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Science
Friday > Archives
> 2000
> June
> June 30, 2000:
Hour One: Malaria / Bird-Dino
Debate
| There are an estimated 300-500 million cases of malaria
worldwide each year, and each year the disease claims over a million
victims. Malaria kills more people than any other communicable disease
except tuberculosis. However, perhaps because over 90% of modern
malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, the mosquito-borne illness
is not a major topic of discussion in the U.S --even though, until
recently, malaria was endemic in the eastern United States. |
Blood-feeding Anopheles gambiae
mosquito (CDC/James D. Gathany)
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In the past week, however, several research efforts have been reported
that may, down the road, bring some new weapons in the war against malaria.
This week, researchers report in the journal Science that they
have successfully grown the parasites responsible for malaria in fruit
flies. They hope that their research will help scientists study the
mechanism that allows or prevents insects from carrying and transmitting
the malaria parasite.
Last week, a team of scientists reported that they had been able to
genetically modify a mosquito. Their test, which involved engineering
the mosquitoes to produce a fluorescent green protein, raises the possibility
that mosquitoes could be engineered to no longer be able to carry the
malaria parasite. Efforts to target the parasite through vaccines in
humans have so far had only limited success.
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On this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk about ongoing research
into ways to prevent and cure malaria. We'll also take a closer
look at the long-running debate over whether birds evolved from
dinosaurs, or both evolved separately from a common ancestor.
Fossilized feathers from a 220-million-year- old fossil of Longisquama
insignis found in central Asia in the 1970's may help shed
some light on the debate. We'll talk with one of the researchers
studying the remains.
Disease, dinosaurs, and your questions - call us at 1-800-989-8255.
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The oldest feathers?
(image Oregon State University)
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Guests:
David Schneider
Whitehead Fellow
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Craig J. Coates
Assistant Professor, Entomology
Center for
Advanced Invertebrate Molecular Science
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Lawrence Martin
Paleontologist
Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
Natural History Museum
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
- Malaria
Foundation International
- Mosquito
Genomics WWW
- World
Health Organization/OMS: Malaria
- African
Malaria Vaccine Testing Network
- NCBI
- Malaria Genetics & Genomics
- American
Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- MALARIA
- DIAGNOSIS, PROPHYLAXIS, TREATMENT
- SciFri:
April 18, 1997, Hour One:Malaria
- SciFri:
September 3, 1999, Hour 1: DDT and Malaria/Brainy Mice
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- SciFri:
June 26, 1998, Hour 1: Birds from Dinosaurs?
- SciFri:
October 18, 1996, Hour Two:Vertebrate Paleontology
Produced By: Annette Heist
and Naomi Lubick
Web Producer: Charles
Bergquist
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