Science Can Now Detect Brain Injuries In Salmon Caused By Dams.

[NNadir]

What'll they think of next?

The journey of an adult salmon upstream on its way to spawn is not an easy one, but the downstream swim for the juvenile fish is no picnic, either. On rivers with flood-control and hydroelectric dams, like many in the Pacific Northwest, the young salmon are buffeted, subject to sharp pressure changes and otherwise knocked around as they pass through spillways, tunnels and power-generating turbines...

...Now they have a new tool. Ann Miracle, a researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and colleagues have shown that it’s possible to directly detect brain injury in salmon.

Dr. Miracle said that the work grew out of a discussion with Nancy D. Denslow of the University of Florida, who told her about efforts to quickly detect traumatic brain injury in soldiers by testing for the presence of breakdown products of a protein found in cell membranes. When a cell is damaged, enzymes are released that break this protein into smaller compounds.

“It struck me that using a physical injury biomarker could be very useful,” Dr. Miracle said, but first she had to determine that the same cell-membrane protein and breakdown products occur in salmon...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/science/17obfish.html?ref=science

[rpannier]

1. Hopefully they'll figure out how to entend that to republikkans

[NNadir]

3. Well I'm sure we can all imagine extending this concept broadly.

Actually on necropsy it was discovered that one of the most broadly involved class of human beings observed to have brain damage is ex-NFL football players.

I have no idea of playing in the NFL is in anyway related to being a Republikkkan though.

[pleah]

2. My first thought was,

gee, who would have guessed that slamming into a slab of concrete would cause brain damage.:crazy:


:rofl: