Article posted Thursday, July 1, 2010 2:46pm

• Major depression affects 16 percent of all Americans and is the leading cause of medical disability in people between the ages of 15 and 44. New brain imaging studies have located a tiny area, called Area 25, which seems to be the circuitry “hub” associated with depression. This area is rich in receptors for a neurochemical associated with elevated mood, but in depressed individuals the number of receptors is diminished, apparently leading to depressed mood. There is accumulating evidence that other mental challenges, such as schizophrenia, autism, and obsessive-compulsive illness, have more to do with faulty brain circuits than with your relationship with your mother. (T.R. Insel in Scientific American, April 2010)

• “Denialists” are well-educated scientists who take positions contrary to those taken by mainstream researchers. For example, well-known molecular virologist Peter Duesberg of the University California Berkeley, and a few of his colleagues, dispute that there is a link between Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). They believe also that statistical data do not support the existence of an AIDS epidemic in Africa. And the editor of the journal Medical Hypotheses lost his job because he allowed a paper to be published that said HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, and then refused to allow papers submitted to his journal to be reviewed by peers before publication.

Other denialists believe more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good for humanity. These Ph.D. biologists contend that the extra gas induces more rapid plant growth (true over the short-term). Those who don’t believe in global warming found a few errors in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC report) and discovered inappropriate emails sent by a rogue scientist who contributed a tiny piece to the report. Some denialists believe the entire report should be disregarded because of these errors. They seem to forget that 620 scientists contributed to the 300-page report, and that errors were bound to show up in a document that covered so much data. And so it goes in the world of science. (Vol. 327, Science, March 12, 2010).

• Most of the world’s almonds are grown in California. To pollinate almond trees in bloom, the 7,000 growers hire about 1.4 million of America’s 2.3 million commercial beehives, transported by trucks from orchard to orchard. Over the past five years, the cost of “renting” a hive has increased to about $150 each due to the mysterious collapse of many beehives. This problem has bee researchers scrambling to find the cause. One bee expert believes the cause may be that bees are getting too little protein in the hive, so he concocted a protein-rich material with the consistency of cookie-dough to plug the hive’s entrance. Bees are obliged to “chomp their way through it” to get in and out. The hope is that the stuff, called “MegaBee,” will strengthen and rejuvenate bees and counteract colony (hive) collapse. (The Economist, March 6, 2010)

• Here’s a question many scientists are asking: can global sustainability be realized if the population of the earth continues to grow at its present rate? Maybe it depends on your definition of “sustainability” or your definition of “carrying capacity” insofar as the planet is concerned. The public needs to become more involved in such issues.