"Engine" of coral reefs revealed

A team of coral researchers at Heron Island has compiled a gene expression library of Symbiodinium, the dinoflagellate responsible for feeding coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef.

Team member Professor David Yellowlees said:

... these microscopic algae are quite weird and unlike any other lifeform. They have different photosynthetic machinery from all other light harvesting organisms. They have 100 times more DNA than we do and we have no idea why such a small organism needs so much. They really are like no other living creature we know.

The gene expression library will help shed light on what happens when Symbiodinium is stressed and how the symbiotic relationship between it and the coral it feeds is formed or broken. Heat, increased carbon dioxide and pollutants all affect this relationship, so this research is vital for the preservation of the Great Barrier Reef -- the world's largest superorganism and one of Australia's greatest treasures -- as well as other reefs around the world.

Eureka!

The Eureka prize was presented last night and included a nanotechnology "magic bullet" for heart disease (Levon Khachigian of UNSW, one of my almae matres). Nanotech might make some of us nervous (OK, it makes me nervous) but clinical trials are so rigorous these days, we can hope that it's in the arena of medicine that they'll be safest and least likely to take over the world.

In any case, Khachigian's "nanoassassins" are enzymes that can turn off bad genes, known as DNAzymes, and without the side effects that other drugs cause. Good one.

The full list of winners can be found in the link above (in the title of this post).

A cautionary tale

The obesity "epidemic" isn't just a concern during people's lifetime -- there are even problems after death. The current issue of the MJA contains a letter reporting the difficulties that obese and morbidly obese bodies cause for morgue staff and equipment. Lifting these corpses, some with a BMI of over 50, can be a serious OH&S issue. And it gets worse:

Putrefaction is hastened in morbidly obese individuals, and associated skin slippage and purging makes the bodies even more difficult to handle.

Humans are notoriously squeamish about what happens to their bodies after death. I think doctors should be capitalising on this to help paint the gruesome picture of life and death for the obese. Perhaps it might encourage some to improve their health during their lifetime.