Rockefeller University

Program for the Human Environment

News

Notice for Alexander Keynan

We at PHE were saddened to learn of the death of Professor Alexander Keynan, a long time friend and colleague. The following obituary (translated from the Hebrew) appeared in the Israeli Newspaper Ha’aretz.

May 8, 2012

Professor Alexander Keynan Dies

Keynan, who was first administrator of the institute for Biology at Nes Tziona and a member of the committee atomic energy, died at 91.

Alexander Keynan, professor emeritus of microbiology at Hebrew University and the first manager of the Biological Institute at Nes Tziona, died on Sunday in his home in Tel Aviv at 91.  Keynan was born in 1921 in Kiev, as Alexander Kotznok.  He arrived in Israel in 1930, studied at the Hebrew University and received his doctorate in 1950.  In 1945 he married Malka ben-tzvi and started a family.

Before the establishment of the state he served in the science department of the Haganah organization, and in 1948 he continued to serve in the science battalion of the IDF.  In 1952 he was one of the founders of the institute for Biology at Nes Tziona and served as the first administrator of the institute.   In 1964 he was appointed to head the national committee for research and development, and three years after that was appointed to head the center for life sciences at Hebrew University and also as a member of the committee atomic energy.  In addition, he served as vice president for  research and development of the Hebrew University.  In 1990 he retired.  In the last decade he appointed Chairman of the Steering Committee for Biotechnology Research in the terrorist era and ntil recently he was senior consultant responsible Israeli National Academy of Sciences and in 2006 won the Bublik award.

“If there was someone who in a rational manner could think about science policy, on how to set priorities for investment in science from a national perspective, and how to redirect the system – there isn’t anybody that you can compare to the Alex on these issues,” the former President of the Hebrew University, Professor Menachem Megidor said last night.   “he was a man of insight and discernment, and what has characterized him among other things was the lack of his ego.  Even scientists dedicated to science often possess an ego that is not small, but with Alex, the good of the matter always the lit the path.” Prof.  Megidor added “I relied on his help many times and consulted with him concerning an entire range of topics, One of the toughest decisions for a university president is to make decisions in areas that you don’t fully understand. Alex was really a resource with no replacement in this respect, that could always be relied upon for his assessment.  He was really a precious person.”

 

NYC has Maglev research center

We are delighted to learn of the operation and growth of the Maglev Research Center at NYU/Poly involving pioneers James Powell and Gordon Danby and led by Bud Griffis.  We have supported Maglev in many papers, including

JH Ausubel, C Marchetti. The evolution of transport (PDF). The Industrial Physicist 7(2): 20-24, 2001
https://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-7/iss-2/p20.pdf

JH Ausubel, C Marchetti, PS Meyer. Toward green mobility: The evolution of transport. European Review  6(2): 143-162, 1998
https://phe.rockefeller.edu/green_mobility/

JH Ausubel. Big green energy machines. The Industrial Physicist 10(5): 20-24, 2004
https://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-10/iss-5/p20.html

and several papers at
https://cesaremarchetti.org/sublist.php#Transports

 

Reflecting on the passing of Norton Zinder

Pioneering microbiologist Norton Zinder, a great friend of the Program for the Human Environment, passed away 3 February 2012. Nicholas Wade recapped Norton’s career beautifully for the New York Times. Jesse offered a tribute to Norton at the memorial service on 8 February.

Among our joint efforts were the launching of the DNA barcoding movement with a pair of Banbury Conferences on DNA taxonomy at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2003 described about 1’20’ into this video of the history of barcoding ,and the first “Summit of the Cloners,” also at Banbury, in March 2000.

 

 

Dematerialization and decarbonization advance

Recent essays based on the “Peak Stuff” paper by Chris Goodall highlight our work on Dematerialization:

In Le Monde in France in French by Audrey Garric, “Have we attained a peak of objects?”  Also available in English.

In Italy in Italian by Pamela Pelatelli “Are we consuming less?”

Also, an essay, ”Going for the Burn,” by Matt Ridley (45 December 2011) draws on our work on Decarbonization.    Also available in Spanish.

Goodall’s excellent paper elicits memories of

IK Wernick, JH Ausubel, National materials flows and the environment (Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 20: 463-492, 1995)

IK Wernick, R Herman, S Govind, JH Ausubel, Materialization and dematerialization: Measures and trends (Pp 135-156 in Technological Trajectories and the Human Environment, JH Ausubel and HD Langford (eds) 1997) and

JH Ausubel, PE Waggoner, Dematerialization: variety, caution, and persistence (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(35): 12774-12779, 2008 10.1073/pnas.0806099105 D)

DNA IDs bushmeat carrying exotic viruses

Zoonotic viruses are like introduced species–most perish, a few cause localized outbreaks, and a tiny fraction spread widely. Unfortunately, the tiny fraction have ruinous potential.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus that jumped from chimpanzees to humans less than 100 years ago, now infects about 34 million people, with over 30 million deaths so far. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-I) another introduced non-human primate retrovirus, is endemic in many human populations around the world, and may result in a so far untreatable, slowly-progressing ascending paralysis.

In 2009, a previously unknown coronavirus (related to human cold viruses) from masked palm civets caused a global epidemic of SARS. A diversity of other viruses from a diversity of animal hosts have demonstrated ability to cause  high mortality outbreaks with person-to-person transmission including Nipah virus (fruit bat paramyxovirus), Ebola virus (primate filovirus), lassa virus (mouse arenavirus), and rabies (rhabdovirus with primary reservoir in bats).

What else is out there? An untold diversity of vertebrate viruses, some fraction of which have the potential to cause human epidemics, perhaps particularly those from primates and bats.  It makes sense to keep an eye on viruses in animals and products derived from animals and to limit human exposure to known or potential pathogens.

In January 2011 PLoS ONE 19 researchers from seven institutions including US Centers for Disease Control report on exotic viruses in bushmeat (meat of African wild animals) seized at five US ports of entry. In this pilot study, Smith and colleagues analyzed tissues derived from parts of 44 individual animals, mostly non-human primates, found in 26 passenger-carried or postal shipments intercepted between 2008 and 2010, plus additional tissues from body parts of 16 non-human primates seized by US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006, which were part of a successful federal smuggling prosecution. For confiscated specimens lacking external morphological features, species identity was determined by COI barcode and/or other mitochondrial genes. As an aside, I note that the phrase “DNA barcode” is in the methods section references but does not appear in the text. I view this as a kind of progress, a reflection of how barcoding is now a usual way to confirm species identity. When a method is fully established, it recedes into the background. For example, in medicine we say “the white blood cell count is 10.7,” not “the white blood cell count as determined by Coulter counter is 10.7.”

The seized bushmeat included 25 individual animals representing five non-human primate species [2 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti; IUCN Red List endangered), 2 mangabeys (Cercocebus atys; IUCN vulnerable), 10 baboons (Papio papio; IUCN near threatened), 5 guenons (Cercopithecus nictitans), 6 African green monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus)], and 35 rodents from at least two species  [32 confirmed or suspected cane rats (Thryonomys sp.), and 3 unknown rat species]. It is unclear from the article how many of the specimens were barcoded to determine species identity.

Samples were screened by PCR for multiple bacterial and viral pathogens. Pathogenic viruses were found in tissues from all 5 non-human primate species, including strains of cytomegalovirus and lymphocryptovirus (both herpesviruses) and 4 strains (3 of which were novel) of simian foamy virus (a retrovirus). So we have many things wrong–endangered species, illegally harvested and imported, carrying potential threats to human health. How big is the problem? According to the authors, although “the amount and characteristics of bushmeat reaching US borders is not well described…[one] study estimated that 273 tons of bushmeat was imported every year into Paris…on Air France carriers alone” (Chaber et al 2010 Conserv Lett). The threats to endangered species and human health from bushmeat trade are one part of the enormous traffic in wildlife (120 million live animals and 25 million kilograms of non-live wildlife are imported annually into US) (Pavlin 2009 Emerging Infect Dis). The authors conclude with a call for “broader surveillance efforts and pathogen identification and discovery techniques in wildlife and wildlife products…to further mitigate potential risks.” Let’s hope they do so.