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scienc
TECHN
Wednesday, June 21
THE BATTALION
What makes us tick
A&M biologists conduct evolutionary study of biological clot
Patrice Pages
The Battalion
It is 7:50 in the morning, the alarm was set for 8 a.m. but a student wakes up 10
minutes early for an exam.
The process just described is possible because of the student's circadian rhythm,
or internal biological clock.
Researchers at Texas A&M recently received a $5 million grant from the National
Institute of Health to study the gears driving such biological clocks.
Professors Dr. Vincent Cassone, Deborah Bell-Pedersen, Susan Golden, Terry
Thomas and Mark Zoran of the Department of Biology and Dr. David Earnest of
the Department of Human Anatomy have pooled their efforts to study the genes
involved in biological clock functioning in different types of organisms, ranging
from bacteria to mammals.
All living organisms have an internal biological, or circadian clock, which allows
organisms to tell time.
A&M is ready to do comparative studies to analyze these circadian clocks us
ing an integrated approach, combining the different features of their model or
ganisms to understand the nature of the circadian clocks that drive people and
animals alike.
Scientists now know clocks are regulated at the cellular level. In mice and rats,
these clock cells are mainly located in a region of the brain called the Supra-Chias-
matic Nucleus (SCN). In birds and chicken, clock cells are in the pineal gland, a pea
sized structure in the center of the brain.
The circadian clock in these animals follows a light-dark cycle.
During the day, light hits the eyes and is converted to electrical signals that trav
el through optic nerves to the clock cells. In the clock cell, the electrical signal acti
vates proteins that switch on genes called clock genes, which make other proteins:
the clock proteins.
When night begins, these clock proteins turn the clock genes off, stopping clock
protein production.
Thus circadian clock functions as a loop, where initial proteins activate clock
genes, which create clock proteins, which in turn inhibit clock genes later.
Earnest studies circadian clocks in rats. He _ _
showed that the SCN releases a chemical, the fi I III K
INPUT
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
(BDNF). During the day, the SCN re
leases BDNF to make
connections with the op
tical nerve, but not during
the night.
Cassone and his group
are working on the circa- (LIGHT)
dian rhythm mechanisms
in the chicken pineal gland.
Like in rats, the pineal gland secretes a
chemical, melatonin, during the day.
They also have identified proteins
that activate the clock genes during the
day. However, the details of the mecha
nisms have to be better understood. "We
do not know how the [clock] protein neg
atively regulates the clock genes. We do
know that it happens, but we have to es
tablish that there is also a loop from the
clock protein to the clock genes," Bell-Ped-
ersen said.
Studies of circadian clocks in other organisms all show both internal and
external effects of circadian rhythms. The first is in the form of an internal loop
in the cell, and the second is an effect visible from outside, like the secretion of
BDNF or melatonin.
Agood analogy is your watch," Bell-Pedersen said. "If you opened up the back
components of the clock loop. They keep everything running at the com:
C IT* I | What they regulate are the hands that you look at. Thatb
|_ put of the clock."
Comparing the results obtained with
ganisms also shows that the involved clockge:
similar from one organism to another, thoui
number of genes increases with the size andco:
ity of the organism.
Many questions remain unanswered, said Sts:
pert, a Harvard Medical School researcher worfe
cadian clocks in mice.
"Even if we have a handful of genes now,w
the beginning stages in terms of understanding!, :ru d a few gu
gene products interact with each other to mak
loops," he said.
Earnest said that studying how
p. I | -r p | i-T- rhythms control physiology and
^ I i LJ I mammals could help scientists
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RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
brains in infants. Bell-Pedersen said cii
rhythms also effect medications.
(Melatonin in chicks, " Most asthma attacks occurin
r-. , . ■ r -v momine. So if patients take one doi
Development in fungi) rightbe 6 forethoy gotosl ^. the *
drug is much better," she said.
Bell-Pedersen is enthusiastic ala out the future perspectives in the?, | Fitzpatrici
biological clocks.
Shaun
of your watch, you would see these gears that go through each other. They are the
'What is particularly exciting is that we will get information on hot appropriate w
evolved, by being able to compare from a prokarvote to a low eukaryote to*® of probab
to a mouse. This is unique in tire field," she said. y Hindows.
R 2. It is nece
Industries attempt to end music piracy with watermarkitt
sive bonfires:
not only see tl
windows, but
of senseless k
ning around 1
Jennifer Bales
The Battalion
Metallica is not the only group that dislikes pirated MP3s.
MPEG,4 > l l ayer,3,. files, ,cqm-
monly known as MP3s, are used
by hundreds of thousands of peo
ple across the United States and
the world as a way of acquiring
their favorite songs by down
loading them to their computers
instead of paying the price of a
store-bought CD.
Over 180 music and technolo
gy companies have recently
banded together to prevent the
"pirating," or stealing, of music
through this means by attempt
ing to ensure that only legal MP3s
with a specific code, or "water
mark," can be played by software
and portable MP3 players.
First generation SDMI
compatible portable devices
will enable users to play
MP3S unconditionally
This watermarking technique is called tire Secured Digital
Music Initiative (SDMI).
structure developed by MPEG to compress the audio portion
of the data.
MP3s work by compressing a track on a CD, creating a
compression ratio of about 11 to
one! This compressed data pro
duces sound that is almost indis
tinguishable from a CD's.
With the pending case against
Napster, Inc., and the constant me
dia attention to digital-music con
troversies, there has been pressure
for all parties involved to find an
amicable agreement.
"We're in the middle of a 'nev
er-never land' right now. We have
large numbers of people breaking
the law and saying they don't
care," said Thomas Putnam, direc
tor of computing and information
services at Texas A&M. "We're
hoping that somebody qomes up
with something workable that
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See related column on Page 5
The Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) developed a
method of compressing audio and visual content. The com
pression of data allows users, to save space and time when
dealing with large files.
Rather than working with a large file that uses between 30
and 50 megabytes of memory, compression allows for the ma
nipulation of data into five megabytes or less. MP3 utilizes the
walks that fine line between allowing artists to make money
off of their art and allowing people to listen to the music and
not paying excessive amounts for it."
SDMI resulted from a forum of more than 180 companies
and organizations representing various members of the mu
sic and technology fields that have collaborated to develop
open technology specifications to protect the distribution of
digital music.
SDMI focuses its efforts on providing record companies
with a way to distribute high-quality music without allowing
illegal copies to be spread among listeners.
However, watermarking is only a small component of the
solution. The primary goal of SDMI is the prevention of ca
sual piracy — not the elimination of piracy by professionals.
SDMI intends to publish guidelines explaining how digital
music security tasks should be performed rather than strict
implementation procedures.
On June 28,1999, SDMI completed Phase I of the project
which detailed initial specifications for portable devices (PD).
Popular PDs among consumers include Diamond Multime
dia's Rio 500 and Creative Lab's Nomad DAP-3201. These
PDs allow users to listen to dig
ital music while away from
their computers — much like a
portable CD player.
Phase I SDMI-compliant de
vices will enable users to play
both protected and unprotect
ed music, meaning that MP3s
created before the launch of
SDMI technology can be
played on first generation
SDMI-compliant devices.
Pnase II will begin when
technology that filters out ille
gally copied music is available
to device manufacturers. Mu
sic that is released with a wa
termark that identifies it as
SDMI-compliant will be the
Consumers will be allowed to make an infinite me® 12 Lord of the
3. Therioti
copies as long as they retain the original disc fromwte
music file was originally produced. Three additional: i
are permitted from each copy stored on the user'sctp m
If the consumer needs more copies, the CD can be*
Allows users to play unprotected
digital music including MP3S
released before Phase Two in
addition to music released with
a watermark identifying it as
SDMI-compliant
A copy permission counter may also be ample
usage rules will define how many times a file may lb
and show the number of times the content wasrepW
The user may "check out" the content a sperificfi
of times, and the identification associated withthct
mark will enable the file topi
portable devices installedf
user's computer only. #
technology, SDMI is wok
force all copies to be created
the original, decreasing the®
of pirated material.
SDMI protocol merely
guidelines for manufacture:
corporate security measure
distributing digital music.
"My attitude is that tie
only files able to be played by this technology.
However, PDs will also retain the ability to play music that
is unprotected, such as the current MP3 format, which was re
leased before the implementation of Phase II.
dard should define a
that is neutral. It is up to®
layer to set rules about tk
the technology. SDMI is at
ogy platform where even!
possible, but it's up to socf
the technology, to decide
right and what's wrong," said Dr. Leonardo Chiarij
T
the founder of MPEG and executive director of SDH
interview with Wired News, an online news Website
focuses on science and technology issues.
^ a
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