Temperature Sensors in Mammals

Looking this time at Nature v. 430, 12 Aug. 2004...

There's an item on the "this issue" page (vii) that probably has all the information I need on an Article on p. 748. "TRP channels run hot and cold" explains that "in mammals," the ability to sense temperatures "depends on sensors" featuring "ion channels." That is, special gates in cell membranes that selectively allow certain atoms with electrical charges (extra or missing electrons) to go through under specific conditions.

But how does a certain level of heat (or lack thereof) cause these channels to open or close? "The fundamental principles...are largely unknown." This new study shows "that a single mechanism" is vital to both hot and cold sensors (well, at least one particular type of each). "Both channels display voltage-gating with exquisite temperature sensitivity." Highly sensitive voltage-triggered temperature sensors that operate on the molecular/atomic scale -- and that's just the first step -- and they're supposed to have developed by sheer luck?

Also in this issue is a study of the bones of Sue the T. rex, a study of fossil "whale ancestor's" ears, birds that supposedly "are able to draw sophisticated inferences about their" social standing, proteins that serve as signals to regulate "a host of ...processes in mammalian systems," and a key portion of many enzymes that "is synthesized by a highly conserved biosynthetic pathway." Mua ha ha haaa.

Until Next Time,

David Bump
Philippians 3: 13 Brethren, I
count not myself to have
apprehended: but [this] one thing
[I do], forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are
before, 14 I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.

http://home.att.net/~david.bump

Ed Ricketts - Hero of Biologists

In Nature v. 430, 22 July 2004, p. 403 "Journey of a scientific hero: A fictionalized biologist finally gets the biography he deserves" is a book review of Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell.

(Author Eric Enno Tamm, reviewer Jon Christensen). The most famous inspiration may be found in the character "Doc" in Steinbeck's Cannery Row. However, the real man "is a hero among marine biologists -- mention his name and their faces light up."

All the preceeding is merely to introduce a couple little bits of the review. It seems that "Ricketts went to the University of Chicago, but did not graduate, before coming west...to set up shop as a freelance scientist..." (jumping to p. 404) "Ricketts' work was never published in scientific journals."

My, my, isn't that interesting? Here's this great "hero" of biologists who didn't even have an undergraduate degree and never published anything in a scientific journal -- and yet evolutionists plug their ears and scream "You're not a scientist!" rather than listen to someone question their theory, sometimes even if that person has a Ph.D. and has published many articles in scientific journals..


Until Next Time,
David Bump