The Trouble with TED

An awful of of people seem to waking up to the idea that TED talks are not what they're supposed to be. They attract a lot of kooks who can speak well and exude enthusiasm. How many times have you listened to a TED talk in your area of expertise and wondered how the heck that person got on the stage?

TED talks are just big soundbites and soundbites are not good ways to explain complicated, and potentially revolutionary, ideas.

Is WiFi Harmful to Children?

 

There are many things that are harmful to children—poverty and war come to mind. There's also superstition and ignorance.

Believe it or not, there are many parents who think that electromagnetic radiation from WiFi transmitters is harming their children. They want it removed from schools because their children are becoming sick when they are at school.

Steve Thoms at Skeptic North has a post on this issue [Why, Wifi? Why?]. He explains why some people believe stupid things and how they go about defending those beliefs in a scientific society. He also raises questions about the "evidence" of illness caused by WiFi.

Worth reading—especially for the students in my course.

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Next-Generation DNA Sequencing

 
There's a real revolution under way in terms of our ability to collect sequence information. The so-called Next-generation DNA sequencing technology relies on the ability to sequence billions of single DNA molecules simultaneously.

How does it work? I was planning on writing up a blog posting to explain the technology since so many experiments rely on it. I kept putting it off but that turns out to be a good thing 'cause others have explained it much better that I ever could have. Watch this video from Helicos.

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[Hat Tip: ScienceRoll]

Religion Wars: Linux and Mac vs. Rationalism

 
Greg Linux is disappointed that the Confliker virus didn't do more damage on April 1st [Did Conflicker Flop? Yes. Why? Nobody knows].

I wasn't worried because I checked all five of my computers and not one them were infected. If they had been, it was very easy to get rid of the worm. My Linux machine didn't have the worm either.

That doesn't stop Greg from offering this advice ...

Experts expect that the worm is going to re-awaken at some time in the future and possibly actually do something. In the mean time, you may want to get rid of it if is on your system.

If you run Windows, the best way to get rid of the computer is to get a Mac or a Linux computer. There are probably other ways to do this but I don't really care. If you are running Linux, this worm can't directly affect you.

Sheesh, those religious nuts sure can be silly.

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Do We Need Genetic Counselors?

 
The blogs promoting genetic testing usually think that we don't need genetic counselors to interpret the results and advise on what to do. For the most part, they seem happy to leave it up to the individual to decide on a course of action if they discover they have a particular genetic trait. I don't agree. I think this is much more complicated and I'm pretty skeptical about the motives of the private, personal genetics, for-profit, companies.

The Sciphu Weblog has an interesting posting on this issue [Now this is why we need genetic counselors]. It's worth reading.

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Is Your Water Bottle Killing You?

 
CTV News is reporting that Mountain Equipment Co-op is going to stop selling polycarbonate water bottles [Sporting goods chain drops bisphenol A products]. The bottles leach tiny amounts of a compound called bisphenol-A (BPA) and there have been reports out for many years that BPA is dangerous to your health. One of the products that's causing concern is Nalgene® water bottles with the number 7 in a triangle. These bottles are make of a type of polycarbonate called Lexan that contains BPA.

Concern about possible health problems due to BPA have been around for years. As is usually the case whenever the alarm is sounded, the environmentalist/green/healthfood movements will be the first to respond. They have been strongly opposed to plastic water bottles for some time. Their claims about chemical dangers tend to be exaggerated so it's often hard to know who to believe. (But see TheGreenGuide for a reasoned opinion [ The Bisphenol-A Debate: A Suspect Chemical in Plastic Bottles and Cans].)

Bisphenol A resembles steroid hormones such as estrogen and it may interact with estrogen receptors. Some studies have linked it to increased risk for cancer in humans. There's a long list of other possible diseases that are possibly associated with BPA including the usual suspects like autism. Many of these presumed linkages are not credible but there are enough real scientific studies to cause concern.

The Bisphenol A website is maintained by a consortium of chemical companies. They have a clear vested interest in proving that their plastics are safe. The site contains many interesting facts and figures about the controversy including this report just released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) [Exposure of the U.S. Population to Bisphenol A and 4-tertiary-Octylphenol: 2003-2004]. The study shows that 93% of the population has detectable levels of BPA but these levels are far below the concentrations that produce harmful effects in animal studies.

What we need in situations like this is a neutral third party to evaluate the risks. Neither the chemical industry nor the healthfood industry can be trusted.

Along comes the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The Oct. 3, 2007 issue has an article summarizing the results of two recent studies [Expert Panels Weigh Bisphenol-A Risks].

The first study was done by a group of 38 scientists in November 2006.

After reviewing more than 700 studies, the group concluded that the molecular mechanism of BPA action in humans and animals is essentially identical, said Frederick S. vom Saal, PhD, of the Endocrine Disruptors Group at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Additionally, they determined that human and animal cells respond to similar doses of BPA and that the documented responses to very low-dose exposures can be explained by BPA's interaction with estrogen receptors on the cellular membrane.

"It's through these cell membrane receptors that doses below a part per trillion in cell culture can activate changes in cells," vom Saal said. "We're talking about levels of potency that are absolutely equivalent to estradiol."

The BPA doses that have been linked with health problems in animals are actually lower than the levels of free biologically active BPA that have been documented in human blood by a variety of techniques, such as ELISA testing and mass spectrometry, vom Saal said.

"The wide range of adverse effects of low doses of BPA in laboratory animals exposed both during development and in adulthood is a great cause for concern with regard to the potential for similar adverse effects in humans," according to the consensus statement. The statement calls for more research to probe BPA's effects in laboratory animals, wildlife, and humans.

The second study was done last August by a panel of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction.

Although the panel rated the likelihood of human reproductive problems as "minimal" or "negligible," based on existing studies, it did have "some concern" that exposure could have neurological or behavioral effects in pregnant women, fetuses, infants, and children.

One reason for the differences in the groups' conclusions is that the NTP panel chose to exclude studies in which animals were exposed to BPA through injections. Members of the panel noted that most human exposure occurs through ingestion of the substance and that this translates to lower doses because the chemical is metabolized by the liver. But other researchers argue that such studies should have been included and that excluding them overlooks important evidence that exposure to low doses of BPA may lead to morphological and functional changes in the reproductive tracts of animals exposed early in development (Maffini MV et al. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2006;254-255:179-186).

The bottom line is that there is enough concern to warrant trying to cut down on BPA intake. While the evidence suggests that it may be impossible to completely avoid exposure, you can still avoid the most likely sources—including those plastic water bottles.

It's probably time to switch to glass or metal, just to be on the safe side.

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Happy 50th Birthday!

 
50 years ago today we were treated to the continuous "beep-beep" of the first artificial Earth satellite. Sputnik ("traveling companion") was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. [Listen to it here.]

It was an exciting time. I remember the thrill of realizing that the space age had truly begun and like many others I tried, unsuccessfully, to find Sputnik in my telescope.

For some, the launch was a traumatic event for another reason. It signaled to the entire world that the Soviet Union was a technologically advanced country. Many interpreted this to mean that science (not technology) education in the Soviet Union was ahead of that in the West. This was not an unreasonable assumption, as it turns out, but not because of Sputnick.

Some improvements in science education were made and, according to popular belief, our students in the West rapidly caught up with those in other countries, only to fall behind again in the 1980's. The truth is certainly more complicated.

Does anyone know of a reliable study of science education in various countries over the past 50 years? What was the real effect of Sputnik in the short term and in the long term?

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[Photo credit: Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 4, 2007.]

[See Bad Astronomy for more information and links about Sputnik I.