JOLLY DAYS

Beauty And Bugs

When are women most attractive?

Roughly 125 women and 125 men were then asked in which picture the women looked more attractive. The picture showing a fertile woman was chosen by 51-59% of each group - a statistically significant result, says Roberts. Interestingly, female viewers appeared to be more sensitive to the effect.

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Speaking of attractiveness, have you wondered why Cryptosporidium makes some people sick, but others are killed? Have you wondered why some drugs worked and others not? I know I have.

Fear not, here be the answer — whispered in the ear of scientists by a little bird named DNA:

The most striking difference between Cryptosporidium and its close relatives is the lack of an apicoplast, an organelle specific to this group of parasites that originated from an endocytosed alga. In addition, the C. parvum mitochondrial genome is very much reduced. These differences explain why some drugs that have worked on other apicomplexan parasites fail when it comes to treating cryptosporidial infection, according to Boris Striepen, of the University of Georgia's Center for Tropical and Emerging Diseases… [ NOW I understand. ]

To Striepen, the most important finding from the genome sequence is how streamlined its metabolism is. “Biosynthesis is reduced to practically nothing… They completely depend on salvage for most of the molecules they use,” he said. This should make them vulnerable to drugs that destroy the parasites' scavenging systems, and Striepen is currently working to disable the enzymes that import nucleotides into the organism.

“Now we have a new list of targets to test. We are no longer blindfolded—our efforts can be much more directed and can focus on metabolically appropriate targets,” Striepen said.

This nasty parasitic bugger was very hard to treat and a worldwide threat.