Animal Welfare Beyond the Cage … and Beyond the Evidence?

In “Laboratory Rodent Welfare: Thinking Outside the Cage,” Balcombe (2010/this issue) suggests that laboratory cage housing is damaging to rats and mice because it does not meet their evolved needs and may damage their psychological and physical health. The article also indicates that larger and more enriched spaces reduce aggression and mortality and improve the health and friendliness of rodents in the laboratory. Remarkably, many of the studies cited as supporting these assertions fail to provide data bearing on the issues involved or may even report findings opposite to those described by Balcombe, whereas many studies that are highly relevant to these issues are not cited or described. Moreover, although the “evolved needs” of rats and mice are presented as the basis for an analysis of rodent welfare, the important and well-documented changes in needs- or motivation-related behaviors of a rodent in the laboratory (due to human selection over hundreds of generations) is ignored. This pattern of disconnections between data and conclusions is so pervasive as to demolish the scientific value of the exposition.     

Beyond Herceptin and Gleevec

Identification of the key role of protein kinases as potential oncoproteins has led to the emergence of a new era of target-directed therapies. Among a variety of novel therapeutic strategies two have shown the most promise and led to a variety of therapeutic agents in clinical development. One approach utilises humanised monoclonal antibodies generated against the extracellular domain of transmembrane protein kinases. The second approach is the generation of small molecule ATP analogues targeting the kinase domain itself. The approval of agents such as Herceptin for the treatment of advanced breast cancer and Gleevec for chronic myelogenous leukemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumours are the first examples of gene-based cancer drugs and represent the first example of a novel strategy in anti-cancer therapy.     

Beyond genomics

The added value obtained by combining genomic analysis with proteomic analysis and supplementary information on mechanisms of interaction has been well illustrated in a recent paper by Ideker et al. This gives a far more meaningful interpretation of metabolic responses to a mutation or change in environment than could be obtained from correlation of expression profiles alone, and it provides evidence that addition of metabolomics data would give even further gains. The results also hint at competition between mRNA molecules for translation, so that responses at the protein level are attenuated relative to changes in gene expression.     

Beyond justice

Bioethicists have generally looked after the contractual and fiduciary obligations of health care professionals to patients by their adherence to and insistence on the principles of ethical action--autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. But these principles, while necessary, only serve the best interests of people already recognized as patients. If we truly want to help vulnerable populations--those who fall outside the margin--then we need to go beyond justice to embrace the theological principles of mercy and grace; that is, we need to rely more completely on the way medicine was before secularization and commercialism. Competency and compassion intertwine in western medicine.     

Beyond Energy

This article is based on the first study worldwide to analyze materials present in the equipment of data centers. The study develops a methodology that allows the calculation of the number of data centers of the various size classes and their average equipment with information technology (IT) components and infrastructure elements, such as air‐conditioning systems and power supplies. This enables detailed statements to be made on the materials present in the equipment of approximately 53,000 data centers in Germany. In 2008, the total amount of materials in the equipment of data centers in Germany was 110,300 tonnes (t). IT equipment (servers, storage equipment, and network) accounted for 37,500 t (34%), racks and containments for 30,700 t (28%), cooling and air‐conditioning systems for 12,000 t (11%), and the power infrastructure for 30,000 t (27%). A comprehensive analysis of the type of materials being used yielded the following values: Approximately 58,400 t of iron, 18,600 t of copper, 11,600 t of circuit boards, 11,100 t of plastics, 7,400 t of aluminum, and 6,500 t of miscellaneous materials were present in German data centers. The electronic material contained 1.8 t of gold, 7.5 t of silver, and 0.8 t of palladium. Because it can be assumed that prices for precious metals, and also for bulk metals, will continue to rise, the recovery of raw materials from the IT devices of data centers is an interesting option. Additionally, the development of appropriate product design and recycling strategies for servers and storage units should be implemented.     

Beyond empathy

Empathy is a highly desirable trait in a physician, but the term means different things to different people. Rather than focus on empathy, it may be more fruitful to consider the individual ingredients of a successful patient-physician engagement: scientific competency, imagination (the basis of empathy), caring about the patient, attentive (nonjudgmental) listening to the person's story, and skill in rewriting the illness story. The cardinal skill, on a sound base of scientific competence, is imagination. A successful engagement has beneficial consequences for physicians as well as patients.