Mary likes the lovely images at the Kahi Kai site, so maybe we’ll see more marine invertebrates appearing here.
Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Cuddly
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Mary likes the lovely images at the Kahi Kai site, so maybe we’ll see more marine invertebrates appearing here.
Because when you’re exposed, you look like an even more gargantuan idiot and pathetic narcissist. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has been discovered to have tried to pad his reputation with a fake ID … he’s used the pseudonym “PlannedChaos” to go around the web praising Scott Adams as a “certified genius”.
You know, it’s a good rule of thumb that if you have to announce that you’re a genius, you aren’t a genius.
I’ve been remarking on Adams’ stupidity for years. He’s a creationist apologist who doesn’t understand science, and the kind of insipid apologist for religion who thinks Pascal’s wager is a good argument. It’s no surprise that he had to cobble up imaginary sycophants to make himself look good.
And then, of course, there’s the classic, standard Adams riposte whenever he’s exposed as a fool. Sure, he said something stupid, he’ll say, but he did it because he’s funny and you are even dumber for taking him seriously. It’s no surprise that that is his response now.
I’m sorry I peed in your cesspool. For what it’s worth, the smart people were on to me after the first post. That made it funnier.
That schtick wore out ages ago.
I’m not home yet. I’m still in Hawaii, relaxing for a bit after the Society for Developmental Biology conference. After this, though, it’s a storm of events every weekend for quite some time. Here’s my schedule:
21-24 April: Des Moines, IA, the American Atheists national convention.
29 April: Oswego NY, the SUNY Oswego Secular Student Alliance.
7 May: Kamloops, BC, Imagine No Religion conference.
13 May: Philadelphia, PA, the anti-superstition bash.
21 May: Washington, DC, Jamie Kilstein and I are setting Washington DC on fire.
28 May: Morris, MN. I’m staying home and getting some rest. You may think you see a hole in my schedule, but no! Leave me alone!
3-5 June: Dublin, Ireland, World Atheist convention.
6 June: Glasgow, Scotland, Skeptics in the Pub.
7 June: Brighton, England, Skeptics in the Pub.
8 June: London, England, Atheism UK.
Then I get a little break before a few summer events I’ll mention later. I’ve just told you what I’ll be doing every weekend for the next two months, isn’t that enough?
The American Journal of Surgery has published a transcript of a presidential address titled, “Can prayer help surgery?“, and my first thought was that that was absolutely brilliant — some guy was roped into giving a big speech at a convention, and he picked a topic where he could stand up, say “NO,” and sit back down again. If he wanted to wax eloquent, maybe he could add a “Don’t be silly” to his one word address.
But a reader sent me a copy of this paper, and I was wrong. The author spent four pages saying “Yes”. It flies off to cloud cuckoo land in the very first sentence, which compares prayer to “chemotherapy and radiation as adjuvant therapies to surgery, working synergistically to cure cancers”, and then justifies it by pointing out that patients do internet searches for alternatives to surgery, and prayer is a popular result. So, right there in the first paragraph, we get the Argument from Extravagant Assertion and the Argument from Google. It’s not a good start.
This was given at a professional conference, though, so he has to talk about the data, and this is where it starts getting funny. He explains that there sure have been a lot of prayer studies lately, 855 in the past 15 years, and with 46 prospective randomized series in the Cochrane database, which he summarizes succinctly:
Equal healing benefit has been demonstrated whether the prayer is Hindu or Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim.
That’s the way to spin the data into something positive. Unfortunately, this is the happy peak of his foray into actually looking at the data, putting a cheerful universalist twist on the actual results, which he later grudgingly admits are non-existent. When they all show no benefit, that is equal benefit, after all.
Can medical science prove the benefit of prayer to im- prove the result of an operation? I refer you to the latest Cochrane review on this topic.5 This 69-page manuscript is a meta-analysis of 10 prospective randomized studies on intercessory prayer to help the efforts of modern medicine involving over 7,000 patients. Some studies in this meta- analysis showed benefit, while others did not. The conclusion of the authors was that there is no indisputable proof that intercessory prayer lowers surgical complications or improves mortality rates.
That’s the point where he should have stopped and stood down. The science has answered his question, and the answer is no. Unfortunately, this admission is at the top of page two, and he’s going to go on and on. He rants that the studies all basically suck — there can’t be good controls, people would pray for themselves, they didn’t check how devout the prayers were, and of course, that most excellent catch-all refutation, “What happens when the outcome being prayed for is not in accord with the will of God?”
The paper can be summarized so far as an argument that prayer helps because there have been a lot of studies on it, and those studies all show equal benefit, but that benefit is zero, and the studies are all bad science. How can his thesis be saved? Oh, I know: needs more anecdotes.
There is no indisputable proof that prayer can aid in healing. Those who believe do so by faith alone. I’ve seen the power of prayer work together with surgery many times firsthand. An example of this was witnessing my father-in-law miraculously survive an aortic arch dissection, outliving his surgeon by 20 years.
Wait, what? The family prayed, a skilled surgeon saved the patient, so prayer works? And also, from this one story, shouldn’t we just as reasonably conclude that prayer kills surgeons?
The rest of the paper is empty noise about how many patients want to pray and how it makes them feel better emotionally, and how the author is wonderfully open and supportive in praying with his patients. Meandering over the field of anecdote and citing his patients’ wishful thinking does not rescue his premise from the pit of rejection, I’m afraid; the only accurate answer to the question of whether prayer helps in surgery is “No, but people like to think it does.” It certainly doesn’t justify the author’s conclusion.
So, have I answered the question, “Can prayer help surgery?” While there is not conclusive scientific proof that prayer improves surgical outcomes, it certainly can help
relax an anxious preoperative patient and may help enhance the relationship between patient and surgeon. A surgeon must be comfortable with prayer to offer it. Professionalism can be maintained provided the prayer is offered in a non- confrontational manner and reflects the spirituality of the patient. Surgeons who want the best for their patients need to utilize every tool available, and to quote one of my patients, “Prayer is a powerful tool.”
Nah. Let me add a better quote: “The author is a powerful fool.” If he actually escaped unscathed from this address without being splattered by flung rubber chicken and puddin’ cups, my opinion of surgeons will be shattered.
Schroder DM (2011) Presidential Address: Can prayer help surgery? The American Journal of Surgery 201:275-278
Those of you who’ve been to a poster session at a science meeting know that they’re noisy and chaotic and entirely reliant on interaction to work…so I’m not even going to try and describe it. Instead, I strong-armed Eric Röttinger into describing his poster on video for me, and here it is. He’s describing his work on Kahikai, an online database for collecting information about the development of marine invertebrates.
This one is nice and short, and for a change, I’m willing to be…accommodating.
Please respect ALL religions equally. You are being prejudiced if you continue this disrespect of the Catholic religion.
My correspondent has persuaded me. I will respect ALL religions equally from now on.
To poop on!
What makes a plenary session different from the other sessions here? I don’t know.
10:00-11:30 Session 6: Plenary Session (Chair: Marian Waterman [UC Irvine])
  10:00-10:30 Wei Yan (Univ. of Nevada) “The control of cytoplasm removal during late spermiogenesis”
I produced 100,000 sperm in the time it took him to say his first sentence. I’m so proud.
Part of process of spermiogenesis is removal of cytoplasm and organelles from sperm. Found late expression of Spem1 protein in maturation process which doesn’t affect sperm numbers, but mulls strongly affect motility and sperm head morphology. They have a membranous bag bending the head. Can still produce progeny through ICSI.
  10:30-11:00 Anne Calof (UC Irvine) “Feedback, proliferation, and fate in sensory epithelium development”
All about regulation of olfactory epithelium, a proliferative neural tissue.
GDF8 aka myostatin regulates muscle proliferation. Related GDF11 is neural homolog. Where is it acting in olfactory lineages? GDF11 induces cell cycle withdrawal; GDF11 mutants have thicker olfactory epi, more actively dividing cells.
Different in retinal epithelium, where it doesn’t change proliferation, but changes relative numbers of different cel types in retina.
In olfactory epithelium, GDF11 doesn’t affect morphology either.Â
  11:00-11:30 Jerry Crabtree (Stanford) “Instructive roles of ATP chromatin remodeling in early development and reprogramming”
Brg/Brm ATP dependent complexes that remodel chromatin. 13 subunits & 27 genes, 12 times larger than a nucleosome; combinatorial assembly. Brg important for activation of Oct4 in ICM and repression in TE — combinatorial properties allow different functions in different tissues. Context dependent sensitivity allows for a lot of different functions.
Someone remind me that I definitely need to read up more on these complexes…man, there are a lot of complications and permutations here.
Hey, it’s all about evolution. This is the session labeled as being about evo-devo, but I’ve been thinking about evolution in all of the talks, so I guess here we’re just making it more explicit.
08:00-09:30 Session 5: Evolution of Development (Chair: Elaine Seaver [Univ. Hawaii])
  08:00-08:30 Brad Davidson (Univ. of Arizona) “Microenvironmental cues refine inductive signaling during Ciona intestinalis heart development”
Ciona heart is a simple system: only two precursors! Inductive response to FGF is dependent on cell adhesion. Cool confocal work on cell behavior.
  08:30-08:50 Yale Passamanack (Postdoc, Univ. Hawaii) “Early photoreceptor development in brachiopods, and the evolution of morphological complexity”
  08:50-09:10 Neva .P. Meyer (Postdoc, Univ. Hawaii) “Central nervous system development in the annelid Capitella teleta”
Simple nervous system, lovely images of serotonin staining. They’ve got a small brain produced by cells dividing on surface, then migrating inward by bottle cell formation. Anterior epithelium becomes multiple-layered; internalized cells do not divide further. Pro neural genes expressed — similar to insects. Knockdown of achaete-scute homolog causes loss of synaptotagmin, blocks brain formation. Â Neurogenesis in Capitella resembles myriapod dev.
I think I’m going to have to talk about Capitella in my fall neuro course.
  09:10-09:30 Andy Ransick (Faculty, Cal Tech) “Developmental mechanisms accompanying the evolution of echinoid larval mesoderm”
Echinoids have a unique pattern of early divisions. What follows is an Eric Davidson style analysis of molecular circuitry. There is a kind of double negative logic to activation of this module, with parts of the network dedicated to stabilizing output.
Micromeres are an evolutionary novelty that creates a new signalling center. Ransack discusses the regulatory module that is active here.
Incoming! Here’s another dump of my notes from yesterday afternoon. I’ll be hitting you with more later today.
Disease is the pretext here, but it’s really all about development.
15:30-17:00 Session 4: Development and Disease (Chair: Jack Somponpun [Univ. Hawaii]; co-Chair: Jacqueline Ho [UPMC])
15:30-16:00 Jacqueline Ho (Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC) “microRNAs in kidney development and disease”
Congenital anomalies are most common cause of renal failure in children. Â Kidneys form from metanephric mesenchyme by induction from branching tubule – lots of interactions and opportunities to go awry. She’s looking at effects of miRNA. Loss of mRNAs in podocytes of glomerulus using transgenic mice leads to fetal death — they are necessary for formation of filtration barrier. Loss of miRNAs in nephron progenitors leads to depletion of population. Imbalance between selection for differentiation vs. Self-renewal?
There is no difference in proliferation. There is an increase in apoptosis.
Next problem is sorting out which of the many miRNAs deleted are important. Using bioinformatics tools to predict miRNA target interactions. Found candidate gene target, Bim, and identified miRNAs that might be modulating it’s expression.
Balance between survival (Bcl2) and apoptosis (Bim) that is tipped by miRNAs.
 Â
  16:00-16:20 Jack Somponpun (Faculty, Univ. Hawaii) “Reduced embryonic Six2 expression compromises nephron development and leads to osmoregulatory defect associated with post-natal fluid and electrolyte handling”
Variation in nephron number in population: as few as 200000′ as many as 2.5 million, average of about a million. Is this normal diversity or is it a consequence or cause of health problems? Kidneys are most important organ for regulation if bulood pressure. What is the significance of low nephron number?
Brachyrrhine mutant mice — greatly reduced kidney size, shows haploinsufficiency. Six2 is expressed strongly in embryonic kidney; thought to play a role in maintaining size of progenitors populations and preventing premature differentiation. Looked at Br mouse and also used siRNA to reduce six2 in cell culture system.
Br mutants have reduced number of nephron rudiments and reduced Six2 expression.
Inhibition of Six2 in culture also leads to reduced number of nephron rudiments. Also up regulates WT1, reduces Pax2, Cited1.
Reduced kidneys in Br mice have physiological effects. Can’t cope as all with increased salt in diets — hypeerosmolalitu, hypernatremia, polydipsia, with urine-concentrating defect, comparable to chronic renal failure.
  16:20-16:40 Grant Miura (Postdoc, UC San Diego) “The T-Box Transcription Factor Tbx20 is required for the maintenance of proper cardiac chamber size”
Early development of heart: mustw balance size of ventricle vs. Atrium. Laf mutant reduces atrium size. Tinkeering with BMP pathway affects relative size of atrium/ventricle. BMP Important; what are other signals, and what are downstream targets? Screened small molecules known to cause cardiovascular defects.Â
Searched for genes with SMAD binding sites, which led to Tbx20 gene. Tanscription factor with conserved expression in flies and vertebrates. Tbx20 morpholinos caused serious cardiac edema, otherwise normal. Decreased both atrial and ventricular size, but early specification was normal. Doesn’t look like laf at all. Regulates proliferation or maintenance?
  16:40-17:00 Denise Al Alam (Postdoc, Saban Research Institute) “FGFR2b signaling is required for the formation of lipofibroblasts in the developing mouse lung”
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia — preemies treated with oxygen end up with surfactant deficiency, decrease of lipofibroplasts and FGF10. lipofibroblasts required for surfactant synthesis. FGF10 through FGFR2b required for differentiation. Used Dom-neg receptor to knock down FGFR2b. Â Reduces lung differentiation.
The Digital Cuttlefish remarks on a certain expulsion…with a poem, of course.
I hate to carp at actually having the saga commemorated, but shouldn’t it have a more martial beat and an alliterative clang to it? And where’s the swordfight? The naked damsel? The villain’s bloody demise? Man, I guess it’s really hard to turn hanging out in the Apple store at the mall into an epic event.
