With rising populations and changing climate conditions, the need for resilient and reliable crops has never been greater.
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2014 was a big year for medicine. An unprecedented Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the release of a report showing an increase in antibiotic resistant diseases worldwide, and a spike in American measles cases from parents opting out of vaccines all made headlines.
Yet researchers studying a quieter but no less deadly disease also had something to say. A team at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging released findings that showed that cases of Alzheimer's disease, the neurological condition that gradually robs the sufferer of their mental abilities, would increase considerably as the American population aged.
The report, which was put together using calculations that took data from a Chicago sample and extrapolated it nationwide using census data, showed that an estimated 1.6 million Americans age 65 or older would die of Alzheimer's by 2050. That would account for 43 percent of older adult deaths in the country. By contrast, 32 percent of older adults deaths were due to the disease in 2010.
It's not that Alzheimer's is somehow becoming more virulent. In fact, some studies indicate that Americans are at less risk of developing the disease today because the rates of heart disease and stroke nationwide are going down. Scientists believe there is a link between cardiovascular health and forms of dementia like Alzheimer's.
Instead, it's demographics that are leading the shift. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, the country will experience what some demographers call "the silver tsunami," as aging Americans fuel a higher demand for services and health care. With that shift also comes an increase in age-related disease, like Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. So while the risk of Alzheimer's might actually be on the decline, the sheer number of older Americans is expected to make the disease a leading cause of death nationwide for decades.
By 2030, 20 percent of the American population will be 65 or older, according to an Alzheimer's Association report. Barring any unforeseen changes in the disease or a cure, that means roughly 13 million older Americans could suffer from Alzheimer's disease by 2050, the association says.
"Age is by far the strongest risk factor for Alzheimer's," said Jennifer Weuve, who led the Rush Institute study. "It will be interesting to see how the aging experience of the Baby Boomer generation will possibly change how we think about Alzheimer's, the way we treat it and the way we manage it."
Researchers are trying hard to stem the tide of dementia in a rapidly aging population. In 2011, President Obama signed an act establishing the National Alzheimer's Project to coordinate federal research into the disease across agencies, with the ultimate goal of an effective treatment by 2025.
With this new attention came renewed funding and global interest, with the G7 group of nations holding a "dementia summit" earlier this year. And cooperation has become central to the push to halt the disease. Federal agencies, universities, hospitals, and drug companies now partner together under an umbrella system organized by the National Institutes of Health to share information and test results, and researchers also share brain scans and other data worldwide.
But Weuve, the Rush Institute study leader, says that even with the hard work being put into research and testing, a workable treatment may still take some time, and that raises tough questions as Americans age.
"We need to face the possibility that there will be a lot of people who develop this condition before we have a cure," she said. "How do we humanely and sanely manage the symptoms of the condition? What is death going to be like? Will we be proud of how we treat Alzheimer's patients?"
Since taking office in 2010, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has reshaped the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). He appointed a former state senator and critic of the agency to be its secretary and hired an outside “deer czar” in response to hunters’ complaints about the state’s management of the deer herd. Gov. Walker also re-wrote state mining regulations to clear the way for an ill-fated iron mine proposal that was finally abandoned last month. Several days ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the mining company’s lobbyist and spokesman had been considered for appointment as the DNR’s deputy secretary—until officials realized there was a federal law specifically preventing that kind of thing. (He was, instead, hired for a job in another agency.)
Now, the DNR has come under the budget knife. Among other changes and position cuts, the agency’s science bureau faces a 30 percent reduction in staff. Now, Wisconsin Watch reports that the DNR is considering eliminating the science bureau altogether, shuffling remaining staff into other divisions.
The bureau performs the local, applied ecological research and monitoring that informs state regulations. Timothy Van Deelen, a University of Wisconsin ecologist, told Wisconsin Watch he was concerned about losing that work. “Long-term data sets are so incredibly rare,” he said. “And now a lot of that monitoring, such as with the deer herd, is up in the air.”
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Located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, the young cluster and starforming region Westerlund 2 fills this cosmic scene. Captured with Hubble's cameras in near-infrared and visible light, the stunning image is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990. The cluster's dense concentration of luminous, massive stars is about 10 light-years across. Strong winds and radiation from those massive young stars have sculpted and shaped the region's gas and dust, into starforming pillars that point back to the central cluster. Red dots surrounding the bright stars are the cluster's faint newborn stars, still within their natal gas and dust cocoons. But brighter blue stars scattered around are likely not in the Westerlund 2 cluster and instead lie in the foreground of the Hubble anniversary field of view. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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