Over and Mis-Stated

This week has turned into the week of media fallacies. Or, if not fallacies then complete overstatements of scientific results. First, there were the bees, and now the berries.

A listener sent me a story from a British newspaper that reported on a scientific study supposedly showing that cellphones are killing bees. This headline has been everywhere, and since so many people were jumping on the bandwagon I felt I should investigate. I found the original paper, and unfortunately it is in German. So, I couldn’t read it, but I did take a look at a translated version and another earlier paper on the same topic from the same resaerch group. This article does a fairly good job of describing the situation.

It turns out that the headlines and stories being being reported by the majority of outlets are completely baseless. The researchers first didn’t use cell phones in the study. They used the base for a handheld household phone. And, they put it in a hive. Second, they didn’t look at bee death. they looked at whether or not the bees returned to their hives. They were interested in the effects of radiation on memory. Third, they didn’t even find a significant result. There was a trend, which indicates that further study might be useful. But, under no means did any aspect of the research out of this group warrant the media attention it has received.

Now, in the case of the berry fiasco, I’ll have to admit some culpability, as my radio show did report on the story. To be honest I hadn’t read the report and Justin took the lead on reporting it. So, I wasn’t paying enough attention, and we managed to tow the party line so to speak. Sorry, busy week.

The berry story was reported as alcohol increasing the antioxdants in berries (i.e. daquiris are good for you). However, even though the study, which looked at the abilities of several volatile compunds to affect decomposition and antioxidant levels, did find that ethanol increased antioxidant levels, ethanol wasn’t the best. A compound called methly jasmonate won out by far.

The study is nicely reviewed by Shirly Batts at Retrospectacle, which has turned into a nice little spectacle itself as a result. Very interesting to take a look at especially if you are interested in fair use copyright laws. Heh. From fruit to copyright in two easy steps. Sounds like a cookbook.

Anyway, the moral of the berry story and the bee stories this week is, “don’t trust the media.” Well, trust them a little, but always be willing and ready to do your own searching if something just doesn’t sit right, or if you think it interesting in some way. The headlines are meant to grab you, and the stories are meant to sell the paper, magazine, etc. The crazier they are, the better to get you to buy, right?

I think it comes down to the media wanting to tell a story. And, stories always have nice endings. But, science doesn’t work that way. Rarely, will a story be the end all be all on a subject. Even your textbooks become outdated over time. So, unfortunately, the disconnect between science and the media will remain until enough people blog and talk about the real stories that scientists are telling. The ones with the messy endings.

World Robot Domination

A listener sent me the link to this video through Pink Tentacle. I love it. The editing is terrific and you really get the ominous nature ofthe robots. The music is japanese noise pop, so if you’re at work watch the speaker volume level.

Thanks, Bill!

It ain’t sound…

… if no one can hear it. Everything is relative, right? So, waves of pressure or compression might roll along at a given frequency, but unless you get those waves to bump up against your eardrum, to you, the observer, there is no sound. They are just waves, rolling along. And, even then, if they don’t fall within the frequency range that your ear is set up to perceive, you won’t hear a thing.

The thing that got me thinking about this is a paper that came out recently postulating that the old model of electrical conduction in nerves might not be correct. The paper hypothesizes that nerves might instead produce “sound waves” that compress the cell membrane of the nerve, and thus cause changes in the membrane itself that produce the voltage change that we measure as the Action Potential. It wasn’t until the end of the paper that they say, ‘oh yeah, we didn’t really mean sound waves at all.’

Huh?

“It should be noted that we use the term sound propogation in a general sense that includes all changes of the thermodynamic variables that accompany a mechanical compression…” Once I started reading the paper, I realized that they weren’t talking about sound as noise persay. But, the use of the terminology did open them up for misunderstandings with the general media. Hence, the headline from Live Science: “Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity”.

Now, there are a couple of things wrong with this headline. First, they aren’t saying that nerves don’t transmit electricity. What the paper does suggest is that the current model doesn’t account for other thermodynamically based observations, and that there might be a mechnical component involved as well. It is possible that the stimulation of ion channels initiates internal changes that create coincident mechanical and electrical forces.

Second, the headline is wrong that this is a new idea, Hodgkin and Huxley, the originators of the currently accepted model of the nerve pulse, suggested that the pulse might be a mechanical wave in 1945. But, the model they came up with didn’t have room for thermodynamic properties. This is just the first time that anyone has succinctly come up with a way to incorporate thermodynamics into the physics of the nerve pulse.

The third thing that bothers me about the headline is the drama that is insinuated. Controversy? Of course there is controversy. This is science. Of course, this model still needs to be rigorously tested before it will become widely accepted within the community, but it does tie the story up nicely.

I think the interesting question now is for the researchers to come up with a link between ion channel activation and the initiation of the soliton (mechanical compression wave) within the axon. Then, what propogates what? Does the soliton produce the electrical pullse, which goes on to stimulate ion channels at the synapse, or does the electrical impulse created by the ion channels produce the soliton? Do the electrical and mechanical pulses depend on one another for propogation down lengthy axons? Just a few interesting questions that have yet to be addressed.

I really love it when situations like this arise… when you think something is known irrefutably, and then evidence appears to suggest that there is an entire world yet to explore beyond what is known. I might be alone in this persspective, but really love the challenge of having to open my world-view a little wider.

Solubility

Happy New Year!!!

Just spinning off of my interview this morning with materials scientist, Dr. Christopher Viney, wherein we briefly brought up the topic of solubility. I had a flash to this song during the interview, but unfortunately couldn’t bring it up at the time… http://www.rathergood.com/soluble/

Yes, rathergood, I agree. Being soluble would make things quite difficult, wouldn’t it?

Just Say No…

… to palm trees.

I never thought that I would actually applaud actions taken in Los Angeles, but here I am with my hands making repeated percussive emanations. LA has decided to outlaw palm trees. Yay!!! and, may all other places where palm trees are not found naturally follow in their footsteps.

I have a personal vendetta against palm trees, especially in places that they don’t belong. They are ugly, provide no shade, are a hassle to maintain, provide shelter for vermin, and are a threat to public health (heavy fronds plummet to earth from on high). While I have accepted palm trees as a part of the southern California cultural paradigm, I have a more difficult time dealing with developers who think they look great up here in the northern part of the state. Who thought it was a good idea to plant pam trees in Union Square in San Francisco?!? Idiots. They cut down perfectly good trees and replaced them in the name of progress with palm trees. Ugh. Leave southern California in the south where it belongs. Er, well, I guess now leave ‘em in Florida.

See? I Have Been Busy…

The lovely people over at memetherapy’s brain parade were nice enough to ask my opinion on a couple of their questions. My answers actually got published:

In a World of Their Own

Mistrust of Science Part One

Thanks, Jose!

Macho Flies

So, I’ll have to admit that I never really thought about what flies are doing when they buzz around my house, sometimes rolling around on the table clasping each other like lovers going down on the Titanic. I guess I just assumed that they were after my food, having sex, or laying eggs somewhere. Never did the idea of territoriality come into my mind. Why would flies be territorial?

Well, it turns out that male fruit flies can be quite territorial, and that this territoriality for resources like food and women is probably genetically determined. Researchers recently assayed the genes of non-aggressive and extremely aggressive fruit flies and found that a gene called Cyp6a20 was highly correlated with aggression. Those flies with mutations in the gene were the most combative in territorial situations created by the scientists. No one knows exactly what the gene does yet, but it is interesting to note possible genetic contenders that might underlie behavior.

Here is a video of fighting flies (I can’t believe I always thought they were having sex!).

Laws for the Lawless

OK. So, here’s an article from MSN that I found interesting. It brings up the fact that our lawmakers are in the process of rewriting the Telecommunications Act to include rules and regs for the internet, which up to this point has been relatively ignored. Mainly the new act will have a lot to do with how much companies, and which companies, can charge us for using bandwidth, taxes for internet commerce, and the freedoms associated with copying information found and bought on the internet. I think that the ideas that our lawmakers and lobbyists are pondering are well worth understanding, as they will eventually affect us all. You are reading this via the internet aren’t you?

Wikipedia has some great information on the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

If you are interested in what the bill/amendment that is being debated actually looks like, I found a link to a pdf on ZD Net, in a very well written article about the Net Neutrality issue that is a significant part of the bill.

Dude… Check it!

MC Hawking Rawks! I LOVE this video (Click on the watch this movie link on the right).

Sorry to those of you who would rather not navigate to a new page. NewGrounds has some code that takes over any embed you try to do, and puts a way too big box in the middle of your page that doesn’t fit right, and looks awful. So, instead of having a nice clean embedded link to the video itself here on my site, you have to navigate elsewhere and click lots of buttons and look at lots of popup ads. Grrr. The video is still great though.

So, It’s Only a Rat

Cool study published in the Journal of Neuroscience… scientists have used a drug that stimulates D3 Dopamine receptors in the brain to produce neurogenesis (that’s new cell BIRTH!) in the substantia nigra of rats with Parkinson’s-like disease. The new cells went on to make functional connections to other areas of the brain and allow the rats to regain abilities that they had lost due to their disease. The study suggests that drugs currently used to treat Parkinson’s in humans could possibly be manipulated to result in a similar effect in humans. If true, it would do away with the need for invasive implantation of embryonic stem cells as a treatment because the drugs would stimulate endogenous stem cells (those lying dormant in the brain) to jump into action. This then would probably reduce patients’ reliance on drugs like L-DOPA, which lose the efficacy over time. The researchers are looking for similar drug effects in other neurodegenerative dieases, like Alzheimers, as well.

It’s exciting to think that one day we may be able to reverse degenerative diseases by simply stimulating the appropriate receptor, and letting the body do the rest of the work naturally.