Science

December 9, 2014 — The Marine Biological Laboratory will have a new leader at the helm by the beginning of the new year, the research lab announced in a statement Monday.

Huntington Willard, 61, was identified as the new president and director of the nonprofit institution and University of Chicago affiliate. Willard, currently the Arts & Sciences Professor of Biology and Genome Sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, will start Jan. 1.

“He’s excited to come to the MBL and the Cape,” interim President and Director Arthur Sussman said. “One of his conditions was he wanted to start quickly.” Sussman said Willard, who is new to the Cape and the MBL, will be able to bring a fresh eye to the laboratory and tackle such obstacles as declining federal funding and how best to collaborate with affiliate University of Chicago, Sussman said.

Willard said the MBL's work and vision, if better than competitors', would attract money. “The people who articulate better will have the advantage in looking for funding,” he said. He also sees the University of Chicago's resources, with the MBL's small and nimble operation, as a collaboration that will benefit both parties.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

December 5, 2014 — A new meta-analysis indicates no associations between omega-3s and aggressive or high-grade prostate tumours. Adam Ismail, Executive Director and Harry Rice, VP, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, GOED, look at where the media scare stories originated.

During the summer of 2013, the omega-3 industry began defending itself from a barrage of criticism, stimulated by the publication of 'Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk in the SELECT Trial', which concluded that higher omega-3 fatty acid levels are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.1

In the absence of the authors’ over-extrapolation of the data, unsubstantiated conclusions and comments reached the media that went beyond the study’s design; the results per se wouldn’t have been an issue. Although scientists are obligated to propose an explanation for their results, it was irresponsible of them to mislead the public by creating a media circus. In this case, correlation became causation in the media — an impossibility, given the research conducted.

Fast forward 14 months and the scientific evidence has changed significantly. A new meta-analysis examining the associations between the concentrations of circulating fatty acids, including omega-3s, and subsequent risk of prostate cancer in a reanalysis of individual participant data from seven prospective studies was published by a group of scientists, including two of the co-authors of the infamous summer 2013 article2, Drs Theodore Brasky and Alan Kristal. In contrast to the 2013 publication, this one is appropriately tempered and was not accompanied by an author-stimulated media frenzy.

Read the full story from Nutraceutical Business Review

December 5, 2014 — A new meta-analysis indicates no associations between omega-3s and aggressive or high-grade prostate tumours. Adam Ismail, Executive Director and Harry Rice, VP, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, GOED, look at where the media scare stories originated.

During the summer of 2013, the omega-3 industry began defending itself from a barrage of criticism, stimulated by the publication of 'Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk in the SELECT Trial', which concluded that higher omega-3 fatty acid levels are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.1

In the absence of the authors’ over-extrapolation of the data, unsubstantiated conclusions and comments reached the media that went beyond the study’s design; the results per se wouldn’t have been an issue. Although scientists are obligated to propose an explanation for their results, it was irresponsible of them to mislead the public by creating a media circus. In this case, correlation became causation in the media — an impossibility, given the research conducted.

Fast forward 14 months and the scientific evidence has changed significantly. A new meta-analysis examining the associations between the concentrations of circulating fatty acids, including omega-3s, and subsequent risk of prostate cancer in a reanalysis of individual participant data from seven prospective studies was published by a group of scientists, including two of the co-authors of the infamous summer 2013 article2, Drs Theodore Brasky and Alan Kristal. In contrast to the 2013 publication, this one is appropriately tempered and was not accompanied by an author-stimulated media frenzy.

Read the full story from Nutraceutical Business Review

December 5, 2014 — A lobster found off the coast of Santa Barbara, California definitely belongs in the upper crust of crustaceans. The giant lobster weighs nearly 12 pounds and is estimated to be a whopping 70 years old.

Biologist Forrest Galante, 26, caught the extra-large lobster while freediving near Anacapa Island on Oct. 6 and immediately realized he had something extraordinary.

“I’ve been doing this for ten years and I’ve never seen a lobster as big as Albert Girther -– which is his name," Galante told Barcroft TV.

Read the full story from The Huffington Post

 

December 4, 2014 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation:

The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) is pleased to announce the release of a documentary video summarizing a recently completed collaborative research project on quahogs in Narragansett Bay. The project was conducted by a team of scientists from Roger Williams University and the University of Rhode Island, managers from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and commercial shellfishermen. It was supported through the CFRF’s Southern New England Collaborative Research Initiative (SNECRI), a program funded under NOAA Award #NA08NMF4720595 and made possible through efforts by U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

To view the documentary video please follow this link: http://cfrfoundation.org/projects/quahoglarval

For more information on this and other CFRF supported projects please visit the CFRF home website at: http://cfrfoundation.org/

 

December 3, 2014 — Bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic Ocean reach sexual maturity earlier than previously believed, raising the possibility the Atlantic bluefin spawning biomass is greater than traditional stock assessments have indicated, according to a new study by Israeli and Gloucester-based UMass researchers.

In the study published online in Nature’s “Scientific Reports” journal, UMass researcher Molly Lutcavage and her colleagues challenged the widely accepted belief that bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic first spawn at a much later age than their counterparts in the eastern Atlantic.

The general assumption has been that western Atlantic bluefin tuna spawn for the first time at roughly nine years of age, while eastern Atlantic bluefin reach sexual maturity between the ages of three and five years old _ despite the fact that the two groups have similar diets, grow at the same rate and even mix on the same feeding grounds in their early lives.

“With similar life histories, it’s hard to support the idea that the two groups have vastly different spawning ages,” Lutcavage, director of the UMass Large Pelagics Research Center in Hodgkins Cove, said Tuesday. “It never made sense.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

December 4, 2014 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of State:

Four eminent scientists have agreed to serve as U.S. Science Envoys beginning in January, 2015: Dr. Peter Hotez, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Dr. Arun Majumdar, and Dr. Geri Richmond. Announced by President Obama in Cairo in June 2009, the U.S. Science Envoy program demonstrates the United States’ commitment to science, technology, and innovation as tools of diplomacy and economic growth.

Like their nine predecessors, these distinguished scientists will engage internationally at the citizen and government levels to develop partnerships, improve collaboration, and forge mutually beneficial relationships between other nations and the United States to stimulate increased scientific cooperation and foster economic prosperity. Science Envoys travel as private citizens and advise the White House, the Department of State, and the scientific community about potential opportunities for cooperation. This year the Department is pleased to announce the first Science Envoy for the Ocean, building on the momentum created at the Our Ocean Conference held at the State Department in June 2014.

Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics, University Professor, Baylor University, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Baker Institute Fellow in Disease and Poverty at Rice University

Country focus: Saudi Arabia, Morocco

Expertise: Global health and vaccine development

Jane Lubchenco Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and former Administrator of NOAA (2009-2013)

Thematic focus: the Ocean

Expertise: Marine ecology, environmental science, and climate change

Arun Majumdar, Ph.D., Jay Precourt Professor, Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, and former Founding Director of ARPA-E (2009-2012) & Acting Under Secretary of Energy (2011-2012)

Country focus: Poland, Baltic Region

Expertise: Energy, climate change, and innovation

Geraldine Richmond, Ph.D., Presidential Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oregon and founder of the COACh for women scientists and engineers

Country focus: Thailand and Lower Mekong Initiative Countries

Expertise: Women in science

For further information, please contact Kia Henry at henrykt@state.gov

December 2, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA:

Missed our Tweet Chat with Sea Turtle Experts from NOAA Fisheries and Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation?

No Problem! 

We've captured the highlights here for you!
 
And remember to get the latest news about NOAA Fisheries activities in the Greater Atlantic Region, follow us on Twitter @NOAANERfish

 

November 25, 2014 — Researchers from Auckland University and Duke University in North Carolina have discovered the transparent zebrafish can develop a form of tuberculosis which closely resembles the human disease.

Auckland University's Philip Crosier says they have discovered the TB bug subverts the host's normal biological processes in a similar way to how tumours promote the development of new blood vessels to enhance their own growth.

Prof Crosier says the TB-causing germs induce the formation of granulomas – small areas of inflammation in tissue – on zebrafish in an almost identical way to which they do for humans.

Read the full story from The Australian

November 20, 2014 — Of all the overfished fish in the seas, luscious, fatty bluefin tuna are among the most threatened. Marine scientist Goro Yamazaki, who is known in this seaside community as "Young Mr. Fish," is working to ensure the species survives.

Yamazaki is fine-tuning a technology to use mackerel surrogates to spawn the bluefin, a process he hopes will enable fisheries to raise the huge, torpedo-shaped fish more quickly and at lower cost than conventional aquaculture. The aim: to relieve pressure on wild fish stocks while preserving vital genetic diversity.

Yamazaki, 48, grew up south of Tokyo in the ancient Buddhist capital of Kamakura, fishing and swimming at nearby beaches. His inspiration hit 15 years ago while he was out at sea during graduate studies at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, and a school of bluefin tuna streaked by.

"They swam just under the boat, and they were shining metallic blue. A beautiful animal," Yamazaki said. "Before that, tuna was just an ingredient in sushi or sashimi, but that experience changed bluefin tuna into a wild animal to me."

Read the full story from The Gloucester Daily Times