Category Science

The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (How he became infected is not known.) Genetic analysis of this blood sample suggested that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

HIV progressively destroys certain types of white blood cells called CD4+ lymphocytes. Lymphocytes help defend the body against foreign cells, infectious organisms, and cancer. Thus, when HIV destroys CD4+ lymphocytes, people become susceptible to attack by many other infectious organisms. Many of the complications of HIV infection, including death, usually result from these other infections and not from HIV infection directly.

HIV-1 originated in Central Africa during the first half of the 20th century when a closely related chimpanzee virus first infected people. The global spread of HIV-1 began in the late 1970s, and AIDS was first recognized in 1981.

In 2016, about 36.7 million people, including 2.1 million children under age 15, were living with HIV infection worldwide. There were 1 million AIDS-related deaths, and 1.8 million people were newly infected.

Most (95%) new infections occur in the developing world. Almost 70% of new HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than half occurring in women and 1 in 10 occurring in children under 15 years old. However, in many sub-Saharan African countries, the number of new HIV infections has greatly decreased, partly because of international efforts to provide treatment and strategies for prevention.

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Romulus Earl Whitaker (born 23 May 1943) is an Indian herpetologist, wildlife conservationist, and founder of the Madras Snake Park, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust (ANET), and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. In 2008, Whitaker was selected as an associate laureate in the 2008 Rolex Awards for Enterprise for his efforts to create a network of rainforest research stations throughout India. In 2005, he was a winner of a Whitley Award for outstanding leadership in nature conservation. He used this award to found the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station in Karnataka, for the study of king cobras and their habitat.

He was producer of the 1996, 53-minute, Super 16-mm wildlife documentary, The King and I, made for the National Geographic Channel Explorer program. This film on the natural history of the king cobra, the largest venomous snake in the world, received the Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement, 1998. It also received Best Photography Award, Progetto Natura 8th Stambecco d’Oro Nature Film Festival, Turin, 1997; it was nominated for Best Cinematography, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival 1997; Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft-Cinematographers and News and Documentary, 1998, and Best Animal Behaviour, Wildscreen Film Festival 1998.

In February 2007, he was the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary produced by Icon Films and WNET (and broadcast as Supersize Crocs on PBS’s Nature series) on oversized crocodiles, which was filmed in India, Ethiopia, and Australia.

In January 2009, Whitaker was in another Nature documentary on real-life reptiles, such as Komodo dragons and dracos that inspired tales of dragons.

In February 2011, BBC Natural World followed Whitaker during his ongoing research into the causes and prevention of snake bites in India.

He has authored several scientific articles and popular books on reptiles, especially on snakes, including the comprehensive field guide, titled Snakes of India – The Field Guide in 2004 on the snakes of India. 

In 2018, he received the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian awards in India for distinguish services in wildlife conservation.

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Antibodies that specifically react with self-antigens are called autoantibodies. These antibodies are generated as a result of the loss of tolerance response against self-antigens and can be pathogenic.

Autoantibodies are generated as a result of disrupted central and peripheral tolerance systems, which eventually lead to maturation and differentiation of autoantibody-generating B lymphocytes into autoantibody-releasing plasma cells.

B lymphocytes that produce high-affinity autoantibodies to self-antigen are either eliminated or functionally inactivated, whereas B lymphocytes that produce low-affinity autoantibodies escape the selection process and continue the maturation process.

Natural autoantibodies are primarily generated from (CD5+) B-1 lymphocytes, which are the most abundant B cells in the neonatal repertoire, and non-circulating mature B lymphocytes (marginal zone B lymphocytes). B-1 lymphocytes with an effective antigen-presenting ability can play a crucial role in generating pathogenic autoantibodies in various autoinflammatory diseases.

By binding self-antigens non-specifically and with low affinity, natural autoantibodies can prevent highly autoreactive clones from reacting strongly with self-antigen. This way natural autoantibodies can maintain immune system homeostasis.

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A rogue planet is a planet not orbiting a star and thus not being part of a solar system. However, such planets might support life due to geologic activities. The Founders’ homeworld in the Omarion Nebula was such a planet, as was Dakala and Trelane’s planet of Gothos. (ENT: “Rogue Planet”; DS9: “The Search, Part I”; TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”).

Rogue planets do actually exist in the universe. A rogue planet is an object which has equivalent mass to a planet and is not gravitationally bound to any star, and that therefore moves through space as an independent object. Several astronomers claim to have detected such objects (for example, Cha 110913-773444), but those detections remain unconfirmed.

Astronomers have used the Herschel Space Observatory and the Very Large Telescope to observe a very young free-floating planetary-mass object, OTS 44, and demonstrate that the processes characterizing the canonical star-like mode of formation apply to isolated objects down to a few Jupiter masses. Herschel far-infrared observations have shown that OTS 44 is surrounded by a disk of at least 10 Earth masses and thus could eventually form a mini planetary system. Spectroscopic observations of OTS 44 with the SINFONI spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope have revealed that the disk is actively accreting matter, similarly to the disks of young stars. In December 2013, a candidate exomoon of a rogue planet was announced.

In October 2020, OGLE-2016-BLG-1928, an Earth-mass rogue planet, was discovered in the Milky Way.

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