Australian Bioscience News & Views

Church and State

I'm usually exceptionally positive about Sydney University, being a place where opportunity abounds, for those lucky enough to gain a place as a student or employee. It as a community that does huge amounts of charitable and voluntary work on the side, and through its professional endeavours adds much to our country's abilities in ethics, finance, science of life and matter, medicine, history, the social and anthroplogical sciences, psychology, and many worthy fields. Today though, I am saddened to report that my alma mater has fallen onto the wrong side of the divide on separation of Church and State.

In order to secure an empty piece of land curently owned by St John's College, for the purposes of creating a wonderful new facility for medical research, the leaders of the university have agreed to accept the land with the condition that no research about euthanasia, stem cells, or the use of foetal tissue be conducted in that facility. Of course, such research will still be conducted elsewhere within the university, for the benefit of all, Catholic or other, but the acceptance of such a condition is a problem none the less. Our tax dollars, and the profits of private companies are devoted to universities and their much needed basic research. This research is too expensive to do elsewhere at present, as the masses of keen scientists, administrators, technicians, and ethicists are hard to gather in other place, without huge economic impost. Yet, it is possible for a single religion to rule on what is an acceptable field of enquiry, thus side stepping the many questions our community has about the ethics of research.

I am even more demoralised by the news, because our federal government will not defend this co-mingling of Church beliefs and State decisions on our research spending. Our current leaders do not believe in this essential separation of Church and State, not seeing the value it provides a civil society. Though I suspect I'm preaching only to the converted, I will say it now, this separation is vital to our survival as a society respectful of individual difference. Among our number are of course many Catholics, Anglicans, and other Christians, but there are also great numbers of Buddhists, Secular Humanists, Hindus, Athiests, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Agnositcs, Taoists, Zoroastrians, Wiccans, and other beliefs too numerous to name. Our diversity makes us strong, with the ability to see the world in many different ways, to approach the same dilemma in a thousand different ways, and accept our fellow beings as whole, and worthy members of a community ready to address the world's problems. Any reduction of this essential diversity, by allowing any one group to determine how our research money is spent, is a reduction of our excellent ability to live as a respectful community full of diversity and strength.

Shame on Sydney University for giving in, and shame on our government for encouraging it!

Not the death of science

I think I really mean, "Not the death of the scientist". Just as television was not the death of radio, I seriously do not think that high technology diagnostics remove the need for human experience and consideration in a laboratory. The use of genotyping in antimalarial clinical trials: a systematic review of published studies from 1995–2005 is a case in point. Different methods of genotyping, different technologies, interpretations, and analytical approach result in somewhat different biases in any work. In this case it was applied to genotyping of malaria infections, to see whether a positive blood sample in a drug trial is the result of an old infection raising its ugly head again, or a brand new one.

No surprise there, that different methods have inherent strengths and weaknesses. In my mind, the key element of the article is that a reasoned approach to technology & information handling can be applied to any diagnostic situation. The right mix of tools and methods can be found to apply to any conditions. Choices that are appropriate in one setting are less than ideal in another, based on the genetic and socio-economic factors of the tested population, the resources available to the testers, and of course the amounts of money available for various business practices and technologies.

Power to quality controllers

My regular reading on ProMedMail served as a stern reminder about the high value of basic quality control processes in any area of health care. It would appear that in West Bengal, India, hundreds of people may be at risk of infection from un-tested blood transfusions. It is not that the blood banks there totally lost the plot & failed to test, no it's more insidious and depressing than that.

It appears that a 'well connected' family business supplied absurdly cheap HIV, Hepatatis, and maybe other testing kits to the State's Health department. To quote at what would appear to be 50% to 10% of their competitor's prices, the company decided to supply expired kits. Being past their 'Use By' date, it has been found that many kits, if not all, were not functional, and showed a negative, or 'non-infected' outcome, when the blood being tested was not.

Neeldess to say, the brothers who managed this company have been charged with numerous things, including "Actions leading to the spread of epidemic disease" and an investigation has begun. The youngest brother is not yet detained, and while I wish him no ill-will specifically, I am sickened by what his company has done, presumably in the search for higher profit, and hope he makes himself available to answer police questions sooner rather than later.

There is another side to this tragedy though, and one that those who work in many parts of the health industry would find even more disturbing. After all, test kits, like anything made by human hands, are not always perfect. It is therefor incumbent on all of us to be sure that things such as quality control are not forgotten. If an expiry date is not visible, one does not assume the item is in date, and regular tests must be undertaken, with known positive & negative samples, to see if tests are providing expected results. Health departments should not only encourage, but support with information, and even money if necessary for these practices to become standard where ever life saving, or health protecting tests are undertaken.

Greedy business men are not the only guilty parties, if it is found that indeed infective blood was transfused.

Not the end of history

Historic Sydney Sketchbook is a rather charming 1970s book which was kindly lent by a friend. Its charm doesn't lie solely in the illustrations of the architectural remnants of Sydney’s convict, settler, mercantile and cultural past tucked in among giant towers. Since the time it was published, Sydney has changed further, and some of the ‘new’ uses for old structures mentioned with such pride in the text, are now the ‘old’ use.  More have simply disappeared.

Others have changed in surprising ways. St Mary’s catholic cathedral, for instance is no longer an ‘unfinished masterpiece’ with its spires finished in 2000, exactly as designed by Wardell in 1868. 

I see Clover Moore’s long standing proposal was finally voted into law 2 weeks last Thursday.  A rather unassuming name, “Freedom of Information (Open Government - Disclosure of Contracts Bill)”, this change means that all government contracts are to be made public in one way or another, depending on their value. There are some exclusions, it isn't perfect, but it's a good move towards better governance. I note that NSW Health has listed contracts already ...

Snakes in the bushes

Today, some poor guy holidaying up at Wiseman’s Ferry was bitten by a death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus), five bites apparently. Luckily he is not dead, recovering in hospital, but I can’t help wondering whether he did indeed pick it up mistakenly believing it to be a lizard, as newspapers are saying. I’m aware that some adders vary their colour with the seasons, but I don’t believe any of them grow legs …

Luckily there is an antivenom for the neurotoxic agents in the bite, which varies in effectiveness depending on the subspecies of antarcticus death adder that did the deed. I’m no expert on Elapidae, but have stumbled across references to quite a number of subspecies, the Barkly Tableland Acanthophis antarcticus from Victoria, the Southern death adder from New South Wales, and of course the common death adder in South Australia. Think about those last two names, and then try to say Australians have no sense of irony. They’re all close cousins to the rather more famous Pilbara death adder (Acanthophis wellsi), reputed to be the second most venomous snake on earth.

It’s been rumoured that the common death adder antivenom can possibly be used to manage bardick snake (Notechis curtus) bites, though I don’t know how effective it would be. Sadly though, there have been reports of fox and feral cat baits killing death adders and other snakes, so it appears Homo sapiens more than get their own back on the scaly ones.

In my first year at uni I remember reading a paper about anticholinesterase being used to save death addered rats. This is apparently the opposite of the usual situation, where anticholinesterases are the active agents in other bites and stings. On the pro side for anticholinesterases, they are also used to treat pesticide poisoning by organophosphates and carbamates.

So, while there are snakes in the bushes, and people pick them up in the dark, there will always be interesting topics to ponder. Not unlike surfers who like to enjoy sun set from behind the breakers …

Big answers, bigger questions

In a surprisingly real good news story, it appears humanity has been able to decrease the damage we did to the ozone layer with CFCs etc.  Of course, it's taking longer than we first predicted it would, but never the less, it's happening. Being able to clean up after our selves is a good sign of progress towards intelligence ;-) Of course, the flip side of that is the increasing use of gases which speed the greenhouse effect. I'd rather not focus on the negatives today though.

A further sign of progress, even if I'm a little too dull to follow it, is that the Poincaré conjecture  was resolved by full mathematical proof recently. That itself is not evidence of our growing wisdom as a species, what is good news, is that a mathematics institute in the USA lavishly rewarded the humble person who did the work. I have heard that he may not accept the prize money, but I hope he does.   

Closer to home, Rick Shine received a well deserved Eureka while the collective intelligence quotient of the moviegoing public is drained away by this tasty little morsel called (turn your PC speakers right down before clicking)  ... Snakes on a Plane.  To add to the depression this induces, I learn that the film was better until the voting public on the internet got their hands on it. Where's an eyelash viper when you need one?

Dolphin 'intelligence' article not

Recent newspaper articles have claimed that research on the structure of dolphin brains demonstrates they are not intelligent. The findings are indeed interesting, but they do nothing to contradict the soundly gathered experimental evidence that dolphins understand that changing word order changes meaning of a communication, and other complex language related ideas. I challenge anyone to find a rat that can demonstrate that!

Personally, I was more enlightened by the sensationally captioned article: Quake hits Antarctic, penguins affected :-)

Political tuna

The politics of whale hunting is no doubt the reason that Sydney Morning Herald made the effort to publish an article about Richard McLoughlin's seminar At ANU on the 1st August. You may find the presentation by the managing director of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority interesting listening. Is there anyone else out there like me, who uses their MP3 player (mobile phone in my case) to listen to more than just music? The growth of sites dedicated to podcasting regular programmes, and the various media outlets providing material in different file formats, I would guess there must be a few ...

One thing that does puzzle me about this new miniaturised, portable MP3 player culture that's developing, is the amazing willingness of so many to have the music they purchase "restricted" to a particular device, file format, number of copies, or CD burn limits, etc ad nauseum. I guess I should have been warned there was something odd about this particular consumer space when the shuffle was marketed as a good thing! Any digital device without a screen is unlikely to be worth its salt.

Large music production companies can be likened to the tunas of the ocean of music. Lean, big, fast, and out to get you. Hence all the 'restrictions' inflicted on us by retailers of music files and digital music players. My personal view is that they're pushing themselves to market extinction.  Independent artists and their medium sized promoters are already taking the lead in this household, sellings files as .wav and other techno-musician friendly formats, no restrictions on how they are burned, and often far more reasonably priced, I guess because they do not have the enormous advertising and distribution overheads of the 'idolmakers'.

This is not to say I even remotely support turning artists into paupers by not paying them for their creations. Rather the opposite, I enjoy a free market in arts, where I can buy from the most obscure as well as the most obvious, without having to visit a dozen tiny CD shops strewn across the greater Sydney basin.

Museums to become leaner

On Thursday, Minister for the Arts, Bob Debus MP informed the respective museum presidents that the New South Wales Government is proposing an amalgamation of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum) and the Australian Museum. It appears the amalgamation is limited to administration and governance, to be implemented through merging their Trusts.

The good news is there are no plans to amalgamate the 'campuses'. A media release by Trust presidents is a little vague at one point, stating "I am advised that any reductions in staffing numbers would be through voluntary redundancies, redeployment and natural attrition, as far as possible." The wish not to make anyone redundant who is enthusiastic to stay is not the vague part. Rather, it remains unclear to me whether they mean to say the NSW Minister for Arts advised them, or the yet to be established working party with reps from both organisations advised them. If the former is true, then that is also good news. Should it be the latter, that wish is only be to be expected, but may not eventuate.

So now is the time to vote with your feet, visit or join. I plan to do both!

Tech games and sports games

Last night I had a tragicomic dream about accidentally sending the warranty in for our TV in the envelope for my mum's laptop & vice versa. Needless to say that has not happened, though they are from the same manufacturer.

The telvision is not huge by Australian standards (81 cm) but feels more than sufficient for our household. Its purchase and numerous features have given me the delightful sensation that sport, entertainment & technology are worlds of interesting statistics. For one thing, the current holder of the world record for Fastest Serve is Andy Roddick, and Trinidad & Tobago qualified for the World Cup despite having a population of around 1 million people (slightly fewer than Sydney). There is nothing quite like being able to look things up on the internet at the same time as watching the box.