The quest for the perfect tomato

Untangling the genetic legacy of tomato domestication

Cell Press

Tomatoes have come a long way from their origins as pea-sized berries due to humans breeding tomato plants to produce bigger fruit.

However, favorable mutations that went along with increased fruit size and other beneficial traits do not always play well together.

A study published in Cell on May 18 found that natural mutations in two important tomato genes that were selected for different purposes in breeding can cause extreme branching and reduce fruit yield when they occur in the same plant.

However, the researchers have found a way to use those genes to create an improved tomato plant that grows a larger number of tomatoes.

One of the two genes is ancient, dating back to when Native Americans in South and Central America domesticated the tomato plant more than 8,000 years ago.

How do you like these odds?

Nearly one in three drugs found to have safety concerns after FDA approval

Brigham and Women's Hospital

How often are safety concerns raised about a drug after it's been approved by the FDA?

Nicholas Downing, MD, of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues have found that for drugs approved between 2001 and 2010, nearly 1 in 3 had a postmarket safety event.

The team defines post-market safety events as those that lead to either withdrawal from the market due to safety concerns, a boxed warning or FDA issuance of a safety communication.

They found that of 222 novel therapeutics the FDA approved during this time period, three were withdrawn, 61 received boxed warnings and 59 elicited safety communications. The team's findings are published in JAMA.

Ignorance in action

Trump Administration removes virtually ALL mention of climate change, and the science that backs it up, from federal government websites.

By Gryphen

Courtesy of The Guardian:

During inauguration day on 20 January, as Donald Trump was adding “American carnage” to the presidential lexicon, the new administration also took a hammer to official recognition that climate change exists and poses a threat to the US. 

One of the starkest alterations to the White House’s website following Trump’s assumption of office was the scrapping of an entire section on climate change, stuffed with graphs on renewable energy growth and pictures of Barack Obama gazing at shriveling glaciers, to be replaced by a perfunctory page entitled “An America first energy plan”. 

In the more than 100 days since, the administration has largely opted for a chisel and scalpel approach to refashioning its online content, but the end result is much the same – mentions of climate change have been excised, buried or stripped of any importance. 

Federal government websites are being combed through to apply new verbiage. The state department’s office of global change, for example, has removed links to the Obama administration’s 2013 climate action report and mention of the latest UN meeting on climate change. Text relating to climate change and greenhouse gases has also been purged.

Of Human Bondage

For more cartoons by Ted Rall, CLICK HERE.

Your Attorney General

At the Mystic Aquarium

Check out the great events Mystic Aquarium has planned for you!

Bring your besties & grab your co-workers for an evening of beluga whales, live music and a cash bar.

Witness these "living fossils" gather during our new moon, night-time family Horseshoe Crab Watch.

Enjoy family fun hands-on activities, create a craft and learn about our precious Long Island Sound.

Thank you for your service!  Present your active duty or veteran US Military ID to get in FREE.

Fiesta y fabulosa! Summer begins with the color and pageantry of Hispanic cultures and traditions.

Join us for fun activities, crafts, or simply run around! Paint with it, make mud pies or just get muddy!

Mystic Aquarium | 55 Coogan Blvd, Mystic, CT | 860.572.5955 TAIL US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Wow, no protests against Trump in Saudi Arabia. I wonder why?

Tangible proof that Obamacare saves lives

More cancers diagnosed at early stage following increase in health insurance coverage

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Cancer is most curable when it’s detected at its earliest stages. An analysis of nearly 273,000 patients showed that between 2013 and 2014 there was a 1% increase in the percentage of breast, lung, and colorectal cancers diagnosed at the earliest, most treatable stage. 

Following full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this study is the first to explore changes in the proportion of cancers – those that can be detected through screening – diagnosed at stage I.

"Cancer is most curable when it's detected at its earliest stages. While it is much too soon to identify the specific cause of this positive trend, or determine whether it is sustainable and will improve outcomes, it is indeed a step in the right direction," said ASCO President-Elect Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO.

Tennessee business owner doesn’t want Trumpcare tax break

Don't Give Me A Tax Cut That Cuts Health Care for Others

By Stephen Prince 

Abolishing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the taxes that pay for it would save rich taxpayers like me a lot of money. But it would also endanger the health care of more than 30 million Americans. That's not a tradeoff I want to make -- and no one else should, either.

Long before the ACA required larger employers to offer our workers coverage or pay a penalty, I was already covering my employees. I could have saved millions of dollars over the years if I had left them uninsured.

But I believe health care is a basic human right.

That's the underlying philosophy of the ACA, too. Thanks to it, the number of uninsured in this country has fallen by more than a third, from almost 50 million seven years ago to around 30 million today. A quarter million Tennesseans have obtained coverage as a result of the ACA.

The ACA is paid for in large part through taxes targeted at wealthy households and on highly-profitable health care industries that benefit from more people having access to health coverage, like insurance and pharmaceuticals.

Then the dam broke

Top Watergate reporter remarks on the speed of RussiaGate events

Dan Rather

And then the dam broke.

A flood is coming that will shape the future of our Republic in ways no one can predict.

Except that the speed with which this has all happened, just over a hundred days into President Donald Trump's dumpster fire of an administration, means it was all very predictable.

And no one who played a role in normalizing this President should be allowed to forget it.

We have news that the Department of Justice, under Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, will appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the Russia interference scandal.

Apparently the President was only given a 30 minute heads up, and it came while he was interviewing new heads for the FBI. The Special Counsel will be former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

These types of investigations tend to stir up more dirt than anyone thought was there. We will see if that happens now.

What the hell is this about?

THIS IS REAL: Just when you thought Trump could not get weirder, there's this from his current overseas trip.

RI Jobs with Justice Annual Awards Dinner at the Biltmore, June 1

Dog of the Week

Meet Fezzik

Animal Rescue Rhode Island

Whether you are looking for serious or fun loving, you will definitely find the best of both worlds with this guy!

Fezzik is super personable, walks well on leash and will do anything for a belly rub.

We believe he would make a perfect family addition to any home.

Report: The Donald's first overseas trip so far.

Climate change and fish stocks

Ocean warming to cancel increased carbon dioxide-driven productivity

University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide researchers have constructed a marine food web to show how climate change could affect our future fish supplies and marine biodiversity.

Published in Global Change Biology, the researchers found that high CO₂ expected by the end of the century which causes ocean acidification will boost production at different levels of the food web, but ocean warming cancelled this benefit by causing stress to marine animals, preventing them using the increased resources efficiently for their own growth and development. The result was a collapsing food web.