E-Mail
Despite being one of the world s most charismatic species, tigers face uncertain futures primarily due to habitat fragmentation, human-wildlife conflict and poaching. As global tiger populations decline, so does their genetic diversity. But until now it s been unclear how the animals dwindling numbers are affecting them at the genetic level.
To find out, researchers at Stanford University, the National Centre for Biological Sciences, India, and various zoological parks and NGOs sequenced 65 genomes from four of the surviving tiger subspecies. Their findings confirmed that strong genetic differences exist between different tiger subspecies but showed, surprisingly, that these differences emerged relatively recently, as Earth underwent a major climatic shift and our own species grew increasingly dominant.
E-Mail
Today, the average American is unlikely to spend time worrying about malaria. Although the disease is commonly perceived to be restricted to other parts of the world, it played a significant role in shaping American history. It even helped turn the tide of the American Revolutionary War by infecting so many British soldiers that General Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown.
First-year students in a 2019 introductory seminar class led by Erin Mordecai, an assistant professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S), delved into this and other historical examples of how vector-borne diseases - those caused by infectious pathogens spread by living organisms or vectors - influenced human history. Throughout the course, they collaborated on a paper highlighting various trends in which these illnesses impacted historical societies. Their findings have now been published in the latest issue of the journal
Stanfordâs Family Weekend theme: Wherever you are, you are family
The annual Stanford Family Weekend, which will feature a livestream town hall style meeting with President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell on Feb. 27, will be preceded by three days of online programs, including campus tours and âBack to Schoolâ class lectures.
By Kathleen J. Sullivan
Like many gatherings during the pandemic, the annual Stanford Family Weekend in late February will be a virtual experience â a livestream town hall, webinar meetings, a photo montage of families with their students and Zoom visits to community centers.
In between classes and work, Sahej Claire, ’22, (left-center) and her family take quick hikes to get some fresh air in beautiful South Lake Tahoe. (Image credit: Courtesy of the Claire family)
Remove lead from soil to save children from toxicity
Children in a rural village in Bangladesh. Removing soil contaminated with lead can help protect them from poisoning. Copyright: Nasir Khan, (CC BY-SA 2.0). This image has been cropped.
Speed read
Removing lead from soil can help prevent lead poisoning
Lead toxicity can permanently affect intelligence in children
Share this article:
Republish
We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:
You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
Simple soil remediation can save children from lead toxicity
Simple soil remediation can substantially reduce levels of the toxic metal lead in the blood of children living in heavily contaminated areas, says a new study conducted in Bangladesh.
Lead exposure can affect every system of the human body. In children it can affect brain development, resulting in reduced intelligence. Every year, intelligence deficit and reduced productivity from lead exposure costs the world about US$1 trillion and Bangladesh US$16 billion, according to the study.
To be published in the March issue of Environmental Research
, the study showed that removing contaminated soil and fallen leaves led to a 96 per cent reduction in soil concentrations of lead and a 35 per cent lowering of lead in the blood of children living in an area where lead batteries were recycled.