a view near our home in San Luis Obispo, California
Here is what I am reading today:
“There is no cure for the group of hereditary muscle-wasting diseases known as muscular dystrophy. That is particularly alarming because one of its commonest forms — type 1 myotonic dystrophy — becomes more serious as it passes down the generations, manifesting earlier and acquiring pernicious extra symptoms, such as delays to mental development.”
“In a basic numeracy test, long-tailed macaques were able to work out which of two plates contained more raisins. Strangely, they only excelled in this test if they were not allowed to eat the raisins they were shown.”
“The brains of some aggressive and antisocial teenage boys look different than those of normal teenagers, British researchers have found. Conduct disorder is psychiatric condition characterized by higher than normal levels of aggressive and antisocial behaviour. It can develop in childhood or in adolescence and affects about five out of every 100 teenagers in the U.K., researchers say.”
1 Comment
ehhunt · April 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
in regards to “muscular dystrophy…”:
It’s shocking to me that this horrific disease develops from just one deformed gene! However, I can relate it to what we talked about in class today: that a deficit of just one gene (or part of the brain, etc.) can result in dysfunction of many other genes. I found myself wondering while reading this article: how many other diseases are caused by genes that are repeated, not mutated? It never occurred to me that such a problem would exist. It does, however, make sense that such a disease would get worse with each generation.
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