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Climate Change: Influence on the Spread of Lyme Disease
By Roberta Attanasio Blacklegged ticks feed on blood — they attach to the skin of humans and many animals and, slowly, suck for several days. To get there, they patiently wait on the tip of grasses and shrubs using their lower legs to hold on, until a human or an animal passes by. Ticks can’t jump or fly, so they keep their upper pair of legs outstretched, ready to climb aboard. Once there, they insert their feeding tube into the skin and start to suck the blood — this is how they become infected by or transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the micro-organism that causes Lyme disease. Lyme disease is one of the most common infectious diseases in…
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J.M.W. Turner’s Sunsets: A Guide to Air Pollution
By Roberta Attanasio During the past few weeks, London-born Joseph Mallord William Turner — one of Britain’s greatest landscape painters — has been in the news more than one time. His latest paintings were considered by his critics the result of a senile mind. Now, they’re presented as evidence of his radical brilliance. Many of these paintings will be shown at an exhibition in London, which will start in September 2014 and, in 2015, will go to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sam Smiles, the co-curator of the exhibition, told The Guardian: “The myth is that Turner’s mind and hand increasingly failed him, especially after 1845, that his work declined and…
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Tuberculosis in China: A Success Story for a Global Problem
By Roberta Attanasio Sometimes called “The Silent Killer”, tuberculosis, or TB for short, is a huge worldwide public health problem — according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the human population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the micro-organism that causes the disease. In 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from it. The number of TB deaths is unacceptably large, given that most are preventable — indeed, a cure for TB, consisting of a six-month course of drugs, has been available for more than 50 years. If treatment is incomplete, TB can come back, often in a form resistant to treatment. Years ago, the WHO developed a strategy known…
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Minute 319: The Delta of the Colorado River Gets a New Life
By Roberta Attanasio For six million years, the Colorado River ran from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California—through 1,450 miles of mountains, deserts, canyons, and the lush delta in Mexico. Now, it no longer reaches the sea. The once vast and fertile delta of the river is dry—a parched wasteland. In 1931, the United States Bureau of Reclamation built the first of a series of large dams along the lower Colorado River, which now provides water to two states in Mexico and 30 million people in seven U.S. states. Until the 1950s, the delta was still a network of freshwater and marine wetlands with meandering river channels—an opulent habitat…
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The European Barberry: A Plant That Makes Complex Decisions
By Giovanna Rappocciolo, Contributor The European barberry (Berberis vulgaris) and the Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) are species of shrub distributed throughout Europe. The first is native to Europe, whereas the second is native to North America. They’re different — and not only because of their origin. The two plants are both subjected to infestation by a specialized species of fruit fly. The larvae of this fruit fly feed on the seeds of the two plants — however, there are 10 times more larvae in the affected Oregon grape than in the affected European barberry. Could the European barberry make informed decisions to control the number of larvae that feed on its seeds? According…
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Psychological Stress in Children: Effects on the Immune Response
By Roberta Attanasio Stress is part of life — but while a little bit of it (good stress) may keep us active and alert, and sometimes even motivate us, the long-term type (bad stress) can have negative effects on our health. Elevated blood pressure and heart disease are just some examples of the so-called “stress-related diseases”. In addition to good stress and bad stress, there is another type of stress — toxic stress. Professor Pat Levitt defines toxic stress as “a term used by psychologists and developmental neurobiologists to describe the kinds of experiences, particularly in childhood, that can affect brain architecture and brain chemistry. They typically are experiences that are…
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A New Kind of Global Die-Off: Bananas Hit by Rapidly Spreading Diseases
By Roberta Attanasio The world loves bananas. Actually, the world loves the Cavendish bananas, mostly because it is (almost) the only variety commercially available worldwide. The entire global banana industry relies on this seedless and, therefore, sterile variety made of bananas all essentially identical to each other — and equally susceptible to infection by the same harmful microbes, which can spread very easily across plantations around the world. This is not a hypothetical scenario — instead, it’s happening as we speak. Two species of fungi are threatening the world supply of the Cavendish bananas. One is Mycosphaerella fijiensis, a fungus that causes a disease dubbed Black Sigatoka, also known as…
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Breastfeeding: Benefits of Early Exposure to Maternal Antibodies
By Roberta Attanasio “Breastfeeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Virtually all mothers can breastfeed, provided they have accurate information, and the support of their family, the health care system and society at large. Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by World Health Organization as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after birth.” According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Babies are born ready to learn to breastfeed. During pregnancy a woman’s body gains weight and changes to support breastfeeding. Think of the first…
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Sex Differences in the Immune Response to Vaccines
By Roberta Attanasio Women and men respond differently to infectious microbes and vaccines – it is said, indeed, that the immune system of women is stronger than the immune system of men. Stronger or weaker, one thing is certain – men and women are not the same in terms of immune response. A few years ago, the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases published “ The Xs and Y of immune responses to viral vaccines” – a comprehensive article that clearly shows how the biological differences between sexes influence the immune response to vaccines, as for example the influenza, yellow fever and hepatitis vaccines. There are not many published studies on the…
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Wasting Syndrome and Starfish Die-Off
By Roberta Attanasio Up and down the U.S. and Canada Pacific coastlines, starfish are disappearing, dying by the millions of a mysterious disease that makes them “turn into goo.” The disease — starfish wasting syndrome — initially causes white lesions that lead to death of body tissue. Eventually, the arms twist and tear off — and they do not regenerate (healthy starfish may shed their arms, but then new ones are formed in a relatively short time). At the end, the entire body of the wasting starfish disintegrates. The wasting syndrome affects about a dozen starfish species, but has been noticed mostly in sunflower starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides) and ochre stars (Pisaster ochraceus). Starfish…
