Swine Flu Vaccine, Mother-to-Daughter Cancer, Vegetarian Spider
This week: Perceptions of the swine flu vaccine differ across the Atlantic. Japanese doctors discover a mother who passed cancer to her daughter in the womb. Dyslexia turns out to be more complex in Chinese-speaking people. Monkeys visit the “uncanny valley.” Scientists find the first known omnivorous spider. And our ancestor Ardi is now on Facebook.
Swine Flu Vaccine: A vaccine against the H1N1 swine flu virus is now available and is starting to reach people around the world. But while U.S. officials are recommending the vaccine for large segments of the population – including all children from 6 months to 24 years of age — many European medical professionals are less ready to recommend the vaccine. We explore cultural differences in how people in the U.S. and Europe perceive the risks and benefits of swine flu vaccination.
Guest: Jay Butler, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: By The World’s Gerry Hadden in Barcelona.
Guest: Robert Dingwall, University of Nottingham, UK.
Links:
Information on H1N1 flu from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More on H1N1 vaccine from the World Health Organization.
Cancer Transferred from Mother to Daughter: The tragic case of a 28-year-old woman in Japan may help scientists better understand the biology of cancer and the workings of the fetal immune system. The woman had cancer, and that cancer was transferred to her baby in the womb. Scientists say it is the first conclusive case of cancer being passed from pregnant mother to child.
Guest: Anthony Ford, Institute of Cancer Research, UK.
Links:
The study.
BBC coverage.
Transcript of this interview.
Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:
- Chinese Dyslexia: Dyslexia in Chinese-speaking people appears to be more complex than dyslexia in English speakers. In addition to having phonological problems — trouble associating sounds with print — Chinese-speaking dyslexics have additional trouble processing visual information.
The study. - Monkeys’ Uncanny Valley: People generally enjoy seeing robots and animated figures that look somewhat human, but when artificial beings resemble humans too closely, people are repelled by the depictions. The dip in people’s responses to such robots or images is called an “uncanny valley.” Scientists have now found that monkeys also have an uncanny valley.
The study.
Image: Some of the synthetic monkeys that seem to give real monkeys the creeps. (Credit: Shawn Steckenfinger.)
- Vegetarian Spider: Scientists have stumbled upon a spider with rare food habits. Of the 40,000 known spider species, Bagheera kiplingi appears to be the only one that eats a mostly vegetarian diet. The spider lives on acacia bushes in Central America. It eats the same food as its neighbors, which are aggressive stinging ants.
The study.
More about jumping spiders.
Video: Watch a spider outmaneuver — and out-wait — ants in order to harvest her favorite plant parts. (She finally gets to eat after 22 seconds. Filmed by Christopher Meehan.)
Ardi on Facebook: It has been just two weeks since Ardi, our 4.4 million-year-old ancestor, made headlines worldwide. She now has a Facebook page. You can find and friend her here.
Ardi doesn’t approve of this song, but you could still take a listen.
Find out more about Ardi on The World Science Podcast number 34.
i think that in asian countries the Swine Flu did not spread rapidly compared to those countries that are located in colder climates. we should still be very thankful that the swine flu did not cause massive infections.
2 of my cousins in mexico got infected with the swine flu virus. thank God, they recovered well. it is a great news that the pandemic on swine flu is gone now.
At least a hundred persons in our city have been infected with the H1N1 virus. I was very scared to get infected with this disease during the pandemic,-.