Stranger things have happened

Something strange is going on. First, I found a live mouse, happily eating away at the poison in the mouse bait box. When I went back the next day to clear out the body, it was gone! Now, who or what moved the body? Then, I heard a strange knocking on the kitchen door. The Boxers were fast asleep, but soon became curious at the noise. I peered out of the bedroom window and saw a fox trying to get in through the cat flap! I shoo'ed it away and let the dogs out. They were on its scent straight away, but it was through the hedge and gone. I did find it left a deposit on the lawn though. And, any idea what this little chap is up to? 

I watched with interest as the squirrel jumped down from the fir tree and ran across the terrace. I've seen it a few times and each time it goes to the same place to nibble at the mortar. Suggestions on a post card, please!

But it's not just the animals behaving strangely. Mr B used the new mulching lawn mower last weekend. It was the first opportunity since getting back from holiday, and although I had given him the safety demonstration, he still managed to injure himself. I was away with the weeds, having a field day, pulling up two foot weeds from the driveway (note to self: must go round with wheelbarrow and pick up weeds). Now, the garden is large and Mr B was pootling about in the woodland meadow (that's euphemism for not mowing that bit under the trees). I didn't hear a thing until he wandered through the house, applying pressure to his wrist. In a very calm voice, he said 'I've ruptured my radial artery, please could you find the tourniquet?' I didn't panic, although I was imagining the worst. I found the tourniquet and applied it, then sent him to lie down while the blood stopped. It was a strange injury though - there was no blood! The artery had ruptured under the skin, but the skin wasn't broken. Apparently, he stabbed himself with some bit on the mower that he was fiddling with. It flew up and hit him on the wrist. He felt the pain and saw his artery 'blow up'. I was concerned about nerve damage to his hand from any loss of circulation, but thankfully, it's all OK.

  

The next day, the Boxers were having a bit of rough and tumble in the garden, and the next thing, the little big dog, did his best collapse ever. Now, this isn't something to be laughed. It's neither strange nor funny. The little one has aortic stenosis, a condition affecting the major artery in his body. He's mostly OK, but can collapse when he's over-excited. His breathing was very laboured, but he still wagged his tail as he lay there. Adorable boy x.

My sister in law was in Shackleford for one day this week. She lives in Perth, Australia and has been in London and Antwerp on business (pink diamonds you know). Anyway, my brother asked for a mac in a sac. A red one in XL. Of course, Secretts had every other colour but not red! So I spent a happy half hour or so juggling macs in sacs of various colours, waiting for brother dearest to text back which alternate colour he preferred. Eventually, his choice was made - malibu blue. Done. Sold to the lady juggling macs in sacs.

And finally, I've been busy guest blogging about Shackleford at Smitten by Britain and writing about A Homemade School in South Africa for Jump! magazine this week. Please do pop over to these wonderful sites and have a look.

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Water wonderful, life!

This post was first published in Jump! an online magazine for pre-teen girls.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink (with apologies to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

Introduction

I am a scientist. I study what the DNA code tells us about human life and health. I have always loved science. Science doesn’t just happen in laboratories. It happens all around us. Science keeps aeroplanes flying, electricity flowing, and the internet speedy. I grew up in South Africa. Some of you may have traveled there for your holidays, to see the game reserves or Table Mountain. But even if you haven’t been there, we can all still learn something from the experiences of southern Africa.

Drought

What you may not have realised is that it is a region of the world plagued by drought. In 1983, the southern African continent suffered a devastating drought, and we faced severe water restrictions for about six months. These restrictions affected the entire country, approximately four times the size of England and Wales. Each household was restricted to just 400 litres of water a day. We had to stand in a bucket to shower. When the bucket was full, your shower was over. The bucket of shower water was used to flush the toilet. And that meant just four flushes a day in our house. How many times do you flush the toilet in one day?

Floods          

And then, early in 1984, we were hit by tropical cyclone Demoina. It hurtled up the Mozambique channel, destroying everything in its path, and causing the worst flooding ever recorded on the South African coast. First too little water, and then way too much.

Engineering a solution

Following the drought, an innovative pumping scheme was engineered to drive water over the escarpment and into the shallow Vaal Dam, the main reservoir water supply for Gauteng, a major metropolitan (shopping and business) area in South Africa. This meant that water resources could be better managed across the country, improving storage capacity and efficiency. Evaporation, though, continues to be a leading cause of water loss, and this is counter-acted by a program of cloud-seeding* to ensure moisture is returned to the ground. Desalination plants which make tap water from sea water are being used in coastal manufacturing processes, but in spite of South Africa having such a large coast line, this is still not a main stream water resource. And it will need to be, to cope with Africa's increasing water needs. It's complex, and a never-ending battle against nature, but so many people, animals and crops depend on a constant water supply, that it is a cost that South Africa will have to bear. Do you think that desalination would be a good source of drinking water in the UK?

2012

Fast forward to 2012 in the UK. Many of you will be living in drought-affected areas in the United Kingdom. That means a hosepipe ban. Perhaps you have heard your parents and teachers talking about having to water the garden with a watering can. Or not washing the car. We have put water butts in our garden to catch rain water. We changed our garden to be less 'thirsty'. We share a bath, only run the dishwasher and washing machine on a full load. We have a low flush loo. We pay for the water we use because we have a water meter. We respect this precious resource. My veggie patch is nearly ready for planting and I am really concerned that I will not be able to keep my veggies going if we have a hot spring and summer. The water butts will run out quickly, and my crops will fail. Have you planted any veggies? How will you water them if the hosepipe ban continues?

The future

And what about in the future? The UK needs a long-term water solution. We need to train scientists and engineers who have a vision for working in water resource. Our country needs to invest in geologists, engineers, and biologists to provide our future water needs. Do you have any water wonderful ideas?

Thandulwazi

Nelson Mandela said "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". In Zulu ‘Thandulwazi’ means for the love of knowledge. Wouldn't it be great if all pupils could go to school with those words in their hearts? Feel the science love.

* Cloud-seedingis when scientists go up in a small plane to ‘shoot’ dust-like particles into clouds. These particles attract small water droplets, which form into rain clouds.

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How to become a scientist

This post was first published in Jump! an online magazine for pre-teen girls.

Science is fun

What scientists do on holiday

To become a scientist you must first, take an enquiring mind, blend it with some passion, sprinkle on some creativity. Mix it up a bit, and squirt it out in big, loud dollops for everyone to see.

Science is not just for geeks and nerds. It’s not only for boys, or girls, who wear glasses. It’s for those of us with freckles and dimples and turned-up noses. Science is for animal lovers, tongue-rollers, bird-watchers, and teddy bear vets everywhere.

You see science is the world. And we are the world. So science is us, humans.

I love all science, but I especially love human science. The kind of science that looks under your skin, inside your cells, and zooms in, right down to your genes. This is what makes us human, and each one of us is unique and exciting.

I became a scientist because I was inspired to by a biology teacher at school. She asked me to help her clear out the cupboard in the lab. What we didn’t find in there. And lurking at the back, in a dark jar, was the most gorgeous pig foetus. We changed the preserving fluid, to reveal the tiny, perfect animal; when was he put in there, kept for me to find? I was hooked.

At university I studied human anatomy. I was able to study bodies donated to medical research, to look inside each and every part of the body, to learn where everything goes and how everything fits perfectly together. We prepared glass slides of the microanatomy too. We studied how the cells in the body connect to each other and to the rest of the body. It was fascinating study.

In my work since, I have used this knowledge of the human body every day. Every single experiment we carry out, is done in the knowledge that someday, somewhere, someone will one day benefit from the work we are doing to find out more about the genes which control all aspects of human life and variety.

Interested?

If you want to read a bit more, the next two sections are more advanced, but I’m sure you’ll be able to follow.

DNA unwound

DNA is fascinating. I have spent nearly twenty years getting inside this dynamic molecule, the basic component of human life, that controls hair colour and how long you will live and everything in between.

Laboratory analysis of DNA

Every cell in the human body contains this miracle molecule. It's wound up inside the nucleus and can respond to our changing environment. For example, in work I have recently completed, I have been able to measure the rate of response of DNA to conditions mimicking inflammation in the wall of the peripheral blood vessels. Put simply, I created a laboratory model of atherosclerosis, which as you know is a thickening of the arteries, leading to heart attack and stroke. These experiments were important to do because they showed us how the DNA functions in cells from individual people with different DNA variations.

DNA is divided into functional regions, which we call genes. These genes contain naturally occurring variations, which makes us different from one another. Many of these variants are completely compatible with normal life; that is, the cell will grow and divide in the normal way. This is different from mutations such as those in cancerous cells, which cause aberrant cell proliferation and division.

In order for a region of DNA to respond to a signal from outside the cell, it must be in a relaxed or open state. A number of carrier or transport molecules including cytokines are responsible for presenting the stimulus to the open DNA molecule, in the correct functional position or gene. Once this has happened, the region of DNA closes, a bit like pushing a spring between your hands. In this closed the position, the function of the gene is turned off and no other molecules can interact with the DNA. Imagine a very fine orchestra with a very busy conductor making sure that nothing goes out of tune. All these processes happen without our conscious intervention, and that is what makes DNA fascinating.

Human macrophages, from white blood cells

Techniques developed in the laboratory by some very clever scientists have allowed us to visualise these processes. We can measure them and discern differences in them between different people, who have different gene variants. Thus, we can say that genetics can determine an individual's response to inflammation. But what do we do with this information. Well, in the not too distant future scientists would like to translate this research into the clinical setting so that family and hospital doctors may be able to look at our genetics when deciding on treatment.

Cellular communication

No, nothing to do with a cell phone, because before mobiles or cell phones there was a time when this only meant cell to cell interaction within an organ or tissue. This important cellular behaviour drives diverse functions from contracting myocytes in heart muscle to effecting action potentials in nerves.

We can visualise these fascinating events in the laboratory ex vivo (in cells outside of a living body). For example, immortalised cardiac myocytes (heart muscle cells kept alive) can be cultured in a monolayer in a petri dish. A stimulant introduced into a single cell causes that cell to contract. This stimulates the adjacent cell to contract, and so on, mimicking the heartbeat. This can be seen microscopically and contributes to our better understanding of the function of this important tissue.

Cross section through mitochondrion,
a part of the cell which makes energy

Similarly, action potentials in nervous tissue can be measured and studied by subjecting ultra-thin sections of tissue to chemical modulators in solution. Sensitive electrophysiology equipment detects the release of neurotransmitters from neurons in the tissue slice and complex algorithms translate this effect into an audible thump. It's really amazing to hear this happening in the lab, these are very elegant experiments indeed.

A different kind of communication is seen in the immune system, where antigen-presenting cells identify foreign bodies, such as bacteria, and 'show' them to the T lymphocyte cells which effect an immune response. Where this system is compromised or overwhelmed, an infection can set in, for example pneumonia, which requires a trip to the doctor for antibiotics.

And who said biology was just a pretty face?

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