Category: Health and Medicine

An unusual keyword to say the least, but someone surfing the net found sciencebase with it. So, here’s a quick definition:

Progressive multifocal leukencephalopathy (PML) is rare but debilitating. It is an inflammatory response to viral infection observed in immunocompromised patients, such as AIDS sufferers. The inflammation leads to loss of the myelin that insulates nerves within the white matter of the brain. Visual defects, headaches, and speech/language problems result.

There is no dedicated treatment but AIDS patients undergoing therapy with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) often improve significantly.

Researchers have completed a survey of the invasive sea squirt colony on the Georges Bank. A wider area was searched for the sea squirt in 2005, and it was mapped over about twice the area observed in 2004. Results show that the species is present in two adjacent areas totaling 88 square miles in US waters near the US-Canada boundary. The very large mat-like colonies observed in 2004 have been replaced by fewer smaller ones. The Georges Bank occurrence is the largest known infestation of colonial sea squirts in a major offshore fishing ground.

And, doesn’t it lend itself to an oddly apt sounding GWB headline?

Is it squeamishness or superstition that makes the announcement from Newcastle University of plans to create a “three-parent” embryo controversial? I cannot see a profound difference between this kind of “non-natural” method of conception and any of the plethora of IVF and related treatments. They’re all non-natural when compared to the conventional approach to conception, after all.

However, the potential benefits of this new approach could be immense, when considered from the perspective of mitochondrial disease, which it seeks to prevent. So, what’s it to be non-natural and healthy or natural and not?

A neighbour approached a stranger who knocked on our front door three days in a row while we were on vacation. Apparently, my ferret had been sighted in the grounds of the local school! I was so relieved…except that I don’t own a ferret. I can only asusme that there was some transient overlap with the parallel universe in which I do own a ferret…either that or the world’s gone mad (more likely).

It’s not something I can claim as my own really, but my name was an answer on the US TV show Final Jeopardy some time ago. Apparently, the associated question was “Who invented the computer reset ‘Control-Alt-Delete’?” Well, it wasn’t me, but it was my namesake at IBM during the early 1980s. And, where would we all be without him? Stuck in an endless blue screen of death state I reckon.

Sciencebase reader “Dr Viswanath K” contacted me today with the following question: “What type of cell in the hypothalamus controls epidermopoisis/epidermokinetics?”.

There’s absolsutely no way I can claim to be an expert in this area, although I could ask an expert and provide definitions of those two terms and perhaps find a description of the types of cell involved. However, I am sure there is at least one Sciencebase reader out there who knows that answer. Feel free to leave a comment on the subject if you have any insights.