Four aspects of ‘humaniqueness’

A new study at Harvard University has shed light on the key differences in human and animal cognition.
Marc Hauser, professor of psychology, biological anthropology, and organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences proposed four key differences in human and animal cognition. “Animals share many of the building blocks that comprise human thought, but paradoxically, there is a great cognitive gap between humans and animals,” he said.

“By looking at key differences in cognitive abilities, we find the elements of human cognition that are uniquely human. The challenge is to identify which systems animals and human share, which are unique, and how these systems interact and interface with one another,” he added.

The four novel components are the ability to combine and recombine different types of information and knowledge in order to gain new understanding; to apply the same “rule” or solution to one problem to a different and new situation; to create and easily understand symbolic representations of computation and sensory input; and to detach modes of thought from raw sensory and perceptual input.

Genetic pathway to ageing

Like rust, oxidative stress chips away at healthy cells and contributes to a host of medical problems such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke and cancer, besides ageing.

But now a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have reported the discovery of a gene pathway that protects cells from the oxidative process.

A key enzyme in the new pathway, dubbed Star-PAP by its Wisconsin discoverers, regulates the production of a relatively small number of proteins and enzymes in cells, an article in the latest issue of the journal Nature says.
The Wisconsin group found the pathway contains a genetic “on-off” switch for a key protein known as heme oxygenase-1, an agent that protects cells from oxidative stress.

The finding is important because it could some day enable genetic manipulation or the development of
novel drugs to thwart disease.

Maths & hospital infections

Scientists have created a new mathematical model that deals with different approaches to combat hospital-acquired infections from dual-resistant bacteria.

This model has suggested that antimicrobial cycling and patient isolation may be effective approaches when patients are harbouring dual-resistant bacteria.

In the time of ‘superbugs’ such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA), and with increasing public awareness and concern over bacterial infections, this type of modelling, if used to develop policies and treatment
protocols, may reduce dual drug-resistant infections in hospitals.

The research was presented by Castillo-Chavez, a mathematical epidemiologist in Arizona State
University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. The research was an extension of an undergraduate honours thesis by Karen C Chow, now a graduate student at ASU, in collaboration with his postdoctoral research associate Xiaohong Wang.

Young dads: babies at risk

Teenage fathers are at an increased risk of having children born with birth-related problems that could even lead to death at the time of delivery, a research has suggested.

“Our study indicated that being a teenage father was an independent risk factor for adverse birth outcomes, whereas advanced paternal age was not,” said Shi Wu Wen, one of the authors of the landmark study.

“It is biologically plausible that paternal age might play a role in the risk of adverse birth outcomes associated with abnormal placentation,” said Wen, scientist at the Ottawa Health Research Institute.

The study, the largest on the effects of paternal age on adverse birth outcomes, suggested that babies of teenage fathers are at an increased risk of having problems ranging from pre-term delivery or low birth weight, through to death in or near to the time of delivery, the Science Daily online reported.

After adjusting for confounding factors, the study found that babies born to teenage fathers (aged less than 20) were more likely to be born early (a 15 per cent increased risk), have low birth weight (13 per cent increased risk), be small for gestational age (17 per cent increased risk), have a low Apgar score (13 per cent increased risk) or to die within the first four weeks after birth (22 per cent increased risk) or to die in the period from four weeks to one year after birth (41 per cent increased risk).