1. Science Day 2011
December 29, 2011
Govinda Bhisetti, Ph. D.
Lexington, MA 02421
govindarb@yahoo.com
9:30 AM Arrival
10:00 – 10:15 AM Introduction
10:15 -- 11:45 AM 2011 Nobel Prizes
12:00 – 12:30 PM Top 10 News in 2011
12:30 – 1:30 PM Lunch
2:00 – 3:00 PM Breakthroughs in Science 2011
3:00 – 4:00 PM Tribute to Prof. Har Gobind Khorana
4:00 -- 5:00 PM Disaster of the Year: Japan Earthquake
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2. Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize
amount for 2011 is set
at Swedish kronor
(SEK) 10 million ($1.46
million) per full Nobel
Prize.
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3. Nobel Festivities
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1752
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4. Prof. Har Gobind Khorana
The day is dedicated to Prof. Khorana, 1968 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
who passed away on November 9, 2011
Hediscovered how amino acids coded by DNA combine to create proteins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-BidjlCnHs (min 4 to 14)
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/lau
reates/1968/khorana-bio.html
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5. 2011 Nobel Prize winners
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6. Prize Announcement Schedule
• Monday, October 3, 2011 PHYSIOLOGY or MEDICINE
Ralph M. Steinman, and Bruce A. Beutler & Jules A. Hoffmann
"for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity" and for their discoveries
concerning the activation of innate immunity
• Tuesday, October 4, 2011 PHYSICS
Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess
for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant
supernovae
• Wednesday, October 5, 2011 CHEMISTRY
Dan Shechtman ”for discovery of quasicrystals”
• Thursday, October 6, 2011 LITERATURE
Thomas Transtromer (Peru)
because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality
• Friday, October 7, 2010 PEACE
President Ellen Johnson, Leymah Gboww and Tawakkol Kafman (Liberia and Yemen)
for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in
peace-building work
• Monday, October 10, 2010 ECONOMICS
Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims for their empirical research on cause and effect in the
macroeconomy
Prizes were awarded on December 10, 2011
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7. Peace Nobel Prize
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman
for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for
women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.
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8. PHYSIOLOGY or MEDICINE
Ralph M. Steinman and Bruce A. Beutler Jules A. Hoffmann
for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity” and “for
their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity
Ralph M. Steinman Bruce A. Beutler Jules A. Hoffmann
Rockefeller University, NY Scripps Research Institute Université
La Jolla, CA Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5og53z_dc
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9. Innate and Adaptive Immunity
• Innate or non-specific
- mobilized immediately upon infection
- not antigen specific
• Adaptive or specific
- requires some time to react
an invading organism
- antigen specific
- exhibits an immunological memory
Both aspects of the immune system have cellular and Human blood contains most cellular and
noncellular factors that participate in
humoral components
host immunity to bacterial pathogens
Khan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp7T4IItbtM
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10. Pathogen Recognition Systems and
Innate Immunity
The innate immune system is an evolutionarily
conserved mechanism that provides an early and
effective response against invading microbial pathogens.
It relies on a limited set of pattern recognition receptors
(PRRs) that recognize specific pathogen-associated
molecular patterns (PAMPs) commonly present in
microbes but not in mammals. Upon detection of
PAMPs, some PRRs trigger an inflammatory response
leading to the efficient destruction of the invading
pathogens.
Four main families of PRRs have been shown to initiate
proinflammatory signaling pathways: the Toll-like
receptors (TLRs), the NOD-like receptors (NLRs), the
RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs), and the C-type lectin
receptors (CLRs). As our understanding of innate
immunity expands, more PRRs are being identified ,
such as cytosolic dsDNA sensors (CDSs) and NLRs
involved in the formation of inflammasomes.
Trends in Immunology, 27, 352-357 (2006)
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11. Dendrtic Cells in Immunity
The immune system’s
response involves a cascade
of events orchestrated by
specialized immune cells
Dendritic cells have two key functions in the initial, innate immune response. 1) they
produce cytokines that help to kill viruses and bacteria. 2) they ensure that pathogens and
other foreign substances are highly visible to specialized helper T cells, called Th1 and Th2
cells, which coordinate the longer-term adaptive immune response. Th1 and Th2
responses last for an extended time. Dendritic cells recognize different types of offending
substances and guide the immune system to make the most appropriate response.
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12. Dendritic cell and adaptive immunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA
m3Z5Iy85w
his T cell (blue), one of the immune system’s principle means of defense,
identifies the molecular signature of a dendritic cell (green) at a junction between
the two called the immunological synapse. If the immunological synapse signals
the presence of a foe, the T cell will attack.
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13. CHEMISTRY
Daniel Schechtman
for the discovery of quasicrystals
Dan’s discovery of
quasicrystals has
created a new cross-
disciplinary branch of
science, drawing from,
and enriching, chemistry,
physics and
mathematics. This is in
itself of the greatest
importance. It has also
given us a reminder of
how little we really know
and perhaps even taught
Dan Schechtman, 70 us some humility. That is
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
a truly great achievement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZRTzOMHQ4s
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1731
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14. Quasicrystals
5 or 10-fold symmetry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiT00AUwQl8
Many scientists — notably Linus Pauling, the Nobel-winning giant of chemistry —
argued vehemently that Dr. Shechtman’s data could be explained by “twinning,”
where two ordinary periodic crystals are fused together at an angle.
http://www.periodicvideos.com/videos/feature_nobel_prize_2010.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLgW3fRMOhkfeature=related
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15. PHYSICS
Adam Riess, Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt
for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through
observations of distant supernovae”
Saul Perlmutter, 52, Brian P. Schmidt, 44, Adam G. Riess, 41,
Lawrence Berkeley Australian National Johns Hopkins
National Laboratory University in Canberra University Baltimore
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16. Expanding Universe
• An exploding star known
as Type 1a supernova is
very bright
• The Nobel prize winners
used them to measure the
expansion of the universe
•http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=v6o2bUPdxV0
•http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=dMwr0VYuExE
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17. Breakthrough of the Year 2011
“The goal of an AIDS-free generation is
ambitious, but it is possible,” - Hillary
Clinton
Antiretroviral treatments for HIV keep the virus
from spreading and raised hopes of ending
HIV/AIDS epidemics in whole populations.
The year's runners-up include what makes
asteroids red, ancient DNA in modern humans,
the structure of photosystem II, pristine gas in the
early universe, the microbiome, a new malaria
vaccine, alien solar systems, zeolites, and
senescent cells.
http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/Scienc
ePodcast_111223.mp3
http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/Scienc
ePodcast_111223.mp3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi5URSLUzD
M
23 December 2011
Scanning electron micrograph of HIV viruses, each ~120
nanometers in diameter, on an infected cell surface
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18. 2011 Science Breakthroughs
1. HIV Treatment as Prevention.
2. Asteroid Dust Solves Color Conundrum..
3. Archaic Humans’ DNA Lives On.
4. Plant Life’s Boxy Heart.
5. Glimpses of a Simpler Time.
6. Microbes R Us.
7. RTS,S -- A Vaccine With Many Maybes.
8. Extrasolar? Extra Strange.
9. Industrial Molecules Tailor-Made
10. Removing Old Cells to Stay Young?
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19. 10. Removing Old Cells to Stay Young
Washed-up cells in our tissues promote aging, culling them
could keep us healthier longer
• Senescent cells leak growth-stimulating
and tissue-dissolving chemicals that
encourage tumors to grow and spread,
and might also promote aging by
damaging the surrounding tissue or by
stoking the protracted inflammation
characteristic of old age.
• Injections of a drug triggered the
animals to kill off cells that manufacture
the protein p16INK4a, which flags many
senescent cells
• Raises the possibility that targeting
senescent cells or countering their
effects could burnish our golden years.
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20. 9. Industrial Molecules, Tailor-Made
New ways to tailor the size of their pores and create thinner, cheaper
zeolites
• Zeolites, family of porous crystaline minerals was first discovered in 1756. Over
the past 250 years, 40 natural zeolites have been discovered, and chemists
have chipped in roughly 150 more synthetic versions.
• South Korean scientists crafted a family of zeolites with network of small pores
surrounded by walls holed with larger voids. Labs in Spain and China produced
large- and small-pore zeolites by using a combination of inorganic and organic
materials to guide the structures as they formed. Researchers in France and
Germany discovered that, by carefully controlling growth conditions, they could
form a large-pore zeolite.
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21. 8. Extrasolar? Extra Strange
Distant planetary systems are pretty weird
• NASA’s Kepler observatory—which has
been tracking 156,000 nearby stars
found six large planets, three of them
gas giants like Jupiter, orbiting a star
named Kepler 11 some 2000 light-
years from Earth.
• Five of the six are bunched up very
close to the star, closer in than Mercury
is from the sun. The sixth planet lies
only a bit farther out, as far as Venus is
from the sun.
• HAT-P-6b, a gas giant orbiting in a
direction opposite to the spin of the
parent star.
• An exoplanet orbiting a binary star
With more than 700 extrasolar planets on system.
record, researchers are grappling not only with • 10 planets floating freely in space with
planets unlike anything circling our sun but also no host stars nearby, suggesting that
with entire planetary systems whose weirdness they may have been kicked out of the
is forcing scientists to rethink how planets form planetary systems in which they
and settle into orbits. formed.
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22. 7. RTS,S - A Vaccine With Many Maybes
Clinical trials of a malaria vaccine keep hopes alive.
• Clinical trial of a malaria
vaccine at 11 sites in seven
African countries enrolled
more than 15,000 children.
• RTS,S vaccine produced by
GlaxoSmithKline in
collaboration with the PATH
Malaria Vaccine Initiative has
received more than $200
million in development support
from the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation.
• Early results of the ongoing
trial reassured malaria
researchers that discovering a
malaria vaccine remains
possible.
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23. 6. Microbes R Us
Internal microbial communities fell roughly into three enterotypes:
Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Ruminococcus
• The Microbiome: The microbes and viruses that call the human
body home has led to the concept of the microbiome. Since 90
percent of the cells in our bodies are actually microbial, scientists are
beginning to understand how significantly microbial genes can affect
how much energy we absorb from our foods and how our immune
systems respond to infections.
• Everyone has a dominant bacterium leading the gang
in their digestive tract: Bacteroides, Prevotella or
Ruminococcus.
• Bacteroides thrives on a high-protein diet while
Prevotella prefers vegetarian fare.
• These findings and more helped to clarify the interplay
between diet and microbes in nutrition and disease.
• http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/normalflora.html
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24. 5. Glimpses of a Simpler Time
Clouds of gas — trapped in filaments between galaxies — may be long-
lasting leftovers from the Big Bang.
• Astronomers using the Keck telescope
in Hawaii to probe the faraway universe
wound up discovering two clouds of
hydrogen gas that seem to have
maintained their original chemistry for
two billion years after the big bang.
• Other researchers identified a star that
is almost completely devoid of metals,
just as the universe's earliest stars
must have been, but that formed much
later.
• The discoveries show that pockets of
matter persisted unscathed amid eons
of cosmic violence.
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25. 4. Plant Life’s Boxy Heart
High Resolution Crystal Structure of Plant’s Photo System II
• Plant’s essential protein called photo system II
(PSII) uses solar energy to split water into
hydrogen and oxygen atoms, then pairs
oxygens into the O2 molecules we breathe. It is
one of nature’s most fascinating and important
reactions.
• PSII is a transmembrane protein complex with
20 protein subunits, several electron-transfer
quinone factors, and a photoantenna system of
chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments.
• The high-resolution structure of PSII reveals
the geometric arrangement of the Mn4CaO5
cluster as well as its oxo bridges and ligands,
and four bound water molecules. This provides
a basis for unravelling the mechanism of water
splitting and O–O bond formation.
• The structure gives us a solid structural
understanding of energy migration, electron
transfer and water-splitting reactions taking
place within PSII.
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26. 3. Archaic Humans’ DNA Lives On
DNA from a Siberian finger bone showed mixing between Denisovans
and Homo sapiens
• In the past 100,000 years, Homo sapiens
arose in Africa, then swept out into Europe
and Asia, “completely” replacing
Neandertals and the other archaic peoples
they met there.
• In December 2010, researchers published
the whole genome of a new kind of archaic
human from Denisova Cave in Siberia.
• It was found this year that members of
three relatively isolated groups of Africans
carried unusual DNA variants apparently
inherited from archaic people in Africa in
the past 35,000 years, long after modern
humans arose.
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27. 2. Asteroid Dust Solves Color Conundrum
Why the most common meteorites that fall to Earth didn’t seem to come
from the most common asteroids in the asteroid belt?
• Hayabusa, a Japanese spacecraft, a
daring mission returned to Earth with
dust from the surface of a large
asteroids Itokawa after some near-
disastrous technical difficulties and a
stunningly successful recovery.
• Analysis of these dust samples
confirmed that the most common
meteorites found on Earth, known as
ordinary chondrules, are born from
these much larger, S-type asteroids.
• The earlier mistakes of identity were
caused by discoloring of asteroids by
solar wind.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEyQ
DwAUfRQfeature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQ
p9Zey27Y Touchdown on Itokawa, as portrayed in the Japanese movie
Hayabusa: Back to the Earth
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28. 1. HIV Treatment as Prevention
Antiretroviral drugs reduce HIV transmission rates by 96%
The antiretroviral drugs
used to treat HIV-infected
people also dramatically
reduce HIV transmission
rates, a finding that may
influence the strategies
used by health advocates
and policymakers to
battle the disease.
http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/SciencePodcast_111223.mp3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi5URSLUzDM
Science Hall of Fame
http://video.sciencemag.org/SciOriginals/744533805001/1
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29. HIV Clinical Trials HPTN 052 design
N Engl J Med 2011;365:493-505.
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30. HIV Clinical Trials HPTN 052 design (contd.)
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