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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2000)
ii, twangy voice. Worley use that is evident on hi e first single, could be beginning to play this a savvy style that coul le constant crowd of neu into the ranks of country J traditional songs and original. Hinds; more and more ig music that is not con / avoids this category al old-time ballads and s collection of songs isa ieh this promising anist i career. (Grade; B-) — Matt McCoimi lllC.SS.Uiy, OCpiClllLA^l TECHN .. THE BATTALION Behind Texas A&M researchers identify bacterial gene that regulates internal clocks G Ly*: .4, ri . ."%k- BvArun Arjunan The Battalion An overnight flight for a business trip or vacation can have unpleasant side effects, to which junior French ma jor Christie Clapp can attest. Clapp visited Belgium last semester to participate in a study abroad program. The travel itself was not strenuous, but Clapp most likely experienced jet lag, which is the disorientation and insomnia caused by traveling through different time zones. The trip was really tiring; 1 had to sleep the whole day after we arrived in Belgium. It took me about a week get back to normal,” Clapp said. This type of exhaustion is not unusual among over seas travelers and other people who maintain irregular sleeping schedules. Usually those who work nights and other odd shifts suffer from jet-lag symptoms like dis orientation and tiredness. It would seem that one with an atypical sleep pattern is subject to jet lag and its associ ated effects on behavior. * The problem is caused by disrupting the body’s nat ural timing system. Dr. Susan Golden, a biology professor at Texas A&M i said jet lag is the most obvious evidence that people have an internal timer that operates without receiving any in- ormation from their immediate surroundings. “Only when this biological clock resets itself do peo ple completely adjust to the schedule of their environ ment. This internal clock is known as circadian rhythms,” she said. ,, Only when this biological clock resets itself do people completely adjust to the schedule of their environment. In humans, its biological basis is the suprachias- matic nucleus (SCN), a part of the hypothalamus gland in the brain. Light receptors in the eye transmit light-induced sig nals to the SCN and switch off production of a hormone called melatonin. The body’s level of melatonin increas es after darkness falls, making people feel drowsy. Cir cadian rhythms are not specific to human beings. Ani mals and plants also have these internal timing devices. In 1990, scientists discovered that single-celled bac teria contain similar biological timers. The bacterial clocks are capable of carrying out the same function that — Susan Golden Texas A&M Biology Professor clocks in larger organisms are able to execute. Since this development, extensive re search has been conduct ed on this biological mechanism. More recently. Golden' and her Texas A&M research team have discovered an important key to circadian) clocks in bacteria. In the Aug. 4 issue of Sci-' ence, the Texas A&M researchers re-* ■? ^ port the discovery of a gene called cik A that regulates^ the internal timing device clock of, cyanobacteria. Golden and her team mutated the^ % Angelique Foro/The Battalion bacteria by introducing a transposon, or a jump ing gene, into the bacteria. The jumping gene in-] serted itself into several bacteria, generating ran- 1 domly mutated bacteria. Each of these strains gave" rise to their own mutant colony. The group tested each colony for a defect in the bacteria’s timing abili-' ty and then located and identified the mutated gene as it was marked with the transposon. Normal bacteria followed a pattern of light emission 'that repeated every 24 hours. Bacteria with the mutation Tor the cik A protein did not respond to the changes fin light and other environmental cues an could not 'reset their clocks, losing two hours in its cycle of Might emission. These mutants continued their usual schedule in a different conditions without adapt-' ing to the new environment, experiencing jet lag like symptoms. Golden said that it is essen Itial for organisms to reset their 'biological clocks because the length of days change through out the year. “By having an inter- 'nal clock that is some- 'what flexible you can go to different locations and have your clock synchronized with your en vironment,” she said. “Even staying in one location, you can ’have your clock synchronized appropriately at differ fent times of the year.” Currently, there are few treatments or methods tc Icope with jet lag, but future research may bring travel ers additional relief. Science in Brief Researchers find rare cholesterol, heart-attack link DALLAS (AP) — People with high evels of a little-known form of ‘bad” cholesterol are 70 percent ore likely to have a heart attack han those with lower concentra- ions of this lipoprotein in their lood, according to a study re leased Monday. The obscure cholesterol particle — called lipoprotein(a) — is espe cially insidious because it is diffi cult for doctors to measure reliably and because its levels have little to do with the better-known form of “bad” cholesterol, called LDL. The elevated Lp(a) levels also had little to do with more conven tional heart disease risk factors: smoking, high blood pressure and poor diet. It also cannot be directly linked to high cholesterol, or the kind whose levels can be altered through diet or drugs, said lead re searcher Dr. John Danesh, of Ox ford University, in England. “This study suggests there is a clear association between Lp(a) and an increased risk of heart dis ease,” said Danesh, who pointed out that more than a decade worth of research failed to link Lp(a) to in creased risk of heart disease in the general population. The findings are published in Cir culation Magazine. Labs investigated for discrimination LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) — Physicist Edward Telle'r isn’t sure whether the nuclear weapons labs he helped found have a spy problem. But the man known as the “Fa ther of the H-Bomb” is sure that any problems aren’t going to be fixed by ousting the University of California manager of the Los Alamos Na tional Laboratory and Lawrence Liv ermore National Laboratory. He is reminded of the crisis of 1949 when scientists working on the weapons program at Los Alam os, N.M., learned that secrets of the atomic bomb had been leaked to the Soviets. Today’s troubles in the weapons program began last year with alle gations that nuclear secrets had leaked to China. Los Alamos sci entist Wen Ho Lee was fired and lat er charged with mishandling clas sified information. Both Los Alamos and Livermore are being in vestigated for possible discrimina tion against Asians,. "Losing UC would be “a horrible thing,” said Los Alamos scientist Manvendra Dubey. or more i for y'- i Council nfo. ies want! 100 >00 A national tradition since 1865 Alpha Tau Omega National Fraternity Do you have what it takes to wear our badge? Alpha Tau Omega Rush 2000 Tuesday, Sept. 5 Dinner with A TQ 7-9 p.m. Wings 'N' More (across from campus) Wednesday, Sept. 6 Disco Bowling 9:30-11:30 p.m. Triangle Bowl Thursday, Sept. 7 Brotherhood Social+ 7-9 p.m. Pebble Creek Friday, Sept. 8 Cookout* 7 p.m. 8778 Smith Road Invitation Only +Business Casual www.ato.org