Editorial notes:
To understand the Meta paragraph below you need to read Shai’s Priorities post where he discusses his own methodology for researching and acquiring knowledge. The Meta description below is an instance where Shai follows his own – previously documented – methodology.
Meta: This is a pseudo-diary of my impressions readings Science 09/08. This was initiated by a first pass, wherein I browsed or perused the entire journal, during which I harvested those pages that I considered worthy of further attention. This collection was once more browsed and selected, and then bookmarked into a “First Pass” folder. That brings the project to this particular point, during which each bookmark from the First-Pass is to be perused and thoughts documented.
The journal is Science 9 August 2013 Vol. 341 no. 6416. Each bookmark that is given space here will be identified by its (starting) page, and selectively also its title and some meta-data (e.g. author, category).
I. P599: Palaeoclimatology: “How to Make a Great Ice Age, Again and Again, and Again”: This NEWS & ANALYSIS piece (N&A) regards the old question as to why the Earth undergoes periodic ice-ages, and that seem to end relatively quickly. It had already been known that somehow involved were the 100,000-years cycle in the Earth’s orbit’s stretching; but this alone is insufficient. New work has modelled this cycle, with a 28,000-year wobble of the Earth’s spin axis, showing that the former amplifies the latter. That is just one part of the answer. The second, explains also why it is that the ice-age melts in a matter of 1000’s of years; the vast North American ice-sheet is so large and heavy that it sinks at least a kilometre into solid earth, and thus when it melts, it is melting deep holes wherein the atmosphere becomes warmer with depth, producing a warming and melting feedback.
II-III There were a pair of distressing N&A articles regarding nefarious political interference with the scientific process, including punitive legalities employed against individual scientists. The first of these (P603) describes 6 Turkish scientists who received prison sentences for crimes including alleged terrorism, treason, and “insulting Turkishness”; sentences ranged from 10 to 23 years! The government has claimed that these scientists are part of a conspiracy it has been targeting since 2008, linked to a secular organization named “Ergenekon” with plans for overthrowing the government. This is only the most heinous and recent of the government’s crimes. Other examples include an archaeologist who lost her position editing a journal after running a special edition celebrating Charles Darwin. The other N&A (P604) piece regards an effort by Republicans in the U.S. to subpoena confidential data from the EPA. The data in contention relates to studies that have found that fine particle pollutants are responsible for various lethal medical conditions, and was included amongst the studies cited by the EPA when it tightened soot standards December 2012. A Democrat accused the Republicans of wanting the data so that they could pass them on to “industry hacks”, and noted that they were only requesting a study small enough that would be possible to de-anonymise, and had not requested 1000’s of pages other peer-reviewed supporting data (which the Democrat then provided to the meeting). The subpoena is for August 19.
IV. There is a very hopeful work being done on a novel malaria vaccine. I read the N&A (P605), but the original paper is published here too, through Science Express Online: “Protection Against Malaria by Intravenous Immunization with a Nonreplicating Sporozoite Vaccine”: First of all, it’s worth getting a feel for how the leading vaccine candidate is performing in trials; “RTS,S” contains a single surface protein from the Plasmodium falciparum (i.e. a species of the parasite that is carried by mosquitoes and that causes malaria) sporozoite (i.e. the spore-like and infective stage of the parasite). Stage III trials reported in November 2012 only found protection between 31-56% (for between younger v.s. older babies and toddlers). The new approach has been driven by the theory that single-protein based vaccines will never be sufficient against a 5000-gene parasite. It has then taken inspiration from a 1970’s study that found 90% of volunteers were protected after being bitten over 1000 times by irradiated (and so ostensibly weakened) parasite-infected mosquitoes. To mimic this approach, but in a more controlled manner, it is necessary to dissect the salivary glands of the irradiated mosquitoes. The derived, purified formulation underwent disappointing stage I trials when injected under the skin. But by October 2011 animal studies indicated that an IV injection could be far more efficient. This was trialled in adults recently, with promising results: only 0/6 receiving 5-doses and 3/9 receiving 4-doses developed malaria (after controlled exposure). As seems ubiquitous in science (especially translational science), there are good reasons for being cautious. Most significantly are the small numbers involved; consider also that 1/6 non-vaccinated volunteer did neither develop malaria; consider also that in one of the earliest RTS,S study, 6/7 adults were protected by the vaccine – a level never reproduced. Other worries are hurdles that need to be overcome if this vaccine is ever to become marketable: (1) Is it viable against multiple parasite species and strains? (2) The laborious dissection of the salivary glands needs to be made automated. (3) This vaccine requires liquid nitrogen storage, unlike traditional vaccines used in developing countries. (4) It is difficult to find veins in young children, especially if multiple doses need be given. Nonetheless, even with these problems, it seems likely that as a product it could easily serve soldiers and travellers, and also be valuable in areas where malaria is a dense killer or where malaria is close to being eradicated already. In the meanwhile, anyway, these hurdles are all being addressed, and several small trials are to begin in Africa, Germany, and the United States.
