PLoS In the News

August 2007

"Scientists must fight Internet AIDS denialism"
SciDev.Net, August 24, 2007-09-17

EXCERPT - The impact of the AIDS denial movement — which refuses to accept that HIV is the cause of AIDS — is a ripe area for research because of its potentially lethal consequences, argue Tara C. Smith and Steven P. Novella in this PLoS Medicine article.

Many doctors and researchers are unaware of the existence of organised denial groups or ignore them as an inconsequential fringe, they say. This helps erroneous beliefs to spread unchallenged, particularly on the Internet, which is an effective tool for targeting young people and high-risk groups.

Scientists want to convey the gravity of the situation and motivate HIV-positive people to seek treatment, they argue, but oversimplifying the science for the public is dangerous because it lends itself to exploitation by the deniers. Read the original research article in PLoS Medicine

"'HIV denial' is costing lives"
New Scientist, August 22, 2007

EXCERPT – According to a new analysis, HIV denial is remarkably similar to other anti-scientific ideologies such as creationism, anti-vaccine movements and even Holocaust denial.

For example, HIV denialists claim that the idea that HIV causes AIDS is backed by an orthodoxy, or conspiracy, that makes money selling HIV drugs; that science is based on faith, rather than evidence, and that their ideas are on the verge of acceptance. They point to gaps in the science, back-pedalling as those gaps fill up. The study calls for scientists to fight back. Read the original research article in PLoS Medicine

"HIV 'denialists' spreading misinformation online"
CTV, August 22, 2007

EXCERPT - Those who believe the false information spread by HIV denialists could end up putting themselves at risk of HIV infection (e.g. by abandoning safe sex), note Smith and Novella. What's more, those who are already infected could end up seeking unproven, ineffective remedies.

"We must all strive to do our part to make science accessible to the general public, and to explain the process by which scientific evidence is gathered, analyzed, and eventually accepted, and academic institutions should provide greater incentive for their researchers to expend the time and effort to do so. A solid understanding of the scientific method may not eliminate science denial, but it may act as a buffer against the further spread of such denialist beliefs." Read the original research article in PLoS Medicine

"Shrinking Coral"
Science Friday, August 16, 2007

EXCERPT - Seventy-five percent of all reef-building corals live in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, which spans roughly from west Indonesia to the Hawaiian Islands, and includes the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia. A recent study in PLoS ONE found that the coral cover in the Indo-Pacific, which includes some of the most-intensely managed and protected coral reefs, has dropped by more than twenty percent in the last few dades.

John Bruno and Elizabeth Selig, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, analyzed thousands of surveys tracking the changes in living coral on the sea floor.

"It's a really key indicator of reef health because the corals are essential for all the other inhabitants of reefs—the fish and invertebrates. They rely on corals just the way birds and insects rely on trees in a forest," says Bruno, a marine ecologist in the department of marine sciences. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE

"Reefs Dying Faster Than Thought"
Time, August 7, 2007

EXCERPT – The study, which examined 6,000 surveys of more than 2,600 Indo-Pacific coral reefs done between 1968 and 2004, found the declines began earlier than previously estimated and mirror global trends. The United Nations has found close to a third of the world's corals have disappeared, and 60 percent are expected to be lost by 2030.

The Indo-Pacific contains 75 percent of the world's coral reefs and provides a home for a wide range of marine plants and animals. They provide shelter for island communities and are key source of income, mostly from the benefits of fishing and tourism.

"Indo-Pacific reefs have played an important economic and cultural role in the region for hundreds of years and their continued decline could mean the loss of millions of dollars in fisheries and tourism," Selig said in a statement. "It's like when everything in the forest is gone except for little twigs." Read the original research article in PLoS ONE

"Coral Reefs Vanishing Faster Than Rain Forests"
National Geographic, August 7, 2007

EXCERPT – Another problem is public perception of the oceans. "Most people don't dive," Selig said, "and when they see beautiful blue tropical waters, they assume that everything is probably all right."

Selig refers to this as the problem of "blue water." "It's so hard to persuade people to care when everything still looks so lovely from the surface."

Nancy Knowlton, a marine biology professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, said research is a wake-up call. It also shows that the situation for coral reefs is extremely serious in the Indo-Pacific, and not just the Caribbean, she said.

Scientists have extensively documented the destruction of reefs in the Caribbean, which have suffered heavily for decades from human impacts and devastating coral diseases. "It was assumed that the Caribbean was the worst case scenario," said Knowlton, who was not involved in the study. "But ignorance is not bliss." Read the original research article in PLoS ONE

"Swifter Decline for Coral Reefs"
BBC News, August 8, 2007

EXCERPT – Dr Bruno and Ms Selig argue that the consistent pattern of decline across the study region adds to mounting evidence that coral loss is a global phenomenon. This is probably due to large-scale processes such as climate change, they say.

This is likely to have a major impact on many island communities, which rely on the reefs for fisheries and tourism.

"The actions of people in Iowa, for example, have a big effect on people in small islands and throughout this whole Indo-Pacific region. It affects their livelihoods dramatically," Dr Bruno told the BBC. "When corals died, there were some studies which showed how quickly the dive shops and the hotels closed down."

The UN says that a third of the world's coral reefs have already died. By 2030, that figure is predicted to be closer to 60%. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE

"Coral Reefs are Vanishing Faster than Rainforests"
New Scientist, August 8, 2007

EXCERPT – In 2004, research led by Andrew Baker of Columbia University in New York, US, suggested that coral reefs might adapt to live in warmer oceans (see Corals adapt to cope with global warming).

Bruno says some reefs in their survey were recovering from previous damage – sometimes thanks to effective protection, sometimes independently of human intervention. But overall the reefs do not appear to be adapting fast enough to stem their decline.

Baker believes more research is needed to explore whether anything can be done to boost corals' natural ability to adapt to change. "This might include attempts to inoculate the largest and oldest colonies on reefs with heat-tolerant symbiotic algae that might help them survive bleaching events," he says. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE

July 2007

"Nine-Inch Robot Walks Like a Man, Climbs Hills Too"
The New York Times, July 17, 2007

EXCERPT – The 9-inch-high machine, called RunBot, has already been shown to be able walk at a good clip (about 3.5 leg lengths per second, compared with a sprinter's 4 to 5 per second).

RunBot can do things like adapt to terrain with bumps and depressions, and adjust its gait and posture to walk up an 8-degree slope. When walking uphill it's not immune to falling on its backside, but unlike other robots it learns after a couple of falls. Read the original article in PLoS Computational Biology

"Walking robot learns how to scale hills"
Telegraph.co.uk, July 13, 2007

EXCERPT – On its first attempt to walk up an incline, the RunBot will topple back on to its metallic backside.

However, the same as a toddler, it can learn from its mistakes until, after a few attempts, it is able to clamber up a hill with ease. RunBot already holds the world record in speed walking, managing three strides per second.

Now its inventors have expanded its repertoire so that it can learn how to tackle inclines of up to 15 degrees. Read the original article in PLoS Computational Biology

"One small step for man, one giant leap for robots as machine takes first steps"
Daily Mail, July 13, 2007

EXCERPT – On its first two or three attempts at climbing up a ramp, the machine which consists of a pair of legs and a trunk, lost balance and toppled backwards.

But it quickly learnt to correct itself and stay upright by taking shorter steps and leaning forwards.

"This study shows that the tight coupling of physical with neuronal control, guided by sensory feedback from the walking pattern itself ... may be a way forward to better understand and solve co-ordination problems in other complex motor tasks."

RunBot brought "the goal of fully dynamic and adaptive biped walking in artificial agents a little bit closer," the scientists added. Read the original article in PLoS Computational Biology

"Robot unravels mystery of walking"
BBC, July 12, 2007

EXCERPT – As the robot takes each step, control circuits ensure that the joints are not overstretched and that the next step begins.

But if the robot encounters an obstacle, or a dramatic change in the terrain, such as a slope, then the higher level functions of the robot - the learning circuitries - are used.

"When RunBot first encounters a slope these low level control circuits 'believe' they can continue to walk up the slope without having to change anything. "

"But this is misguided and as a consequence the machine falls backwards. This triggers the other sensors and the highest loop we have built into RunBot - the learning circuitry - and from that experience of falling the machine knows that something needs to be changed."

The key lesson from the study, he said, was that the nested loop design first proposed by Bernstein more than 70 years ago "worked and was efficient". Read the original article in PLoS Computational Biology

"Animal-like 'instinct' keeps robot marching"
NewScientist, July 12, 2007

EXCERPT – If the robot becomes unbalanced, an infrared sensor causes another computer to override the local circuits and force them to learn through trial and error how to move over the new terrain.

This approach is computationally simple and fast in contrast to the approach many other robots take to walking. Honda's Asimo, for example, has to continually analyse and assess the movement of all of its joints and sensors to calculate its next step – requiring massive computing power.

Hierarchical control is thought to explain how humans and other animals move across different surfaces with relative ease. Read the original article in PLoS Computational Biology

June 2007

"A Recipe for Spider Silk, but Who Will Spin it?"
Science Friday, NPR, June 14, 2007

EXCERPT – The recipe for black widow dragline silk is surprisingly simple–there are only two ingredients, according to a new paper in PLoS ONE. Dragline silk is made of two proteins, called MaSp1 and MaSp2. And for the first time, researchers have sequenced the spider genes that are responsible for making the dragline proteins.

Dragline silk is "half the strength of something like steel, but silk is much more elastic," says Nadia Ayoub, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at the University of California – Riverside and the first-author of the paper. Because of the elasticity, she adds, "it's actually tougher than steel or Kevlar."

Although pieces of spider-silk genes have been sequenced, knowing the full code means that Ayoub and her colleagues, Jessica Garb, Robin Tinghitella, Matthew Collin, and Cheryl Hayashi all of UC Riverside, now can recreate the full proteins, and presumably the silk itself. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

"Spider silk's 'DNA breakthrough'"
BBC News, June 13, 2007

EXCERPT – The university's Dr Nadia Ayoub says the commercial applications could be widespread - from stitching for surgery to ultra-strong cabling.

"There's a lot of interest in using silk for something like micro-sutures because it's incredibly strong for how small it is. Actually, all the things that the Spiderman does with silk, if you could make an artificial fibre that was that big you could do all of those things. You could hang from walls," Dr Ayoub says.

Other commercial applications cited by the researchers included high-tech athletic clothing. They are now trying to synthesise the protein that makes up the silk in large enough quantities to make commercial production a possibility. The biologists are using tomato plants into which they are injecting genetic material in the hope that the tomato seed will yield this spider-silk constituent. The university is also trying to get a patent on their discovery. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

May 2007

"Colored fungi soak up the rays"
Reuters, May 22, 2007

EXCERPT – Dark-colored fungi devour radiation and convert it to fuel, researchers said on Tuesday in a study that may offer applications from more efficient solar cells to feeding astronauts in space.

The study may also explain why it feels so good to soak up the sun on the beach, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.

The fungi use the same compound as people do -- melanin, the pigment that makes both skin and truffles dark. "Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum -- ionizing radiation -- to benefit the fungi containing it," Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York said in a statement.

"It's pure speculation but not outside the realm of possibility that melanin could be providing energy to skin cells," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of microbiology and immunology at Einstein. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

"Radiation-loving fungi: the perfect space food?"
New Scientist, May 23, 2007

EXCERPT – Casadevall thinks that fungi may be able to live in seemingly inhospitable places, so long as there is some radiation. Such radiation-loving fungi could serve as a source of food for astronauts living in space for long periods, the team speculates. "Fungi do very well in dark, damp places, and you could imagine that space is totally radioactive," Casadevall says.

His lab will test fungi against a range of electromagnetic radiation, from ultraviolet light to visible light. They will also test species of edible fungi, including mushrooms. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

"Do Fungi Feast on Radiation?"
SciAm.com, May 22, 2007

EXCERPT – Mycologists and biophysicists find the notion both intriguing and potentially plausible. "Since melanin is used commonly by fungi—and other organisms—to protect themselves against UV radiation, it is perhaps not surprising that melanin would be affected by ionizing radiation,'' says Albert Torzilli, a mycologist at George Mason University in Virginia, adding that "the subsequent enhancement of growth, if true, is a novel response." Riesz, for one, is skeptical. "It does not surprise me that fungi protected with higher levels of melanin might grow better when exposed to [ionizing radiation], since the nonprotected fungi are more likely to be harmed by the radiation," she says. "However, I find the claim that melanin is involved in energy capture and utilization to be unlikely."

More study is needed to confirm whether fungi will be able to add the ability to grow by harvesting radiation to their list of seeming superpowers, but it does raise the question of whether edible fungi—like mushrooms—have been harboring this function undiscovered for years. If true, melanin could be genetically engineered into photosynthetic plants to boost their productivity or melanin-bearing fungi could be used in clothing to shield workers from radiation or even farmed in space as astronaut food. The group plans further tests to see if fungi with melanin are converting other wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum into energy, as well. Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

"Fungi Gobble Radiation to Grow, Study Says"
National Geographic News, May 22, 2007

EXCERPT – "We have associated the faster growth caused by radiation with melanin—a phenomenon suggesting that the pigment is somehow involved in harvesting high-energy ionizing radiation" and promoting growth, study co-author Arturo Casadevall of Yeshiva University said.

Duke University fungi expert Rytas Vilgalys, who was not involved in the study, said the new paper is "most interesting, truly original, and highly provocative." Read the original research article in PLoS ONE.

Bird Flu Survivors' Antibodies Protect Mice Against H5N1 Virus
Washington Post, May 29, 2007

EXCERPT – Antibodies from human survivors of bird flu protected mice against the H5N1 virus, says a study in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The research could lead to treatments for people infected with bird flu.

"We are very confident that this data can be reproduced in humans," study co-author Antonio Lanzavecchia, director of the immune regulation laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

Scientists find bird flu antibody
BBC, May 29, 2007

EXCERPT – "We in a way exploit the immune response of an individual who has been infected and has survived the infection and of course has made antibodies that neutralise these viruses," [Antonio Lanzavecchia] said.

"And using this technique, we can isolate the cells that make these antibodies so that this antibody can now be reproduced in vitro and eventually massively produced to treat other individuals."

The antibodies could be used to protect key workers, such as nurses and doctors, in countries where a bird flu epidemic strikes.

The researchers say it could also be used as an emergency antidote in people who have already been infected with bird flu - if administered within a few days. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

Antibodies from survivors may hold clue to bird flu remedy
Guardian, May 29, 2007

EXCERPT – The H5N1 strain has killed millions of birds across the globe and by the middle of this month, according to the World Health Organisation, there had been 306 known cases in humans, 185 of them fatal.

The results from the study, by scientists in Vietnam, Switzerland and the US, were published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. Because of the international concerns about the disease, the work was fasttracked with funding from the Wellcome Trust in Britain, the National Institute of Health in the US and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

Antibodies Offer Protection Against Some Strains of Avian Flu
Wired, May 29, 2007

EXCERPT – The researchers end with a note of caution:

Before passive immunotherapy can help to halt an H5N1 pandemic, they warn, the monoclonal antibodies will have to be tested to see whether they can neutralize not only all the currently circulating H5N1 viruses but also any emerging pandemic versions, which might be antigenically distinct.

The virus has yet to mutate so that it can be transmitted through mere human contact, which is why the original fears never manifested. That possibility does still exist, so researchers want to be prepared. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

April 2007

"Questions [asked] over America's most popular method of execution"
The Economist, 27th April

EXCERPT – "An analysis of 41 executions by lethal injection in California and North Carolina since 1984 found that the three-drug cocktail can cause a slow and painful death from suffocation while leaving victims conscious, but unable to move or cry out. Furthermore, the last drug, designed to provoke massive cardiac arrest, does not always succeed in doing so, according to the Public Library of Science online journal, PLoS Medicine." Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Drugs Used in Executions May Cause Paralysis, Pain for Conscious Inmates"
Washington Post, 24th April

EXCERPT – "The researchers concluded that the dosages of thiopental and potassium chloride were insufficient. In addition, the dosages of thiopental may not be enough to render inmates unconscious at the outset or to keep them from waking during the process.

As a result, they wrote, some inmates may be fully aware as the paralyzing agent cuts off their ability to breathe. Moreover, pancuronium is known to cause severe pain, but the inmate would be unable to express that." Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Drugs for Lethal Injection Aren't Reliable, Study Finds"
New York Times, 24th April

EXCERPT – "The researchers concluded that pancuronium was the only reliably fatal part of the cocktail, meaning the executed may actually have died of suffocation as it paralyzed their lungs.

In cases where the injection was botched and the drugs were delivered into the muscle or under the skin rather than into the veins, prisoners would by fully aware as the paralysis took hold and the potassium chloride was administered, said Teresa Zimmers, who led the study.

'It would sort of be the equivalent of slowly suffocating while being burned alive,' Ms. Zimmers said." Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Lethal Injection Does Not Work as Designed"
Scientific American, 23rd April

EXCERPT – The scientists analyzed only 41 of the 891 lethal injections that have taken place in the U.S. to date (and considerably more worldwide). But many of the remaining states' drug protocols and details of their executions remain secret. Nevertheless, researchers say the small sample indicates that the cocktail is not working as intended. "This idea that this is a painless procedure is completely wrong," Zimmers says. "It's just invisible because the person is paralyzed."

The legal standard is you can't have unnecessary or gratuitous pain," under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, [study co-author John] Sheldon adds. "It seems quite likely that a number of people are suffering pain. If a change to the protocol would be fairly simple to do, then the pain you are inflicting is clearly unnecessary." Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

March 2007

"Enzyme spray has earache in its sights"
NewScientist.com, March 30, 2007

EXCERPT – Every year, millions of children suffer painful earache caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia. Tests on mice now suggest that a nasal spray containing viral enzymes called lysins might end this misery.

S. pneuomoniae bacteria live harmlessly in our noses until respiratory viruses come along and disrupt the nasal membrane, allowing bacteria to migrate to the middle ear and start infections. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens

"An enzyme used by viruses to break cell walls beats back bacteria that cause ear infections, pneumonia"
Scientific American.com, March 26, 2007

EXCERPT – McCullers and Vincent Fishchetti, co-heads of the laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at the Rockefeller University, provide evidence that the enzyme lysin can be tailored to kill specific secondary pathogens before they pounce on the immune system.

After injecting colonies of S. pneuomoniae into the noses of mice, the scientists infected some of them with an influenza virus and the others were given a harmless solution. Sixty-three percent of the influenza infected mice developed the flu and then also contracted middle ear infections. Those mice that did not get infected with the flu also avoided the secondary bacterial illness, despite carrying the bacteria. The researchers repeated the experiment, but this time they nasally administered lysin to one of the groups after introducing the bacteria. The results, published in PLoS Pathogens: after fighting off the flu, 80 percent of the mice that did not receive lysin developed acute otitis. None of the mice given lysin were stricken with ear infections. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens

"Viral remedy 'stops ear problems'"
BBC News, March 25, 2007

EXCERPT – Lead researcher Dr Vincent Fischetti, from Rockefeller University, said: "It is really a no-brainer." If the bacteria aren't there, they cannot cause the secondary infection." He teamed up with experts from St Jude Children's Hospital.

David Bowdler, consultant ENT surgeon and otologist at University Hospital Lewisham, said: "It holds potential promise. But it's far too early to predict whether there will be any significant benefit from it." Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens

"Bacteria-killing viruses fight ear infections too"
Reuters, March 23, 2007

EXCERPT – One of the applications we could imagine using is if you have kids in the wintertime that are prone to getting viruses and such, you could have nasal spray that you spray in the kid's nose once a week to just clear the bacteria out," McCullers said.

Or perhaps a spray could be used after a bout of influenza to prevent the secondary infections. This might be useful for elderly people, as seasonal flu kills 36,000 mostly elderly people every year in the United States.

"Most people don't die from the influenza, they die because of a bacterial infection after the flu," McCullers said.

But years of safety trials will have to be done before such a treatment could even be tested in children, he cautioned. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens

"Do Microbes have the answer?"
Telegraph.co.uk, March 14, 2007

EXCERPT – Today, in the journal PLoS Biology, researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute, announce the publication of several studies from the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition to use new methods to read the genetic codes of marine microbes. They detail the discovery of millions of new genes after a voyage of thousands of miles. Read the original articles in PLoS Biology

"New Studies Find a Wealth of Oceanic Diversity"
All things considered, NPR, March 13 2007

EXCERPT – The project began four years ago and went like this: Get on your yacht (he has a very nice one); sail out into the ocean; take a water sample; and sequence all the DNA of the microorganisms in the sample. So he did that, and the results were astonishing: The DNA revealed thousands of previously unknown organisms. Read the original articles in PLoS Biology

"Microbes reveal extent of biodiversity"
Nature, March 13, 2007

EXCERPT – The papers point to 1,700 new protein families. Surprisingly the rate of discovery stayed more or less the same as the number of new sequences grew, suggesting that the number of new protein families will continue to increase. The question, said Venter in a telephone interview from Sorcerer II as it bobbed its way through the Sea of Cortez, is how long will that increase continue? And how does one extract meaning from a pile of 6.3 billion A's, T's. C's and G's? Read the original articles in PLoS Biology

"Yacht Voyage Turns Up Abundant Sample of Genes"
ABC News, March 13 2007

EXCERPT – "We are starting to view the world in a gene-centered fashion", said Venter, one of the researchers who mapped the human genome in a project that wrapped up in 2000.

"Our goal is actually to try and sort out evolution, working back to what organisms are there". He calls this approach "metagenomics". Read the original articles in PLoS Biology

"Honeybee's social life may be guided by a single gene"
Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2007 EXCERPT -- As the epitome of sociability, the honeybee is a living engine of selfless domesticity, caretaking colonies of kin that have fascinated generations of behaviorists. Like any employee climbing the corporate ladder, honeybee workers go through changes in behavior with each new assignment in the hive, transforming from housebound nest nurses into field explorers that may travel more than 550 miles in a lifetime in search of pollen and nectar. Yet much of this complicated social life is coordinated by the activity of a single gene, researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe and UC Davis reported this week in PLoS Biology, published by the Public Library of Science. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Opening windows stops germs"
Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2007 EXCERPT -- Preventing the spread of disease in a hospital may be as simple as opening a window, an international team of researchers reported Monday. The low-tech solution could help prevent the spread of airborne infections such as tuberculosis — and old-fashioned hospitals with high ceilings and big windows may offer the best design for this, they reported. These worked better than modern "negative pressure" rooms with expensive design aimed at pumping out infected air, the researchers reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"Study sheds light on chimp-human split"
Reuters UK, February 23, 2007 EXCERPT -- A new study, certain to be controversial, maintains that chimpanzees and humans split from a common ancestor just 4 million years ago -- a much shorter time than current estimates of 5 million to 7 million years ago. The researchers compared the DNA of chimpanzees, humans and our next-closest ancestor, the gorilla, as well as orangutans. They used a well-known type of calculation that had not been previously applied to genetics to come up with their own "molecular clock" estimate of when humans became uniquely human. Read the original article in PLoS Genetics.

February 2007

"Can Humans Develop Immunity to Bird Flu"
ABC News, February 14, 2007 EXCERPT – So the question was, if a person had been infected or vaccinated with a nonbird-flu virus that had an N1 component, would that be enough to trigger his or her immune system to fight the H5N1 bird flu virus?

Webby and colleagues investigated this theory in a new study published this week in PLoS Medicine.

"We were surprised at what we found," Webby said in our most recent conversation.

In mice, exposure to an N1-containing virus reduced the death rate from H5N1 bird flu by half.

Preliminary blood work on humans also suggests that yearly flu shots with N1 may offer some weak protection against H5N1 bird flu.

The exact amount of protection a person would have is unknown. "It's not going to prevent infection," Webby said. "But it might reduce the more severe parts of the disease." Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Bird flu immunity possible, study suggests"
MSNBC, February 12, 2007 EXCERPT – Could some people have a little immunity to the H5N1 bird flu virus? One study in mice published Monday suggests it is, in theory, possible.

They found mice inoculated with a human virus known as H1N1 were less likely to die when they were infected with a little bit of H5N1 – although this protection went away after a bigger dose of H5N1.

The finding suggests it is possible that some people previously infected with or vaccinated against flu may have slight protection from H5N1, the researchers wrote in the Public Library of Science Journal, PLoS Medicine. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Study suggests possible bird flu immunity"
Scientific American, February 12, 2007 EXCERPT – "It is weak protection," said Richard Webby at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "It is not protection from infection -- it is protection from death."

Researchers have wondered if people who have been infected with one strain of influenza might have partial immunity to another strain. They know no one has complete immunity, because flu can infect the same person over and over again.

But maybe there is just enough there to keep the new infection from being deadly.

"The idea has been thrown around for a while and we just decided to actually test it," Webby said in a telephone interview. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Some People May Be Immune to Bird Flu, Mouse Study Suggests"
Bloomberg.com, February 12, 2007 EXCERPT – The most deadly pandemic known in history, the 1918 Spanish flu that killed about 50 million people worldwide, was caused by a virus in the H1N1 family.

Since then, descendants of that virus have circulated widely in people, and vaccines against different versions of H1N1 are included in seasonal vaccines. Mice who were given human serum, a blood component that contains immune cells, also gained some protection against H5N1.

Statistics released last week by the World Health Organization showed that 90 percent of people infected with H5N1 since 2003 are less than 40 years old. At least 272 people have been sickened by the virus, and 166 of them have died, WHO said Feb. 6.

The findings, published today in the Public Library of Science, Medicine, may explain why H5N1 bird flu infections have been so rare, particularly in older people, researchers said. Years of exposure to annual outbreaks and vaccines may have given people antibodies that protect against the N1 protein. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

January 2007

"Publishing Group hires 'Pit Bull of PR'"
Washington Post, January 26, 2007 EXCERPT – There are times in Washington when having a good argument – maybe even being right – just isn't good enough. At times like those, people serious about getting their way turn to people like Eric Dezenhall, the take-no-prisoners maven of message control and author of the book "Nail 'Em!" – which advises corporate clients (his have reportedly included Enron and Exxon Mobil) to not just defend against bad public relations but to fight back until the other side bleeds. But there is a potential downside to hiring the likes of Dezenhall: If word gets out, you stand to be seen as on the ropes and willing to do anything to win. Such is the predicament that the Association of American Publishers finds itself in, after internal emails leaked this week revealed that it had turned to the man known as "the pit bull of PR" to help in its fight against patient advocacy groups and the National Institutes of Health.

"Open Access to Science Under Attack"
Scientific American, January 26, 2007 EXCERPT – But "Nobody disagrees on the goals of high-stakes communications – sell a controversial product, win an election, defuse conflict and so forth", Dezenhall notes in the "manifesto" on the firm's Web site. "The life-or-death public relations struggles facing businesses today are not about information, they are about power." In this case, the struggle is over access to scientific information. Specifically, according to Dezenhall's suggestions in a memo to publishers that they should "develop simple messages (e.g., Public access equals government censorship; Scientific journals preserve the quality/pedigree of science; government seeking to nationalize science and be a publisher) for use by Coalition members."

"PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access"
Nature, January 25, 2007 EXCERPT – Officials at the AAP would not comment to Nature on the details of their work with Dezenhall, or the money involved, but acknowledged that they had met him and subsequently contracted his firm to work on the issue. "We're like any firm under siege," says Barbara Meredith, a vice-president at the organization. It's common to hire a PR firm when you're under siege." She says the AAP needs to counter messages from groups such as the Public Library of Science (PLoS), an open-access publisher and prominent advocate of free access to information.

"Science Journal Publishers Wary of Free Information"
Slashdot, January 25, 2007 EXCERPT – Nature.com is reporting that the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which includes the companies that publish scientific journals, is becoming concerned with the free-information movement. A meeting was arranged with PR professional Eric Dezenhall to discuss the problem. Dezenhall's firm has worked with the likes of ExxonMobil to 'criticize the environmental group Greenpeace', among other campaigns. The publishers are worried that the free exchange of scientific information may be bad for the bottom line, as it might cause the money from subscriptions to their journals to dry up.

"Nutrition Studies Skewed by Industry Dollars"
Time, January 9, 2007 EXCERPT - For anyone who tries to keep track of which foods provide which health benefits, life seemed a little more complicated this morning. The first major analysis of nutritional research found the science to be every bit as susceptible to sponsor bias as pharmaceuticals. In a paper published online Tuesday in PloS Medicine researchers from Children's Hospital Boston report that when studies linking beverages to health are funded entirely by industry, the conclusions are four to eight times more likely to support the sponsor's commercial interest than studies with no industry funding. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Bias Is Found in Food Studies With Financing From Industry"
New York Times, January 9, 2007 EXCERPT - Research studies financed by the food industry are much more likely to produce favorable results than independently financed research, a report to be published today said. The report, in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS Medicine, is the first systematic study of bias in nutrition research. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Researchers see bias in private-funded studies"
The Guardian, January 9, 2007 EXCERPT - Research into the health benefits of drinks including fizzy pop, juices and milk may be severely biased in favour of food industry funders, American doctors say today. A survey of research on the nutritional value of drinks found that studies funded entirely by food and drink companies were approximately eight times more likely to produce results favourable to their funders, compared with studies which had no industry funding. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Research funded by beverage industry is biased"
New Scientist, January 9, 2007 EXCERPT - Confused by conflicting advice on nutrition and health? Then try ignoring any conclusions backed by the beverage industry. Corporate funding of research into non-alcoholic drinks biases findings in favour of manufacturers' products, a new study has found. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

"Industry Money May Bias Drink Studies"
ABC News, January 8, 2007 EXCERPT - Does milk lower blood pressure? Does juice prevent heart disease? Beverage studies were four to eight times more likely to reach sweet conclusions about health effects when industry was footing the bill, a new report contends. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine

December 2006

"Human-Chimp Gene Gap Widens from Tally of Duplicate Genes"
Scientific American, December 19, 2006 EXCERPT—A lot more genes may separate humans from their chimp relatives than earlier studies let on. Researchers studying changes in the number of copies of genes in the two species found that their mix of genes is only 94 percent identical. The 6 percent difference is considerably larger than the commonly cited figure of 1.5 percent. The new finding supports the idea that evolution may have given humans new genes with new functions that don't exist in chimps, something researchers had not recognized until recently. Read the original article in PLoS ONE.

"Is the concept of peer reviewing in the Science Industry antiquated?"
Today Programme, December 21, 2006 Chris Surridge, the Managing Editor of PLoS ONE and Phil Campbell, the Editor of Nature, debate the current peer-review process and its possible evolution.

"Stem Cell Technique Could Help Kids Avoid Root Canal"
Forbes, December 21, 2006 EXCERPT—A multi-national research team successfully regenerated tooth root and supporting periodontal ligaments to restore tooth function in an animal model. The breakthrough holds promise for clinical application in human patients, said the researchers, headed by Dr. Songtao Shi at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. Read the original article in PLoS ONE.

"Anti-Cancer 'Smart Bomb' Homes in on Deadly Tumors"
ABC News, December 2, 2006 Scientists have made astonishing progress in developing a "smart bomb" that can deliver powerful cancer-fighting drugs directly to tumors scattered throughout the body, thus minimizing damage to healthy tissue and easing the wretched side effects of chemotherapy. Read the original article in PLoS ONE.

November 2006

"When Sex Sucks"
San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 7, 2006 EXCERPT – A couple of Canadian biologists at Queens University in Ontario published a study in PLoS Biology (a Public Library of Science journal) a couple of weeks ago that suggests women who pick mates "fitter" than themselves have very little chance of passing that fitness on to their daughters. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Dementia on the increase in aging populations"
Reuters, November 2, 2006 EXCERPT – It's unlikely that medical science will find a way to completely prevent dementia and cognitive impairment among the very old, Dr. Carol Brayne of Cambridge University and colleagues note in the October issue of PLoS Medicine. "Researchers may be doing those who are aging now and themselves a disservice in the future if they assume, and project to the public, that dementia and cognitive impairment can be prevented altogether during increasingly long lives," Brayne and her team write. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

October 2006

"Genetic Discovery Suggests That Mammals Were Once Nocturnal"
Seed Magazine, October 27, 2006 EXCERPT – The recently discovered gene codes for melanopsin, a pigment that makes cells in the eye responsive to light and helps regulate circadian rhythms. The gene, found in non-mammalian vertebrates, matches the mammalian melanopsin gene. That match led researchers to conclude that a melanopsin gene previously found in frogs is missing from the mammalian genome. The paper, which suggests that mammals may have lost their second melanopsin gene over the course of evolution, was published in the August issue of the journal PLoS Biology. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Ulcer bacterium may cause inflammation"
United Press International, October 27, 2006 EXCERPT – A research group from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in collaboration with European researchers, demonstrated that the peptic ulcer bacterium Helicobacter pylori -- H. pylori -- can reach the blood circulation so the bacterium can disseminate in the body and may cause other chronic inflammatory conditions such as atherosclerosis....The findings, published in PLoS Pathogens Journal, elaborate on the 1980s landmark studies that H. pylori is the cause of gastritis, peptic ulcers and stomach cancer, one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens.

September 2006

"Possible new weapon in malaria treatment"
United Press International, September 29, 2006 EXCERPT – Researchers at the Karolinska Institute, headed by Mats Wahlgren, have developed a substance that prevents infected blood cells from binding, which releases blood cells already bound. Using this method, scientists have been able to treat severe malaria in rats and primates effectively; it now remains to be seen whether these results can be replicated in people, according to the study, published in PLoS Pathogens. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens.

"New tool helps online shoppers buy lower-fat food"
Reuters, September 29, 2006 EXCERPT – An Internet-based system that provides online food shoppers with purchase-specific dietary advice helps them buy foods that are lower in saturated fat than the foods they initially set out to buy, according to new study findings. "Internet shopping provides a unique opportunity to modify diets of large numbers of people at low cost," study co-author Dr. Bruce Neal told Reuters Health. Neal, at the University of Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues write in the online journal PLoS Clinical Trials: "Fully automated, purchase-specific dietary advice offered to customers during Internet shopping can bring about changes in food purchasing habits that are likely to have significant public health implications." Read the original article in PLoS Clinical Trials.

"Predicting the impact of wild habitat loss"
New Scientist, September 26, 2006 EXCERPT – Researchers have now focused on a single self-contained ecosystem – comprised simply of a carnivorous plant and the species that inhabit it – and used this to create a model that could apply to much larger systems. The study is the first wild experiment to test how the interactions of predators and prey can drive decline when habitats contract, the researchers claim. "To actively manipulate an entire food web is pretty difficult outside the laboratory," explains Nicholas Gotelli, at the University of Vermont in Burlington, US. To overcome that problem, Gotelli and colleague Aaron Ellison turned to the northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), a carnivorous species found in the bogs of southern Canada and the eastern US. The plant produces up to 12 fat, tubular shaped leaves each year that fill with water and support an aquatic community. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Airline Travel Could Hasten Flu's Spread"
Forbes, September 12, 2006 EXCERPT – Scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard University compared flu deaths in 122 cities to airline-travel trends during nine flu seasons between 1996 and 2005, The New York Times reported. The researchers found a link between fluctuations in travel and how quickly flu appeared to spread. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"Life-Expectancy Gaps Show Need To Focus on Prevention, Treatment"
Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2006 EXCERPT – The difference in life expectancy between the healthiest and most ill-prone people in the U.S. is about 33 years, reflecting persisting health disparities despite a rising life span for the country as a whole, according to a study from Harvard University's Initiative for Global Health and its School of Public Health. Premature deaths of young and middle-aged adults, primarily from chronic disease and injuries, are the major reason behind the vast differences between the racial and geographic groups analyzed in the study, using government data and published in this month's issue of the journal PLoS Medicine. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

August 2006

"Starting Slow and Growing Fast"
The New York Times, August 22, 2006 For Pat Monaghan and colleagues at the University of Glasgow, the question is, If humans (and other animals) can grow faster under such conditions, why don't they grow faster all the time? "There must be some costs to doing that," Dr. Monaghan said. So she, Michael O. Fisher and Ruedi G. Nager set out to determine what those costs might be. They studied zebra finches, not people, and found that catch-up growth affected the birds' mental skills. The findings were published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"All forms of travel can lead to blood clots, scientists say"
The Times, August 22, 2006 EXCERPT: The scientists, led by Suzanne Cannegieter, of Leiden University Medical Centre, wrote in the online journal PLoS Medicine: "It can be concluded that the risk of venous thrombosis is twofold increased for all travellers and to the same extent for all modes of travel. In individuals who use oral contraceptives, are carriers of the factor V Leiden mutation, or are particularly tall, short, or obese, the risk is considerably higher. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"Killing the love bug"
The Times, August 19, 2006 EXCERPT: Salmonella is not just sneakily promiscuous: it also practises safe sex to protect itself from getting infections after acquiring foreign DNA from these assignations with other mucky bugs. Now a team at the Institute of Food Research, in Norwich, has unlocked salmonella's safe-sex trick. Professor Jay Hinton's team reports in the online journal PLoS Pathogens that it has discovered that a protein called H-NS switches off the incoming genes (a process known as gene silencing) until they are needed as an infectiousness-boosting weapon. Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens.

"Turf wars mar disaster effort"
BBC news, August 14, 2006 EXCERPT: Emergency aid efforts can be marred by "turf wars" between medical relief groups and development agencies, a leading medical charity figure says. Medecins Sans Frontieres executive director Gorik Ooms said differing priorities could lead to clashes. Writing in the Public Library of Science journal, he said development agencies and governments often insisted on long-term sustainable measures. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

July 2006

"Premature baby brain delay clue"
BBC news, July 31, 2006 EXCERPT: An Imperial College team found babies with less brain surface development had poorer mental skills at the age of two. If confirmed in larger studies, the researchers say it may be possible to identify which children need more support and to provide it earlier. The research is published in the Public Library of Science Medicine. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

June 2006

"Establishing transparency to restore trust in clinical trials"
Lancet Neurology, June 21, 2006 EXCERPT – An editorial by Richard Smith and Ian Roberts in the launch issue of PLoS Clinical Trials, a new open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, urges that journals should no longer publish clinical trials because of publication bias favouring positive results created by pressures from sponsors, researchers, and journal editors. Rather, Smith and Roberts recommend that complete information for all registered trials—from protocols to individual patients' data—should be archived in a publicly accessible database and that only systematic reviews of all the available evidence on an intervention should be used to inform treatment decisions. Read the editorial in PLoS Clinical Trials.

"The High Stakes of Medicine"
TIME, June 19, 2006 EXCERPT – Medical care can be a gamble--and patients often don't understand the odds. University of California researchers aim to change that, with an interactive Web-based tool that they are calling the roulette wheel. This color-coded visual model uses a computer algorithm to help patients and their doctors assess the possible outcomes of different treatments. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"New breast cancer gene raises risk in Europeans"
Reuters, Jun 19, 2006 EXCERPT – Researchers have found another breast cancer gene that can greatly raise the risk of the disease in women of European heritage, according to a report published on Monday. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"A Viral Drive to Survive"
ScienceNOW, June 13, 2006 EXCERPT – To see whether viruses adopt one of the near-universal signs of life--namely, the offspring tradeoff strategy--molecular biologists François Taddei and Marianne de Paepe of INSERM and the University of Paris in France watched how 16 kinds of viruses replicated in Escherichia coli bacteria. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Open access to science"
Scenta, June 9, 2006 EXCERPT - At a time when the boundaries between different scientific disciplines are becoming more and more blurred, scientific literature has become increasingly fragmented, with journals of narrow scope accessible only to a limited audience of subscribers. Rather than perpetuate these arbitrary divisions, PLoS ONE will be an open public venue for all rigorous scientific research from every discipline.

"Free Radical"
Wired, June 1, 2006 EXCERPT - Harold Varmus won a Nobel Prize for changing how we think about cancer. Then he overhauled the NIH. Now he's battling to make all scientific research free and universally available.

May 2006

"Follow That Fly"
New York Times, May 23, 2006 EXCERPT - Researchers in Japan have discovered what makes the army worm nocturnal, and it's not light - at least not directly. Instead, Kaori Shiojiri of Kyoto University and colleagues reported last week in The Public Library of Science Biology, the caterpillar is responding to volatile chemicals produced by the corn plant. Those chemicals differ between day and night. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"Indian Ocean Virus Gets an Upgrade"
Science Magazine, May 23, 2006 EXCERPT - PLoS Medicine publishes some of the first results. A large team led by Sylvain Brisse from the Pasteur Institute in Paris fully sequenced viruses isolated from six Chikungunya patients since March 2005 and parts of the gene encoding a viral glycoprotein called E1 from 121 others. They then compared these sequences to those of known isolates. Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"Open Access Speeds Use by Others of Scientific Papers, Study Finds"
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 15, 2006 EXCERPT - In the continuing debate about open access to scientific literature, the pro-access side gained strength with a study...that says that, during the first four to 16 months after publication, papers with free access get cited more often than those that require subscriptions. Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

"A Cure for the Common Trial"
Science, May 12, 2006 EXCERPT - Ordinarily, a study with negative results like this wouldn't see the light of day in a medical journal--at least not a top-tier one. But the Public Library of Science (PLoS) aims to be different. It's using the LOTIS study to launch its new journal, PLoS Clinical Trials, which begins publishing on 19 May.

The journal's credo is simple: Disappointing results can still be good news. Its editors have explicitly stated that all clinical trials submitted--regardless of outcome or significance--will be published, as long as they are methodologically sound. The policy takes aim at a pervasive problem in the clinical trials literature: a heavy skew toward studies with positive outcomes.
Visit PLoS Clinical Trials.

"US Senators Propose to make Scientific Research Freely Available"
The Guardian, May 11, 2006 EXCERPT - American legislators have proposed that scientific research paid for by US taxpayers should be freely available online to everyone. Analysts described the move as a "potential banana skin" for established scientific publishers such as Reed Elsevier, Springer and Informa.

"Brussels delivers blow to Reed Elsevier"
UK Guardian, May 3, 2006 EXCERPT -- Scientific research funded by the European taxpayer should be freely available to everyone over the internet, according to a European commission report - a blow to the lucrative scientific publishing operations of media groups such as Reed Elsevier and Germany's Springer.

"Bill Seeks Access to Tax-Funded Research"
Washington Post, May 3, 2006 EXCERPT - A smoldering debate over whether taxpayers should have free access to the results of federally financed research intensified yesterday with the introduction of Senate legislation that would mandate that the information be posted on the Internet.

The legislation, which would demand that most recipients of federal grants make their findings available free on the Web within six months after they are published in a peer-reviewed journal, represents a rebuke to scientific publishers, who have asserted that free access to their contents would undercut their paid subscription base.

Visit Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

"Study: Restrictions won't slow bird flu"
Newsweek, May 1, 2006 EXCERPT - British health officials reported in a medical journal Monday that closing international airports will do little to halt a bird flu outbreak, the third such computer simulation that shows the folly of travel restrictions in the face of a pandemic.

Read the original article in PLoS Medicine.

"Garlic Mustard Casts a Pall on the Forest"
NY Times, May 2, 2006 EXCERPT - Garlic mustard, a tall weed native to Europe that was introduced to the United States in the late 1800's, is a bit like that uninvited visitor. Researchers have found that it disrupts a healthy relationship between hardwood tree seedlings and soil fungi, with results that can be disastrous for a forest.

Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

April 2006

"New Bacterium Arises in Immune-Deficient Patients"
Forbes, April 14, 2006 EXCERPT - Researchers say they've identified a new disease-causing bacterium in people with a rare immune disorder called chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), which leaves people susceptible to frequent and sometimes deadly fungal and bacterial infections.

Read the original article in PLoS Pathogens.

"Drug Firms Inventing Diseases" BBC, April 11, 2006 EXCERPT - Disease-mongering promotes non-existent diseases and exaggerates mild problems to boost profits, the Public Library of Science Medicine reported.

Read the Disease Mongering special collection in PLoS Medicine.

March 2006

"Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story" NY Times, March 7, 2006 EXCERPT - Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions on the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.

Read the original article in PLoS Biology.

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