Timing is everything...

...in the life of the lymphocyte.
Originating in the bone marrow, a subset of lymphocytes migrates during gestation to the thymus gland. There they "learn" to identify antigens, both foreign and native. It is in childhood that these cells are most active, when they set their "memories". In later life they are then prepared for the daily onslaught of parasites, toxins, and foreign bodies that seek to harm us.

Research has shown that children who are "unexposed" to a broad array of antigens have difficulties later with immune disorders of all types. The thymus involutes by puberty, so this timing makes perfect sense. Parents who misguidedly "protect" their children from common antigens and vaccines are doing them no favors. Our immune systems have evolved to use childhood as the time during which we lay down a healthy and vigorous immune system--there is no data to suggest it can be "overwhelmed" except by real disease at this stage. The fact that we are seeing a generation of immune deficient, hypersensitive, and disordered young people is a direct result of our scientifically illiterate approach to our own bodies and those of our children.
In a very real sense, children who are allowed to get "dirty" are healthier than those who are kept "too clean." Recent studies document this as a direct cause of the increased incidence of allergic asthma specifically.
And children seem to know this....

It's DNA....

...that makes the world of life go 'round.
One of the greatest breakthroughs in medical science as been recombinant DNA technology. Among other things, it has allowed us to produce human insulin and various "biotech" medications and tests that have given us a great advantage in our study and treatment of chronic disease (it's been pretty useful in acute disease as well).
Products of recombinant DNA technology, in which desirable genes are inserted into the target genome via viral or bacterial transmission, are NOT "artificial". They are essentially hybrids. The history of life itself rests on hybridization. Genetic engineering started 10,000 years ago with the emergence of agriculture; that process is not more nor less "natural" than recombinant engineering. Sexual reproduction itself is recombinant DNA technology.
So don't let the scientifically illiterate scare you--look it up for yourself and make your own decisions. Genetic modification is by and large a positive adaptation!

Be thankful for it.

DNA.
Here we see it (by EM) "unlinked", simple yet so powerful. We are only beginning to learn its secrets. But what we know already reveals how perfect it is for what it does, and for what it needs to do to make sure life continues.
Science is about exploring the nature of our world, not about philosophizing about where it came from.
I, however, know in my mind and heart that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and see DNA as further proof of that.
Have a great holiday--I will be seeing some of MY DNA in my new baby granddaughter, Aletheia, and other bits of it in the rest of my family. Beautiful!

Small but mighty...

...the pituitary, the master gland.
Nowhere is the incredibly delicate complexity of the human body more clearly seen than in the endocrine system, where the pituitary runs the show.
Enthroned in the sella turcica (which is NOT an Italian sports car), it connects all higher order functions, emotions, and sensory inputs to that otherwise immobile lump we call the body. Through its intricate feedback loops it controls every cell, every reaction, every movement--millions of them each second. Usually without a hitch.
So think kind thoughts about your pituitary today and it will continue to hum along,
proving once again that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Pros and eus....

...as in "karyotes"?
Prokaryotes are organisms without nuclei (kingdom Monera) and eukaryotes are with (the other four kingdoms).
What is truly remarkable, though, is that the genetic material of both, and of viruses, which are not (yet) considered a living kingdom, is DNA-based. Therefore, the likelihood that we are unrelated is virtually zero. Even more remarkable is that life, in the form of prokaryotes, probably came into existence not after 2 billion years but almost as soon as the Earth cooled enough to support it. Far from being an "accident", it seems that life was "programmed in" to the birth of the universe. This concept is explored in many books, but one of the best is
The Goldilocks Enigma, by Paul Davies.
Regardless of one's beliefs about origins, this "inevitability" of life means we are not a vanishingly small probability but a prime factor in the makeup of the universe.

Thanks also...

...to our porcine friends,
who have (or, had) heart!

Have a good weekend.

Talk to...er, learn from...the animals...

...in many ways.
Thanks for the
"donations",
guys!

Fungus among us....

One of the pathogens that we have been able to keep a bit ahead of, at least as compared to bacteria, are the fungi. In general human beings are not often harassed by members of this kingdom, unless we suffer from immune compromise. Then they are killers.
Amphibians and plants have not been so fortunate. The current world-wide die-off of frogs and related animals and the continuous battle we fight on behalf of our crops are a result of fungal invasions...relentless and intractable.
Part of the reason for fungal power is their role as a decomposer--they eat trash, literally. And if that trash is wet, all the better. They are also great at killing their microbial competitors--penicillin came from a fungus as have other antibacterial agents.
Some fungi are good--lovers of stinky cheese and mushrooms (like me) appreciate them in their proper place.
But watch out--fungi can turn on us in a New York minute if it is to their survival advantage.
Just ask the poor peepers.

In the beginning....

...there is the neuron.

In the beginning....

...there is the neuron.