Word: gordon
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...Tobin's turn. Close to four decades since the Yale economist proposed a levy on foreign-exchange transactions - or a "Tobin tax," as the suggestion became known - the idea is enjoying a new lease of life. At a meeting of G-20 finance ministers last weekend, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested the group of leading countries consider the tax to establish "a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public based on trust and a just distribution of risks and rewards...
...main advantage was that Gordon and his team now had the cutting-edge DNA-sequencing capability to scan and analyze all the genes contained in those bacteria. That meant researchers could determine not only which species of bacteria were present and in what proportions, but also which genes these bugs were actively using in different conditions. Before such genomic-analysis technology became available, researchers could study only the gut microbes (animal or human) that could be cultured outside their intestinal home - something that not all of the oxygen-shunning bugs were amenable to - but never the complete microbiota...
...profile" could potentially serve as a diagnostic tool for identifying who might have a propensity for obesity. If, for instance, your gut environment contains a preponderance of Firmicutes, then your body may be predisposed to digest calories in a way that leads to greater fat storage. In fact, in Gordon's earlier work with identical twins of different weights, he found that the obese twin tended to have more Firmicutes colonies than the leaner...
...Gordon also found in his mouse populations that changing the animals' diet caused a dramatic and rapid shift in the population of bacteria in their gut. Switching a mouse from low-fat plant chow to a high-fat Western diet resulted in an explosion of Firmicutes in less than...
Ultimately, says Gordon, with additional research, this work could lead to the identification of microbial markers that would make up a kind of obesity or leanness profile - a vital-stats sheet of the gut world that would help people understand how their bodies are likely to respond to calories. Beyond that, the possibilities are even more exciting. With more research, Gordon sees potential even for applying to agriculture the knowledge gained from these mice - we could grow more foods that are specifically designed to provide the optimal balance of nutrients and energy for various life stages. "This vast universe...