TWiM 29 Letters

Charlotte writes:

At the beginning of Twim #28 Michael articulated his love for math and around minute 12 his desire for "ground truthing" the number of times one touches their face. In response I offer the attached article from a colleague at UCB.

I really admired the candid and humble discussion at the end of the podcast about proper attribution of ideas.

With warm regards (-65 C in Berkeley),

Charlotte

Carol writes:

I don’t know how I dare to email you as you must be really busy but here goes.

My name is Carol and at 51 have just embarked on a teaching course, my brain cells, I possess a few, are overloaded.

My tutor wants me to use innovative (new) technology in my lesson and write a 4,000 word assignment plus portfolio on the use of such technologies.

In the real world, when I teach, often even basic computers or powered points are in short supply; anything fancier than that is NEVER available but as this is for an assignment we must pretend that we do have it.

I teach food safety and thought that a good way of introducing some tech would be to have a microscope in class but really he is talking of interaction, podcasts, phone apps, live chat and possibly video clips.

I don’t need anything too techy as this is not biology A level, just food hygiene, therefore something to do with salmonella would be fantastic.

Are you aware of any links, materials, videos on this subject or any ideas on how I could use a microscope that would immediately be able to send what it sees to a computer?

Think of this as your charity work, helping someone less fortunate than yourself (me)

Many thanks and apologies for my forwardness

Alicia writes:

Hello,

I'm an undergraduate student and am currently working in Montreal on a co-op where we manipulate yeast to create either the best bread strains, booze strains, or biofuel strains. Because of this, I'm always reading up on new articles about biofuel. I was wondering if you had heard about this: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6066/308.short
and what your opinions might be.

Thanks for making the hours fly by on the train and in the lab.

Best,

Alicia

Peter writes:

Dear TWiM Team I came across this New Scientist article on the general disregard for microbial life in conservation and the need for education to counteract negative perceptions of microbial life.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328546.800-lets-protect-earths-unseen-life.html

Your comments please.


Peter.

TWiM 28 Letters

TWiM 27 Letters

TWiM 26 Letters

TWiM 25 Letters

Peter writes:

Dear TWiM team I saw this fascinating paper on how the variety of bacteria populating human skin can influence who mosquitoes chose for their blood meal.
Not really sure if it would be best covered in  TWiM or TWiP as falls within the remit for both podcasts.

Composition of Human Skin Microbiota Affects Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0028991

It appears that mosquitoes tend to avoid people with more diverse microbial communities on their skin as they contain bacteria that produce volatiles that repel mosquitoes.

Presumably once these particular bacteria have been identified then it may be possible to culture them to produce a mosquito repellent, presumably actually growing the culture on your skin would also work as a biological control, though I think it would be rather harder to market given most peoples fear of bacteria.

regards

Jim writes:

Vince,

I just saw this engrossing documentary about lyme disease with a controversy about the existence of a chronic form of lyme disease. The movie might be worth a mention as a listener pick. It's 1 hr 44 mins long and can be seen online at  http://www.hulu.com/watch/268761/under-our-skin.  A web site with resources and trailer also exists as www.underourskin.com.  The movie is several years old.  Do TWIM panel members have any current information about the controversy and is progress towards resolution of what is affecting folks with chronic conditions they attribute to lyme being made?  Unfortunately, as noted at the end of the movie, several key researchers have died, including one who had detected Lyme borreliosis in brain tissue samples from deceased Alzheimer patients. I would have liked to have them join the TWIM panel and discuss current activities.

Jim
Smithfield, VA

Varun writes:

Hello everyone,

First of all, let me congratulate the microbiology crew for bringing up such a fantastic podcast that makes microbiology so much fun. Since Dr. Moselio is very interested in mitochondrion i thought he probably would know the answer for my question. Its known that only mom's DNA is being passed to their progeny. Its also known that as you age there is continuous accumulating damage to mitochondrion thanks to the oxygen species. Now my point is why doesn't the mitochondrion which is from mom derived after a few rounds of replication accumulate damage and pass to the child. That doesn't happen (else we already would have high damage in mitochondrion). I hope my question isn't absurd.

I also would really love to hear an episode or 2 entirely dedicated to what we know of HIV on TWiV (Just like the malaria sequence episodes in TWiP). IF you do please focus on HIV genome controls by TAT.

On episode TWiM#22 there was a great snapshot of microbiology in clinic. I just am interested to know if Dr. Alfred have experiences regarding Burkholderia cases in infants. We just happened to see some in premature infants. If yes please light the area.

Am sorry for too many questions and comments. Once again thank you for the great great educast.

Al Sachetti answers:

To be honest I never heard of Burkholderia so if I've seen a case of it I never made the diagnosis.

I looked it up and it is more an infection of the immune compromised, especially those with cystic fibrosis.  A case in an infant would be particularly unusual from what I can tell.  Seems more of a plant pathogen that also infects livestock and is more of an opportunistic human pathogen.  Just more proof, it's the microbes that rule the planet.

On another note, I ran into a pediatric ER doc from Chicago last week who told me they are seeing one of the worst Respiratory Syncytial Virus seasons ever.  This has been our experience with more cases in the last few months than we have seen in the last 3 years combined. This is in the face of no Influenza infections at all this year.

Might be fun to do a Bench Top to Bedside show with an RSV Virologist and a physician on this one.

Have a great New Year.

Al

TWiM 24 Letters

Jayne writes:

Thanks so much for your podcasts. I find I am a person who learns best audibly and have just jumped into the science, history, medical and EMS blogs, I Listen to a podcast called SMART EM by a pair of ED docs, and they covered the issue of UTI in Peds. They do journal and study reviews and the found that there isn't any basis for the idea that untreated UTI causing kidney damage for Peds. I know, I know, but they took the time to ferret out all the info. Anyway, I am enjoying your podcasts. I don't think going back to school is something I can do, but about once a week I go to a class on virology, parasitology and microbiology. The tuition is great. No student loans. No sleeping in class.

Thanks,

Al Sacchetti answered: Jayne is correct and not correct depending on who you read. This is one of those topics that will continue to be debated as it is mostly "soft" science.

It is all based on retrospective case studies so you really can't design what would be considered a good scientific study to prove it. Such a study would involve not treating a cohort of children with urinary tract infections and following them and a second subset of treated children to determine if one group develops more hypertension than the other. Not an ethical study to perform.

The other confounder is that there are multiple other causes of hypertension that may overwhelm the cases caused by infant UTI's.

For me the take home message will not become clear for another two decades. That is how long it will take for this generation of treated children to grow old enough to really look at the epidemiology of their hypertension. (As an aside, it is one of those issues that really will not change our practices since we will always treat a UTI in a child.)

On a different note. What would you think about doing a TWIV on Hepatitis C with a Hepatitis C Virologist, a Transplant Surgeon, a Hepatologist and possibly a hepatitis C patient? From the Bench to the Bedside type of show.

Take care and continue the great work you do with the all the TW's

Al

Jeff writes:

Hi Guys - I was wondering if you had seen the following article in about the lack of acorns being produced in the Northeast this year. In it they mention that the lack of acorns in the past is associated with crashes in the mouse population, then, the author says: "And because the now-overgrown field mouse population will crash, legions of ticks — some infected with Lyme disease — will be aggressively pursuing new hosts, like humans."

Currently here in Atlanta our oak trees are producing massive quantities of acorns. Every few years oaks will begin producing lots and lots of acorns in a season - a phenomenan thought to saturate their predators and try to increase the odds that ssome of their seedlings will germinate and take root. Is there any way that you could do a show (or part of) on some aspect of this Oak-mouse-tick-Borrelia story? It has the parasites (ecto - tick, endo-Borrelia) angle and it has this beautiful tie in to local ecology. I know it isn't typically what you do on the show, but if you can do some aspect of it that would be great. I am going to use this story in my non-science major introductory biology course next semester for some active learning in the classroom, and being able have my students listen to another TWIP/M/V podcast as preparation for those classroom sessions would be too perfect. Does Dr Gwadz have an expertise on the ecology of lyme disease maybe?

Thank you for the great shows, keep up the great work!

Jeff

Georgia Perimeter College

Here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/nyregion/boom-and-bust-in-acorns-will-affect-many-creatures-including-humans.html

Here is an article in American Scientist which passes for a pretty good review on the subject: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/the-ecology-of-lyme-disease-risk/5

TWiM 23 Letters

TWiM 22 Letters

I'm greatly concerned about the harmful effects of nanotechnology. I'm old, but have grand kids, who already have to live with all kinds of junk in the environment. I guess it's a topic that fits in the virology category, too, since are not nanotech-sized particles in the viroid category? The scope of nanotechnology is so great that it looks like a wave of change, just like plastics, so perhaps it has to become an obvious and terrible hazard, like DDT or an epidemic before better controls will be considered. Just thought I'd ask what your take is on the topic.

I ran across a nice 3-part series from Marcy of 2010, if you want to use it as a springboard, or reference for listeners, although plenty of other discussion is easily found on the web.

Part 1: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/24/amid-nanotechs-dazzling-promise-health-risks-grow/

Part 2: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/24/regulated-or-not-nano-foods-coming-to-a-store-near-you/

Part 3: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/24/obsession-with-nanotech-growth-stymies-regulators/

Jim
Smithfield, VA

Richard writes:

Hi Vincent and hosts,

I have a theory, as to why mitochondria would be involved in programmed cell death. It makes sense that, if they are descended from parasitic bacteria, that mitochondria would have had the ability to kill cells. They may well have needed this in order to spread, from cell to cell.

It makes sense that evolution would adopt something already present, in order to kill cells, rather than inventing something new.

I have no proof, but it does seem reasonable.

Thanks as always, for your interesting group of podcasts.

Regards

Richard