The history of _Herpetomonas megaseliae_ and the bracelet

The history of Herpetomonas megaseliae:

Herpetomonas megaseliae is a single-celled animal that lives naturally inside a tiny fly named Megaselia scalaris. In order to understand why H. megaseliae is so interesting, you have to appreciate the fly, M. scalaris. This fly is one of the truly obnoxious survivors, and so, it turns out, is the parasite H. megaseliae that lives inside it. Megaselia scalaris lays its eggs in about any kind of organic material from the rankest of garbage to the cleanest of sterile culture media, but generally it prefers the rank garbage, or better yet, sewage-soaked soil and even feces. Rotten fish that have been stored in formaldehyde are pretty attractive to this fly. So anything that might have been thrown away, from bacterial Petri plates to toad manure, is a magnet for M. scalaris. This wide range of larval substrates is the reason why M. scalaris is such a survivor; it can get by on all kinds of things other flies treat as garbage. Quite literally, M. sclaris has the ability to fall into a pile of shit and come out smelling like a . . . . well, about like a very healthy fly. Thus we have our basic metaphor: survivors are not very picky, regardless of the organisms playing this role.

Among the most remarkable demonstration of this survivorship ability involved a very large and beautiful lizard, Basiliscus plumifrons, that we had in the lab many years ago as part of a study of the biogeography of parasites that infect reptiles. This lizard had food and water dishes in its aquarium; the food was mainly meal worms and crickets, although once in a while it would get a roach. A dish full of meal worms was also attractive to Megaselia scalaris, and before long there were fly larvae crawling around in the litter and food dish. Naturally, B. plumifrons ate these fly larvae (it would also try to eat your hand if you didn’t handle it carefully.) But the fly larvae then ate their way out of the lizard’s stomach and through the skin, leaving tiny holes. The lizard eventually died and we didn’t figure out why until a grad student cultured a piece of muscle and discovered Herpetemonas megaseliae, a parasite that could only have come from the fly larvae. The lizard and formaldehyde fish provide a rather sobering lesson: environments intended to kill things can turn out to be breeding grounds for survivors.

Herpetomonas megaseliae is a member of the same family as numerous other parasites that cause untold misery and enormous economic loss around the world. Some of the diseases caused by these parasites include classical African sleeping sickness, nagana—the livestock disease that prevents cattle from being raised profitably over a 4 million square mile region of Africa, leishmaniasis (sometimes horribly disfiguring), and Chagas’ Disease, a devastating illness that occurs throughout much of Latin America and which, according to data provided by molecular biologists, has occurred there for thousands of years. So regardless of its fondness for garbage, H. megaseliae is a member of a distinguished group of organisms.

Most of H. megaseliae’s relatives can be cultured, but they are fastidious pansies that must have rich, sterile, usually blood-based environments, and the correct temperatures. Herpetomonas megaseliae, however, can grow in a lot of different environments. One of its favorites at the time was called LPG, which stands for Locke’s balanced salt solution (L) plus (P) Guinea pig shit (G). It also grew at relatively high temperatures that would kill its pansy-ass relatives (“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”) Most of the world’s scientists and doctors, especially those in armies, think that the pansy-ass relatives are very important. If H. megaseliae could talk, it would probably agree with the doctors. But among its kin, H. megaseliae is, like its fly host, a survivor. Furthermore, it was quite cooperative, being easily manipulated to develop into particular life cycle stages on a human schedule, so that a person could do a set of experiments in the morning and be on the golf course by mid-afternoon.

When my students and I first decided to study H. megaseliae, back in the late 1960s or early 1970s, that decision was based on our sense that this parasite was simply a very interesting animal. As we studied it for years, we realized that not only was it interesting from a biologist’s perspective, but it was also interesting metaphorically because of its survivorship qualities and its ability to perform under the most trying of culture circumstances. All of the students who were attracted to H. megaseliae seemed to be people who could, or would, do things that other students couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do, and furthermore, those things seemed to advance the careers of people who could, or would, do them. If you’re in academia, you know what those “things” are and how such activities produce transferable skills by default.

About this time in my career I was walking through a mall in Lincoln, NE, where a bunch of artists had set up exhibits. One of these artists was making jewelry, and just on a whim I asked her if she could make a bracelet with H. megaseliae on it. She said it would be easy, so I drew her a picture, and a week or later I picked up this bracelet. People, especially my departmental colleagues at UNL, probably thought I was a jewelry jerk for having this bracelet made, and then wearing it, but it was actually my statement that I thought the students in my lab who could do anything under trying conditions were more admirable role models for the next generation of young scientists than were my pansy-ass colleagues. I’ve worn that bracelet now, pretty much every day, for the past 40+ years.

JJJr

Opening paragraphs from my 2014 National Novel Writing Month project, the third in the Gideon Marshall Mystery Series.

1. The Report

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with us,” she said, extending her hand. I remembered that hand, from a year and a half ago, as being particularly warm. Three silver bracelets slid down her arm and rested against her wrist as she reached across my desk. Her sari was deep blue with gold embroidery along the edges. I had not forgotten her eyes—irises so dark they were almost black—or her voice, the deep lilt, the tone, the inflections, all telling me more about my cloistered, Ivory Tower, world, although not intentionally, I’m sure, than her words. Dr. Aparajita Chatterjee, Polk County medical examiner, introduced her companion. “This is detective Burkholder from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.”

“Broderick Burkholder.” His handshake was stronger than it needed to be. He handed me a card, which I glanced at, mainly out of courtesy, and slipped into my top desk drawer. A thought flashed through my mind: if you were casting a movie, and Bruce Willis was not available, you’d call Broderick Burkholder.

“We’re sorry to interrupt your spring break,” continued Dr. Chatterjee. “I’m sure you had plans to slip off with your wife to some warm exotic place for a romantic interlude.” She smiled. I had no plans to slip off with Mykala to anywhere exotic, although I had plenty of wishes—to be twenty-five again with no children and no pets, to win PowerBall, to be on an airplane to Hawaii, to be anywhere except behind my desk, on a cloudy late Friday afternoon in March, one of the most miserable seasons in Iowa, about to be handed the autopsy report resulting from an execution-style murder of a faculty member in the Department of Geology, of which I am now chairman.

“You okay with this?” asks Burkholder. “Sometimes people throw up.”

(Check out my web site for links to the first of the Gideon Marshall Mystery Series, entitled BE CAREFUL, DR. RENNER, and the second, THE STITCHER FILE. Both are currently available on all e-readers.)

Re-posting of a blog from November, 2013. Feel free to share, copy, and distribute as widely as you want.

This modest proposal is re-posted in response to a Rachel Maddow item from Facebook today:

A Modest Proposal in response to one of my Facebook friend’s commentary about former Republican Senator Alan Simpson’s assertion that male elected representatives should not vote on abortion laws. See:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/29/alan-simpson-smacks-down-gop-for-violating-privacy-of-women/

John Janovy, Jr.

So here’s a modest proposal, based on the premise that it’s irrational to demand that a public health problem be solved but at the same time be adamantly opposed to the methods of solving it. The public health problem in this case is one we know how to solve, namely, unwanted pregnancy. The methods of solving it are readily available, safe, extensively tested, and found to be effective, at least at the individual level. It’s a well-known and widely-accepted fact that long-term effects of this particular public health problem fall unequally on the sexes, with the female being physically affected, subjected to potential medical complications, and traditionally burdened with nearly two decades of direct responsibility for the care, feeding, and education of another human being, whereas the male’s participation in this responsibility is largely voluntary or, when involuntary, limited to financial contribution. Because the large majority of state legislators are male and claim to understand public policy, my modest proposal is perfectly capable of being carried out at the state level, at least, and should be carried out in those states imposing severe restrictions on elective abortions. The main points are:

(1) Immediately enact a so-called “life tax” to provide for public funding of “life services,” defined as prenatal health care, treatment for medical conditions arising from pregnancy, and care, including medical care, clothing, food, shelter, and both education and special education as needed, for any infant born to a mother who would otherwise have chosen to abort it. Life services would continue until the child is 18 years old.

(2) Establish residency requirements, for access to such support, similar to those already established, for example, for tuition at a state’s post-secondary institutions.

(3) Establish a means test for access to such support. The federal government already has established guidelines for access to other social services, and means testing is already in place for Medicare premiums, so enacting such a test for “life tax” services should be easy to accomplish.

(4) Require DNA testing of mother, infant, and father (when the father can be ascertained) when an infant is born to a mother who would otherwise have aborted it. Costs of such testing would be paid by life tax revenues. If necessary, use test results to identify the father. Require, by law, the father to contribute half of the costs incurred in providing life services to mother and infant, and provide for an 18-year lien on the father’s earnings if necessary, with an extension to such time as the state is re-paid half of the life services costs by the father. Include in this law a provision that the father’s parents are liable for this contribution if the father is a minor.

(5) Immediately establish sex-education programs in all public schools, the curriculum to include effective contraception. Withhold certification from private schools that do not institute such a curriculum.

(6) Immediately provide birth control services for all individuals who want them but are unable to afford them. Pay for these services through the life tax. Services would include oral contraceptives, Plan B, condoms, patches, injections, and all other forms of artificial birth control to individuals over the age of 14. These services would be available in school health centers.

(7) In the event that an infant born to a mother who would otherwise have obtained an abortion requires long-term care or services due to a congenital condition, then such care and services would be provided by the state and funded by life tax revenues.

(8) In the event that pregnancy results from rape or incest, the mother would receive a lifetime stipend for carrying the fetus to term and the state would fund all services resulting from this birth, including counseling, adoptive services, and treatment of any medical conditions, including mental or emotional ones, resulting from the conception and delivery of this infant. In the case of rape or incest, residency and means requirements do not apply.

(10) The overall impact of this program, including life tax and life services, will be reviewed every ten years by qualified consultants from outside the state. Life tax will be adjusted annually to ensure revenues adequate to support life services programs.

I don’t know what the tax base is for North Dakota, but a VERY rough estimate, based on the widely available information on costs of rearing children in the United States, and North Dakota’s population, would fall in the range of $500,000 per non-aborted fetus, if you add in the overhead costs of administering the above program. North Dakota reported 1,290 abortions in 2009, so we’re looking at somewhere in the vicinity of $645 billion over the next 18-20 years to provide life services as part of this male legislative action to deal with the problem of unwanted pregnancy. Alternatively, of course, that $645 billion would be paid by those who would have had an elective abortion but could not because of the law or other de facto restrictions on reproductive services, and that’s assuming that the individuals involved actually had the resources to pay these bills.

We have, of course, not even started to consider the social costs of unwanted pregnancy brought to term, and I’m not sure there is any real way to calculate those costs so that the public in general, and male legislators in particular, appreciate their impact on society. We do know that social factors such as lack of education, poverty, and crime are linked at least to some degree, and that “quality of life” factors are important for the attraction of business to a particular region. So in essence, the $645 billion should probably be considered a conservative estimate of the overall impact of unwanted pregnancy on the State of North Dakota.

Cheers.

JJ

Nov 2 Audubon Spring Creek Prairie - Writing About Nature assignment

Writing About Nature Workshop – The assignment:

(1) Choose a spot somewhere on Spring Creek Prairie that is the center of the 1-acre circle you are going to consider yours, your piece of the plains, for as long as you live. Record the latitude and longitude of that place so you can return to it whenever you feel like it in the future. A 1-acre circle has a radius of about 117 feet, so after choosing your place, you can walk about 40 paces in any direction and still be within your piece of the plains.

(2) Your writing assignment is to answer the question: Why did I choose this place and not another acre?

(3) Techniques, suggestions, helpful (?) hints, etc.

a. Use your eye like a camera with a wide array of lenses, from closeup, to wide angle, to telephoto.

b. Consider what your life is like, and how it is different, now that you “have” this piece of the plains. Consider the natural factors that went into your choice.

c. How many different communities live within your piece of the plains? How do you distinguish those communities from one another? What criteria do you use to establish a community? Do those criteria apply to human communities?

d. How would Darwin have viewed this acre? Who is successful, who seems to be reproducing the most, who has the most biomass, and who is rare?

e. How many pieces of the plains can you see from yours? What does this vision tell you about your own, and what does your own tell you about what to expect if you visited those other acres?

f. What is the difference between a kind and an individual living within your acre? How do individuals of a kind vary among themselves? What similarities can you discover (develop, propose, assert, etc.) between the role(s) that individual plants play in your acre, vs. kinds of plants, and the role(s) that individual people, vs. humans in general, play in the communities you frequent?

g. What will this piece of the plains be like in a thousand years, a million years, a hundred million years? What was this piece of the plains like a thousand years ago, a hundred thousand years ago, a hundred million years ago?

h. How would an artist use this piece of the plains? How would a music composer use this piece of the plains?  

i. What are you going to tell your friends about this piece of the plains?

j. How many different writing genre can I work in and still use material from my observations from today. Genre = romance, mystery, children’s literature, screenplays, science fiction, narrative non-fiction, etc.

k. Work the concept of a signature landscape into your writing. A signature landscape tells you who you are, having grown up in a particular region characterized by that general landscape. That concept of signature landscape, for example, pervades much of Willa Cather’s writing.

l. What don’t you know about the inhabitants of your acre, and how does that recognized lack of knowledge apply to your interactions with the rest of the world beyond Spring Creek Prairie?

m. How can I expand this workshop experience into a book-length manuscript of about 150 pages? What would I accomplish by doing this task? What would I tell my friends about why you are doing this book?

n. Am I willing to let the SCP staff use my writing as part of their marketing efforts?

o. What effect will this workshop writing experience have on the way I view my own back yard?

 p. What effect will this workshop writing experience have on the way I choose what to read in the newspapers, what to check out from the library, etc.

(3) Some free online writing resources:

(several were listed)