Allergy, Genetics

Filaggrin makes its way

A 3rd paper in nature genetics details the filaggrin gene structure: exon 3 has 10 repeats (as well as three variants FLG8+, FLG10+, FLF8+10+) and 15 SNPs – one of the few success stories in allergy research. In the discussion section, they ask the rhetoric question:

This study raises questions of interest to the complex trait field. Would SNP tagging of these multiple, relatively rare alleles, with frequencies no greater than 0.013, have readily identified this particularly strong susceptibility gene?

Nay, nay.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Allergy

When are we being sensitized?

JACI has a paper in press that addresses this important question. The background is that allergen induced T-cell reactivitiy has been shown in cord blood – a strong argument that sensitization occurs transplacentally. Genotyping of these cells confirmed their fetal origin. It is unclear, however, if this is only a transient (normal?) reaction – and mothers want to know if they need to avoid for example peanuts during pregnancy. Rowe et al. now arrive at a clear conclusion Continue reading When are we being sensitized? →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Philosophy, Software

Search for crystals

First monday has an interesting paper on the 100 most visited Wikipedia pages for the period of September 2006 to January 2007 (Wikipedia is the ninth most visited site in the U.S. with 43 million visitors). The crystal search link in the paper does not work but the table reports that science ranks at place 5 – not too bad.

crystal3.jpgcrystal2.jpgcrystal1.jpg

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Allergy

PDF batch printing

I have been batch printing PDFs for years with the built-in macro function of the Adobe Reader. For any unknown reason this doesn´t work anymore with my current OS / PDF / printer combination. The printer queue is always stuck or even detaches. I have therefore looked for a solution to delay the printing process. Most print utilitites do not help as I can´t delay spooling of print jobs. Here is my final solution – I am starting Acrobat first and send by DDE in long intervals a print command via pdfp

print.cmd
|wj_print.cmd|

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Allergy, Vitamins

The sunshine cure

Nature medicine news has a short text about the sunshine cure.

The strongest evidence available is perhaps for the vitamin’s protective role in MS. Several studies have documented a dramatic ‘sunshine belt’ […] Latitude also seems to play a role in the incidence of hormone-dependent cancers. […] The effect is almost certainly because of vitamin D, Feldman says. “People tend to think it can’t do all these things when it’s a vitamin,” notes Feldman. “It’s not a vitamin, it’s a hormone.”

As always there seems no fun without risk. We could add links to arteriosclerosis and allergy.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Theology

Science and religion

Wikiquote has already a large collection:

* “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” – Albert Einstein

* “The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me purely factitious, fabricated on the one hand by short-sighted religious people, who confound […] theology with religion; and on the other by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension.” – Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), “The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature” (1885)

Continue reading Science and religion →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025
Uncategorized

Global awareness layer

The United States Holocaust Museum has just released “Crisis in Darfur” an online mapping project together with Google Earth. If you zoom in on Africa, you will find a lot of flames that may be clicked for more information.

In 2004 the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a genocide emergency for Darfur, Sudan. To date about 2,500,000 civilians, targeted because of their ethnic or racial identity, have been driven from their homes, more than 300,000 people killed, and more than 1,600 villages destroyed by Sudanese government soldiers and government-backed militias, known as the “Janjaweed.” More than 200,000 Sudanese are refugees in neighboring Chad. The crisis continues as thousands more die each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, health care, and shelter in a harsh desert environment.

Continue reading Global awareness layer →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 26.10.2025