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07/02/2015

Wobbly Moons and a Vaccine's Effectiveness

 CHAPTER 58 Moons and Vaccination  

Was it my eyesight or had I read a report giving the wrong date for the close flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft? Probably the former. At any rate, in last month's column I implied the spacecraft would encounter Pluto in June and that the encounter would certainly merit attention in this month's column. Actually, the close approach to Pluto is two weeks from now on July 14.   Fortunately, I've been bailed out by some news in a NASA release concerning Pluto not related to the flyby. Good old reliable Hubble has been studying Pluto and its moons and finds that it's a chaotic situation as far as the orbits and positions of the moons are concerned. The reason is related to the fact that one of Pluto's moons, Charon, with a diameter of about 750 miles, is about half the size of Pluto.  

The result is that Charon doesn't simply revolve around Pluto; the two of them orbit about a common center of mass between them. The NASA report calls them a "double planet system". There are at least four other much smaller moons orbiting around Pluto, or should I say orbiting around the Pluto-Charon double planet? These moons aren't your ordinary looking moons and at least a couple, Nix and Hydra, are shaped more like footballs than spherical bodies such as our own moon here on Earth.  Because of Pluto and Charon orbiting each other the gravitational field is constantly changing and the other moons are tumbling around erratically in their orbits. If you were stationed on one of them you'd never know when to expect the Sun to rise or fall. 

The moon Kerberos, only about 19 miles in diameter, is black as charcoal while the other icy moons are more like sand in color.  If the New Horizons spacecraft gets close enough, we might find out the reason for the color difference. I'm more excited about the Pluto flyby after reading about these interesting moons and the "double planet" system. Now, am I nitpicking or is there a profound difference of opinion among the NASA scientists compared to the majority of the astronomical community? I'm referring to the "double planet". If Pluto and Charon are a double planet does this mean that Charon is not a moon but a planet? If so, since Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet, should we be referring to a double dwarf planet system?  

I guess it all comes down to semantics. Speaking of semantics, the recent Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage calls to mind a proposal I've made a couple of times over the years in these columns. Why not call gay marriage "garriage", with all the rights and privileges of marriage attached. In addition, if wished, spouses could become "gouses", wives "gives" and husbands "gusbands". Such changes should satisfy those who defend the conventional man-woman definition of "marriage". 

Now that I'm involved in an area of heated controversy, I might as well turn to another subject that some consider controversial - vaccination.  The California Legislature recently passed a bill that eliminates religion as a reason for not getting a child vaccinated.  Now I see that the eminent authority Jim Carrey has slammed California Governor Jerry Brown for supporting vaccination when a possible component in the vaccine purportedly causes autism. Let me be clear, I personally think Jim Carrey is very funny but I also think those who don't get their children vaccinated are placing their children and others at risk.  

For those who are not longtime readers of these columns, I've mentioned my own experience with vaccination that profoundly affected the course of my life. I had a reaction to my shot for smallpox going into first grade in Philadelphia. I did not get smallpox but the reaction was such that my mother kept me out of school for the first half of the school year. At home, she tutored me and when I went to school in the middle of the school year I took a test and was placed in the last half of the second grade, thus skipping one and a half grades. As a result, I was a year younger than almost all my classmates throughout my public school education. The age difference between me and my fellow students became even more pronounced when my aggressive mother got me admitted to Dickinson College after the 11th grade and I ended up getting my B.S. degree at age 18. 

Why do I bring all this stuff up here? It was prompted by a short article titled "Our Vaccine Helpers" by Katherine Harmon Courage in the June issue of Scientific American. I wasn't aware of a virus, the rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in children and, according to the article, is responsible for the deaths of over 450,000 children around the world every year! Truly a devastating situation. This high mortality is surprising in view of the fact that a widely available oral vaccine for the rotavirus came out back in 2006. Most of the deaths occur in children living in Africa and Asia, where the vaccine does not appear as effective as it is elsewhere. Googling the virus, I was shocked to find that it's almost certain you and I have had a rotavirus infection early in our childhood! Diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration are the common symptoms and it seems that almost all children worldwide meet the highly contagious virus early in childhood. 

So why are the kids in Asia and Africa more likely to die from the virus? Here's where something we've discussed before in these columns comes into play. That something is the stuff that's in our guts. Today, increasing attention is being paid to the fact that the microscopic critters that inhabit our guts and are on or in other parts of our bodies play a profound role in our health. Without some of these microbes we are in deep trouble. An alarming cause of infection and sometimes death in hospitals results when strong antibiotics kill off gut bacteria and the condition C. difficile results. As with the rotavirus, C, difficile bacteria can cause diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration or other serious symptoms that can in some cases be fatal. We have a friend with this condition and, fortunately, she seems to be managing the situation well. 

Back to those children in Asia and Africa. The Scientific American article cites the work of Vanessa Harris and her colleagues at the University of Amsterdam and in South Asia. They looked at the reactions to the oral rotavirus vaccine in two groups of 66 children each, one group from Pakistan, the other from The Netherlands. Most of the children in the Dutch group showed the anticipated immune response as compared to immune responses in only 10 of the 66 Pakistani children. Before the vaccines were taken, the researchers took feces samples from each child and did genetic scans of these samples.  

The genetic tests showed that the children who showed positive responses to the vaccine carried a wider diversity of microbes in their guts than those who did not respond. Of particular interest was that the positive responders harbored more microbes from a group known as Proteobacteria. These bacteria propel themselves by wiggling or waving their flagella, the tail-like structures we've all seen in pictures of various types of bacteria.  

It seems that these "tails" may be quite significant. They harbor flagellin, a protein that has been found to enhance immunity. Bali Pulendran at Emory University and his colleagues injected influenza vaccine into four groups of mice - normal mice, mice raised in a sterile environment without any gut bacteria, mice with bacteria with flagella and mice with bacteria that did not have flagella. The sterile mice and the mice with bacteria without flagella had no antibodies upon vaccination. The normal mice and the mice loaded with bacteria containing flagella both responded positively to the influenza vaccine. Bottom line, what's in your gut can make a huge difference - sometimes even the difference between life and death. 

Finally, I must note the passing of two individuals who made a big difference in my life upon my retirement from Bell Labs back in 1989. Chris Riddleberger was the recently appointed department head of our battery group and I did not know him well. However, he greatly helped my transition into a sudden and unexpected retirement by graciously allowing me to keep my desk at Bell Labs for some months while I adjusted to retired life. He also arranged for me to keep my Bell Labs desktop computer and, when I found a new home consulting with a battery group at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Chris allowed me to transfer my large battery cycling facility to my new home at the university.  

The battery group at UMDNJ was headed by Prof. Alvin Salkind and I spent many years there as an adjunct professor in his group. Al was a truly unique individual who it seemed knew virtually everybody in the battery field.  Before his coming to UMDNJ, he was Vice President and Technical Director at ESB, the battery company responsible for such products as Exide and RayOVac batteries. At UMDNJ he was professor and chief of the Bioengineering Division in, of all things, the Department of Surgery. (As an RN, my wife thought she might marry a "real" doctor; after joining Salkind's group, I was a "doctor" (albeit a PhD) in a surgery department!)  

I could write columns on Salkind but will limit myself to the most enjoyable time spent with him and another member of his group. For a decade, the three of us taught a yearly 3-day short course on batteries in Amsterdam and in New Jersey for the Center for Professional Advancement. Although I was the course director, there was no question as to who was the most important lecturer in the course. At the end of each course, the students were given evaluation forms and Al inevitably got the highest ratings. Often, as he was giving his lectures, I would think to myself "Come on Al, stop rambling on and get back to the subject." At which point, virtually every time, he would drop a pearl of battery wisdom that I had not heard before.  That pearl alone would justify the money the students had spent to attend the course!  Over the years we also gave courses for the Army and the Navy. It was never boring working with Al Salkind and I am indebted to him for providing a stimulating environment in my later years. Both Salkind and Riddleberger died last month.  

Finally, I want to call your attention to an effort by our StocksandNews editor Brian Trumbore to raise funds to help keep this site afloat. For all these years, Brian has been funding this site with his own money, with minimal income from ads or other sources. It costs money and I hate to think of the huge amount of his personal fortune he has spent on the site. As an example, back in the days when I wrote a weekly column, I got a hundred dollars a column. Over ten years that was $50,000 just for little old me.  (The monthly columns have been pro bono.) At any rate, if you are reading this on a PC there's a GoFundMe link at the top of this column that makes it convenient to donate to the cause. I was surprised, as was Brian when I told him, to find that when I use the StocksandNews app on my iPad this link does not appear. The link does appear on the stocksandnews.com site on my iPad.  You may send a contribution to Brian Trumbore, P.O. Box 990, New Providence, NJ 07974.  

Next column, hopefully, on or about August 1. 
 
Allen F. Bortrum
 
 



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-07/02/2015-      

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Dr. Bortrum

07/02/2015

Wobbly Moons and a Vaccine's Effectiveness

 CHAPTER 58 Moons and Vaccination  

Was it my eyesight or had I read a report giving the wrong date for the close flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft? Probably the former. At any rate, in last month's column I implied the spacecraft would encounter Pluto in June and that the encounter would certainly merit attention in this month's column. Actually, the close approach to Pluto is two weeks from now on July 14.   Fortunately, I've been bailed out by some news in a NASA release concerning Pluto not related to the flyby. Good old reliable Hubble has been studying Pluto and its moons and finds that it's a chaotic situation as far as the orbits and positions of the moons are concerned. The reason is related to the fact that one of Pluto's moons, Charon, with a diameter of about 750 miles, is about half the size of Pluto.  

The result is that Charon doesn't simply revolve around Pluto; the two of them orbit about a common center of mass between them. The NASA report calls them a "double planet system". There are at least four other much smaller moons orbiting around Pluto, or should I say orbiting around the Pluto-Charon double planet? These moons aren't your ordinary looking moons and at least a couple, Nix and Hydra, are shaped more like footballs than spherical bodies such as our own moon here on Earth.  Because of Pluto and Charon orbiting each other the gravitational field is constantly changing and the other moons are tumbling around erratically in their orbits. If you were stationed on one of them you'd never know when to expect the Sun to rise or fall. 

The moon Kerberos, only about 19 miles in diameter, is black as charcoal while the other icy moons are more like sand in color.  If the New Horizons spacecraft gets close enough, we might find out the reason for the color difference. I'm more excited about the Pluto flyby after reading about these interesting moons and the "double planet" system. Now, am I nitpicking or is there a profound difference of opinion among the NASA scientists compared to the majority of the astronomical community? I'm referring to the "double planet". If Pluto and Charon are a double planet does this mean that Charon is not a moon but a planet? If so, since Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet, should we be referring to a double dwarf planet system?  

I guess it all comes down to semantics. Speaking of semantics, the recent Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage calls to mind a proposal I've made a couple of times over the years in these columns. Why not call gay marriage "garriage", with all the rights and privileges of marriage attached. In addition, if wished, spouses could become "gouses", wives "gives" and husbands "gusbands". Such changes should satisfy those who defend the conventional man-woman definition of "marriage". 

Now that I'm involved in an area of heated controversy, I might as well turn to another subject that some consider controversial - vaccination.  The California Legislature recently passed a bill that eliminates religion as a reason for not getting a child vaccinated.  Now I see that the eminent authority Jim Carrey has slammed California Governor Jerry Brown for supporting vaccination when a possible component in the vaccine purportedly causes autism. Let me be clear, I personally think Jim Carrey is very funny but I also think those who don't get their children vaccinated are placing their children and others at risk.  

For those who are not longtime readers of these columns, I've mentioned my own experience with vaccination that profoundly affected the course of my life. I had a reaction to my shot for smallpox going into first grade in Philadelphia. I did not get smallpox but the reaction was such that my mother kept me out of school for the first half of the school year. At home, she tutored me and when I went to school in the middle of the school year I took a test and was placed in the last half of the second grade, thus skipping one and a half grades. As a result, I was a year younger than almost all my classmates throughout my public school education. The age difference between me and my fellow students became even more pronounced when my aggressive mother got me admitted to Dickinson College after the 11th grade and I ended up getting my B.S. degree at age 18. 

Why do I bring all this stuff up here? It was prompted by a short article titled "Our Vaccine Helpers" by Katherine Harmon Courage in the June issue of Scientific American. I wasn't aware of a virus, the rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in children and, according to the article, is responsible for the deaths of over 450,000 children around the world every year! Truly a devastating situation. This high mortality is surprising in view of the fact that a widely available oral vaccine for the rotavirus came out back in 2006. Most of the deaths occur in children living in Africa and Asia, where the vaccine does not appear as effective as it is elsewhere. Googling the virus, I was shocked to find that it's almost certain you and I have had a rotavirus infection early in our childhood! Diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration are the common symptoms and it seems that almost all children worldwide meet the highly contagious virus early in childhood. 

So why are the kids in Asia and Africa more likely to die from the virus? Here's where something we've discussed before in these columns comes into play. That something is the stuff that's in our guts. Today, increasing attention is being paid to the fact that the microscopic critters that inhabit our guts and are on or in other parts of our bodies play a profound role in our health. Without some of these microbes we are in deep trouble. An alarming cause of infection and sometimes death in hospitals results when strong antibiotics kill off gut bacteria and the condition C. difficile results. As with the rotavirus, C, difficile bacteria can cause diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration or other serious symptoms that can in some cases be fatal. We have a friend with this condition and, fortunately, she seems to be managing the situation well. 

Back to those children in Asia and Africa. The Scientific American article cites the work of Vanessa Harris and her colleagues at the University of Amsterdam and in South Asia. They looked at the reactions to the oral rotavirus vaccine in two groups of 66 children each, one group from Pakistan, the other from The Netherlands. Most of the children in the Dutch group showed the anticipated immune response as compared to immune responses in only 10 of the 66 Pakistani children. Before the vaccines were taken, the researchers took feces samples from each child and did genetic scans of these samples.  

The genetic tests showed that the children who showed positive responses to the vaccine carried a wider diversity of microbes in their guts than those who did not respond. Of particular interest was that the positive responders harbored more microbes from a group known as Proteobacteria. These bacteria propel themselves by wiggling or waving their flagella, the tail-like structures we've all seen in pictures of various types of bacteria.  

It seems that these "tails" may be quite significant. They harbor flagellin, a protein that has been found to enhance immunity. Bali Pulendran at Emory University and his colleagues injected influenza vaccine into four groups of mice - normal mice, mice raised in a sterile environment without any gut bacteria, mice with bacteria with flagella and mice with bacteria that did not have flagella. The sterile mice and the mice with bacteria without flagella had no antibodies upon vaccination. The normal mice and the mice loaded with bacteria containing flagella both responded positively to the influenza vaccine. Bottom line, what's in your gut can make a huge difference - sometimes even the difference between life and death. 

Finally, I must note the passing of two individuals who made a big difference in my life upon my retirement from Bell Labs back in 1989. Chris Riddleberger was the recently appointed department head of our battery group and I did not know him well. However, he greatly helped my transition into a sudden and unexpected retirement by graciously allowing me to keep my desk at Bell Labs for some months while I adjusted to retired life. He also arranged for me to keep my Bell Labs desktop computer and, when I found a new home consulting with a battery group at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Chris allowed me to transfer my large battery cycling facility to my new home at the university.  

The battery group at UMDNJ was headed by Prof. Alvin Salkind and I spent many years there as an adjunct professor in his group. Al was a truly unique individual who it seemed knew virtually everybody in the battery field.  Before his coming to UMDNJ, he was Vice President and Technical Director at ESB, the battery company responsible for such products as Exide and RayOVac batteries. At UMDNJ he was professor and chief of the Bioengineering Division in, of all things, the Department of Surgery. (As an RN, my wife thought she might marry a "real" doctor; after joining Salkind's group, I was a "doctor" (albeit a PhD) in a surgery department!)  

I could write columns on Salkind but will limit myself to the most enjoyable time spent with him and another member of his group. For a decade, the three of us taught a yearly 3-day short course on batteries in Amsterdam and in New Jersey for the Center for Professional Advancement. Although I was the course director, there was no question as to who was the most important lecturer in the course. At the end of each course, the students were given evaluation forms and Al inevitably got the highest ratings. Often, as he was giving his lectures, I would think to myself "Come on Al, stop rambling on and get back to the subject." At which point, virtually every time, he would drop a pearl of battery wisdom that I had not heard before.  That pearl alone would justify the money the students had spent to attend the course!  Over the years we also gave courses for the Army and the Navy. It was never boring working with Al Salkind and I am indebted to him for providing a stimulating environment in my later years. Both Salkind and Riddleberger died last month.  

Finally, I want to call your attention to an effort by our StocksandNews editor Brian Trumbore to raise funds to help keep this site afloat. For all these years, Brian has been funding this site with his own money, with minimal income from ads or other sources. It costs money and I hate to think of the huge amount of his personal fortune he has spent on the site. As an example, back in the days when I wrote a weekly column, I got a hundred dollars a column. Over ten years that was $50,000 just for little old me.  (The monthly columns have been pro bono.) At any rate, if you are reading this on a PC there's a GoFundMe link at the top of this column that makes it convenient to donate to the cause. I was surprised, as was Brian when I told him, to find that when I use the StocksandNews app on my iPad this link does not appear. The link does appear on the stocksandnews.com site on my iPad.  You may send a contribution to Brian Trumbore, P.O. Box 990, New Providence, NJ 07974.  

Next column, hopefully, on or about August 1. 
 
Allen F. Bortrum