The Human Lake

Discover ^ | March 31, 2011 | G. Evelyn Hutchinson,

[grey_whiskers]

I went recently to San Francisco to give a talk to a conference of scientists. The scientists were experts in gathering together mountains of biological data—genome sequences, results of experiments and clinical trials—and figuring out how to make them useful: turning them into new diagnostic tests, for example, or a drug for cancer. The invitation was an honor, but a nerve-wracking one. As a journalist, I had no genome scan to offer the audience.

We science writers do have one ace in the hole, though. Instead of being lashed to a lab bench for years, carrying out experiments to illuminate one particular fold in one particular protein, we get to play the field. We travel between different departments, different universities, different countries, and—most important of all—different disciplines. And sometimes we see links between different kinds of science that scientists themselves have missed. Which is why, when I arrived in San Francisco, walked up to the podium, and switched on my computer, I presented my audience with this photograph of a lake.

For the next hour, I tried to convince them that their bodies are a lot like that lake, and that appreciating this fact could help them find new ways to treat diseases ranging from obesity to heart disease to infections of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

[grey_whiskers]

Long, but read the whole thing. Well worth it.

...Merry Christmas!

[grey_whiskers]

*PING*

Read the whole thing...

...and Merry Christmas.

[hinckley buzzard]

Interesting review of the concept of the human body as an ecosystem. These days I don't think too many biological scientists in his audience would have needed the "lake" analogy to understand the idea, though some may have been interested in the history of the alewives as a wellknown ecological case study in itself.

A bit wordy at the start but overall very good.

[hinckley buzzard]

PS, the author was science writer Carl Zimmer, not Hutchinson, who was an early ecologist described in the article.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks grey_whiskers, and Merry Christmas!. carrying out experiments to illuminate one particular fold in one particular protein Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[decimon]

Pondering ping.

Thanks, grey_whiskers. Hutchinson may have been all wet but probably on firm ground with regards his comprehensive studies.

[martin_fierro]

For the next hour, I tried to convince them that their bodies are a lot like that lake

With journalists playing the role of pond scum.

[grey_whiskers]

Here’s one crude but effective example of what this kind of ecosystem engineering might look like. A couple years ago, Alexander Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota, found himself in a grim dilemma. He was treating a patient who had developed a runaway infection of Clostridium difficile in her gut. She was having diarrhea every 15 minutes and had lost sixty pounds, but Khoruts couldn’t stop the infection with antibiotics. So he performed a stool transplant, using a small sample from the woman’s husband. Just two days after the transplant, the woman had her first solid bowel movement in six months. She has been healthy ever since.

The couple lived in Minnetonka, a swank western suburb.

I can just hear her saying to him afterwards, "I've had just about enough sh*t out of you!"

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

With journalists playing the role of pond scum.

*Ahem*

"Playing?"

Cheers!

[SunkenCiv]

;’)