Inbreeding And The Disgusted Expression on Your Face When You Read The Word 'Inbreeding'

WAIT. THERE. RIGHT THERE. 

Hold that face. 

That disgusted grimace has roots in ancient genetics. 

You just received a directive from your DNA. 

A roll of the dice

I'm going to tell you a story about bad genes, but I need to give you a crash course in genetics first. Genetics, like dice, are governed by basic probability.

You have two copies of every gene in every cell of your body: one from Mom, one from Dad. Genes come in different versions, called 'alleles'. It's a bit of a crapshoot- if Mom or Dad have a recessive allele for a gene that has two alleles, they have 50% chance of sticking you with it. If both of them give you the recessive allele, your cells have no choice but to start up their little engines and start pumping out proteins based off of the blueprints of that shitty version.

Unlike normal proteins, proteins based on recessive alleles will defy regular cell signals and perpetrate all kinds of rudeness. The parts of the body that use these proteins are negatively affected, sometimes in very serious ways. 

The thing is- your sisters and brothers are also likely to get a copy of the bad version of the gene, and any babies you have with them will have a higher likelihood of exposing an 'inbred' trait. For a glimpse of how this can turn out, check out my post on the ugliest dog in the world, Sam, who is horribly inbred.

Luckily, the infinite sandpaper of evolution has scrubbed away all parts of your brain that are attracted to your siblings. 

DNA directives

Excluding the various sad sacks on Maury and Jerry Springer, most animals have gotten better and better at figuring out who their relatives are so they can avoid them when it comes time to breed.

For example, humans have evolved the use of olfactory clues (smells) to identify potential mates, and this includes using smells to determine which mates might be your relatives. There is also strong sociological evidence that children who grow up in close proximity display sexual aversion to one another, even if they're not related.

So get over it. I know it's gross, but inbreeding avoidance (that "BLECH" face) is just an indication that your DNA is working. Our ancient genetic script is looking out for us, whether we know it or not. 

Who Built the Food Pyramids?

TL;DR: the traditional food pyramid is wrong and places too much emphasis on foods like milk and grains. Although the revised one I've linked here is supposedly science-based and unaffected by business interests, it comes from Harvard, which, despite what you might think, isn't a bastion of objectivity. You need to determine what is best for you, and then construct your own food pyramid or food gazebo or pagoda or whatever.

Food is the common denominator

Nutrition is important, in part because it is the only thing that created your life and continues to drive you forward in every second of every day.

Okay, okay- dramatic. But hear me out: I used to have this notion of an innate spark of human activity, one that simply needs the right dietary conditions to prosper. However, it's not some spark of life that drives every thought and twitch and glare and snuggle and puke that happen in your every day life: it's the food you put into your body.

Think about it: great that your parents locked lips and took the baby plunge. After that divine juncture, the only thing supporting your existence has been food. Food is just a variety of chemicals that you, a large bag of molecules, break down to build more molecules.

People, especially freakishly athletic people, love thinking of their bodies as machines. The problem is that machines run on a single fuel, while humans run on water, sugars, proteins, vitamins, and taquitos from 7-11, ideally consumed at 5:30am to maximize nutritional impact (science). You may think it's complex and excessive to have Vitamins A/B/C/D/E/K, Calcium, Omega 3-6-9, etc.., but this list of 30-odd chemicals enables your little train engine to 'choo-choo' through life!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for milk products!

Switching tracks: here is the first North American Food Pyramid, published in 1992 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Notice that an entire section of this diagram is derived from a single animal, ergo a single industry: dairy cows. This is a great example of how money can override health science- the suggested daily intake of 2-3 servings of milk/cheese/yoghurt directly translates to (approximately) a pazillion dollars per day for the dairy industry.

Before the Egyptians realized that the USDA owed them eleventy billion dollars in pyramid royalties, the US federal government commissioned a 'Healthy Eating Plate' from Harvard, published in 2011. Notice the caveat to 'limit dairy'. You just know several bloated Wisconsonian dairy magnates lost their MARBLES when they decided to re-write that one:

The bottom line is: things change, and they will continue to change. Realistically, this new 'food pyramid' is still the result of industry influence- it doesn't even address the nutritional viability of pursuing pescetarianism, vegetarianism, veganism, or that thing where people think they can live off of sunlight. Just remember that if you follow an organized regimen that includes a variety of fruits and veggies and some healthy protein, you satisfy all of your dietary needs. Interestingly, there is strong evidence to suggest that if you eat fruit and vegetables regularly, it's healthier to NOT take vitamins.

Everyone is completely unique. Do some research, and go talk to a nutritionist. Food is really important.

The Best PowerPoint Presentation I've Ever Seen

On October 8th, Science Online Vancouver offered a workshop on how to improve presentation skills. Science Online Vancouver (@sciovan) is a group of science communication advocates, researchers, students and other scientists who convene online (and in pubs) to discuss science relations and communications. We also discuss fun and excessively nerdy things, like the molar mass of moles.

source: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/

The group met at Science World for a brief and engaging talk given by Martin Krzywinski (@MKrzywinski). Martin is a Bioinformatics Group Leader and research scientist at the BC Genome Sciences Centre, located near Cambie and Broadway.

Martin integrates genomics data into stunning visual design projects. His data-representation design work has been featured on the covers of Nature and Science, as well as in a full-page infographic in the New York Times. Martin's words were succinct, and his delivery was flawless. Here's a quick review of his presentation on presentations:

Your audience is intelligent, but easily bored

When a presentation gets boring, people usually start playing Fruit Ninja on their phones. Martin had no such issue with his audience. The usual mix of researchers, communicators and keener students (guilty), listened with rapt attention throughout the 90 minute presentation. Martin began by having us watch that highly entertaining collection of video dating tapes from the 80s. The video may seem frivolous, but it helped us realize that we all innately understand what makes an engaging presentation and what pitfalls look like in a bad presentation. 

For brevity, I'm going to break one of Martin's cardinal rules and 'rely on the slides' to highlight some of the useful tips he presented:

Remember: intelligent, but easily bored

Ascetic but information-rich design; I understood instantly what this slide meant

The focal location affects the audience's interpretation

Empty space is more valuable than visually dense blocks of information

"Write with your blood"

Martin had a well thought-out repertoire of simple ideas with important ramifications. For instance: he used a small visual cue as a springboard into an explanation or discussion instead of relying on large banks of text. In his words: "Write with your blood: use it sparingly". All of his speaking points seemed to be common sense, but many are egregiously ignored by many PowerPointers. 

Topic, Narrative, Delivery 

After discussing presentation design, Martin had us break into groups for a slide-design project. We had 15 minutes to choose something from the Wikipedia entry for 'Canada' and create a narrative about it in just two hand-drawn slides. My group chose 'multiculturalism'. Stories are very natural elements in the lives of humans, and we are accustomed to the formula: dilemma, climax, and resolution. We delivered a great presentation because we had been tasked with telling a story, not assembling slides.

Great presentations grip audience members- everyone loves a good story.

Fin

I can't expansively describe his presentation with any justice, for several reasons. I was too struck by the simplicity and resonance of his ideas to write much down. Martin didn't proffer a theatrical performance, or yell or use bombastic words- he delivered an engaging (and unrehearsed, as it turns out) workshop that relied more on basic ideas than stylistics or vivid slide design. 

Additionally, readers can't really get a feel for the presentation because it didn't happen on this blog. Like any good presentation, it had very little to do with the slides you see above and much more with to do with Martin's preparation, speaking points and charisma. 

It was one hell of a slideshow- you'll just have to come see for yourself next time. 

For more information on Martin and his genomics, visual design and photography pursuits, as well as the complete collection of slides he presented, click here

Check out Science Online Vancouver's blog here, where you can find our next meetup and information about our online activities. Follow us on Twitter here, and 'like' your way on over to the Facebook page here

The Interstellar Postcard: Voyager's Golden Record

In the fall of 1977, the unmanned probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched from Cape Canaveral. The twin spaceships carried copies of the Voyager Golden Record: a gold-plated copper phonograph record and stylus. These records contain the culmination of our knowledge about ourselves, and our planet. 

Side A

"Play me!" : the binary code along the outside indicates the record should be played at 0.27 rpm

"Our 'hood": This is a pulsar map of our galaxy. Pulsating stars, or pulsars, blast constant beams of radiation while they rotate, sort of like a lighthouse that shoots X-rays. This map shows our exact location in both space AND  time, using binary code that describes the frequency and characteristics of these beams. It's SO much information crammed into a simple, rich design. 

"Our chemistry": This figure shows the lowest energy state of a hydrogen atom, along with some information on quantum spin. The line between the two states indicates the transition time is used as a universal constant. 

"Attention: Use VCR": These diagrams instruct our interstellar recipient on how to view the video portion of the recording. Binary is used to indicate the waveform of the transmission and other information. The circle is the first image seen, if the scan is successful. It also has colour: a red image is followed by a blue one, followed by a green. A spectrum of the sun is also provided, to show how we interpret colours.

Finally, the record case features an ultra-pure sample of Uranium-238, which has a half-life of 4.468 billion years. This provides a chronological scale, against which all of the molecules of the spacecraft could be measured. Otherwise, aliens might find it in a trillion billion zillion years and be like ''when did THIS happen''.

Side B

Pictures: 

the Earth (duh)
DNA
a supermarket
crocodiles
a demonstration of licking, eating and drinking,
Toronto's Pearson airport

Sounds:

"Greetings!" in 55 languages
volcanic eruption
frogs
heartbeats, laughter
a wild dog, a domesticated dog

Bach, Chopin, a Peruvian wedding song, a Pygmy girls' initiation song

(full list)

Now, we wait

I find this incredibly exhilarating, and a little bit scary. We sent out this little package, humbly offering up a distilled glimpse at the essence of our planet. 

We don't know how advanced the receiver is. Maybe there is more advanced sentient life out there, and they've decided to refrain from interfering with us. Maybe they watched as the records were prepared and cast.

Two weeks ago, Voyager 1 reached the edge of the Milky Way and entered interstellar space. It is the furthest thing from Earth, ever. It will eventually fall into an infinite orbit around our galaxy, and whoever it is would have to be smart enough to get into space and grab it, which is no easy feat. 

Our hearts are on our sleeves, wrapped up in a little bundle streaking away from Earth at a THOUSAND KILOMETRES PER SECOND. 

Who's going to pick it up?

7 Terrifying Photos Of Nuclear Fuel Rod Pools

When a nuclear fuel rod has been exhausted, it's sent to chill out in a pool for a few years. It's still horrifically radioactive, and it needs to cool down before we stuff it into a giant concrete cask to be stored for the rest of conceivable existence.

This is what nightmares are made of:

Because radiation loses half of its intensity every 7 centimetres underwater, it actually only takes about 8 feet of pool to keep the radiation under wraps. The extra water at the top acts as a safety buffer. However, within an arms-length of the bottom, the radiation is lethal.

Imagine hearing a Geiger counter's crackly protests as you slowly descend, the water getting hotter and hotter. A burning sensation starting on your skin as the beta-particles chew through your DNA with carcinogenic fury. Nausea and migraines pummeling your body as you alight on the bottom of the pool, your ability to produce viable children immediately compromised.

Don't worry, it wouldn't last long.

Keep treading water, you guys.

Fecal Transplants: Please Give a Sh*t

I consider myself an Adonis-/Chris Traeger-type because I don't need to go end up going to the doctor very often. I buff my immune system by exercising, meditating and occasionally eating things off of the floor.

However, many people DO go to the doctor, and 4/5 of Canadians will end up on antibiotics at some point in 2013. Doctors prescribe antibiotics with the knowledge that your own personal cohort of germy hangers-on outnumbers the 'bad' bacteria that are making you ill.

Due to their strength, antibiotics may kill off your good bacteria as well. When this happens, there's nothing stopping seriously bad bacteria from flooding your guts and setting up shop (for a refresher on guts, click no further; also read bacteria vs. viruses). Ironically, you're highly likely to contract these horrible organisms from the sparkling bastion of cleanliness that is your local hospital.

Once established, bugs like C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) thwart the return of your good bacteria. This lets the baddies launch a bowel takeover that can punch holes in your intestines and bloat up your butt-tube into what's called a 'toxic megacolon'. Up to 15,000 patients die every year from hospital-contracted C. difficile.

Who ya gonna call

If you get C. difficile, you're going to reach over with your immuno-compromised hand to pick up the phone and personally thank Dr. Ben Eiseman, former VP of the American College of Surgeons and founder of the fecal transplant.

 In 1958, Eiseman took a diluted sample of donor poo and pumped it into a colitis patient. Nowadays, they use a colonoscope (don't ask) or a nasoduodenal tube (REALLY don't ask). The good bacteria re-colonize the comprimised digestive tract, giving C. difficle the boot and allowing food to be digested once again. A study reported fecal bacteriotherapy works 94% of the time, and it's much cheaper than antibiotics.

What did we learn

Your body is a giant petri dish that hosts a raucous and volatile bacterial feeding frenzy. I'm going to go shower 17 times.

5 Theories On The Fabric of Reality

It's a big diagram: here's the link to open in a new tab

Guts!

These doctors and I suspect that you may not be taking your guts seriously. Guys, our guts are very important. Within your body lies an oxygen-less (an-oxic), alien world that contains ten times more citizens than you have cells in your body. These bacteria, yeasts, and fungi control the breakdown and processing of ALL of your food, an arrangement that's more akin to 'perpetually raging garbage-fire' than 'regulated digestive system'. 

As a newborn baby, you a have sparkling clean, sterile digestive tract. In the hours after birth, your system is ruthlessly colonized by bugs searching for the land of opportunity. Pioneering bacteria and fungi come from Mom, nurses and the air around you.

Jamie Lee, infuriated by constant irregularities, Botoxed her guts into submission

It's not as if you eat a container of yogurt and the composition of your gut-critters radically changes- you slowly add reinforcements to a growing population of "good" bacteria, yeasts and fungi. These guys live in fruit and veggies, honey and fermented foods like sauerkraut and miso. Good bugs steal intestine wall real-estate from bad ones. The presence of good bacteria and other flora can reduce allergy sensitivity and cushion the blow from any food poisoning or toxic foods. It's a symbiotic relationship that has prevailed despite millions of years of evolution, and continues every day in your guts.

Some bugs help break down molecules that you're unable to process, and others poop out vitamins that you need to live. Metabolism within metabolism- pretty meta right? The thing is, you need variety! So stop washing your produce, extend that 5-second rule to a 10-second rule, and kiss a stranger in the street. Bacteria are constantly invading and growing in your bod, so you'd better start taking care of them. 

Algae: Sea Lettuce or Green Scourge?

Algae are uni- and multicellular little plants that grow in water. Many are edible, and have a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. They fill many other humble roles, like filtering fertilizer run-offs and solidifying Jell-O for us.

But would you swim in a thick, vibrant carpet of algae?

These blooms are most often caused by industrial and agricultural run-off, and they starve and suffocate the ocean life beneath them. They are an ecological disaster, and, in my opinion, incredibly gross.

Eye on Science: Nutritional Yeast

Nooch

Nutritional yeast is dry, flaked cultures of yeast that have a nutty/cheesy flavour. It's an excellent source of minerals, vitamins and protein. 

Healthy

Nooch is UNDISPUTABLY healthy. I say this because I scoured the library, several research databases and two full pages of Google results and couldn't find anything but moms ranting about nooch being connected to autism. I overheard a friend talking about inflammation caused by nutritional yeast, and before I blinded her with science I thought I should check it out. Nooch, being dry flaky dead yeast, won't increase the levels of yeast in your guts and will help you get enough protein, Vitamin B12, chromium, selenium etc. ENJOY GUYS.

Why You Aren't Against GMOs

Humans have been genetically modifying organisms for centuries. Look at the modification of dog 'species': every single type of dog was modified from the Gray wolf. This was not evolution. This isn't 'natural'. It's genetic modification.

Of course, many of you are saying: "Listen, idiot, we're against organisms that have had their genomes directly altered . Especially by companies that destroy ecosystems, poison communities and own the American Senate (and Congress)."

There is plenty of evidence that the genetic modification we're doing today is dangerous. Troubling results in animal studies and a lack of human-based research mean that we have almost no clear results and no assurance whatsoever of safety.

But you still aren't against GMOs, and I want to tell you why.

What? Are you f*cking crazy? 

World population, pre-agriculture to now

Starvation causes half of all deaths in children across the world. As the global population grows, the agricultural system that feeds it will struggle to keep up. We can bulldoze country-sized swaths of rainforests to make arable land, or we can improve the yield of crops.

In the coming year, 670 000+ children under 5 years old will develop permanent blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency, and half of these children will be dead by 2015. A variety of genetically-engineered Vitamin A-rich rice called Golden Rice, created by a Swiss-German research team in 2005 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offers us the opportunity to effectively combat blindness and death by increasing Vitamin A intake. 

We can grow more food, and make the food healthier, but we need to do the proper research first. This can only happen if we are pro-GMO.

The problem

We get to ask "What will we eat today?", while the rest of the world has to ask "Will we eat today?". 

Ask the families suffering from blindness if they care that they might develop leukemia in 10 years due to inadequate research into genetic modification. Death by starvation is guaranteed for BILLIONS of people in the coming decades if they don't get access to food.

GMOs have the potential to save an astronomically huge number of lives. Our government's lack of emphasis on food and genetic research means that large companies do the research for us. Until we're willing to pick up our pens and tell our elected representatives that we want more public science funding, GMO development lies in the hands of monolithic, soulless agricultural companies and the spineless mouth-breathers in our government that serve them.

TLDR: Bill Gates is behind GMOs, and you should be too. 

Phosphenes: Eye-worms or Psychedelic Transmissions?

Phosphenes are the arcs and splashes of light that you see when you rub your eyes really hard:

They are caused by mechanical and electromagnetic stimulation of retinal cells, which normally only respond to light stimulus. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first to document phosphenes, which he did by inserting a blunt-ended sewing needle between his eye and his eye socket and jiggling it around until he saw dark and light circles form.

Diary entry, 06/11/1665: Today, I discovered that if you stick
 a needle into your eye socket at precisely 90 degrees, it is incredibly painful

It's possible that rubbing your eyes hadn't been invented yet, or that "sticking things into your eyeballs" held brief popularity before "the scientific method". Newton's dedication to scientific discovery is laudable, but ill-advised.

Why?

Pressure- and magnetically-stimulated retina cells transmit arcs of 'colour' that we can't accurately describe with images or pictures, obviously because pictures and images are conjured in our brains using light. Less well-understood causes of phosphenes are:

- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- Cosmic radiation: certain types of radiation cause astronauts to experience phosphenes
- Prisoner's cinema: When the eyes are deprived of light for extended periods of time (ie: prison), phosphenes begin to play across the field of vision as your brain grasps for stimuli.

Try at home

Rubbing your eyeballs isn't great for your eyesight, but give it a shot some time and see what all the fuss is about. DON'T USE A NEEDLE.

Want to read more about impulsive scientists who needlessly sacrificed themselves for science? 

• http://www.neatorama.com/2012/06/05/the-top-ten-strangest-self-experiments-ever/

TLDR: your eyes are little sacs of jelly and putting pressure on them is bad and causes phosphenes

De-extinctathon

We're pretty good at science

I know, I know- scientists probably declared the Earth flat and immediately said: “We are the BEST at science”. Many scientists were and continue to be idiots, so boasting genuine progress seems hubristic.

But science operates differently these days. We are vastly more capable of identifying the variables in experiments. We've created synthetic cells. We understand how your tiny mono-cellular existence metabolizes and expands into sentient trillion-celled life. These discoveries generate new techniques, and one of these is the de-extinction of animals.

"You can't clone from stone"

My mind conjures woolly mammoths lumbering around the icecaps or sabretooth tigers stalking Pomeranians in the suburbs, but this isn’t likely.We would need new-ish, intact DNA for those animals. So far, all we've done is the Pyrenean Ibex. It was hunted to extinction, only to be resurrected 10 years later- not exactly pre-historic. 

I can haz Pomburgers

Drugs + Bugs

Imagine the potential for other organisms, though: new plant compounds, for new drug therapies. New fruits and veggies. A new insect when our agro-assault on nature succeeds in trashing pollination systems. Replacement critters, to fill the void left by the Pomeranians. God knows what we could drudge up. Although it's fun to think about reproducing Velociraptors (ie: to hunt down the Cartel) or Brontosaurii (ie: for burgers), there are more beneficial applications of these efforts.

Tasmanian tiger

Quagga

Is it ethical for companies to revive plants for their compounds, or sabretooth tigers for their anti-Pomeranian capabilities? Shouldn't money be spent on saving species, instead of letting every SINGLE one of them die and then resurrecting them? Will God, looking down on our flat, circular earth, be angered by our blatant rearrangement of natural order? AND WHAT IS JEFF GOLDBLUM DOING ABOUT ALL OF THIS.

TLDR:99% of the species that have existed on Earth are gone, but maybe not for much longer.