Two new exhibits will open at the AMNH this weekend. See the descriptions from the AMNH website below and check out the websites for more information.

Journey to the Stars

Academy Award–winning actress Whoopi Goldberg will narrate the American Museum of Natural History’s spectacular new Hayden Planetarium Space Show, Journey to the Stars, which opens to the public at the Museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space on Saturday, July 4, 2009. This is the latest Space Show produced by the Museum since the opening of the Rose Center for Earth and Space almost ten years ago, on February 19, 2000.



Journey to the Stars launches visitors through time and space to experience the life and death of the stars in our night sky. Audiences travel 13 billion years into the past, when the first stars were born, and witness brilliant supernova explosions that sent new kinds of matter coursing through the universe, into the atoms of our own bodies and the air we breathe. They visit the heart of our fiery Sun, and glimpse its eventual demise as it transforms into a massive red giant some five billion years in the future. Visitors tour stellar formations, explore new celestial mysteries, and discover the fascinating, unfolding story that connects us all to the stars. 



Journey To The Stars, written by Emmy award winner Louise A. Gikow with a score by Robert Miller, follows Cosmic Collisions (2006) narrated by Robert Redford, The Search for Life: Are We Alone? (2002) narrated by Harrison Ford, and Passport to the Universe (2000) narrated by Tom Hanks.

Beavers

Beavers follows a pair of these industrious creatures as they leave the shelter of their colony in search of a site to build a new home. The film chronicles their daily activities and the dangers they face as they find a site, build a dam, and start their own family.

When it was released in 1988, the giant screen production Beavers brought audiences closer than ever to the shy, mysterious creatures that have been steadfastly reshaping the landscapes of the planet for eons. Still in exhibition more than twenty years later, Beavers has become a cinema classic and world-wide family favorite. In 1989 it was awarded the Jury Prize and was co-winner of the Public Prize at the Second International Giant Screen Festival at La Geode, Paris; and in 2004, the film was inducted into the Maximum Image Hall of Fame by IMAX® theaters from around the world.

It seems on the 4th there is more to celebrate than just Independence Day.

There has been a bit of a buzz in regards to a recent NY Times article, which discusses some fallbacks in the NIH funding system. According to the article, most grants that are funded in the field of cancer research tend to be those that aren’t too risky, but have less potential for high impact. In turn, it seems that those who have big ideas, which require big bucks, often have to look for funding outside of the NIH.

But the NIH does recognize these fallbacks. The article also discusses some recent changes to the NIH funding system, which put in place pioneer awards designated to those who propose high impact but high risk projects. However, these grants are also funded at a low level (3-5%, according to the article) despite many of the applications being described as “fantastic.”

So this brings me to my point. I think we all agree that the NIH funding systems isn’t perfect, but in general, I’d say it works pretty sufficiently. It isn’t too often that you read of the NIH funding bad research, due in part, to the peer-review system and high standards set in place for scientists. Good science is rewarded in our current system. I’d say the major problem is a lack of funds. This makes funding rates lower and causes many good scientists to loose funding. Even though science has had a good year so far, even the challenge grants appear to be a lottery.

So what are we to do? As a scientist-in-training, I often wonder this. Good advice tells us to persevere and the article reminds us to also look beyond the NIH for funding. But now I turn to you Nature Networkers. In hard times, how were you able to weather the storm and continue doing your research?

I am always impressed with the wide array of interesting research coming out of New York City. Below are a few of the latest highlights.

Argonaute HITS–CLIP decodes microRNA–mRNA interaction maps

Sung Wook Chi, Julie B. Zang, Aldo Mele & Robert B. Darnell

Rockefeller University

University Press Release

Nature Article

Mitochondrial STAT3 Supports Ras-Dependent Oncogenic Transformation

Daniel J. Gough, Alicia Corlett, Karni Schlessinger, Joanna Wegrzyn, Andrew C. Larner and David E. Levy

NYU Medical Center

University Press Release

Science Article

Gastrin Is an Essential Cofactor for Helicobacter-Associated Gastric Corpus Carcinogenesis in C57BL/6 Mice

Shigeo Takaishi, Shuiping Tu, Zinaida A. Dubeykovskaya, Mark T. Whary, Sureshkumar Muthupalani, Barry H. Rickman, Arlin B. Rogers, Nantaporn Lertkowit, Andrea Varro, James G. Fox and Timothy C. Wang

Columbia University Medical. Center

University Press Release

American Journal of Pathology Article

It isn’t too often that you hear about the beneficial aspects of obesity. So when I saw a NY Times article with the title Obesity May Have Offered Edge Over TB I was intrigued. The article discusses a commentary published this week in JAMA by Jesse Roth, MD of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Roth suggests that the proinflammatory responses triggered by obesity may have been protective against tuberculosis. In particular, Roth makes the case that increased levels of the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a proinflammatory marker that increases with obesity, is a potent anti-tuberculosis factor. To support his claim, Roth points out that therapeutic treatments that decrease TNF activity are associated with increased risk of tuberculosis reactivation.

Roth then goes on to discuss that the obese subgroup likely had a selective advantage over the general population, and that may be the reason why so many people are prone to metabolic diseases today. In essence, this adds a new element to the thrifty gene hypothesis, suggesting that obesity was not only protective in times of famine but it was also protective against infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.

But we must not confuse association with causation. While Roth makes some interesting speculations about the effects of obesity on tuberculosis and how selective pressure has favored this group, the evidence provided is not causal. Roth reinforces this in his concluding remarks where he writes, “it is important to recognize that theoretical constructs, no matter how logical, may yield conclusions that are not correct.” In my opinion, it is more likely that sedentary lifestyle and calorie-dense diets are the major contributors to the array of metabolic diseases we know today. Nonetheless, it is difficult to tease out the genetic versus environmental components of metabolic diseases and it is likely that both play their part in contributing to metabolic syndromes.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that thanks to Barry we now have a twitter account. You can follow us here, where we will be tweeting our blog posts and NY science news/events for the NN community and beyond. Thanks Barry!

What happens when you mix astrophysicists, a giant balloon, a telescope and a filmmaker? You get BLAST!, an exciting film which follows a team of astrophysicists as they attempt to build and launch a high-altitude balloon-borne telescope above the atmosphere. Directed by Paul Devlin, this film follows his brother, Mark Devlin, Ph.D. and his colleagues, around the world on their journey.

Devlin’s team seeks to gather information about how the universe formed. Because the speed of light is finite and the universe is so large, it takes billions of years for information from distant galaxies to reach earth. Unfortunately, collecting this information can be difficult due to cosmic dust, which obscures our ability to see the universe. Among this cosmic dust is evidence of the youngest stars, which radiate sub-millimeter light. Thus, by using a special type of camera that can detect sub-millimeter light, we can see through the cosmic dust, essentially looking at the universe in its infancy. Enter BLAST, a *B*alloon-borne, *L*arge *A*perture, *S*ub-millimeter *T*elescope that will be raised above the atmosphere to take these pictures.

While BLAST is beautifully simple in design, the film follows the team of scientists as they work for over six years in the construction and launch of the telescope, and all the unpredictable events that go along with it. They travel to the most remote parts of the world, leaving behind their families and their lives, all for the sake of science. This film takes an in depth look at the hard work and dedication it takes to complete a project of this nature, examining both the successes and failures of the scientific process. The film does a wonderful job of keeping the complex scientific topics understandable for all types of viewers; thus, allowing you to connect with the scientists on a personal level. I found this film very interesting and enjoyable and encourage you to see it. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Hurry! The film is only showing in New York through June 18th at the Cinema Village theater. Get your tickets today, so you don’t miss out on this fantastic film.

Contrary to popular belief, it seems good things come in threes. I recently attended my third event at the World Science Festival titled Time Since Einstein. As the title suggests, this event examined the progression of physical thought in the field of time since Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

The panel consisted of six members. David Albert is a Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University where he researches the nature of time. Sean Carroll is a Senior Research Associate at the California Institute of Technology where he researches theoretical physics, focusing on cosmology, field theory, particle physics and gravitation. George Ellis is a cosmologist and professor of mathematics at the University of Capetown. He also co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space Time with Stephen Hawking. Michael Heller is a Philosophy Professor at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow, Poland where his research involves the intersection of physics, philosophy and theology in describing the nature of time. Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara is from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics where she works to develop models on the flow of time. The last member of the panel, Roger Penrose, is a distinguished author (The Nature of Space and Time, which he co-authored with Stephen Hawking) and professor at the University of Oxford where he made contributions in studying the arrow of time.

Work in the field of time in the post-Einsteinian era has left many questions unanswered. We are still unsure if time even has a beginning, particularly because we can’t determine what happened in the moments before the big bang (before the existence of time). Additionally, if we can’t determine if time has a beginning, how can we know if it has an end? More importantly, is time symmetric, or is it asymmetric as described by the arrow of time?

In essence, modern physics is still trying to unite Quantum Theory and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Physicists are using quantum mechanics to address post-Einsteinian questions of time. From the panel discussion, it seems that physicists agree that time is a direction in space, but the uncertainties that exist within quantum mechanics still cannot be explained. Many theories have been put forth, the most famous of which was proposed by Stephen Hawking himself.

So it seems that time is still debatable. Luckily we have many bright physicists working very hard to answer these complex questions, and they have all the time in the world. Right?

It’s scary but true. As our climate continues to change, we will likely see more severe weather patterns across the globe. In particular, higher temperatures and rising sea levels will make both floods and droughts more frequent. But what can be done? Are there solutions to these problems? Last night I attended another World Science Festival event titled Rising Waters in a Thirsty World, which discussed the immanent effects of climate change, such as a lack of drinking water and more dangerous storms, and ways we can help to curb these events.

The panel consisted of four members with diverse backgrounds. Radley Horton is a climatologist at the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University. Geographer William Solecki is the director of CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities. Maude Barlow is an environmental activist and author of 16 best-selling books, including some recent publications on the water crisis. She is also the Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly. Finally, Dickson Despommier is a medical ecologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where he developed the idea of urban faming.

The first part of the discussion examined the implications of climate change on both a local and global level. If sea levels were to rise even one meter, low lying urban areas, such as New York City, would be more susceptible to severe weather patterns. This is mainly due to rising temperatures globally, which causes water to expand and mountain glaciers to melt. However, it is also due to small changes in the actual height of the land we live on (which, in the New York area, sinks about 4 inches per century) and variations in the ocean height due to the Gulf Stream. So a smaller, more frequent storm may have a greater impact on an area such as New York City. Additionally, changes in the hydrologic cycle through excessive pollution of water, using pipelines to transport water out of its natural ecosystem and over-pumping of water out of watersheds is also a cause for concern. Presently, more areas are being desertified than ever before as a consequence of overuse and displacement of water.

But we can all help. The impact of climate change on water is a local phenomenon. You can do your part to limit water use. Buying locally grown foods helps to cut down on water and energy use. Planting a rooftop garden is a great way make up for the green area your apartment building covered up. Both of these small efforts can help to reduce your ecological footprint.

Finally, the panel also discussed actions that need to be carried out on a larger scale. There should be tax incentives for green technology. As a society, we must focus on restoring watersheds, recycling waste water and seeing water as a public trust and a human right. Only with efforts on both a local and societal level can we expect to sustain our most precious resource.

Last night I attended my very first World Science Festival event. I have to say, it was very impressive. The topic was the Transparent Brain, in which a panel of neuroscientists discussed several cutting edge technologies used to visualize neurophysiological processes.

First up was Dr. John-Dylan Haynes who uses fMRI to decode thoughts, emotions and memory. Ultimately, Haynes hopes to pinpoint areas of neural activity in the brain in order to understand how to encode thoughts. Haynes described an experiment in his laboratory in which subjects were asked to push a button on either the left or right side of them, while being scanned in an fMRI. In addition to pushing the button, subjects were also asked to remember the instant at which they made the decision to choose the left or right button, by coordinating it with a letter on a screen in front of them. Haynes then examined the neural activity of the subjects prior to the decision to determine if they could accurately predict whether the subject would choose the left or right button.

Also using fMRI, Dr. Frank Tong discussed his work, which aims to understand how visual thoughts are represented in the brain. Presently, Tong and his colleagues are examining one of the most basic units of pattern recognition, orientation. While both Tong’s and Haynes’ work may seem rudimentary in comparison with the sci-fi mind reading devices we have seen in movies, understanding the building blocks of how pattern recognition occurs is critical to understanding how the brains functions. The panelists repeatedly stressed that their work is still in its infancy, but the prospects for growth in this field of research are strong.

Another panelist, Dr. John Donoghue uses multielectrode recording arrays to develop therapies for paralysis patients. Donoghue is the developer of BrainGate, a technology which uses electrodes to sense action potentials of neurons and decodes these neural signals in order to control a cursor on a computer screen. In plain terms, the chip is placed into the patient’s head and, through recognition of electro-magnetic signals in the brain, a computer is able to interpret these signals into a command. Thus, by thinking about clicking an icon on a screen, the patient is able to do so (in a similar fashion to the way you move your limbs). Again, Donoghue stressed that this technology is still quite young, but the therapeutic possibilities are promising.

Finally, neuroethicist Dr. Paul Root Wolpe discussed potential legal and ethical issues that may arise in the near future, as a result of advanced brain imaging techniques. What happens if brain imaging is able to determine is someone is lying or not? In order to be valid in a court of law, how accurate would this technology need to be? If you can look into someone’s brain, is that a violation of the Fifth Amendment? Could fMRI image be used to determine if someone is abnormal in a court of law, allowing a defendant to claim insanity? All of these questions will need to be addressed as brain imaging techniques develop. It is likely that we will see more of these issues in the future, as neurophysiological research is advancing rapidly.

Live in the New York area? Have an interest in marketing your research? If so, Bioentrepreneur can offer you a wealth of information. I recently spoke with the editor Brady Huggett about the site. Also, they recently launched a forum on Nature Network. Check it out!

What is Bioentrepreneur?

I think Bioentrepreneur can best be described as an online portal that aims to provide resources for researchers hoping to commercialize their work. Though we also feel it is useful for anyone working for or at start-up life science companies. We find experienced biotech insiders to impart advice and pass down what they’ve learned working in this industry.

What aspects of launching a startup does bioentrepreneur cover?

We break our content into six categories: Entrepreneurship, IP/Tech Transfer, Finance, Business Development, Partnering/Licensing, and Regional Initiatives. Each article deals with an aspect of one

category. For example, Ron Cohen’s article (and Meet the Author talk) went into the “Finance” category, though he certainly touched on entrepreneurship, as well.

How can bioentrepreneur aid a young scientist looking to commercialize their research?

The site offers a range of personal insight and advice from people who have done it all – lawyers, founders, former CEOs, venture capitalists and accountants, to name a few. Some articles deal with broad topics – raising funds, perhaps – while others are more specific. If you’re looking for information on how to file your taxes in the United Kingdom, for example, you’ll find an article on that. If you’re planning on moving your biotech lab across the country, you’ll find an article on that, too.

How can a scientist connect with the bioentrepreneur community in their area? Specifically, is there a bioentrepreneur community here in New York?

There is a biotech community here in NY, though it’s smaller than in the big biotech hubs (such as the Bay Area or in the Boston area). That doesn’t mean it isn’t increasing, and plenty of people are behind trying to foster growth in both New York City and the state. A good first stop for not only resources but also community would be the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA). You can find them here.

How can a local scientist get more involved with bioentrepreneur?

We’re always looking for article ideas, and we always want to know what information scientists need when considering commercializing their work. To propose an article idea, offer feedback or even consider writing

something for us, you can reach us at bioentrepreneur@natureny.com.