All posts by admin

Why we didn´t find the asthma gene

The J Int Med has a symposium series about the “origins of the developmental origins theory” scienceblog:doi:10.1111/j.1365-2796.2007.01809.x or the so called “Barker hypothesis” Continue reading Why we didn´t find the asthma gene

A sense for justice

Hans-Werner Bierhoff (in a recent ZEIT interview) believes that our ability to recognise a punishment as fair/just or not fair/just depends on social norms. The ultimate driving force to sense justice, however, seems to be an inborn trait. I even believe in a QTL – a quantitative trait that can clearly defined and even mapped some time to distinct genetic variants.
Monkeys reject unequal pay (scienceblog:doi:10.1038/nature01963:) in the famous Brosnan study – why should humans do?
More details may be found at tit-for-tat.

The third largest problem in epidemiology

Some people are writing their diaries on the web (“blogs”), other are sharing photos (“flickr”), their social background (“big brother”) or are broadcasting themselves (“YouTube”); others let you trace their current location (“twitter”) or look at their desktops (“wakoopa”) or computer files (“BitTorrent”). Why is it still so difficult to run an epidemiological study with an adequate response rate? Is that excessive profiling a minority habit only?

On the fast lane

Thanks to C.S.J. for telling me about the studies of Robert Levine and others.

The pace of life in cities around the world is literally getting faster, a study shows.
Psychologists have measured the speed at which people walk and discovered a 10 per cent increase in the past decade. The findings, from 32 countries, reflect the increasing numbers of people living in the fast lane.

The page above Continue reading On the fast lane

Osteopontin bridging air pollution and immunology of allergic inflammation

Ostepopontin (OPN) is a remarkable substance. The many aliases already point towards a multitude of biological functions: SPP1=secreted phosphoprotein 1, BSPI 1=bone sialoprotein-1, CIT, ETA-1, GC110940, nephropontin, osteoprotegerin, uropontin, bone sialoprotein I, early T-lymphocyte activation among others. Continue reading Osteopontin bridging air pollution and immunology of allergic inflammation

Asthma no more a disease but a symptom

There already some rumors – an earlier Lancet perspective named asthma a symptom “like fever” (scienceblog:doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69271-4:). A new editorial now compares it to “diarrhea” Continue reading Asthma no more a disease but a symptom

Ca2+ and IgE

Two decades ago, 10% calcium gluconate had been recommended for the treatment of anaphylaxis (couldn’t find any explanation for that but renember one of my teachers saying it will stabilize the membranes). There is now an update in scienceblog:doi:10.1038/ni1441: Continue reading Ca2+ and IgE

Where do I come from, where will I go

The fate of an individual cell in the human body is a mystery. A new Nature paper now provides a follow up of single cells of the epithelial cell layer. It is certainly a paper that will rank among the top 10 this year, Continue reading Where do I come from, where will I go

Human head with wrong orientation?

There was a funny comment by Friedemann Schrenk in a recent radio duo podcast [link to br online] that the human head sits with a wrong orientation on the human body as the pipelines for food and air cross over. Continue reading Human head with wrong orientation?