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hough she is suffering from a condition that also effects humans we can t necessarily define the polar bear s suffering or quality of life the way we would our own how do veterinarians or zoologists decide when enough is enough for a polar bear she can t tell us when she s tired of living with the disease quite frankly assisted suicide isn t legal in humans so what is it that makes euthanasia in animals alright i support trying to limit the pain and suffering of animals that have been brought under human care but what needs to be considered before deciding that it is time for them to die in humans a joint that no longer functions due to damage from osteoarthritis could be replaced with an artificial one made of plastic metal or cement that type of invasive surgery wouldn t be done on other species not only are these procedures extremely expensive they require strenuous physical therapy and rehabilitation to come back from this is a case where the condition might be the same across species but the way it is treated is different really all they could do to alleviate the bear s symptoms is treat it with painkillers which is what they are doing a human joint with osteoarthritis source nih niams photo gallery it is interesting to consider how the polar bear would deal with the disease in the wild they certainly wouldn t have pain killers at their disposal in this case the polar bear wouldn t even have made it to old age and have developed this disease if it weren t for human interference it was rescued after being shot in the wild and brought to a zoo and later moved to the wildlife park these aren t easy questions animal behaviorists are still searching for answers about how much other species are self aware the fact is we don t know how much the polar bear thinks or what it thinks about its life or its condition even though i don t have answers i appreciate my zoology class for getting me to think like this about how humans manage other animal s health if you are interested in animal cognition there is an entire journal dedicated to scientific research being done in the field called shockingly animal cognition where you can learn more about studies of what and how animals think posted by unknown at 9 21 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday february 22 2011 thunder thighs perusing the bbc today the headline dinosaur had thunder thighs leapt off the page and made me laugh so i couldn t help but share it here coming from a background where i was in a sorority as an undergraduate i can assure you that when someone dropped the term thunder thighs they were not talking about dinosaur muscles but this is a case of scientists having a sense of humor using the term to name a new dinosaur species the species is a sauropod a type of dinosaur characterized by their long necks and tails according to the researchers the fossilized hip bone is larger than the hips in other similar species this along with the unique shape of the hip socket which shows a large space for muscles to connect led the researchers to conclude that b mcintoshi would have had powerful legs capable of delivering strong kicks a representation of some long necked sauropods source wikimedia commons the dinosaur species is technically called brontomerus mcintoshi from the greek bronto for thunder and meros for thigh leading to the common name thunder thighs the researchers from university college london who discovered the significance of the fossilized remains which are fragmentary but enough to draw conclusions named the species the way they did because it would have had extremely powerful and muscular legs the fossils date back to the early cretaceous period and are estimated at 110 million years old the finds were uncovered in the hotel mesa quarry in grand county utah the site is known to have been scoured by fossil hunters leaving researchers to speculate whether other interesting finds like thunder thighs may have been carried off to private collections i like the bbc s coverage of this scientific find so much because they had fun with the name of the species but not so much as to dilute the importance of the find the article is detailed and i think does a good job of explaining what is significant about the species and the location where it was uncovered if nothing else the title alone is clearly a success because it got me to read the entire article it is important to note that the bones were discovered in the 1990 s and stored at the oklahoma museum of natural history but the significance of the hip bone wasn t discovered until dr mike taylor from university college london evaluated them in 2007 results of this study were published recently in the journal acta palaeontologica polonica posted by unknown at 10 24 pm 28 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday february 19 2011 budget breakdown federal funding for the nih as my regular readers know i use science decoded for my long form journalism class as part of that sometimes my posts have to meet requirements outlined by my professor this week the assignment was to write about budget my recent post on wisconsin s budget protests brought up the issue of understanding what your government pays for so i ve decided to do a breakdown of the 2012 nih budget as citizens it is important to know what is included in the federal budget among academics intellectuals people who are informed about their government and people who pretend to be informed about their government this is a generally accepted statement but why is budget important really well my first answer is that you shouldn t whine or praise something that you don t understand so even though people do you can t say you disagree with or approve of the way things are budgeted when you don t even know what is in the budget or why it is included and thus deemed worthy of public funding i think it should be generally accepted that you don t open your mouth about things you don t understand even though people always do so for the sheer ability to speak intelligently about your beliefs i think people should know what is federally funded the other reason that i think people should take the time to look at budget appropriations what money goes to who for what is because people take federal funding for granted the beautiful thing about being americans is that what we want matters and what we say can effect our government we trust our government to do with our money what we want them to but we should still make sure that the government follows through you can t just assume that what you believe deserves funding is actually being funded do you want your money to be spent finding a cure for cancer i ll assume you said yes do you know how much money the government actually spends trying to find a cure for cancer i ll assume you said no isn t that a problem to be a part of the american democracy you need to know what your government does at the very least you should know who the government is giving your money to so you can then decide if you support or are opposed to the government s actions have an opinion have an informed opinion the information is out there and readily available for those who seek it so now that i hope i ve convinced you that you should care about budget i come to the national institutes of health nih i know i ll sound like a snot for saying this but it amazes me that many people whom i consider to be quite intelligent don t know what the nih is or what it does the nih is the federal government s biomedical research organization in addition to conducting its own research the nih is a huge funding machine that awards grants to thousands of researchers around the country and even internationally to pay for the costs associated with doing research these costs include but are not limited to lab equipment your test tubes and bunsen burners technology from microscopes to genome sequencers consumable supplies your reagents and pipettes and researcher or technician salaries biomedical research is a multi million dollar industry but only a fraction of the research conducted in the united states is actually funded by industry by far the most important funding organization for researchers who are not industry based ie most college professors is the nih without federal support for these researchers most would not be able to conduct their experiments the budget that has been requested by president obama for fiscal year fy 2012 to fund the nih and all of its programs is 32 0 billion yes billion the request by president obama must be passed by the house of representatives and the senate before it is approved but these proposed numbers still demonstrate exactly why the nih and its budget are so important the proposed 32 0 billion represents an increase of 745 million from fy 2010 an increase of 2 4 however current estimates place inflation from 2010 at 3 so even though the budget is going up the nih will be able to fund less projects than it did in 2010 because the increase will not be enough to counter the effect of inflation in spite of this the budget request still shows that research is a priority for this administration ie it could be much worse what does that 32 billion actually get you well the nih office of budget has a great table that outlines how the money is expected to be allocated among its institutes in addition to a great document with diagrams that compares the budget for each institute over the last few years which is where i pulled the following numbers from what falls under the nih and thus gets parts of its 32 billion listed from most funds to least national institutes of cancer nci 5 196 136 000 this is what the government spends finding a cure for cancer allergy and infectious diseases niaid 4 915 970 000 heart lung and blood 3 147 992 000 general medical sciences nigms 2 102 300 000 diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases 1 837 957 000 neurological disorders and stroke ninds 1 664 253 000 mental health 1 517 006 000 child health and human development 1 352 189 000 office of the director 1 298 412 000 former nhgri head francis collins is nih director center for research resources 1 297 900 000 aging 1 129 987 000 drug abuse nida 1 080 018 000 eye institute 719 059 000 arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases 547 891 000 human genome research nhgri 524 807 000 alcohol abuse and alcoholism 469 197 000 deafness and other communication disorders 426 043 000 dental and craniofacial research 420 369 000 national library of medicine 387 153 000 biomedical imaging and bioengineering 322 106 000 minority health and health disparities 214 608 000 nursing research 148 114 000 complimentary and alternative medicine 131 102 000 buildings and facilities 125 581 000 environmental health sciences 81 085 000 john e fogarty international center 71 328 000 the nih funds a lot of smaller agencies each with their own specific health focus still even the smallest money allotment represents way more money that i could ever imagine having at my disposal how my bank account would rejoice at seeing 71 million dollars i hope that seeing the numbers actually broken down by agency will help people see why budget is important there are a lot of agencies handling a lot of money but they are working on problems that effect the everyday lives of millions of americans from malaria to depression and everything in between budget particularly federal budget is a complex issue and i haven t by any means covered everything here i encourage everyone to take their new understanding of how the nih is broken down to follow the money trail even more and see what specific research projects are funded by each agency under the nih s leadership the nih s report system is one place where you can learn more about how much is spent on specific diseases the nih s office of extramural research can also help you learn more about how researchers go about applying for and receiving money from the nih there is a lot of good information out there about budget if you aren t one for reading budget documents online here is a video of the fy 2012 health and human services hhs department budget presentation you ll see francis collins head of the nih third from the right because the nih falls under the jurisdiction of the hhs that 32 billion for the nih comes out of the even bigger hhs budget of 79 9 billion head of the hhs kathleen sebelius gives a pretty easy to follow breakdown of the important points in the fy 2012 budget budget matters it s your money don t you want to know where it goes update 2 21 11 it is important to remember that the 32 billion number is just a request it could very well change if republicans pull their support from the nih current predictions say the republicans aim to cut 1 billion from the proposed budget check out the new york times coverage for more information posted by unknown at 3 55 pm 7 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday february 17 2011 what s up wisconsin protests that s what my adopted state of wisconsin don t worry new jersey i ll always love you most is making major headlines this week due to protests against governor scott walker s budget proposal which would essentially tie the hands of the teacher s union weac while simultaneously requiring state employees to pay a significantly increased amount into their benefits while i don t write about politics or education and i am in fact quite biased on these issues being the daughter of two new jersey state employees i still think that it is important to highlight the media coverage being given to these events madison which is my temporary home while i m attending uw is the state capitol of wisconsin the protests that have been going on in opposition to the budget an estimated 20 000 people outside the capitol building according to cbs news 3 are just steps outside my front door classes at the university have been disrupted due to the protests in addition to schools throughout wisconsin having to close due to the absence of teachers as a grad student i have been privy to at least half a dozen but i think more emails about how teachers should act in response to the protests grad students are often tapped at ta s or in some cases teach lower level classes and while i don t teach at uw many of my colleagues have had to choose whether to show up for class or throw their support behind the protesters when i talk about politics i try hard not to spout my own views so i ll just wrap up by giving you some links to check out for more information about the causes of the protests the details of the proposed budget how the city of madison is being effected and how the nation is taking notice reuters democratic lawmakers leave wisconsin to protest union curbs new york times democrats missing wisconsin vote on cuts is delayed politico the politics of education upended cnn s...