Endless forms most stupid,icky, and small: The preponderance of noncharismatic invertebrates as integral to a biologically sound view of life

Big, beautiful organisms are useful for biological education, increasing evolution literacy, and biodiversity conservation. But if educators gloss over the ubiquity of streamlined and miniaturized organisms, they unwittingly leave students and the public vulnerable to the idea that the primary evolutionary plot of every metazoan lineage is “progressive” and "favors" complexity. We show that simple, small, and intriguingly repulsive invertebrate animals provide a counterpoint to misconceptions about evolution. Our examples can be immediately deployed in biology courses and outreach. This context emphasizes that chordates are not the pinnacle of evolution. Rather, in the evolution of animals, miniaturization, trait loss, and lack of perfection are at least as frequent as their opposites. Teaching about invertebrate animals in a “tree thinking” context uproots evolution misconceptions (for students and the public alike), provides a mental scaffold for understanding all animals, and helps to cultivate future ambassadors and experts on these little‐known, weird, and fascinating taxa.     

Smoking and Health

Although cigarette smoking is the number one public health problem in the United States, physicians have failed to take the lead either in convincing youngsters not to begin smoking or in aiding adults to quit smoking. To be most effective and convincing in combating the smoking epidemic, practicing physicians must have the same basic fund of knowledge about the short- and long-term consequences of smoking as they do about other commonly encountered medical problems. By acting on such knowledge and adopting a definite set of attitudes and activities in their offices and with patients, physicians can make a significant contribution to their patients and to the entire community in which they practice.     

In vivo neutralization of TNF-alpha promotes humoral autoimmunity by preventing the induction of CTL.

Neutralization of TNF-alpha in humans with rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease has been associated with the development of humoral autoimmunity. To determine the effect of TNF-alpha neutralization on cell-mediated and humoral-mediated responses, we administered anti-TNF-alpha mAb to mice undergoing acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) using the parent-into-F(1) model. In vivo neutralization of TNF-alpha blocked the lymphocytopenic features characteristic of acute GVHD and induced a lupus-like chronic GVHD phenotype (lymphoproliferation and autoantibody production). These effects resulted from complete inhibition of detectable antihost CTL activity and required the presence of anti-TNF-alpha mAb for the first 4 days after parental cell transfer, indicating that TNF-alpha plays a critical role in the induction of CTL. Moreover, an in vivo blockade of TNF-alpha preferentially inhibited the production of IFN-gamma and blocked IFN-gamma-dependent up-regulation of Fas; however, cytokines such as IL-10, IL-6, or IL-4 were not inhibited. These results suggest that a therapeutic TNF-alpha blockade may promote humoral autoimmunity by selectively inhibiting the induction of a CTL response that would normally suppress autoreactive B cells.     

ELECTROMETRIC DETERMINATIONS OF THE DISSOCIATION OF GLYCOCOLL AND SIMPLE PEPTIDES1

1. The apparent acid and basic dissociation constants were determined potentiometrically by the methods of hydrolysis and of titration for the following ampholytes: Glycocoll, glycylglycocoll, alanylglycocoll, valylglycocoll, leucylglycocoll, methylleucylglycocoll, phenylalanylglycocoll and glycylglycylglycocoll. The constants were also determined in the presence of KCl and of K₂SO₄ at equal ionic strength. 2. In general, the relative order of magnitude of the constants decreased as the number of carbon atoms between amino and carboxyl groups increased. An explanation of this is offered on the basis of theories of electronic structure. 3. The application of the modern concepts of solutions to the case of the ampholytic ions is discussed. The inadequacy of the present theories is pointed out. 4. The constants were found, in general, to be functions of the hydrogen ion activity and the ionic strength of the solutions. Apparent contradictions to the Debye-Hückel theory are pointed out and partially explained on the basis of specific ion effects.