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Obesity may be caused by ancestors’ exposure to toxic chemicals

Decades ago, someone’s grandmother was exposed to a toxic pesticide that was later banned. A Washington State University professor’s research suggests that person’s grandchild may be suffering the consequences of that environmental exposure.

The inheritance that WSU epigeneticist Michael Skinner studies does not come from genes – those are set in stone after birth. But epigenetics, the way those genes express themselves, do change throughout a person’s life and can also be passed down through the generations.

Skinner suggests that today’s high rates of obesity could be linked to epigenetics rather than just diet and exercise.

Though each cell in the body has an identical DNA sequence, the form and function of cells are often quite different. That is because different epigenetic processes can “turn on and turn off” different cells, according to Skinner.

“Disease we now know primarily comes from an abnormal epigenetics, which is causing an abnormal set of genes to turn on or off and gives genes an abnormal function,” he said.

Unlike DNA, the body’s epigenetics can change throughout their life – largely based on environmental factors. That’s how exposure to a chemical can cause disease decades later.

Over his decades of research, Skinner’s contribution to the field of epigenetics has been the discovery that epigenetics is inherited just like the genes themselves.

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Spokesman-Review
The Columbian

New Method Aims to Curb Disease Spread in Animal Trade

A new article published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution by Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers describes a simplified method to detect a deadly fungus killing European salamanders. The ability to rapidly find the fungus is significant as the disease, although not detected in the U.S., could impact the millions of amphibians and salamanders annually imported.

The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, threatens salamander diversity. Initially identified in northern Europe, evidence suggests it was introduced from Southeast Asia via the pet trade.

“The impacts of Bsal in Europe have been idiosyncratic but include some of the most severe population declines we have witnessed,” said Jesse Brunner, the study’s principal investigator and associate professor at Washington State University. “A large, diverse group of researchers, government biologists, and amphibian lovers in the pet trade are working hard to avoid such devastating impacts.”

Despite a temporary U.S. ban on importing about 200 salamander species, Brunner noted the researchers’ focus is on preparing for potential arrivals and safeguarding amphibians. To address that concern, the research team developed a noninvasive method to quickly detect Bsal in shipments and captive settings, surpassing the conventional individual animal infection determination — this new method tests environmental DNA for Bsal DNA to assess the pathogen’s prevalence.

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Mirage News
Phys.org

 

 

Aging societies more vulnerable to collapse

Societies and political structures, like the humans they serve, appear to become more fragile as they age, according to an analysis of hundreds of pre-modern societies. The study, which holds implications for the modern world, provides the first quantitative support for the theory that resilience of political states decreases over time.

Triggers of societal collapse have been well studied and vary from conquest and coups to earthquakes and droughts. This new study shows that the risk of states ending because of these events increased steeply over the first two centuries after they were formed. The research identifies several mechanisms that could drive these aging effects, and notably, some of these are still at work today, including environmental degradation and growing economic inequality.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights the need to understand internal processes that may contribute to the demise of states, said co-author Tim Kohler.

“We tend to concentrate on external drivers such as drought or catastrophes. Yes, these have a role, but often they are just triggers that are effective, or not, depending on the internal dynamics of particular societies,” said Kohler, a Washington State University archeologist.

How states and great powers rise and fall has been an enigma that has puzzled historians for years. In this study, the researchers looked at this question from a new angle, by analyzing longevity in 324 pre-modern states spanning 5 millennia.

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ScienceDaily
Phys.org
RealClearScience
WSU Insider

Study links political civility to the productivity of state legislatures

A team of five researchers from Washington State University and the University of Arkansas surveyed more than 1,200 registered lobbyists in each of the country’s 50 states, asking them questions related to how the legislators in their state generally behaved towards one another. The results show the extent to which state legislators behave in a civil manner among themselves is related to how effective they are at passing legislation.

“We were all surprised by the strength of the between civility and performance,” said Bill Schreckhise, lead author and chair of the UA Department of Political Science. “Our findings indicate that the states where legislators were the most civil towards each other passed roughly twice the number of bills that the most uncivil legislatures passed.”

Aggregating the state lobbyists’ impressions by state, the researchers then determined which states had legislators who were more civil to each other, and which states’ legislatures were seen as being less civil among themselves. They then compared each legislatures’ overall level of civility with how many bills were passed, how much significant legislation was enacted, and whether the state legislatures passed their important budget bills on time in recent years.

“At a time when the tenor of our political discourse is growing less civil, including that of our elected leaders, our findings show that political incivility is having a real effect on our nation’s ability to govern — both in Congress and in our state capitols,” added co-author Nicholas Lovrich, of Washington State University’s School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs. “Our study shows that such behavior has very real-world consequences for governance.”

The article “Legislative Civility, Gridlock, Polarization, and Productivity” was published in the State Politics & Policy Quarterly journal (Cambridge University Press) on behalf of the American Political Science Association. WSU co-authors include Benjamin Francis in the Department of Psychology.

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Phys.org
University of Arkansas News

World’s oldest forts upend idea that farming alone led to complex societies

In remote Siberia, hunter-gatherers built complex defenses 8000 years ago.

People who lived in central Siberia thousands of years ago enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle despite the area’s cold winters. They fished abundant pike and salmonids from the Amnya River and hunted migrating elk and reindeer with bone and stonetipped spears. To preserve their rich stores of fish oil and meat, they created elaborately decorated pottery. And they built the world’s first known fortresses, perhaps to keep out aggressive neighbors.

With room inside for dozens of people and dwellings sunk almost 2 meters deep for warmth in Siberian winters, the fortresses were ringed by earthen walls several meters high and topped with wooden palisades. At some point, they were consumed by flame, a possible sign of early battles. And at least one set of structures was built startlingly early: 8000 years ago, 2000 years before the mighty walls of Uruk and Babylon in the Middle East and thousands of years before agriculture reached some parts of Europe and Asia, according to a study to be reported in Antiquity on 1 December.

A centuries-long cold spell that started about 8200 years ago may have made such rich sites particularly desirable. At Amnya and other fortified settlements, burned layers show that pit houses and palisades were periodically consumed by flames, and archaeologists found arrowheads in the Amnya’s outer ditch—possible signs of violent conflict. “These things we think about now, like property ownership and social inequality—people have been thinking about since we became human,” Colin Grier of Washington State University says.

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Science.com
Science magazine
Daily Mail