The Nerve Of One Animal

     On the 24th of November, I read an article about Tasmanian Devils and what is happening to them. I was pretty surprised when I found out that they could be extinct in about 30 years. The article was written very well and helped me understand something I never knew.

   

     Tasmanian Devils have a hard time surviving cancer. 70 % of them have already died of which 30% didn't catch cancer. Scientist predict that they might be extinct in the wild in about 30-50 years. Scientist Elizabeth Murchinson, led the study of how to save them. She comes from Tasmania, Australia, and she has been amused by the beauty of the creatures. That is the only place in the world you can find them now. Those mini bears, weigh up to 26 pounds and eat a dead animal every day. The poor creatures, bite each other once a new one has come into the territory. Some might have cancer in the blood cells and they give it to the other Devil. The Tumor is usually found around the mouth which gets bigger and bigger, at one point they cant eat and they starve. To stop this, Scientist are trying to make a vaccine so the animals can be safe. The tumor starts in the Schwann cells that surround nerve fibers. With only this information, you cant understand where the whole cancer comes from. To understand more, scientist looked at healthy and unhealthy cells. The team studied 25 tumors and they had the same genome. To conclude, they said that it all started when one Devil had cancer over 10 years ago. Now they are trying to make a vaccine but that will take about 10 years. Hopefully they can do something about it.

    This story amused me because I think that animals should not die because of a sickness and that we should do something about it. 

If you are interested, you can visit:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100120/Note3.asp

Some words I found were interesting: 

gene A hereditary unit that determines a particular characteristic in an organism.

genome The total genetic content of an organism; an organism's genetic material.

cancer Any of various diseases with malignant cells, which tend to invade surrounding tissue and spread to new body sites.

axon (or nerve fiber) A threadlike part of a neuron that generally conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell.

neuron Any of the impulse-conducting cells that constitute the brain, spinal column and nerves, consisting of a cell body with a nucleus, one or more dendrites (branches that conduct impulses toward the cell body) and a single axon.

myelin A white fatty material that encloses certain axons and nerve fibers. 

Written at: 21:29 24.11.10