Polio!

I read the other day that 22 cases of suspected polio have been identified in NE Syria. If the civil war wasn't bad enough, allowing a window for a disease that can paralyse children to re-establish itself is tragic. Polio is on the brink of eradication (think of the success with smallpox) and here we have a situation that may allow a wider comeback. This is especially so given that local leaders in NW Pakistan have banned vaccination. Two fronts on which to fight this disease are two fronts too many.

Oral History - Capture It Now

Those of you who know me well (and following this post, the rest of you) will be aware that I've been sporadically capturing my family history over the past few years. In a recent blog post Dick Eastman refers to a statement from an American archives technician that, on average, it takes just 3 generations for a piece of oral family history to be lost unless there is a diligent attempt to preserve it. There are certainly several half-remembered tales attached to my family, some of which I'm sure I'll never fully understand. I think I've solved the mystery of "the woman who ran away with the man from the powder factory" but I've no idea what connection we have to "the waterman from Wapping".

So, my suggestion to you all when you gather for your Christmas celebrations and swap family anecdotes is to write them down as soon as possible. So much in life these days is ephermeral (think of all those deleted emails and tweets) - let's capture what we can.

The Dead Salmon Has It

When Craig Bennett of the University of California stuck a dead salmon in his brain scanner to perform a test run on the machine he got something of a shock - the fish's brain and spinal column were showing signs of neural activity.

This has rather put the cat among the neuroscience pigeons. It has pointed up that many, many research findings in the discupline are fatally flawed by poor technique. As a (lapsed) scientist I find this shocking.

Is it any wonder that scientists face not just a sceptical public but a disbelieving one? Climate change anyone?

Random Thoughts on GM

The fingers have been away from the blog-keyboard for a while - for a variety of reasons including work, covering for an absent colleague, travel, volunteering. This all means that I've rather lost track of some of the exciting things happening out there beyond the boundaries of Commuterland. In my reading to catch up with life I was struck by the kerfuffle that's been going on about the proposal to release GM flies in Spain to tackle olive flies. There's been the usual outcry about meddling with nature when we don't know the potential outcome but that's an argument that could be placed on the doormat of almost every experimental procedure. And there's evidence from seven (yes, seven) years ago that such experiments don't necessarily end in death, doom and disaster. GM bollworms have been "out in the wild" without, apparently, any unexpected problems. Isn't about time we were a little less hysterical about such approaches? GM flies might just be less harmful than the clouds of insecticide that will otherwise be used on those olive trees. It's time to find out.