Last year, Miller-McCune reported on the striking research of Washington State University researcher Michael Skinner, who found that exposing rats prenatally to a widely used fungicide resulted in male reproductive malformations and malfunctions for four generations. Skinner believes the transgenerational nature of the effects occurred via epigenetic changes in gene expression during gestation — that is, the genes themselves weren't changed, but altered chemistry of the DNA scaffolding made the changes heritable. Now Skinner's breakthrough 2005 study is being challenged by industry and ... Read More
Scientists Say They Can’t Replicate Pioneering Epigenetic Results
September 25, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Seeking Chemical Culprits for Those Deformities
September 22, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
The term "endocrine disruptor" had not been coined when Rachel Carson was alive, but she was onto them. Carson's groundbreaking 1962 book on the dangers of synthetic pesticides, Silent Spring, was prescient in many ways. She wrote about what she termed "insecticide storage:" "There are indications that these chemicals lodge in tissues concerned with the manufacture of germ cells as well as in the cells themselves. Accumulations of insecticides have been discovered in the sex organs of a variety of birds and mammals. ... Probably as an effect of such storage in the sex organs, atrophy of the ... Read More
Buy ‘Climate Change’ — Now With Added Warming Power
September 22, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Sometime in the last decade, as mainstream science has outlined the man-made causes of climate change and as much of society has begun to accept that view, global warming has turned into a people problem as much as a technical and scientific one. People have fed the increase in greenhouse gases, and people can reverse that trend through consumption choices large and small. One of the central paradoxes of climate change is not why the world is warming, but how people are handling it: If polls show so many believe a crisis is unfolding, why are so few doing anything about it? NASA ... Read More
The Public Will Walk With Nanotech — For Now
September 20, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Like belching smokestacks in the 1800s, new technology once was something to be uncritically welcomed; now the public often keeps it at arm's length as a default position. Milk from an enhanced cow? No thanks. Transgenic corn for famine victims? We'll pass. Various helpful chemicals in our plastics? Pesticides that keep voracious insects off our produce? Irradiation to kill much smaller even nastier pests? Whether you view such risk-averse opponents as Luddites, prophets or something in-between, they're still out there in abundance. Nanotechnology, on the other hand, has so far avoided ... Read More
Divining the Secret of Deformed Roadkill
September 14, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Hard as it is to be a voice in the wilderness, Judy Hoy has been sounding an alarm in southwestern Montana for more than 13 years. For years she's been documenting, through autopsies, photos, articles and scientific papers, changes — mutations, really — she's observed in various ungulate species in the valley. In particular, she's seen malformed genitalia among male white-tailed deer. Such observations are not unique. More and more scientists are documenting reproductive changes in male animals ranging from cricket frogs to polar bears. But the response from public health and ... Read More