October 27, 2005
Newsmakers
UNDER THE SEA: A recent New York Times article described how networks of tiny sensors are being used by scientists to “help fill an observational gap between microscopes and telescopes” in studies of forests, rivers, plate tectonics and undersea environments. The article quoted, among others, John R. Delaney, UW professor of oceanography.
Among these is the NEPTUNE project, which involves running 2,000 miles of cables dotted with sensors, cameras and tiny robots deep in the Pacific Ocean from California to Canada to study the “total ocean environment from below the sea bed to the surface.” The $200 million project is expected to be operational in 2012, and function for about 30 years.
“It’s going to set the tone for how the human race interacts with oceans,” Delaney said, then paraphrased an old political truism originally applied to the state of Maine: “As goes the ocean, so goes the planet.”
IS THIS GLOBAL WARMING?: A lengthy midsummer article by the Associated Press discussed increased water temperatures along the Pacific Coast and their apparent negative effects on fish catches, sea bird populations and plankton (a great food source). Northerly winds have not kicked in this year, which prevented an “upwelling” of colder water that sustains the plankton and other life. “Is this just a stranger year,” the article asked, “or is this what global warming looks like?”
The article stated that it’s too soon to draw conclusions from the single year’s phenomenon, which led to a quote from Nathan Mantua, a UW affiliate assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. “To me, it really points out how uncertain our speculation is about global warming,” Mantura told the press. “If we did see this next year, the notion that global warming plays a role in this carries more weight.”
OF MICE AND MEN: It’s called the Klotho gene and it was identified in mice in 1997 by researcher Makoto Kuro-o of the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. When the gene was damaged, the mice experienced ageing-related symptoms such as hardening of the arteries, thinning of the bones and weak lungs. The gene was named Klotho after the Greek goddess who spins the thread of life.
According to a recent article in The Washington Post, the researcher found a small protein, called a peptide, in the Klotho gene that he then isolated, purified and injected into normal mice. Tests show the substance modulates a biological pathway that has been the focus of researchers on aging for years. The injected mice lived an average of 20 percent to 30 percent longer than normal mice. “Our work shows that the Klotho gene is an aging-supressor gene,” Kuro-o told The Post.
Other researchers agreed the findings were noteworthy, The Post said, because it was the first instance of finding a naturally occurring hormone capable of extending the life of a mammal. The newspaper then quoted George M. Martin, a UW professor of pathology and scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research. “You have lots of ways to shorten the life of an animal, but it’s hard to get it to live longer,” he said. “You can kick a radio to make it not work so well, but it’s hard to make it work better. It’s quite a wonderful discovery.”
