab. The yeast researchers managed to switch out a ~300,000 base pair chromosome. To give some idea of scale, the smallest human chromosome is chromosome 21 at 48 million base pairs. And that is just one chromosome. Humans have over 3 billion base pairs total compared to yeast’s 12.6 million. We are talking orders of magnitude difference here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, yeast is pretty easy to work with. Unlike us (or elephants or birds), they happily exist in a haploid form where they have just one copy of each chromosome instead of two. It is much easier to get the changes on one chromosome in a single cell as opposed to two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists would also need to make a male and a female version and mate them or many males and females to get the needed genetic variety to survive. Add that the stem cells would have to stay in a petri dish for an awfully long time as scientists change one bit of chromosome at a time, and you can see that we aren’t there yet!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this is real progress. And if we ever want to resurrect an extinct yeast cell, we can pull it off today!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Yosemite Opens Areas Closed After Last Summer's Huge Rim Fire",
"headTitle": "Yosemite Opens Areas Closed After Last Summer’s Huge Rim Fire | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>National Park Service officials have re-opened parts of Yosemite that have been closed ever since the Rim Fire tore through large swaths of the park last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors can now return to the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias and to hiking trails near Hetch Hetchy, among other areas. Park officials caution visitors to be careful in burned lands, however, as these areas can still be dangerous, with uneven ground, debris on trails, hazardous trees and the potential for falling rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire burned more than a quarter of a million acres, including about 77,000 acres inside Yosemite National Park, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-renewable-energy-reduce-californias-fire-risk/\">leaving a stark and denuded landscape of dead trees\u003c/a>. Park closures during and after the fire crippled businesses that cater to visitors from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/7017scr_d01835d281bde2b.jpg\" alt=\"The forest after the Rim Fire, just outside of Yosemite National Park. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16073\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The forest after the Rim Fire, just outside of Yosemite National Park. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“With the opening of these closed areas and looking at a good year,” said park ranger Scott Gediman, “we’re hopeful that a lot of those businesses can rebound and do well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/03/drought-could-hamper-forest-recovery-after-rim-fire/\">Fire ecologists say it will take decades\u003c/a> for the forests to recover, both because of the extent of the burned area and because of California’s drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire started in the Stanislaus National Forest on August 17, 2013, when a hunter’s illegal fire got out of control and raged through \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem/\">forests thick with dry trees and brush\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The photos below show the same location in the Stanislaus National Forest before the fire, and about two weeks after it. Fire scientist Scott Stephens of the University of California, Berkeley, was measuring plots and taking a timber inventory with graduate students when the fire forced them to evacuate. Stephens said when he returned to the area in late September, he had to locate it using GPS, as it was so changed he couldn’t recognize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was 100 percent mortality,” Stephens said, “so all trees in this site were dead. And this is actually very sad, because one reason I was interested in this particular spot is there are remnant old trees here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Drag the slider back and forth to compare before and after shots.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/rimfire/rimfiresliders.html\" height=\"2280px\" width=\"640px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nIn the first “before” photo, a lone California black oak pokes gnarled branches into the sky amid a stand of conifers. Stephens said the black oak is important for wildlife, both for its acorns and for the cavities it creates where birds and small mammals nest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This actually in some ways is a little victory for the oak,” Stephens said, “because the oak’s the only species that can re-sprout. So it’ll re-sprout from dormant buds under its bark and that tree’s going to grow like crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next picture shows a downed sugar pine log, with a small dead tree laying across it. The “after” photo shows the shrunken, scarred remains of that small tree. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final picture shows how the fire cleared out the dead sapling in the foreground. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The fire burned more than a quarter of a million acres in Yosemite and the Stanislaus National Forest. See before-and-after photos from a plot in the national forest.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>National Park Service officials have re-opened parts of Yosemite that have been closed ever since the Rim Fire tore through large swaths of the park last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors can now return to the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias and to hiking trails near Hetch Hetchy, among other areas. Park officials caution visitors to be careful in burned lands, however, as these areas can still be dangerous, with uneven ground, debris on trails, hazardous trees and the potential for falling rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire burned more than a quarter of a million acres, including about 77,000 acres inside Yosemite National Park, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-renewable-energy-reduce-californias-fire-risk/\">leaving a stark and denuded landscape of dead trees\u003c/a>. Park closures during and after the fire crippled businesses that cater to visitors from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/7017scr_d01835d281bde2b.jpg\" alt=\"The forest after the Rim Fire, just outside of Yosemite National Park. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16073\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The forest after the Rim Fire, just outside of Yosemite National Park. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“With the opening of these closed areas and looking at a good year,” said park ranger Scott Gediman, “we’re hopeful that a lot of those businesses can rebound and do well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/03/drought-could-hamper-forest-recovery-after-rim-fire/\">Fire ecologists say it will take decades\u003c/a> for the forests to recover, both because of the extent of the burned area and because of California’s drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire started in the Stanislaus National Forest on August 17, 2013, when a hunter’s illegal fire got out of control and raged through \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem/\">forests thick with dry trees and brush\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The photos below show the same location in the Stanislaus National Forest before the fire, and about two weeks after it. Fire scientist Scott Stephens of the University of California, Berkeley, was measuring plots and taking a timber inventory with graduate students when the fire forced them to evacuate. Stephens said when he returned to the area in late September, he had to locate it using GPS, as it was so changed he couldn’t recognize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was 100 percent mortality,” Stephens said, “so all trees in this site were dead. And this is actually very sad, because one reason I was interested in this particular spot is there are remnant old trees here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Drag the slider back and forth to compare before and after shots.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/rimfire/rimfiresliders.html\" height=\"2280px\" width=\"640px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\nIn the first “before” photo, a lone California black oak pokes gnarled branches into the sky amid a stand of conifers. Stephens said the black oak is important for wildlife, both for its acorns and for the cavities it creates where birds and small mammals nest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This actually in some ways is a little victory for the oak,” Stephens said, “because the oak’s the only species that can re-sprout. So it’ll re-sprout from dormant buds under its bark and that tree’s going to grow like crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next picture shows a downed sugar pine log, with a small dead tree laying across it. The “after” photo shows the shrunken, scarred remains of that small tree. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final picture shows how the fire cleared out the dead sapling in the foreground. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Surprising New Research on Gray Whales Reveals Their Complex Relationships",
"headTitle": "Surprising New Research on Gray Whales Reveals Their Complex Relationships | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/cowcalfpairgraywhales.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15867\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15867\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/cowcalfpairgraywhales.jpg\" alt=\"Gray whales calve in the warm waters off Baja California then a few months later begin their 5,000 mile migration to Arctic feeding grounds. (Image: José Eugenio Gómez Rodríguez/Wikimedia)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales calve in the warm waters off Baja California then a few months later begin their 5,000 mile migration to Arctic feeding grounds. (Image: \u003ca title=\"Gray Whale cow-calf pair, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballena_gris_adulta_con_su_ballenato.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">José Eugenio Gómez Rodríguez/Wikimedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might not realize it, as you take public transit or a car to and from your job or classes, but the longest commute of any mammal is taking place just outside the Golden Gate. The \u003ca title=\"Gray Whale fact sheet\" href=\"http://acsonline.org/fact-sheets/gray-whale/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gray whales\u003c/a> are migrating north, 10,000 miles round-trip, from their birthing lagoons in Mexico to their feeding grounds in the Arctic seas. In the far north of their range, scientists are finding the healthy Eastern North Pacific population that migrates along our coast is actually mixing with the highly endangered Western Pacific gray whales with only about 214 animals remaining. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the largest and oldest international environmental organization, is providing advice and \u003ca title=\"Western Gray Whale Conservation, IUCN\" href=\"http://www.iucn-csg.org/index.php/western-gray-whale/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">publishing conservation threats\u003c/a> against the Western Pacific gray whale population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15868\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GrayWhalenostrilsByPhilKonstantin-288x102.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15868\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15868\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GrayWhalenostrilsByPhilKonstantin-288x102.jpg\" alt=\"Gray whales carry colonies of external parasites including barnacles and whale lice which you can see in this close-up near the whale nostrils on the top of its head. (Image: Phil Konstantin/Wikimedia)\" width=\"288\" height=\"102\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales carry colonies of external parasites including barnacles and whale lice which you can see in this close-up near the whale nostrils on the top of its head. (Image: \u003ca title=\"Phil Konstantin, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GrayWhaleByPhilKonstantin.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phil Konstantin/Wikimedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you estimate a population that stretches out along the entire west coast of North America in a parade that heads south from October to December, then turns around almost immediately and heads back through May? There are actually many counts that occur, but I’ll highlight two counts that have been tracked for years and help scientists monitor the whale population. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) count them on their journey south from the Arctic at the Granite Canyon Station (11 miles north of Carmel, CA). Data from counts dating back to 1968 show a steady recovery of the population, now estimated at “pre-hunting” numbers of about 19,000 animals. Gray whales reached the brink of extinction due to over-hunting in the 1800s-early 1900s. The International Whaling Commission gave them partial protection in 1937 and full protection in 1947. Later, they were listed as an endangered species. They recovered so well with these protections that in 1994 they were “de-listed” and removed from the endangered species list. They’re still protected by the \u003ca title=\"Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA\" href=\"http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/mmpa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marine Mammal Act of 1972\u003c/a> under U.S. law and also protected by the International Whaling Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15869\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 210px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/aerialwhalesbywayneperryman-210x162.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15869\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/aerialwhalesbywayneperryman-210x162.jpeg\" alt=\"Gray whales migrate in loose pods with newly pregnant females heading north followed last by cow-calf pairs. (Image: Wayne Perryman/NOAA)\" width=\"210\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales migrate in loose pods with newly pregnant females heading north followed last by cow-calf pairs. (Image: \u003ca title=\"NOAA website, photo gallery\" href=\"http://swfsc.noaa.gov/ImageGallery/Default.aspx?moid=4622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wayne Perryman/NOAA\u003c/a>) \u003ccite>(Wayne Perryman/NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Journey North website\" href=\"http://www.learner.org/jnorth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journey North\u003c/a> uses citizen science observers to track migrations and seasonal changes around the globe. Gray whales are one of the species highlighted on their website, with monitoring stations at \u003ca title=\"American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles, Gray Whale Census\" href=\"http://www.acs-la.org/GWCensus.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Point Vicente Interpretive Center, Los Angeles\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Gray Whales Count, Santa Barbara Census\" href=\"http://www.graywhalescount.org/gwc/About_GWC.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coal Oil Point near Santa Barbara\u003c/a>, tracking their northbound trek. Their posted daily census has four years of data on the Journey North website and notes a decrease in numbers over the last three years. Some factors explaining the decrease include storms and migration paths further out to sea. They did have a really big day this year with 94 whales sighted on March 1\u003csup>st \u003c/sup>from the Los Angeles station. Their data also shows that cow-calf pairs are more commonly seen beginning their northward migration after April 1\u003csup>st\u003c/sup>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can view the gray whales now through the end of April from the bluffs along the Pacific shore or head out to sea on a whale-watching cruise. Point Reyes Lighthouse is my favorite viewing spot to watch cow-calf pairs as they make their way to the Arctic. They have a shuttle bus that takes you from Drakes Beach to the parking lot at the lighthouse on spring weekends due to heavy visitation. Learn more about the \u003ca title=\"National Park Service - Point Reyes, plan your visit\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/rangerprograms.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Point Reyes National Seashore\u003c/a> viewing possibilities on their website. You can also check \u003ca title=\"KQED QUEST blog, Gigantic Journeys\" href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/03/16/gigantic-journey-humpback-migration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Gigantic Journeys”\u003c/a> a previously published blog about the whale migration for more details about areas to watch them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists continue to learn more about the complex relationships between Eastern and Western Pacific stocks of gray whales and fight to save the Western population as it teeters on the brink of extinction. Learn about the surprising discovery they have made using DNA and satellite tracking with naturalist Sharol Nelson-Embry.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/cowcalfpairgraywhales.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15867\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15867\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/cowcalfpairgraywhales.jpg\" alt=\"Gray whales calve in the warm waters off Baja California then a few months later begin their 5,000 mile migration to Arctic feeding grounds. (Image: José Eugenio Gómez Rodríguez/Wikimedia)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales calve in the warm waters off Baja California then a few months later begin their 5,000 mile migration to Arctic feeding grounds. (Image: \u003ca title=\"Gray Whale cow-calf pair, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballena_gris_adulta_con_su_ballenato.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">José Eugenio Gómez Rodríguez/Wikimedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might not realize it, as you take public transit or a car to and from your job or classes, but the longest commute of any mammal is taking place just outside the Golden Gate. The \u003ca title=\"Gray Whale fact sheet\" href=\"http://acsonline.org/fact-sheets/gray-whale/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gray whales\u003c/a> are migrating north, 10,000 miles round-trip, from their birthing lagoons in Mexico to their feeding grounds in the Arctic seas. In the far north of their range, scientists are finding the healthy Eastern North Pacific population that migrates along our coast is actually mixing with the highly endangered Western Pacific gray whales with only about 214 animals remaining. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the largest and oldest international environmental organization, is providing advice and \u003ca title=\"Western Gray Whale Conservation, IUCN\" href=\"http://www.iucn-csg.org/index.php/western-gray-whale/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">publishing conservation threats\u003c/a> against the Western Pacific gray whale population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15868\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GrayWhalenostrilsByPhilKonstantin-288x102.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15868\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15868\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GrayWhalenostrilsByPhilKonstantin-288x102.jpg\" alt=\"Gray whales carry colonies of external parasites including barnacles and whale lice which you can see in this close-up near the whale nostrils on the top of its head. (Image: Phil Konstantin/Wikimedia)\" width=\"288\" height=\"102\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales carry colonies of external parasites including barnacles and whale lice which you can see in this close-up near the whale nostrils on the top of its head. (Image: \u003ca title=\"Phil Konstantin, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GrayWhaleByPhilKonstantin.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phil Konstantin/Wikimedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you estimate a population that stretches out along the entire west coast of North America in a parade that heads south from October to December, then turns around almost immediately and heads back through May? There are actually many counts that occur, but I’ll highlight two counts that have been tracked for years and help scientists monitor the whale population. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) count them on their journey south from the Arctic at the Granite Canyon Station (11 miles north of Carmel, CA). Data from counts dating back to 1968 show a steady recovery of the population, now estimated at “pre-hunting” numbers of about 19,000 animals. Gray whales reached the brink of extinction due to over-hunting in the 1800s-early 1900s. The International Whaling Commission gave them partial protection in 1937 and full protection in 1947. Later, they were listed as an endangered species. They recovered so well with these protections that in 1994 they were “de-listed” and removed from the endangered species list. They’re still protected by the \u003ca title=\"Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA\" href=\"http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/mmpa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marine Mammal Act of 1972\u003c/a> under U.S. law and also protected by the International Whaling Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15869\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 210px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/aerialwhalesbywayneperryman-210x162.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15869\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/aerialwhalesbywayneperryman-210x162.jpeg\" alt=\"Gray whales migrate in loose pods with newly pregnant females heading north followed last by cow-calf pairs. (Image: Wayne Perryman/NOAA)\" width=\"210\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray whales migrate in loose pods with newly pregnant females heading north followed last by cow-calf pairs. (Image: \u003ca title=\"NOAA website, photo gallery\" href=\"http://swfsc.noaa.gov/ImageGallery/Default.aspx?moid=4622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wayne Perryman/NOAA\u003c/a>) \u003ccite>(Wayne Perryman/NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Journey North website\" href=\"http://www.learner.org/jnorth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journey North\u003c/a> uses citizen science observers to track migrations and seasonal changes around the globe. Gray whales are one of the species highlighted on their website, with monitoring stations at \u003ca title=\"American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles, Gray Whale Census\" href=\"http://www.acs-la.org/GWCensus.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Point Vicente Interpretive Center, Los Angeles\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Gray Whales Count, Santa Barbara Census\" href=\"http://www.graywhalescount.org/gwc/About_GWC.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coal Oil Point near Santa Barbara\u003c/a>, tracking their northbound trek. Their posted daily census has four years of data on the Journey North website and notes a decrease in numbers over the last three years. Some factors explaining the decrease include storms and migration paths further out to sea. They did have a really big day this year with 94 whales sighted on March 1\u003csup>st \u003c/sup>from the Los Angeles station. Their data also shows that cow-calf pairs are more commonly seen beginning their northward migration after April 1\u003csup>st\u003c/sup>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can view the gray whales now through the end of April from the bluffs along the Pacific shore or head out to sea on a whale-watching cruise. Point Reyes Lighthouse is my favorite viewing spot to watch cow-calf pairs as they make their way to the Arctic. They have a shuttle bus that takes you from Drakes Beach to the parking lot at the lighthouse on spring weekends due to heavy visitation. Learn more about the \u003ca title=\"National Park Service - Point Reyes, plan your visit\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/rangerprograms.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Point Reyes National Seashore\u003c/a> viewing possibilities on their website. You can also check \u003ca title=\"KQED QUEST blog, Gigantic Journeys\" href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/03/16/gigantic-journey-humpback-migration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Gigantic Journeys”\u003c/a> a previously published blog about the whale migration for more details about areas to watch them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Vivid-Dancer_Will-Elder.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15857\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Vivid-Dancer_Will-Elder.jpg\" alt=\"A vivid dancer. (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vivid dancer. (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists, students and volunteers are descending on the \u003ca title=\"Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/goga/index.htm\">Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/a> this Friday and Saturday to record as many plant and animal species as possible in 24 hours. It’s part of an event called a \u003ca title=\"BioBlitz 2014, Golden Gate National Parks, California Species Inventory Information, Facts -- National Geographic\" href=\"http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/projects/bioblitz/golden-gate-california-2014/\">BioBlitz\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Geographic Society has been organizing annual BioBlitz events at national parks across the country, as a lead up to the \u003ca title=\"U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/index.htm\">National Park Service’s \u003c/a>centennial celebration in 2016. The goal is to transform park visitors into citizen scientists, as they help to observe and count the parks’ biodiversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15862\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15862 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Bobcat_JessicaWeinberg.jpg\" alt=\"A bobcat. (Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"346\" height=\"231\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bobcat. (Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“One of the most important things for the BioBlitz is to reach out and engage the citizens that live around the park lands in a different way,” says National Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet. “Students will get a closer look at a park they may already enjoy while riding their bikes or walking their dog.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three hundred scientists will lead teams throughout the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, from Muir Woods to Fort Point and the Marin Headlands. More than 4700 volunteers are expected to take part in this year’s BioBlitz, including 1400 students from the San Francisco Unified School District. They’ll be searching for all signs of life, from microscopic bacteria to bobcats. The counting starts at noon on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have entomologists coming from UC Davis who are going to do a lot of work in the newest part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and that’s\u003ca title=\"Rancho Corral de Tierra - Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/goga/rcdt.htm\"> Rancho Corral de Tierra\u003c/a>,” says Picavet. “They’ll be looking for beetles, and for ticks, and for mosquitoes and all signs of insect life down there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15863 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Bat_JessicaWeinberg.jpg\" alt=\"(Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The citizen scientists will use a smart phone app called \u003ca title=\"INaturalist.org · A Community for Naturalists\" href=\"http://www.inaturalist.org\">iNaturalis\u003c/a>t to record, photograph and map their findings, which will be added to park service databases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evolution of technology has allowed more people to get involved with research, says Marie Studer, with the \u003ca title=\"Encyclopedia of Life - Animals - Plants - Pictures & Information\" href=\"http://eol.org/\">Encyclopedia of Life\u003c/a>, which has partnered with iNaturalist. But she says it’s not just the technology that’s fueling events like BioBlitz. It’s a growing concern about species loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are recognizing that we’re in a biodiversity crisis,” says Studer. “It’s considered that we’re in the sixth mass extinction on the planet. We’re losing species at a very rapid rate before we’re able to recognize and catalog all that we know about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15864\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15864\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/West-Coast-Lady_WillElder.jpg\" alt=\"A West Coast lady (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A West Coast lady (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The BioBlitz species counts are all booked up with volunteers. But members of the general public are welcome to attend the \u003ca title=\"BioBlitz 2014 Biodiversity Festival, Golden Gate National Parks, California Species Inventory Information, Facts -- National Geographic\" href=\"http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/projects/bioblitz/golden-gate-california-2014-festival/\">Biodiversity Festival\u003c/a> at Crissy Field on Friday and Saturday, starting at 9am. The family-friendly event will include music from the Banana Slugs Band, photography workshops, and live animal demonstrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the festival wraps up on Saturday afternoon, scientists will return from the field to share stories of what they found, and present a grand tally of all the plants, animals and bacteria they were able to count during the 24-hour BioBlitz.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists, students and volunteers are descending on the Golden Gate National Recreation Area this Friday and Saturday to record as many plant and animal species as possible in 24 hours. It's part of an event called a BioBlitz.",
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"title": "BioBlitz: A 24-Hour Quest to Count Plants and Animals in the Golden Gate National Parks | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Vivid-Dancer_Will-Elder.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15857\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Vivid-Dancer_Will-Elder.jpg\" alt=\"A vivid dancer. (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vivid dancer. (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists, students and volunteers are descending on the \u003ca title=\"Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/goga/index.htm\">Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/a> this Friday and Saturday to record as many plant and animal species as possible in 24 hours. It’s part of an event called a \u003ca title=\"BioBlitz 2014, Golden Gate National Parks, California Species Inventory Information, Facts -- National Geographic\" href=\"http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/projects/bioblitz/golden-gate-california-2014/\">BioBlitz\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Geographic Society has been organizing annual BioBlitz events at national parks across the country, as a lead up to the \u003ca title=\"U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/index.htm\">National Park Service’s \u003c/a>centennial celebration in 2016. The goal is to transform park visitors into citizen scientists, as they help to observe and count the parks’ biodiversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15862\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15862 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Bobcat_JessicaWeinberg.jpg\" alt=\"A bobcat. (Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"346\" height=\"231\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bobcat. (Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“One of the most important things for the BioBlitz is to reach out and engage the citizens that live around the park lands in a different way,” says National Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet. “Students will get a closer look at a park they may already enjoy while riding their bikes or walking their dog.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three hundred scientists will lead teams throughout the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, from Muir Woods to Fort Point and the Marin Headlands. More than 4700 volunteers are expected to take part in this year’s BioBlitz, including 1400 students from the San Francisco Unified School District. They’ll be searching for all signs of life, from microscopic bacteria to bobcats. The counting starts at noon on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have entomologists coming from UC Davis who are going to do a lot of work in the newest part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and that’s\u003ca title=\"Rancho Corral de Tierra - Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/goga/rcdt.htm\"> Rancho Corral de Tierra\u003c/a>,” says Picavet. “They’ll be looking for beetles, and for ticks, and for mosquitoes and all signs of insect life down there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15863 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Bat_JessicaWeinberg.jpg\" alt=\"(Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Jessica Weinberg/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The citizen scientists will use a smart phone app called \u003ca title=\"INaturalist.org · A Community for Naturalists\" href=\"http://www.inaturalist.org\">iNaturalis\u003c/a>t to record, photograph and map their findings, which will be added to park service databases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evolution of technology has allowed more people to get involved with research, says Marie Studer, with the \u003ca title=\"Encyclopedia of Life - Animals - Plants - Pictures & Information\" href=\"http://eol.org/\">Encyclopedia of Life\u003c/a>, which has partnered with iNaturalist. But she says it’s not just the technology that’s fueling events like BioBlitz. It’s a growing concern about species loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are recognizing that we’re in a biodiversity crisis,” says Studer. “It’s considered that we’re in the sixth mass extinction on the planet. We’re losing species at a very rapid rate before we’re able to recognize and catalog all that we know about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15864\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15864\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/West-Coast-Lady_WillElder.jpg\" alt=\"A West Coast lady (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A West Coast lady (Will Elder/Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The BioBlitz species counts are all booked up with volunteers. But members of the general public are welcome to attend the \u003ca title=\"BioBlitz 2014 Biodiversity Festival, Golden Gate National Parks, California Species Inventory Information, Facts -- National Geographic\" href=\"http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/projects/bioblitz/golden-gate-california-2014-festival/\">Biodiversity Festival\u003c/a> at Crissy Field on Friday and Saturday, starting at 9am. The family-friendly event will include music from the Banana Slugs Band, photography workshops, and live animal demonstrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the festival wraps up on Saturday afternoon, scientists will return from the field to share stories of what they found, and present a grand tally of all the plants, animals and bacteria they were able to count during the 24-hour BioBlitz.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Woolly Mammoth Fossils Raise Red Flags on the Road to Extinction",
"headTitle": "Woolly Mammoth Fossils Raise Red Flags on the Road to Extinction | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Wooly_Mammoths-e1395702786857.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15785\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Wooly_Mammoths-e1395702786857.jpg\" alt=\"Woolly mammoths near the Somme River, AMNH mural. (Charles R. Knight/AMNH)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woolly mammoths near the Somme River, AMNH mural. Click image to enlarge. (\u003ca class=\"nofancybox\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWooly_Mammoths.jpg\">Charles R. Knight/Public Domain\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aside from the days of the dinosaur, few eras capture our imagination like the last ice age. We showed up about 60 million years too late to catch a glimpse of the building-sized \u003ca href=\"http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~kent/paleontology/sauropods/Brachiosaurus/index.html\">Brachiosaurus\u003c/a>, but our ancestors were out in full force during the Late Pleistocene, some 10,000 years ago, when the last of the ice age giants vanished from Earth’s continents. Fossils from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.tarpits.org/la-brea-tar-pits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">La Brea Tar Pits\u003c/a> in Los Angeles and other parts of California suggest that saber-tooth cats, giant sloths, mammoths and the rest of their charismatic contemporaries disappeared from the state long before that. It was our first brush with mass extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What caused the ice age extinctions has sparked controversy ever since Darwin and his colleagues first recognized them in the 19th century. Then as now, climate change and human hunters seemed the most likely suspects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One school of thought holds that a warming planet caused the glaciers to melt, claiming the habitat and food sources the animals needed to survive. But, critics counter, it also cleared a path for early humans to hunt once inaccessible quarry. On this continent, the last of the Pleistocene giants vanished just 1,500 years after the arrival of the first humans, offering \u003ca href=\"http://global.oup.com/academic/product/once-and-future-giants-9780195370126;jsessionid=D258349C4151CC5998D453EDC17519FE?cc=us&lang=en&\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">compelling support\u003c/a> for this “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/overkill/Bit1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overkill hypothesis\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of contentious debate over the primary causes of this mass extinction long hobbled efforts to understand its consequences, says Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine’s School of Biology & Ecology and the Climate Change Institute. But a new consensus seems to be emerging. It’s clear that climate change influences animals’ diet and behavior and that extinction rarely results from a single factor, Gill says. “But there’s increasing evidence that while animals might have been stressed by the changes we see at the end of the last ice age, in the absence of humans, it becomes really difficult to explain the extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Finding Flaws in Fossils\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Paleontologists typically study fossils to identify new species and understand how new traits evolved and different species adapted to changing environments. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/318\">new study\u003c/a>, Frietson Galis and her Dutch colleagues Jelle Reumer and Clara ten Broek took what they call an evolutionary developmental approach — looking for signs of birth defects in fossils — based on a surprising discovery in Europe’s North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the glaciers retreated, the North Sea was a vast tundra teeming with herds of woolly mammoths and their outsized contemporaries. Trawlers often find their bones among the fish jumping in their nets, and dredging projects routinely pull up ancient remains from the sandy seafloor. So when workers dredging the Rotterdam Harbor off the coast of the Netherlands recovered two woolly mammoth neck bones a few years ago, no one was surprised. But when Galis and her colleagues examined the fossils, which had been donated to Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum, they found something they didn’t expect. Two of the neck bones had a skeletal defect — a joint to hold a rib — that usually accompanies life-threatening deformities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all mammals, from mice to humans and even giraffes, have seven neck bones, or cervical vertebrae, except for \u003ca href=\"http://www.evodevojournal.com/content/2/1/11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">manatees and sloths\u003c/a>, whose slow-paced lifestyle seems to help them survive skeletal abnormalities. That all mammals have seven, no more or less, suggests that variations on the number or form of these bones compromise fitness, meaning that few survive long enough to reproduce. When neck vertebrae sprout ribs as if they were spinal vertebrae, it’s a sign that something disturbed the intricately coordinated development of the fetus. And when one thing goes wrong, chances are other things do too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Signs of Trouble\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Neck ribs themselves don’t typically cause serious problems, but usually arise with other defects that do. When neck ribs occur in humans, \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.weber.edu/rmeyers/Galis-Selection%20against%20homeotic.pdf\">90 percent of the afflicted\u003c/a> die before adulthood. Knowing that the neck bones retrieved from the North Sea came from one of the last local mammoth populations, Galis and her colleagues wondered if this defect hastened their demise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that changes in highly conserved anatomical traits are usually indicators of medical risks,” Galis says. “Variations of the vertebral column can tell us a lot about the vulnerability of populations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/3206888858_c4b6a4b895_b-e1395702408964.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15783\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/3206888858_c4b6a4b895_b-e1395702408964.jpg\" alt=\"Skeleton of a Columbian mammoth at the Utah Museum of Natural History. (Brett Neilson / Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skeleton of a Columbian mammoth at the Utah Museum of Natural History. (Brett Neilson / \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettneilson/3206888858/in/photostream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To see what stories those variations might tell, Galis and her colleagues looked for the developmental defect in other Late Pleistocene mammoth fossils stored at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Lieden, the Netherlands. Then they compared their fossils (just nine were suitable for analysis) to specimens of African elephants and Asian elephants, the mammoth’s closest living relatives. They found that a third of the mammoth neck vertebrae had ribs but just a tiny fraction — 1 out of 29 —of those from the elephants did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the local populations declined, inbreeding was more likely, Galis says. And both inbreeding and famine or other harsh conditions could disturb early pregnancy. “It seems plausible that both caused cervical ribs and vulnerability in mammoths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neck ribs could be a sign of inbreeding, much like the Florida panther’s trademark kinked tail. It’s not the tail that worries biologists, but the associated traits, like undescended testicles and susceptibility to parasites, that threaten the big cat’s ability to reproduce. As mammoth populations dwindled, the appearance of these misplaced ribs may have coincided with other genetic defects that made mammoths more vulnerable to stress — shifting climates, overzealous hunters or factors yet to be uncovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The preliminary evidence from these vertebrae suggests that these animals were stressed by something in their environment,” says Gill. The stress could have come from a change in their diet because of climate change, in their behavior because or hunting or even in who they were reproducing with because of hunting, she explains. Evidence from kill sites shows that early humans were targeting adult males — like trophy hunters do today — rather than the young as carnivores do, compromising females’ chances of reproductive success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”e78550e1fb32c408f5416918dbe3736a”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study generates some interesting ideas to test, Gill adds, and supports the hypothesis that these animals were very stressed out during the final moments before their extinction. “Whether that’s from environmental stressors or humans or the ‘\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5693/70.full?sid=b8bd569f-901d-4482-9c25-304a1dc6e538\">one-two punch\u003c/a>‘ of climate change plus hunting is where we need to look at other data to complement the fossil evidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Farke, a dinosaur expert who edited the paper (published in the \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">open access journal PeerJ\u003c/a>), allows that the sample size analyzed was small. But he thinks it’s not just coincidence that so many of the fossils had the defect. And though most of the samples were found from dredging rather than rock layers that can be precisely dated, Farke thinks the evidence is compelling enough to inspire others to explore links between fossil anomalies and potential developmental flaws that might contribute to extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really cool to be able to make this connection between something that might be just a curiosity in a museum collection but a little deeper work shows that there might be something going on with it,” he says. He’d also like to see someone examine older fossils to see if the defect disappears further back in time, when the populations were presumably healthier.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Tool for Today\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Though scientists may debate the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis for years to come, there’s no doubt that we’re to blame for the catastrophic decline of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mesaxonia/elephantidae.php\">mammoth’s living cousins\u003c/a>. Poaching of African elephants for the ivory in their tusks remains the number one \u003ca href=\"https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/african_elephant_summit_background_document_2013_en.pdf\">threat to their survival.\u003c/a> An unfathomable 62 percent of African forest elephants were killed between 2002 and 2011, a\u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0059469\"> team of researchers reported\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If neck ribs did portend the beginning of the end for the mammoth, might the same defect start to appear more frequently in elephants under intense hunting pressure? Elephants are keenly intelligent animals that \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-elephants-poaching-empathy-grief-extinction-science/\">grieve for fallen kin\u003c/a> — a stress that may well affect developing young. Assuming that neck ribs do signal genetic or developmental stress, Farke says, using portable x-rays to screen for the defect could be a good way to gauge the health of not just elephants but any at-risk vertebrate population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes more paleontologists will start to study fossils for the developmental pathologies they reveal — not just to understand what happened to the mythic megafauna we lost long ago, but to save those still in our midst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From time to time, the great beasts send us reminders that they once walked the streets of San Francisco, then savannah grasslands, replete with large-mammal menageries now found only in Africa. Just last September, a crane operator at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mammoth-tooth-found-at-Transbay-dig-3861381.php\">Transbay Transit Center\u003c/a> construction site unearthed the tooth of a Columbian mammoth, the species common in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Pleistocene, the large-bodied mammals took the biggest hit. Today, we’re losing species across all classes at an unprecedented rate, and no one disputes that the hand of humans — in climate change and hunting — is driving the crisis. The biggest question now is what we’re going to do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "A surprising discovery in woolly mammoth fossils recovered from the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands suggests that inbreeding and harsh conditions plagued the ice age giants near the end of their reign on Earth.",
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"headline": "Woolly Mammoth Fossils Raise Red Flags on the Road to Extinction",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Wooly_Mammoths-e1395702786857.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15785\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Wooly_Mammoths-e1395702786857.jpg\" alt=\"Woolly mammoths near the Somme River, AMNH mural. (Charles R. Knight/AMNH)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woolly mammoths near the Somme River, AMNH mural. Click image to enlarge. (\u003ca class=\"nofancybox\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWooly_Mammoths.jpg\">Charles R. Knight/Public Domain\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aside from the days of the dinosaur, few eras capture our imagination like the last ice age. We showed up about 60 million years too late to catch a glimpse of the building-sized \u003ca href=\"http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~kent/paleontology/sauropods/Brachiosaurus/index.html\">Brachiosaurus\u003c/a>, but our ancestors were out in full force during the Late Pleistocene, some 10,000 years ago, when the last of the ice age giants vanished from Earth’s continents. Fossils from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.tarpits.org/la-brea-tar-pits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">La Brea Tar Pits\u003c/a> in Los Angeles and other parts of California suggest that saber-tooth cats, giant sloths, mammoths and the rest of their charismatic contemporaries disappeared from the state long before that. It was our first brush with mass extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What caused the ice age extinctions has sparked controversy ever since Darwin and his colleagues first recognized them in the 19th century. Then as now, climate change and human hunters seemed the most likely suspects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One school of thought holds that a warming planet caused the glaciers to melt, claiming the habitat and food sources the animals needed to survive. But, critics counter, it also cleared a path for early humans to hunt once inaccessible quarry. On this continent, the last of the Pleistocene giants vanished just 1,500 years after the arrival of the first humans, offering \u003ca href=\"http://global.oup.com/academic/product/once-and-future-giants-9780195370126;jsessionid=D258349C4151CC5998D453EDC17519FE?cc=us&lang=en&\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">compelling support\u003c/a> for this “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/overkill/Bit1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overkill hypothesis\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of contentious debate over the primary causes of this mass extinction long hobbled efforts to understand its consequences, says Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine’s School of Biology & Ecology and the Climate Change Institute. But a new consensus seems to be emerging. It’s clear that climate change influences animals’ diet and behavior and that extinction rarely results from a single factor, Gill says. “But there’s increasing evidence that while animals might have been stressed by the changes we see at the end of the last ice age, in the absence of humans, it becomes really difficult to explain the extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Finding Flaws in Fossils\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Paleontologists typically study fossils to identify new species and understand how new traits evolved and different species adapted to changing environments. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/318\">new study\u003c/a>, Frietson Galis and her Dutch colleagues Jelle Reumer and Clara ten Broek took what they call an evolutionary developmental approach — looking for signs of birth defects in fossils — based on a surprising discovery in Europe’s North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the glaciers retreated, the North Sea was a vast tundra teeming with herds of woolly mammoths and their outsized contemporaries. Trawlers often find their bones among the fish jumping in their nets, and dredging projects routinely pull up ancient remains from the sandy seafloor. So when workers dredging the Rotterdam Harbor off the coast of the Netherlands recovered two woolly mammoth neck bones a few years ago, no one was surprised. But when Galis and her colleagues examined the fossils, which had been donated to Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum, they found something they didn’t expect. Two of the neck bones had a skeletal defect — a joint to hold a rib — that usually accompanies life-threatening deformities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all mammals, from mice to humans and even giraffes, have seven neck bones, or cervical vertebrae, except for \u003ca href=\"http://www.evodevojournal.com/content/2/1/11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">manatees and sloths\u003c/a>, whose slow-paced lifestyle seems to help them survive skeletal abnormalities. That all mammals have seven, no more or less, suggests that variations on the number or form of these bones compromise fitness, meaning that few survive long enough to reproduce. When neck vertebrae sprout ribs as if they were spinal vertebrae, it’s a sign that something disturbed the intricately coordinated development of the fetus. And when one thing goes wrong, chances are other things do too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Signs of Trouble\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Neck ribs themselves don’t typically cause serious problems, but usually arise with other defects that do. When neck ribs occur in humans, \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.weber.edu/rmeyers/Galis-Selection%20against%20homeotic.pdf\">90 percent of the afflicted\u003c/a> die before adulthood. Knowing that the neck bones retrieved from the North Sea came from one of the last local mammoth populations, Galis and her colleagues wondered if this defect hastened their demise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that changes in highly conserved anatomical traits are usually indicators of medical risks,” Galis says. “Variations of the vertebral column can tell us a lot about the vulnerability of populations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/3206888858_c4b6a4b895_b-e1395702408964.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15783\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/3206888858_c4b6a4b895_b-e1395702408964.jpg\" alt=\"Skeleton of a Columbian mammoth at the Utah Museum of Natural History. (Brett Neilson / Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skeleton of a Columbian mammoth at the Utah Museum of Natural History. (Brett Neilson / \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettneilson/3206888858/in/photostream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To see what stories those variations might tell, Galis and her colleagues looked for the developmental defect in other Late Pleistocene mammoth fossils stored at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Lieden, the Netherlands. Then they compared their fossils (just nine were suitable for analysis) to specimens of African elephants and Asian elephants, the mammoth’s closest living relatives. They found that a third of the mammoth neck vertebrae had ribs but just a tiny fraction — 1 out of 29 —of those from the elephants did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the local populations declined, inbreeding was more likely, Galis says. And both inbreeding and famine or other harsh conditions could disturb early pregnancy. “It seems plausible that both caused cervical ribs and vulnerability in mammoths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neck ribs could be a sign of inbreeding, much like the Florida panther’s trademark kinked tail. It’s not the tail that worries biologists, but the associated traits, like undescended testicles and susceptibility to parasites, that threaten the big cat’s ability to reproduce. As mammoth populations dwindled, the appearance of these misplaced ribs may have coincided with other genetic defects that made mammoths more vulnerable to stress — shifting climates, overzealous hunters or factors yet to be uncovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The preliminary evidence from these vertebrae suggests that these animals were stressed by something in their environment,” says Gill. The stress could have come from a change in their diet because of climate change, in their behavior because or hunting or even in who they were reproducing with because of hunting, she explains. Evidence from kill sites shows that early humans were targeting adult males — like trophy hunters do today — rather than the young as carnivores do, compromising females’ chances of reproductive success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study generates some interesting ideas to test, Gill adds, and supports the hypothesis that these animals were very stressed out during the final moments before their extinction. “Whether that’s from environmental stressors or humans or the ‘\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5693/70.full?sid=b8bd569f-901d-4482-9c25-304a1dc6e538\">one-two punch\u003c/a>‘ of climate change plus hunting is where we need to look at other data to complement the fossil evidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Farke, a dinosaur expert who edited the paper (published in the \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">open access journal PeerJ\u003c/a>), allows that the sample size analyzed was small. But he thinks it’s not just coincidence that so many of the fossils had the defect. And though most of the samples were found from dredging rather than rock layers that can be precisely dated, Farke thinks the evidence is compelling enough to inspire others to explore links between fossil anomalies and potential developmental flaws that might contribute to extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really cool to be able to make this connection between something that might be just a curiosity in a museum collection but a little deeper work shows that there might be something going on with it,” he says. He’d also like to see someone examine older fossils to see if the defect disappears further back in time, when the populations were presumably healthier.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Tool for Today\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Though scientists may debate the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis for years to come, there’s no doubt that we’re to blame for the catastrophic decline of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mesaxonia/elephantidae.php\">mammoth’s living cousins\u003c/a>. Poaching of African elephants for the ivory in their tusks remains the number one \u003ca href=\"https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/african_elephant_summit_background_document_2013_en.pdf\">threat to their survival.\u003c/a> An unfathomable 62 percent of African forest elephants were killed between 2002 and 2011, a\u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0059469\"> team of researchers reported\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If neck ribs did portend the beginning of the end for the mammoth, might the same defect start to appear more frequently in elephants under intense hunting pressure? Elephants are keenly intelligent animals that \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-elephants-poaching-empathy-grief-extinction-science/\">grieve for fallen kin\u003c/a> — a stress that may well affect developing young. Assuming that neck ribs do signal genetic or developmental stress, Farke says, using portable x-rays to screen for the defect could be a good way to gauge the health of not just elephants but any at-risk vertebrate population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes more paleontologists will start to study fossils for the developmental pathologies they reveal — not just to understand what happened to the mythic megafauna we lost long ago, but to save those still in our midst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From time to time, the great beasts send us reminders that they once walked the streets of San Francisco, then savannah grasslands, replete with large-mammal menageries now found only in Africa. Just last September, a crane operator at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mammoth-tooth-found-at-Transbay-dig-3861381.php\">Transbay Transit Center\u003c/a> construction site unearthed the tooth of a Columbian mammoth, the species common in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Pleistocene, the large-bodied mammals took the biggest hit. Today, we’re losing species across all classes at an unprecedented rate, and no one disputes that the hand of humans — in climate change and hunting — is driving the crisis. The biggest question now is what we’re going to do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Testing Complete DNA Sequences Yields Only Partial Info but Could Still Save Your Life",
"headTitle": "Testing Complete DNA Sequences Yields Only Partial Info but Could Still Save Your Life | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GenomePerson.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15547\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15547\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GenomePerson.jpg\" alt=\"Reading all of your DNA at once can’t yet find all of your future health risks. But if you get lucky, it just might save your life. (Richard Ricciardi/Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reading all of your DNA at once can’t find all of your future health risks yet. But if you get lucky, it just might save your life. (Richard Ricciardi/\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricricciardi/11622986115/\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For a while now, we have been told that soon we will be able to learn a whole lot about our health risks from studying our complete DNA sequence. Our future health will be read by scientists in the tea leaves that are DNA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618965\">new study\u003c/a> out of Stanford University in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows just how far we are from that brave new world. For around $15,000 or so per patient, these researchers managed to only get a partial read of key health genes and to only catch around half of a certain class of DNA differences in twelve patients. Not only that, but they also struggled to understand what many parts of these DNA reads meant. We are not yet at a point where we can cheaply and easily get and interpret the complete set of instructions for a single person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, it isn’t all doom and gloom. You may not be able to learn everything from your DNA but as one patient in the study found, you can still find things that just might save your life. This kind of thing may make even an imperfect test worth the cost; it certainly was for this one patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Found Gene\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618965\">study\u003c/a>, 12 people had their whole genome sequenced. This means that the scientists tried to get a read on all six billion or so of each person’s A, G, C and T nucleobases in their DNA. For one of the 12 patients, things went as everyone thinks these sorts of things eventually will.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Only an unbiased test could find her broken BRCA1 gene.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The researchers discovered that this woman had a difference in one copy of her BRCA1 gene; that meant she almost certainly had a very high chance of getting breast and/or ovarian cancer later in life. With this knowledge, she took steps to lessen her risk. She had her ovaries removed and will undergo much more frequent mammograms to catch any breast cancer early. This testing may have saved her from an early death from cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But out in the real world, she may never have found out that she had a broken BRCA1 gene. Breast cancer doesn’t run in her family, which means no one would recommend her for one of these tests. She could only find her cancer risk in a test that looked at lots of different genes. Only an unbiased test could find her broken BRCA1 gene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this is just one of the many genes the researchers looked at in one of 12 patients. The results for the other genes and the other patients were not so clear-cut. A surprising number of important genes were not read and an equally surprising number of DNA differences missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Missed DNA\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers first used a company called \u003ca href=\"http://www.illumina.com/\">Illumina Inc.\u003c/a> to do the sequencing. Depending on the patient, anywhere from 5%-34% (median was 10%) of genes known to be involved in disease didn’t get read well enough to draw any conclusions. Doing the same on nine of the patients with a second company, \u003ca href=\"http://www.completegenomics.com/\">Complete Genomics Inc.\u003c/a>, gave similar results. This time 18%-21% (median was 19%) of disease-related genes remained a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15562\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/ReadTeaLeaves.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15562\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15562\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/ReadTeaLeaves.jpg\" alt=\"Reading DNA is still better than reading tea leaves to predict your future health. But we still have a long way to go. (MochaSwirl/Wikimedia Commons)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reading DNA is still better than reading tea leaves to predict your future health. But we still have a long way to go.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is a big deal because the test might miss an important DNA difference that could cause problems for the patient. Imagine that a second patient has a broken BRCA1 gene and the test missed it, or the BRCA1 patient had a different broken gene that caused some other problem. These types of false negative results might give the patients a false sense of security about their health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using two companies also gave the researchers the chance to compare the two results. The two did not line up as well as you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two tests did very well for known, common, disease-causing variants (like those \u003ca href=\"https://www.23andme.com/\">23andMe\u003c/a> could see for a lot less money). These would be like the variant of the hemoglobin gene that can cause sickle cell anemia. The companies agreed on 99% of these. Where they had more trouble was with small insertions or deletions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An insertion is when one or a few letters are put into the DNA and a deletion is when one or a few are removed. This is the kind of thing that can, for example, cause some cases of cystic fibrosis or make people resistant to HIV infection. Here the two companies’ results only matched up between 53% and 59% of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If anything, this is even more troubling than an unread gene. At least with an unread gene, you can tell a patient that you couldn’t read the gene or you could try to reread it. If you miss a disease causing DNA difference, you don’t have any way of knowing whether it was there or not. This leads to even more false negatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Interpreting DNA Is No Picnic\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until now, I have focused on problems in reading the DNA. Figuring out what the DNA means is no easy task either! I don’t have the space to go into it here, but suffice it to say that interpreting DNA is at least as tricky and time consuming as reading it and a whole lot more subjective. We don’t yet have a good handle on what it all means and what to do with it (although we are learning).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Future Still Bright\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is that whole genome sequencing for health risks is not quite up to snuff yet. But that doesn’t mean it’s no better than reading tea leaves for predicting the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Warning: Right now results will be incomplete\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Even in its current form, this sort of test can help patients live healthier lives; it just won’t catch everything. Maybe the results should come with a warning that many health risks will have been missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we wait for the inevitable march of technology to further perfect this sort of test, one way around the technical issues may be to narrow the DNA we choose to read. For now, we could focus on those genes known to be involved in inherited disease and add more genes as they become available. The less DNA to read, the more likely we are to catch every last letter.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GenomePerson.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15547\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15547\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/GenomePerson.jpg\" alt=\"Reading all of your DNA at once can’t yet find all of your future health risks. But if you get lucky, it just might save your life. (Richard Ricciardi/Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reading all of your DNA at once can’t find all of your future health risks yet. But if you get lucky, it just might save your life. (Richard Ricciardi/\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricricciardi/11622986115/\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For a while now, we have been told that soon we will be able to learn a whole lot about our health risks from studying our complete DNA sequence. Our future health will be read by scientists in the tea leaves that are DNA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618965\">new study\u003c/a> out of Stanford University in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows just how far we are from that brave new world. For around $15,000 or so per patient, these researchers managed to only get a partial read of key health genes and to only catch around half of a certain class of DNA differences in twelve patients. Not only that, but they also struggled to understand what many parts of these DNA reads meant. We are not yet at a point where we can cheaply and easily get and interpret the complete set of instructions for a single person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, it isn’t all doom and gloom. You may not be able to learn everything from your DNA but as one patient in the study found, you can still find things that just might save your life. This kind of thing may make even an imperfect test worth the cost; it certainly was for this one patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Found Gene\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618965\">study\u003c/a>, 12 people had their whole genome sequenced. This means that the scientists tried to get a read on all six billion or so of each person’s A, G, C and T nucleobases in their DNA. For one of the 12 patients, things went as everyone thinks these sorts of things eventually will.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Only an unbiased test could find her broken BRCA1 gene.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The researchers discovered that this woman had a difference in one copy of her BRCA1 gene; that meant she almost certainly had a very high chance of getting breast and/or ovarian cancer later in life. With this knowledge, she took steps to lessen her risk. She had her ovaries removed and will undergo much more frequent mammograms to catch any breast cancer early. This testing may have saved her from an early death from cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But out in the real world, she may never have found out that she had a broken BRCA1 gene. Breast cancer doesn’t run in her family, which means no one would recommend her for one of these tests. She could only find her cancer risk in a test that looked at lots of different genes. Only an unbiased test could find her broken BRCA1 gene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this is just one of the many genes the researchers looked at in one of 12 patients. The results for the other genes and the other patients were not so clear-cut. A surprising number of important genes were not read and an equally surprising number of DNA differences missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Missed DNA\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers first used a company called \u003ca href=\"http://www.illumina.com/\">Illumina Inc.\u003c/a> to do the sequencing. Depending on the patient, anywhere from 5%-34% (median was 10%) of genes known to be involved in disease didn’t get read well enough to draw any conclusions. Doing the same on nine of the patients with a second company, \u003ca href=\"http://www.completegenomics.com/\">Complete Genomics Inc.\u003c/a>, gave similar results. This time 18%-21% (median was 19%) of disease-related genes remained a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15562\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/ReadTeaLeaves.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15562\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15562\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/ReadTeaLeaves.jpg\" alt=\"Reading DNA is still better than reading tea leaves to predict your future health. But we still have a long way to go. (MochaSwirl/Wikimedia Commons)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reading DNA is still better than reading tea leaves to predict your future health. But we still have a long way to go.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is a big deal because the test might miss an important DNA difference that could cause problems for the patient. Imagine that a second patient has a broken BRCA1 gene and the test missed it, or the BRCA1 patient had a different broken gene that caused some other problem. These types of false negative results might give the patients a false sense of security about their health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using two companies also gave the researchers the chance to compare the two results. The two did not line up as well as you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two tests did very well for known, common, disease-causing variants (like those \u003ca href=\"https://www.23andme.com/\">23andMe\u003c/a> could see for a lot less money). These would be like the variant of the hemoglobin gene that can cause sickle cell anemia. The companies agreed on 99% of these. Where they had more trouble was with small insertions or deletions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An insertion is when one or a few letters are put into the DNA and a deletion is when one or a few are removed. This is the kind of thing that can, for example, cause some cases of cystic fibrosis or make people resistant to HIV infection. Here the two companies’ results only matched up between 53% and 59% of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If anything, this is even more troubling than an unread gene. At least with an unread gene, you can tell a patient that you couldn’t read the gene or you could try to reread it. If you miss a disease causing DNA difference, you don’t have any way of knowing whether it was there or not. This leads to even more false negatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Interpreting DNA Is No Picnic\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until now, I have focused on problems in reading the DNA. Figuring out what the DNA means is no easy task either! I don’t have the space to go into it here, but suffice it to say that interpreting DNA is at least as tricky and time consuming as reading it and a whole lot more subjective. We don’t yet have a good handle on what it all means and what to do with it (although we are learning).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Future Still Bright\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is that whole genome sequencing for health risks is not quite up to snuff yet. But that doesn’t mean it’s no better than reading tea leaves for predicting the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Warning: Right now results will be incomplete\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Even in its current form, this sort of test can help patients live healthier lives; it just won’t catch everything. Maybe the results should come with a warning that many health risks will have been missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we wait for the inevitable march of technology to further perfect this sort of test, one way around the technical issues may be to narrow the DNA we choose to read. For now, we could focus on those genes known to be involved in inherited disease and add more genes as they become available. The less DNA to read, the more likely we are to catch every last letter.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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