Climate change a factor in malaria spread

Climate change is one reason that malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, according to new research by Emory environmental studies' Luis Chaves, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The Quarterly Review of Biology recently published the findings by Chaves and an associate at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Their review of 70 studies aimed to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere in recent decades.

Malaria, a parasitic disease spread to humans by mosquitoes, is common in warm climates of Africa, South America and South Asia. The development and survival, both of the mosquito and the malaria parasite, are highly sensitive to daily and seasonal temperature patterns and the disease has traditionally been rare in the cooler highland areas.

After careful examination of the statistical models of previous studies, the researchers concluded that climate change is indeed likely playing a role in highland malaria. "Even if trends in temperature are very small, organisms can amplify such small changes and that could cause an increase in parasite transmission," Chaves said.

Additional research should combine climate change data with other possible factors in the spread of malaria, Chaves added.

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Health volunteers battle odds in Ethiopia

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, volunteers from low-income, local households are lending a hand to impoverished AIDS patients. They visit patients in their homes, help them get to clinics, and assist them with getting medication.

Kenneth Maes, an Emory graduate student in anthropology, is researching the work of the volunteers, and the paradox of AIDS treatment amid poverty so extreme that food is scarce.

As one AIDS patient asked a volunteer: “With what food can I take this medication? My insides are burning with medicine only inside me.”

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Stories your parents should have told you

Photo by Michael Marfione from Emory's "Picturing Home" juried exhibit.

Do you know how your parents met? How about your grandparents?

Children who know more stories about relatives who came before them have better emotional well-being, according to Emory psychologists Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke. Their analysis of dinner-time conversations and other measures of how well families work is now available in the Journal of Family Life.

The psychologists, and former Emory graduate student Jennifer Bohanek, developed a scale to measure how much kids know about their family histories. Teens who knew more stories about their extended family showed higher levels of well-being and identity achievement, even when controlling for general levels of family functioning, the study found.

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Your money and the herd mentality

Fear operates all the time in the financial markets, Gregory Berns, director of the Emory Center for Neuropolicy, told PBS Nightly Business Report. The herd mentality, or the idea that other people know more than you do, is “extremely potent, extremely hard to resist,” he says.

Berns’ neuroeconomics research includes brain-imaging studies of how other people’s opinions shape an individual’s perception.

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Should killer whales be captive?

Photo of orcas in the wild by Paul Chetirkin/Marine Photobank

The tragic death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau in Florida, after a 12,000-pound orca named Tilikum pulled her into a tank, has raised new questions about the confinement of dolphins and whales in theme parks. eScienceCommons discussed the topic with Emory neuroscientist Lori Marino, an expert on the brains of cetaceans, which include porpoises, dolphins and whales.

Q: What are some common misconceptions about killer whales, also known as orcas?

Marino: Killer whales are actually dolphins. They are called whales because they are the largest dolphins, but they are in the same family as the bottlenose dolphin. Although they are top predators, they are not naturally aggressive to people. I have colleagues who research orcas and swim with them in the wild. People will go out in very small boats and paddle among orcas. They could easily reach up and grab you and gobble you up. And yet there is not a single incident of an orca injuring, let alone killing, a person in the wild.

Q: What do we know about killer whale intelligence?

Marino: The orca brain is the most convoluted brain on the planet. These are very, very intelligent animals with major, impressive brains.

I think people would be surprised to know that orcas form cultures in the oceans, and they pass these on through generations. It’s stunning. Different groups of orcas make distinct sounds and we call these dialects. It’s like a Brooklyn accent versus a Manhattan accent.

Orcas have really creative ways of getting prey. In the Arctic, a sea lion may try to escape them by getting on a floating chunk of ice. A group of orcas will form a line and rush forward together to create a wave to make the ice chunk wobbly and throw the sea lion into the water. You see a lot of group cooperation like this among orcas.

Q: Why are you so strongly against keeping killer whales and other cetaceans in theme parks?

Marino: The normal range of an orca is several 100 kilometers per day, and they like to dive really deep. They don’t have room in these tanks to swim as far as they would like to. There is no evidence that they kill each other in the wild, but they have been known to kill each other in captivity. When you take all of that energy and put it into a small tank, a lot of stress builds up and it’s like a perfect storm waiting to happen.

I understand that people want to see these animals up close, but I want people to understand the price that the animals are paying. What happened at SeaWorld is tragic all around, for the trainer who lost her life and for the whale.

What do you think? Should killer whales be kept in theme parks for entertainment?

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