Biology News Too :)

What Happens After a Python Gorges May Help Human Hearts

Lawrence K. Altman

The New York Times

October 27, 2011

            This article discusses the possibility of Pythons helping out human hearts. The findings from these scientists in Colorado may pave the way to developing a way to delay, prevent, treat, or reverse certain hereditary or acquired human diseases. When a Python eats, it devours animals that are as big as it is. During this process, its heart and other organs double in size and its metabolic rate and production of lipids and insulin increase. The organs then reduce down to normal size in a few days and the snake can fast for months without losing muscle mass. The first hypothesis on the cause of this magnification was that new cells were created, but scientists have found this to be false. The python uses hypertrophy, which is enlarging existing cells, through the specific combination of the fatty acids myristic, palmitic, and palmitoleic to double the size of multiple organs during digestion. When this combination was injected into a mouse heart, it surprisingly enlarged it in a good way, causing much excitement in the science world. Enlargement of the human heart can occur  two different ways; it can be caused by high blood pressure or heart attacks, or it can be caused by exercise in well-conditioned athletes. This article explains that we may have another way to fight off diseases with drugs using helpful reptile substances.

            This article is good news, and can potentially impact the world in a very large and beneficial way. If we do develop new medicine using this python technology, many diseases will be eradicated form out society. We will be able to worry less about heart disease because we have preventative measures and treatment available. There are still a lot of questions on how this python substance will affect humans and how beneficial it will be, so this medical advance may be far in the future. Even if this specific experiment with pythons doesn’t work out, it still has given us a lot of new information and has opened many doors for more research.

            I enjoyed reading this article. It was very interesting and got my mind thinking about things. Even though I’m still left with a lot of questions on the effects of this on the human heart, I learned a lot about pythons from this article which was entertaining. This article really caught my eye and I think just about anyone can read it and learn something from it, whether it’s about the human heart, pythons, or the process of hypertrophy.

Biology News :)

In my AP Biology class, we talk about news articles concerning biology a lot. Sometimes they're relatively new, and sometimes they are a couple years old. I thought I'd share a few of them with you and offer some of my views on them :) I'm sorry that I can't directly link you to the article, but I'll give you the information to look it up on your own and a summary of it.

From One Genome, Many Types of Cells. But How?

Nicholas Wade

The New York Times

February 23, 2009

            This article discussed the potential epigenomes present on the advancement of medical technology. Ever since the human genome was decoded in 2003, scientists are focused on the epigenome, which is the second layer of information in proteins that controls access to genes in DNA. The article compares the different types of cells in that body to a play. Each cell uses the same script, the genome, but they are assigned a different part by the epigenome. Each cell knows what part it plays by the chemical modifications it has which act as marks on the lengths of the chromatin. This article discusses the possibilities of epigenomes helping with regenerative medicine and reversing effects of aging and cancer. It says that you can possibly change the function of a cell by inserting chromatin regulators into it and reverting the cell back to an embryonic state.  A chromatin regulator is a protein machine that reads the marks on a chromosome tail and either bundles up parts the DNA so it isn’t used or makes a certain part of DNA more accessible so the cell can specialize in one type of work. Even though it is still very experimental, if you change a cell back to embryonic state, then you can make them into certain cells that might have been lost to disease. You can also create drugs to alter epigenomes to treat a disease. If you take a drug that causes a mutation in the epigenome, you can stop the creation of certain bad cells such as cancer. Many scientists believe that the research on the epigenome should be expanded into a more organized and better funded effort.

            This article is meant to inform the public on what scientists have been up to lately. It gives good news to the public and gives some people hope for possible cures for certain diseases. It explains to normal people how certain processes in our body work and tells us of the prospect of the ability to manipulate those processes to make ourselves healthier. This information is very important to scientists, but not really to the public yet. It states that there is still a lot of research to do so we can expect that it will be a long time until everyday people will be concerned with how our epigenomes are responding to drugs or related things. It is important that this article was written because it gives people an idea of the future, but so far, it isn’t a topic that people should be deeply concerned about or really excited for. The medical advances these scientists are exploring won’t be converted into everyday rituals such as taking vitamins or medications any time soon. 

            I would recommend this article to anyone interested in things such as regenerative medicine. It’s a pretty okay read, but it would probably help to have a bit of background information of epigenomes or just genetics in general before you read this. I don’t have very much knowledge of genetics and so this article was a bit muddy for me, but I was able to get the main idea of it. It is still a little unclear to me what exactly an epigenome is, but I guess this is alright because scientists don’t even know everything about it either and are still researching it. This article was a very interesting and I learned new things about genetics and epigenomes from it.

Toot Toot

So, this week I had to write an essay pretty much saying what an amazing person I am. It's quite hard for me to toot my own horn, as I assume it is for just about anybody else. This is my 250 word essay I wrote for my National Honor Society application:

I believe I have many character traits that would qualify me for the National Honor Society. I posses good leadership skills that benefit me greatly. I am very helpful to my peers in and out of the classroom. If someone doesn’t understand the material we are covering in class, I try my hardest to explain it to them in a way that they will understand. I also try to be very helpful outside of the classroom during dance team and show choir practices as well, while keeping the atmosphere positive and focused. If ever a problem arises, I get involved, contribute my ideas, and try to be as helpful as possible. I like to be inside the action rather than standing off to the side and watching while someone else fixes a problem.

            I also stand up for what I believe in. If I see something that I don’t like, I will say something about it. I believe in respecting others and I am not afraid to stand up for someone in trouble. I also believe in respecting yourself. I look after myself and my friends and stay away from endangering situations. I choose to stay away from people and situations that could compromise my well being and I encourage others to do so as well. I also like to volunteer for causes I believe in such as the Alzheimer’s Association. I agree whole-heartedly with Gandhi’s saying to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

I really had to step out of my box to write this. If it was about anybody else, I would be impressed, but because it is about me, I just laugh. If this was optional rather than required, I know I wouldn't have done it.

 (345 words)