Q: Can antibiotics affect the pill?

A: Yes, certain antibiotics such as Rifadin can change the efficacy of some birth control pills!  The pill works by releasing hormones into the body which prevents ovulation, or the release of an egg, which inhibits sperm from fertilizing the egg.  The pill can also thicken the cervical mucus and thin the lining of the uterus which also helps prevent the egg and sperm from joining together.  When taken correctly, the pill can be 99 percent effective against pregnancy, but human error such as forgetting to take the pill every day can lessen its efficacy.  Although it has not been proven that all antibiotics increase the risk of unplanned pregnancy while on the pill, it is a good idea to discuss with your doctor whether you should explore having a backup birth control method while on antibiotics such as spermicide or condoms.  It is also important to keep in mind while on antibiotics to avoid drinking alcohol and to take the antibiotics for the entirety of the prescribed length of time.  Other prescriptions and herbal supplements may also impact the efficacy of the birth control pill, so tell your clinician everything you are taking to avoid adverse effects.

These questions were answered by a member of in*Touch and were written for a general audience; if you would like more information about an individual circumstance, we recommend that you make an appointment at the Health Center at (413)538-2121.

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Saint Albertus Magnus, a Dominican bishop and philosopher, wisely said in the 13th century, “Does there exist many worlds, or is there a single world?  This is one of the most noble and exalted questions in the study of Nature.” For thousands of years, humans have looked to the night sky and wondered about the possibility of life beyond this world we call home.  The universe is vast and fascinating, and to chain our minds to terrestrial matters and assume that life solely came into existence on planet Earth would be a foolish mistake.  “Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives,”  the philosopher Socrates once said. Human nature compels us to search the heavens in hope that one day we shall discover extraterrestrial life, and that day may soon be here.

One of the most promising local places for life outside  Earth’s atmosphere is Enceladus, one of Saturn’s 66 moons. Named after a giant from Greek mythology, Enceladus was discovered in 1789 by German astronomer Frederick William Herschel.  Little was know about  pallid Enceladus until the spacecraft Voyager 1 passed by the moon in 1980 and discovered that Enceladus is seven times smaller than our moon.  Voyager 1 also found that Encedulas is a snowy world that has a record-high albedo, or amount of sunlight reflected off a surface, close to 100 percent.  For comparison, our moon has an albedo of 12 percent.  Encedulas’ albedo is the highest in our Solar System.  The images captured of Enceladus also reveal a striking feature: few impact craters, suggesting the moon’s surface might be geologically active and constantly renewing itself. In 1981, Voyager 2 passed by Enceladus, finding areas on the surface with different ages, including some that were geologically young.

In 2005, the spacecraft Cassini made three close flybys of Enceladus and discovered that the moon is currently geologically active. One of the unique features on the moon are cryovolcanoes, which are icy volcanoes that form on cold celestial bodies and erupt water, ammonia and methane instead of molten rock. Cassini also detected an atmosphere with water vapor on Enceladus. The gases of this atmosphere are concentrated over the Southern polar region where there are large geysers spewing from a crack in the ice.  Scientists now think there is a large underground ocean of liquid water feeding these plumes.

Although the surface of Enceladus only reaches about -198°C (-324°F) at noontime, the interior of the moon is warm. Coming from stored energy from the past and the gravitational pressures exerted on Enceladus by Saturn and nearby moons Tethys and Dione, this heat fuels the geological activity which renews the surface of Enceladus. Icy cracks by the southern hemisphere, nicknamed “tiger stripes,” are fractures that move in a manner similar to the San Andreas Fault on Earth.  This movement causes streams of vapor to rise from the cracks.

Last month, Cassini made another flyby to sample the streams coming from those cracks and found organic compounds, icy particles and water vapor in the plume.  Many scientists believe the presence of organic compounds could signal another major discovery: life on Enceladus. Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini’s Imaging Science team, stated in a NASA interview,“In the end, it is the most prominent place I know for an astrobiology source.” Astrobiologists believe that microbes, organisms that cannot be seen without the aid of a microscope, may be living in an underground   ocean in the same way that organisms live around hydrothermal events on Earth.

What is more astonishing is that the proposed life may be swept up in the geysers within reach of the Cassini spacecraft.  The next flyby of Cassini is scheduled for April 14, a date which could mark a major breakthrough in the field of astrobiology and a milestone in the history of mankind.

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A recent experiment conducted by Russian scientists has allowed them to grow seeds of Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed Campion) that are more than 30,000 years old. This is the oldest plant to date that has been regenerated, and it produces white flowers as well as viable seeds. Previously, Canadian researchers have managed to regenerate younger plants, and the former record for successful regeneration of an ancient plant species was held by scientists who planted 2,000-year-old date palm seeds at the Masada Fortress near the Dead Sea in Israel the 1960s.

The seeds of the Pleistocene plant were unearthed on the right bank of the lower Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, where Arctic ground squirrels had buried the seeds of this flowering plant tens of thousands of years ago. Seventy squirrel hibernation burrows were found in this region, containing hundreds of thousands of seed samples from various plants. These seeds were frozen and preserved almost 125 feet below the ground in the permafrost at -7°C and had never thawed. The sediments surrounding the seeds were cemented together and usually filled with ice, keeping out any water and creating a perfect freezing chamber for the seeds. The squirrels also placed hay and animal fur in the burrows when burying the seeds, further improving the conditions for storage. These seeds were exposed to approximately 0.07 kGy of gamma radiation due to the decay of elements in the Earth’s crust, which is the maximal dose to date at which tissue may remain viable. Although the narrow-leafed Campion is still found in some parts of Siberia, it is impossible for the seeds found to be modern contaminants: they have been proven to be almost 31,800 years old through radiocarbon dating, unlike the case of the Arctic lupine seeds found in the Yukon which were believed to be 10,000 years old, but later found to be more recent.

Initially, scientists attempted to grow plants from mature S. stenophylla seeds. However, this proved futile and so they used the plant’s placental tissue (the fruit structure to which seeds attach) to grow entire plants in pots under strictly controlled environmental conditions. Placental tissue samples were taken from three of these fruits and provided the required nutrients until they produced roots, when they were transplanted into pots in a greenhouse. The plants were able to bear flowers, seeds and fruit in a year and the modern-day plant was cultivated to act as a control for the experiment. To ensure that the ancient plant’s seeds were viable, its flowers were artificially pollinated and the resultant seeds were germinated. These demonstrated 100 percent germination, a higher rate than the modern plants. Although the ancient narrow-leafed Campion looked similar to its modern-day counterpart, there were some significant differences. For example, the Pleistocene version produced twice the number of buds, and the modern plant produces roots at a faster rate.

Although this discovery sounds fascinating, one may ask if it can actually prove useful to human beings and what implications it has. For one, the discovery suggests that the permafrost region may be a potential source of ancient gene pools that we may have written off as extinct. The successful regeneration of the Pleistocene plants shows that old age and ice is not enough adversity for a plant and it may still flower in spite of these conditions. This raises an important question: what would happen if the permafrost thaws as the Earth grows warmer? It is possible that many organisms may awaken from their dormant state and become an active part of the modern ecosystem, affecting the phenotypes that are common in today’s world and altering the landscape as we know it. In fact, the preservation of these seeds for such long periods of time in ice has made scientists hopeful that they may even be able to recreate Ice Age mammals, such as the mammoth, one day.

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Spring Cleaning

As you start to conquer the mess that comes with winter and mid-terms, keep your carbon footprint and your toxin load down by using simple cleaners like vinegar and baking soda. While many mainstream cleaners contain artificial chemicals which build up in your bloodstream and can lead to cancer, vinegar and baking soda are safe. Vinegar is all-natural, made from distilled corn and water. Baking soda is a gentle salt which, while often artificially produced, can occur naturally. We’ve collected tips on how to use vinegar and baking soda in your dorm room from “1001 Uses for White Distilled Vinegar,” on vinegartips.com, and “51 Fantastic Uses for Baking Soda,” on care2live.com. For a more comprehensive look at what you can do with these cleaners, check out these articles online.

Clean your refrigerator by wiping down the interior with a half-and-half solution of water and white distilled vinegar. Deodorize your fridge by placing an open box of baking soda in the back and leaving it there for a few days.

Clean your microwave by wiping it down with a heated half-and-half solution of water and vinegar or with baking soda and water on a sponge and then rinsing.

Have your coffee maker fresh as new by running a cup of vinegar through a whole brewing cycle, then rinsing with water.

Remove stains and mold from your travel mug by soaking or scrubbing gently with an equal parts solution of salt and vinegar, baking soda and vinegar or baking soda and warm water.

Clean your dishware—whether you have glassware, plastic containers or silverware and other metal kitchen supplies such as can openers— by wiping them with a cloth soaked in undiluted vinegar or using a toothbrush and baking soda paste to get into hard-to-reach places. Rinse thoroughly.

Make your floor move-out ready by spraying and mopping with a mixture of three drops of dishwashing liquid and with 1/3 part vinegar, 1/3 part rubbing alcohol and 1/3 part water. Scrubbing with baking soda on a damp sponge should take care of scuff marks.

You can try to salvage a stained rug by rubbing in a paste of 2 tablespoons vinegar and  up salt or baking soda, then letting the paste dry and vacuuming it up the next day.  This doubles as a quick way to clean your vacuum as well.

Let your windows sparkle just in time for spring with a window cleaning solution of up non-sudsy ammonia, 1 cup white distilled vinegar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch in a gallon of water.

Remove gummy decals and tape residue from walls by letting undiluted vinegar soak into them for several minutes and then peeling them off.

To freshen up your closet, place a box of baking soda in the back.

Deodorize your trash can by throwing in a pinch of baking soda.

Also, don’t forget to start de-cluttering now. Find things you no longer want? Don’t reach for the trash can. Take them down to the donation bins in your dorm’s laundry room so that someone else can use them. Donations, if not used up by other students here at the college, go to Goodwill in Holyoke at the end of the year.

The Eco Reps are a group of liaisons to students, faculty, staff, and administration. We coordinate environmental education and sustainability campaigns on campus. Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mhcecoreps. Have a question for the Eco Reps? Leave it on our Facebook wall or email ecoreps-I@mtholyoke.edu.

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As reported in Science on March 30, a team of researchers has discovered that the pathways of fibers in our brains are more akin to the organized streets of New York City than the plate of spaghetti previously envisioned.

The study, led by Van Wedeen of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, is part of a larger project known as the Human Connectome Project and funded by the National Institute of Health. According to its website, the Human Connectome Project is a collaboration between MGH and UCLA that aims “to construct a map of the complete structural and functional neural connections in vivo (in a living organism) within and across individuals.”

Previous research attempting to map brain pathways resulted in more two-dimensional images that “looked somewhat like a plate of spaghetti,” according to Wedeen. Traditionally, scientists have used tract-tracing methods to map the brain, which involve injecting chemicals into live brains and watching them travel through the neural axons. Tract-tracing methods only highlight a small selection of pathways and, for ethical reasons, cannot be performed on humans. For these reasons intiatives like the Human Connectome Project have worked to develop new ways of imaging the brain. With this new study, Wedeen and his team seem to have struck gold.

In the past decade, Wedeen and others have studied the effectiveness of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a more comprehensive method of analyzing brain pathways. Diffusion MRI maps the diffusion of molecules like water across membranes naturally occurring in the body. By knowing how water moves in the brain, scientists can create a multidimensional map of cerebral fibers.

What the study found is that brain pathways are organized in a grid-like system on three axes that move with the curves of the brain. Here, one can picture the infrastructure of New York City, “with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension,” says Wedeen.

Wedeen and his team studied not only humans, but also four species of monkeys that exhibit very similar pathway organization, suggesting that the grid system is an evolutionary trait common among primates.

Further experimentation using diffusion MRI will need to be done before scientists can say that they have a clear and certain view of how wiring works in the brain. With this study and others within the Human Connectome Project, scientists hope to gain a better idea of what happens in brain disorders such as autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Pretty much anywhere you go in the world today, you can see thousands of people talking or texting on their cell phones. I mean, what’s not to like about these handy gadgets? They are compact devices that connect you to the rest of society at the touch of a button. The longer they are around, the more advanced they become and the more people own them. By the end of 2011, the number of cell phone subscriptions reached six billion globally in a population of about seven billion. But have you ever thought that cell phones could be detrimental to your health?

Recent studies show that cell phone radiation could be harmful to a developing fetus. An article printed in the Scientific Reports on March 15 revealed that mice exposed to an active phone for the duration of pregnancy gave birth to several pups that displayed long-term behavioral and brain abnormalities.

During the study, reproductive endocrinologist Hugh Taylor of the Yale School of Medicine attached what they call bare-bones cell phones, or those with only the most basic call and text functions, to the mice’s cages. In half the cages, these phones were actively receiving calls on silent for the duration of the pregnancy, about 17 days. In the other half, the phones were inactive. For the most part, offspring born to mothers exposed to cell phone radiation were heavily affected. They were more hyperactive, performed worse on memory tests and were  more anxious than offspring born to mothers who were not exposed to radiation. Also, the nerve cell signaling in the prefrontal cortex was damaged in the exposed mice. In humans, the prefrontal cortex is a region of the brain that has been linked to many mental disorders.

Although the results of this study clearly indicate that exposure to radiation has long-term effects in mice, it is unclear what the exact significance of cell phone radiation could be to human development, and there is much debate in this field of study. Taylor suggests that such behavioral and brain deficits are similar to those seen in people who suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and that increased cell phone use could explain the frequency of ADHD in children. Neuroscientist and ADHD researcher Katya Rubia says that such a claim is premature and unjustified. Rubia argues that the exposure the mice underwent was too intense to be translated to humans, since a human fetus has more protective amniotic fluid than a mouse fetus.

This study, though slightly inconclusive in regards to effects on human development, is certainly not one to be dismissed. Similar studies on cell phone radiation have also suggested that it could be one cause of cancer. If this radiation has the possibility to cause cancer, it has the potential to harm a developing fetus. The fact of the matter is that cell phone radiation does show some kind of biological effect on offspring which should be more carefully studied. We must not jump to conclusions and think that cell phone radiation will be the end of the world, but pregnant women should try to avoid carrying a cell phone near the abdomen and use them sparingly until further study can determine how detrimental the radiation is to human fetal development.

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 Recycling

The spring semester has seen some changes that will make recycling on campus easier than ever before. Firstly, the local recycling company revamped their rules, and now bottles can be recycled with their lids on. We’re currently in the process of updating our how-to-recycle signs. Unfortunately it will take more than that to change people’s habits. Help us spread the word by telling your friends about the new policy.

Additionally, we’ve been working to create recycling guides specific to academic and administrative buildings. These guides will show where trash, paper, bottles/plastics and cardboard bins are on each floor so that new faculty, staff and students have an easy time of finding their way around waste at MHC. Furthermore, when this project is complete, we will know which buildings need bins and where. Then, with a little help from Fac Man, we will have all buildings equipped with bins by entrances, exits and central locations.

Bottled Water

For a while now, the Eco Reps have been working to decrease our campus’ reliance on bottled water by promoting travel mugs. Our friends at the Environmental Action Coalition (EAC) have made the reduction of bottled water usage a central mission. When we spoke with their leader, Erin Frick ’14, she gave us the facts: “Despite the convenience and perceived purity of bottled water, we urge members of the Mount Holyoke community to use reusable water bottles for both environmental and health-related concerns. The process of producing and distributing non-reusable water bottles requires vast quantities of fossil fuels, water and other resources; in fact, more water is needed to make a water bottle than it actually holds. After use, if the water bottle is not recycled, it will not biodegrade, contributing to global pollution concerns. If the bottles are recycled, this process also requires water and fossil fuels, consumption that essentially negates the benefits of recycling. Furthermore, the water bottle industry is not regulated, so while municipal water supplies are tested every month for harmful chemicals, water bottle companies are not required to do so. Tap water is safer to consume than bottled water. EAC encourages students to use reusable bottles to benefit both the environment and student health.” In short, get in the habit of carrying a reusable bottle with you to stay healthy and keep our campus sustainable.

The Eco Reps are a group of liaisons to students, faculty, staff and administration. We coordinate environmental education and sustainability campaigns on campus. Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mhcecoreps. Have a question for the Eco Reps? Leave it on our Facebook wall or email ecoreps-I@mtholyoke.edu.

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Courtesy of physorg.com

Since his discovery 21 years ago, Ötzi’s remains have been tested and analyzed thoroughly by various specialists. At the time of his death, Ötzi was about 45 years old and approximately five-feet-five inches (1.65 m) tall and weighed about 110 pounds (50 kg). Unfortunately, it appears that Ötzi was in poor health when he died. He suffered from multiple cavities due to a high-carbohydrate diet, whipworm (intestinal parasites), wear-and-tear in most of his joints and spine and Lyme disease. Though scientists have known that Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, has infected animals for millions of years, cases of human infection had not been dated nearly as far back as that of Ötzi’s.

Thanks to the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, scientists are now able to study an individual’s genetic blueprint. A genetic blueprint analyzes the actual DNA sequence and genes to determine features not preserved in a skeletal structure, such as eye color and blood type. In November 2010, DNA extracted from fragments of the well-preserved hip bone were used to determine Ötzi’s genetic blueprint. A paper published on Feb. 28  stated that his entire genome has been sequenced, revealing some interesting features about Ötzi’s characteristics and human evolution in general.

Ötzi’s DNA revealed that he was brown-eyed and brown-haired with type O blood. Brown eyes are the most common eye color in the world today, while blue and green eyes are less common. Scientists suggest that originally everyone had brown eyes, and it wasn’t until mutations occurred in the many genes that contribute to eye color that light eyes came about. Today, O blood is a very common blood type, characterizing 63 percent of the population, while type B is the least common with only about 16 percent. We know that Ötzi inherited his blood type from his parents.

Ötzi’s DNA can also tell us a little about past and future generations of his kind. Previous studies examined only the DNA from mitochondria, a cell’s energy supply. Because mitochondria are inherited by offspring from their mothers, scientists have the ability to trace a person’s maternal lineage. Ötzi’s mitochondria carry some genetic variants not seen in modern Europeans, leading scientists to think that his maternal line has died out. In terms of his paternal lineage, geneticists have found some molecular signatures on his Y chromosome that are very rare in Europeans today, but can still be found in people who live on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia.

Another interesting fact about Ötzi is that he was lactose intolerant. During his time period, many humans did not have the ability to digest dairy products past infancy. Humans had begun to consume dairy products, but not enough people had acquired the gene mutation necessary for lactose tolerance. Ötzi’s DNA also suggested that he came from a family with a lot of heart disease since he carried genetic risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, he did not have any heart conditions.

Ötzi is now kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. His discovery in 1991 and the completion of the Human Genome Project have given us more insight into the evolution of the human race from the Copper Age to the present day using genome sequencing and analysis. Perhaps  you could be a descendant of Ötzi the Iceman.

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Jonathan Tilly, director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and his Harvard associates published their findings in Nature Medicine on Feb. 26. They discovered uniquely marked cells that make up less than one percent of the total amount of ovarian cells. When taken out of the ovary and put onto a flat dish, these unique cells begin multiplying and are identical to immature egg cells, or oocytes, suggesting their identity as ovarian stem cells. While mature eggs are incapable of dividing, stem cells have the potential to turn into many different cell types and divide rapidly to create new cells.

The idea of egg-producing stem cells in human ovarian tissue is not a new concept in reproductive science. In 2004, Tilly and his team published a study in Nature reporting the presence of ovarian stem cells and renewal of eggs in mice, the major animal model for reproduction studies. In 2005, the team published another study in Cell showing that stem cells isolated from bone marrow initiated oocyte production in both genetically-mutated and chemically-treated mice incapable of producing eggs. The team believed that human ovaries would exhibit similar characteristics.

Some did not welcome these initial findings. As Time magazine explained, many scientists still doubted whether the cells found in the mouse ovarian tissue were actually stem cells. Dr. David Keefe, MD, and Dr. Lin Liu, Ph.D., of the University of South Florida even went so far as to debunk the notion that Tilly’s findings in mice could translate to humans. They published a study in Developmental Biology in 2007 showing that adult human ovarian tissue did not express genes known to be associated with cell proliferation and meiosis, the kind of cell division needed to make eggs from stem cells. In a press release from the University of South Florida that accompanied their findings, Keefe suggested that “Dr. Tilly likely was seeing non-egg cells which resemble eggs.”

These new findings by Tilly’s team have the potential to squash all previous doubts. The scientists were able to isolate human ovarian stem cells by making a fluorescent protein attach only to cells that had particular proteins on their surfaces. These proteins are similar to the ones found on the mouse ovarian stem cells and unique to germ cells, a group that encompasses eggs, sperm and their precursors. The team received ovarian tissue donations from Japanese patients who had undergone female-to-male sex reassignment surgery. Once the stem cells were isolated by their fluorescent green color, they were re-implanted into small pieces of human ovarian tissue and transferred into mice for blood supply. After one to two weeks, the research team saw fluorescent immature eggs in the tissue that had developed from the implanted human ovarian stem cells. They were identical to the pre-existing human eggs.

This discovery only changes some of what we know about female reproduction. In National Geographic, Tilly explains that “the existence of these egg precursor cells in ovaries of women during their reproductive years does not conflict at all with the fact that fertility and ovarian function decline with advancing age.” He adds that “we might need to rethink how the ovaries in women fail with age.” Based on other research, Tilly suggests that the ovaries themselves deteriorate with age, not the cells.

The results of the study may elicit enormous advancements in women’s reproductive health. Scientists could isolate a woman’s ovarian stem cells for later use if she needed to undergo chemotherapy treatment but still wanted to have children. Such methods could also be used for women who want to stop the biological clock from ticking and have children later in life without worry. Furthermore, Tilly suggests that ovarian stem cells can replace hormone replacement therapy as a treatment for menopause. While this new study is certainly exciting, the results will need to be replicated thoroughly before the medical community can even begin to discuss their potential benefits and implications in our society.

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Q: I have a lot of questions about sex, but I’m uncomfortable asking my friends. Can you recommend any good books for me to read?

A: Absolutely!  As members of in*Touch, we have an extensive library of our favorite sex and sexuality books, as well as several websites that we love.  In order to find a book that fits your comfort level, you could browse books on sexuality at the bookstore or preview the first chapter on Amazon.com.  One we recommend which isn’t focused solely on sex, but is an awesome resource for all things related to the female body and might be a great starting point, is Our Bodies, Ourselves, edited by the Boston Women’s Health Collective.  Another amazing and extensive resource is The Guide to Getting It On, by Paul Joannides and illustrated by Daerick Gross Sr.  The author covers everything from masturbation to yeast infections.   If you’re looking for information on a specific topic, check out I Love Female Orgasm by Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller.  There are also several websites that we recommend as resources, such as www.scarleteen.com and www.goaskalice.columbia.edu.  Also remember that all of the members of in*Touch are available to answer any questions you might have.  Even outside of workshops, we are always happy to answer questions accurately and confidentially.  We hope all of these books help. Happy reading!

These questions were answered by a member of in*Touch and were written for a general audience; if you would like more information about an individual circumstance, we recommend that you make an appointment at the Health Center at (413)538-2121.

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