The New York Times has an interesting set of audio interviews with scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which took place from 1941-1946, resulting in the world’s first atomic bomb. The scientists reflect on their feelings and what it was like to build such a powerful weapon.

Also on the NYT site is a nice video that traces the New York-based history of the Manhanttan Project.  Interestingly, the project was originally called “The Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials.” General Leslie R. Groves, who led the project, changed the name to “The Manhattan Engineer District,” which he deemed less suspicious. In time, it simply became the Manhattan Project.

This past Monday marked the formal launch of the “Personal Genome Project,” a bold initiative led by George Church (Harvard University) to sequence and interpret 100,000 individuals’ complete DNA code. 

Along with an analysis of each volunteer’s DNA, researchers will collect and analyze the volunteer’s medical records, ethnic history, and a wealth of other data ranging from exposures to power lines to personal food preferences (fried, broiled, or barbecued?). The project’s goal is to decipher the role that genes and our environment play in shaping health, behavior, and other traits.

Of concern to some is the fact that all participant data (without participant names) will be freely available on the web. Church believes this is necessary for the project’s ultimate success and broad scientific use. But this approach is in sharp contrast to nearly every research study involving health care data, in which stringent data access rules protect volunteers’ privacy. Whether or not this hurts volunteer recruiting remains to be seen.

The first 10 individuals enrolled in the project, all experts in genetics and medicine, had to pass a rigorous “entrance exam” consisting of a general genetics literacy test and a thorough understanding of the privacy implications. The steps involved in enrolling in the Personal Genome Project are discussed in this August 2008 Wired Magazine article.

The Personal Genome Project website is here.

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Scientific American has an interesting Q&A with Dr. Martin Chalfie (Columbia University), who earlier this month received a one-third share of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on green fluorescent protein (GFP).  The other co-winners of the chemistry prize are Osamu Shimomura (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole) and Roger Tsien (University of California, San Diego).

What makes GFP so special?  Found naturally in jellyfish, it has the remarkable property of producing green light when exposed to blue and ultraviolet light. In other words, if you shine “invisible” ultraviolet light on GFP, it glows green. Chalfie’s idea was to use GFP as a molecular beacon. He used molecular biology techniques to genetically “tag” a specific protein in the cell with GFP. The protein, with its GFP beacon attached, can then be easily followed inside of a living cell with a simple light microscope. This trick has revolutionized the way that cell biologists and biochemists examine living systems.  A more detailed discussion of how GFP works can be found on the Nobel Prize website (download PDF here).

Interestingly, the man widely accepted as having set the scientific stage for the Nobel Prize-winning work, Dr. Douglas Prasher, was not included in the award. The New York Times recently ran a story about Dr. Prasher, who is unfortunately no longer in science.

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Click on the link below to view the winning entries for Nikon’s “Small World” photography contest. This contest is “…the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope.” Scientists from all over the world submit their entries for this prestigious award.

Give the Nikon site a look. Many of the pictures are quite stunning – true works of art!

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Over the weekend, Chicago Tribune Magazine ran a very good article about local filmmaker Joanna Rudnick and her documentary film on genetic testing and heritable breast cancer, “In the Family.”  The film premiered on PBS’s Point of View on Oct 1.  More information about the film and the filmmaker can be found on their website, inthefamilyfilm.com.

If you missed it on television, you can watch the film in its entirety on the web thorough Oct 31, 2008 at thePoint of View website.  It really is a courageous and moving film.

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In 2007, Dr. James Thompson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) co-discovered a groundbreaking way to create embryonic-like stem cells, using only simple, run-of-the-mill adult cells, with no embryos involved. His method involves the insertion of four genes into ordinary adult cells, which triggers the cells to revert to an embryonic-like state.  In this state, the cells (known as iPS cells) can potentially be coaxed to become any cell type in the body – with enormous therapeutic potential to repair tissue damage from diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s. 

This breakthrough is great news for several reasons:  1) it avoids the ethical controversy associated with embryo research,  2) it frees iPS cell researchers from research funding constraints imposed by the Bush administration and from potential legal issues in states with restrictive laws on embryo research,  3) the apparent simplicity with which iPS cells can be created has triggered renewed interest in stem cell research, especially in using stem cells for drug testing (see article for an explanation of how this works).

In the article, however, Dr. Thompson cautions that even this new method does NOT remove the need to continue research using stem cells derived from embryos.  iPS cells are still being tested to see if they have all the properties of the embryonic type.  The genetic manipulations required to create iPS cells also have some researchers concerned about using these cells in people’s bodies.

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The country’s economic slump is affecting not only the housing and credit markets, but also individual American’s health care, as reported in this Washington Post article. Whereas health care was previously thought of as “immune” to recessions, recent hikes in insurance premiums have led to more Americans choosing higher-deductible plans with higher out-of-pocket costs. Patients are increasingly skipping doctor visits, postponing treatments, and looking for free samples of expensive drugs. Given what we know about the relatively low cost associated with preventing disease, compared to the high costs of treating advanced disease, this is indeed a disturbing trend.

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This Smithsonian Magazine article explores the power of genetics to reveal information about one’s ancestry, so-called “genetic geneology.”  The article tells the story of several Hispanic families who were revealed to have Jewish ancestry from Spain (in the 15th century, Spanish Jews were forced to either convert to Catholicism or flee the country). The link was made when women from these families were found to carry a genetic mutation that causes breast and ovarian cancer.  This particular mutation, known as 185delAG, is primarily found in women of Jewish descent.

If you are interested in learning more about the genetics of ancestry, Dr. Rick Kittles (University of Chicago) gave a 2007 lecture on this topic for the Illinois Humanities Council (view YouTube video: part 1 | part 2 | part 3).

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Science News reports that the North Pole’s Arctic ice sheet continues to melt at a rapid rate. In the last year alone, an area of ice approximately three times the size of Alaska was lost due to atmospheric warming. Arctic ice coverage has decreased by one-third since 1978, when satellite measurements of the Arctic ice sheet began.

The Science News article has a visually arresting year-by-year satellite photo animation of receding arctic ice. This year’s loss is especially significant near Alaska and Northern Russia.

The loss of Arctic and Antarctic ice has a variety of severe consequences, including rising ocean levels and harm to marine and land-based ecosystems. It’s worth noting that approximately half of the seafood consumed in the United States comes from the Bering Sea region around Alaska.  This fragile ecosystem is very much at risk because of warming oceans and loss of arctic ice (discussed in Dr. Richard Feely’s talkfrom Northwestern’s 2005 Global Warming symposium).

More information about sea ice is available at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Snow and Ice Data Center.

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