The Secrets of Life (4) - Faulty Genes and Close Relations Marriage

An ordinary human has 46 chromosomes in each cell made up of 23 pairs. In each chromosome, there are hundreds and thousands of genes, and it is estimated that there are about 25,000 - 35,000 genes (exact number is not yet known) in a single human cell. Genes may become faulty due various reasons (e.g. inherited from parents, during the formation of egg or sperm or during the lifetime of the individual due aging or radiation etc). As chromosomes come in pairs, genes also come in pairs. A single faulty gene in a chromosome usually will not cause any problems as there is another working copy of the same gene in the other leg of the chromosome. Ordinary human usually has several faulty genes in the body at any time, and the body still functions perfectly normally. Only when both copies of the same gene in both legs of the chromosomes become faulty, then genetic problem occurs which will then affect the health and development of the individual.
During the formation of the egg or sperm, the two legs of each of the 23 pairs of chromosomes separate. The egg or sperm then has only single legs of the 23 pairs of chromosomes. At the time of conception, the egg and the sperm combine to form the first cell of the child. Each leg of the egg will combine with its corresponding counterpart of the sperm forming 23 pairs of chromosomes like the parents. If there is a faulty gene in the chromosome of the egg, AND if there is a SAME faulty gene in the chromosome of the sperm, then the SAME copy of the genes in the chromosome will be faulty resulting in genetic problems in the child.
Given the facts that there are 25,000 - 35,000 genes in human, a healthy human usually has only a few faulty genes and the faulty genes exist randomly, the chance of having a SAME faulty gene during conception (hence causing genetic problems) of two UNRELATED individuals is extremely low. But when the two individuals are close blood relatives, they share a greater proportion of genes in common than unrelated individuals do because they have a common ancestor from whom they inherited their genes. As such, they have a greater chance of having a same faulty gene in common in their chromosomes. When their egg and sperm combine at time of conception, there is a greater risk of having a child with a same copy of faulty genes in the chromosomes and hence a greater risk of having genetic problems.
The table below shows the proportion of genes shared between close blood relatives:

Relationship Type	Relationship	Proportion of Genes in Common
	Twins (雙生兄妹, 姐弟)	All – 100%
First degree relatives	Brother and sister (兄妹, 姐弟)	Half – 50%
Second degree relatives	Half brother and sister (同父異母或同母異父兄妹, 姐弟)	Quarter – 25%
Third degree relatives	Cousins (堂兄妹, 姐弟, 表兄妹, 姐弟)	Eighth – 12.5%

The closer the blood relations (i.e. the lower the degree of relationship), the greater is the proportion in having genes in common, and hence the higher risk of having offspring with genetic problems .........................................

How to Do a (Right) Research

I read this article in a weekly news bulletin of the Knox Grammar School.

The teacher asked his science students to research some of the latest and most amazing genetic developments using new biotechnology procedures.
Jim, Tom and Peter used Google as the search engine on the internet for their work. Jim presented a picture of a mouse with what looks like an human ear growing on its back. His source was from the BBC News. Tom found the same picture in Wikipedia and found it was the Vacanti Mouse. Peter found the same picture in Dr Karl's Great Moments in Science on ABC Science. Each boy used the information from Google to write up a report on the Vacanti Mouse.
While their effort on the research work were all commendable, only one was right!

The questions are:
1. Which boy got it right?
2. How, using the internet, can information be validated?
3. What does this mean for finding 'truth'?

BBC, Wikipedia and ABC are all reputable sources. But they provided different interpretations of this genetically engineered ear growing on the back of a mouse. Among them, the ABC Science program, Dr Karl's Great Moments in Science was correct ....... the others wrong.

So how was this determined?

The best (and correct) way is to go to the source of the work - in this case Dr Vacanti. Search for the original reports by Dr Vacanti, then consider the original reports with those given by sources like BBC, Wikipedia and ABC.

The key is to (try the best to) validate straight from the horse's mouth.

European Debt Crisis (3 of 3) - Solutions! or Solutions?

As the European Debt Crisis deepened towards the end of 2011, European leaders are under tremendous pressure to find ways to contain, if not to solve, the problem. On 26 October, 2011, EU leaders met in Brussels to hold marathon talks and worked through the night into next morning to come up with an agreement described as vital solutions to the huge debt crisis. Essentially, the agreement consisted of three parts:
1. The European private banks holding Greek bonds agreed to write off 50% of their face value. Effectively, this will lower the Greek debts from the expected 180% to 120% of their GDP by 2020. Although the figure is still enormous but now is more sustainable for an economy driven into recession by austerity measures.
2. European banks will be required to raise about 106-billion euros in new capital by June 2012 to increase their holdings of safe assets to 9% of their total capital. This would help protect them against potential losses resulting from any government defaults, and hence avoid any potential bank crisis.
3. The main euro bailout fund - European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) - will be expanded from 440-billion euros set up earlier this year to 1-trillion euros. This would be sufficient to provide guarantees for bonds issued by countries including Italy and Spain.

The first part provides a short-term action to alleviate Greek's debt burden. By having the European banks writing off 50% of their debts, it would give some breathing space for Greece for some time. But with the still staggering figure of 120% debt to GDP ratio (doubling the EU limit of 60%), coupled with the weakening economy due to the austerity measures imposed on the country in exchange of the EU bailout packages, will Greece be able to repay or reduce its debts by itself?
The second part aims to provide a medium-term firewall to protect European banks from any potential government defaults. However, this is just a target set by the EU leaders. No information is yet available on how to raise the 106-billion euro of fresh capital. Given the banks taking up 50% loss of their Greek bond assets in support of part 1, will the banks be able to further raise that level of capital by June, 2012?
The third part aims to provide a longer-term pool of fund to help bailout euro countries with financial difficulties, especially larger economies like Italy and Spain. But how to boost up the fund to 1-trillion euro is still yet unknown. The head of EFSF traveled to China right after the EU meeting on 26Oct to discuss on possibility of China's contribution as China is one of the few countries with good financial reserves. But will China be willing to invest in this risky business? China may ask for political returns in exchange of their financial contribution if they do invest. Will EU be able to accept? If not, where will the money come from? Further questions may also be asked. Is the 1-trillion euro fund enough given the (seemingly endless) bailouts needed for the debt countries? Is the continual bailout a right strategy to resolve the crisis?

The EU leaders, especially Germany and France, are very determined to maintain the integrity of the EU and the Eurozone. They worked very hard to try to keep Europe intact from disintegrating due to debt problems of eurozone members. They are very anxious and keen in implementing the plan agreed on 26 October, 2011 to resolve the crisis. But with the ever worsening situation in Europe, especially recently with Italy which is the third largest economy in eurozone after Germany and France - an economy too big to be saved, lining up to a brink of falling after Greece, can it really solve the crisis? If not, what are the real solutions?????

Only time will tell!

European Debt Crisis (2) - How and When It Developed

The European Union (EU) was formed in 1995 among a number of European states with the objective of unifying Europe as a single community to promote peace, equality and unity. Since the formation, the lesser advanced countries, especially the so-called PIIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, did have their social welfare standards improved, catching up with economically advanced countries like Belgium, France, Germany and Netherlands. Some countries even have gone too far.
Take Greece as an example. A job which pays 55,000 euros in Germany, pays 70,000 euros in Greece, despite Germany being a more productive country. To get around pay restraints in the calendar year, the Greek government simply paid employees a 13th and even 14th monthly salary. Furthermore, the Greek government categorizes certain jobs as arduous which have a retirement age of 55 for men and 50 for women with generous pensions. More than 600 Greek professions somehow managed to get themselves classified as arduous like hairdressers, radio announcers, musicians etc. All these goodies required substantial government funding which far exceeded their national income. Greece had to borrow money to pay for the expenditures via government bonds etc. As a result, national debts gradually built up.
On 1 January, 1999, the EU launched euro as its official currency. Most EU countries (called the eurozone) uses euro as a common currency among themselves. Before the euro, the PIIGS countries had to borrow money at interest rates much higher than the rates at which Germany paid since Germany was an economically better managed country and hence had a very good credit rating and enjoyed low interest rates. When these countries started to use the euro, they could borrow money at interest rates close to that of Germany. So taking advantage of the lower interest rates, they kept borrowing to buy stuffs that they couldn't afford.
Apart from the low interest rates, the inflation in the PIIGS countries was higher than the rate of interest. In simple terms, if the borrowing rate is 3% and the inflation is 5%, one can gain 2% by borrowing to buy things. So borrow and borrow they did. Over the years, PIIGS countries, especially Greece, amassed an enormous amount of debts in euros which then became unmanageable, and made the governments difficult, if not impossible, to repay.
As an indication of the problem, the following shows the deficit to GDP ratios and the debt to GDP ratios of the PIIGS countries (figures being 2010 estimates based on Eurostat - Apr11):

Country	Deficit to GDP (%)	Debt to GDP (%)
Greece	10.5	142.8
Italy	4.6	119
Ireland	32.4	96.2
Portugal	9.1	93
Spain	9.2	60.1

The EU has set limits for member states to have budget deficit not to exceed 3% of GDP and debt level not to exceed 60% of GDP. But unfortunately, these countries simply failed to comply.
And so the problems went on, and finally became a crisis and brought to the world's focus at end 2009. Greece got the worst situation among others. The country hired Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs, to help hide its debt so as not to run afoul of EU rules. In December, 2009, Greece was forced to admit that its debts were much higher than previously estimated, reaching 300 billion euros, the highest in modern history. Rating agencies started to downgrade Greek banks and government bonds. In the following few months, Greece responded with a series of austerity programs sparkling serious strikes and riots in the streets. Greece's borrowing costs reached yet further record highs.
By May, 2010, euro members and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided a 110-billion euro bailout package to rescue Greece. The situation in Ireland also deteriorated, and in November, 2010, the EU and IMF provided a 85-billion euro bailout package to Ireland. Ireland soon passed the toughest budget in the country's history in return.
Attempting to stop the crisis from spreading, in February, 2011, eurozone leaders established a 500-billion European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to provide loans to any euro countries with financial difficulty. In April, 2011, Portugal asked for assistance and was provided with a 78-billion euro bailout package. In July, 2011, Greece passed another round of drastic austerity program, and was provided a second bailout package of 109-billion euros, sparkling even more serious civil unrest though.
While bailouts had so far only been provided to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, situations in Spain and Italy began to look worrying, with interests on government bonds rising sharply and credit ratings being downgraded. In September, 2011, Spain passed constitutional amendment to impose rule to keep future budget deficit to strict limit. Italy passed an austerity budget to balance the country's budget by 2013. Italy and Spain, being the third and fourth largest economies in eurozone after Germany and France, were then put under the world's spotlight.
In October, 2011, eurozone finance ministers approved another 8-billion bailout to Greece, which the country needs desperately before running out of cash by 15 December, 2011.
It now seems almost certain that Greece will not be able to repay its debts by itself. Situations in Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy are not too better off. Because of the continued downgraded credit ratings, these PIIGS countries find it harder and harder to borrow as lenders will charge more for further loans. Coupled with austerity measures that these countries must take in order to seek assistance from the EU, economies of these countries are contracting. Many European banks, as well as the European Central Bank, own bonds issued by these governments. Should any of them go default (Greece is the most likely one), many of those banks will have big losses. If some of Europe's biggest banks suddenly look dangerously weak, then other banks may hesitate to extend credit to each other, fearing they too could get dragged down. A banking crisis could begin, resulting in recessions in Europe.
The European problem could potentially spread across the Atlantic to the US because US money market funds hold substantial amount of short-term debts of European banks. If European banks can't find lenders to allow them to routinely issue short-term debts, financial markets could start to freeze up, causing turmoil in US money market funds. As the EU and the US are big economic partners, recession in Europe will ultimately lead to a recession in the US. Slower growth in the EU and the US will then hurt the Asian economies which depend on the West to buy their manufactured goods. As a result, the global economy could fall into a profound recession.

European Debt Crisis (1) - Formation of the European Union

After the devastating World War II, major governments of the continental Europe became convinced that the only way to establish a lasting peace was to work together on reducing the competitive pressures leading to conflicts and to unify all European states in the long run. In 1950, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, proposed an eventual union of all Europe as a single community, the first step of which would be the integration of the coal and steel industries. These natural heavy industries were regarded at that time as the essential engines behind the manufacture of munitions for wars. The aim of the integration was to eliminate the possibility of further wars by pooling these industries together among the member states. Next year in 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was born when the 6 founding members - Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris.
Six years later in 1957, the 6 members further sought closer union and signed the Treaties of Rome to create the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) . They undertook to eliminate the trade barrier among themselves by forming a common market. In 1967, the three communities (ECSC, EEC and EAEC) formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a single Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the body known today as the European Parliament.
Membership of the EC expanded from the original 6 to 12 members between 1973 and 1986 (with new members Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Spain and Portugal). In 1992, they signed the Treaty of Maastricht which laid the basis for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic and monetary union - including a common currency. This further integration created the European Union (EU) in 1995. 3 new members, Austria, Finland and Sweden, joined in the same year.
On January 1, 1999, one of the largest steps toward European unification took place with the introduction of the euro as the official currency in the EU. Euro became the unit of exchange for most EU countries except United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden who decided not to convert their currencies to Euro.
The EU continued to expand with 10 more countries - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, joining in 2004. Later in 2007, 2 other countries, Bulgaria and Romania, joined, bringing the total membership to 27 where it stands today (Nov2011).

As of now, members of the EU (27) include:

Austria (1995), Belgium (1951), Bulgaria (2007), Cyprus (2004), Czech Republic (2004), Denmark (1973), Estonia (2004), Finland (1995), France (1951), Germany (1951), Greece (1981). Hungary (2004), Ireland (1973), Italy (1951), Latvia (2004), Lithuania (2004), Luxembourg (1951), Malta (2004), Netherlands (1951), Poland (2004), Portugal (1986), Romania (2007), Slovakia (2004), Slovenia (2004), Spain (1986), Sweden (1995), United Kingdom (1973).

Only 17 of the 27 members of the EU are part of the Eurozone, the name for the collection of EU countries that utilize the euro. Except United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden, other new members are working toward becoming part of the Eurozone. Eurozone members (17) include:

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

The EU's mission is to:
. guarantee peace, freedom and security in and around Europe
. promote and protect democracy and universal rights in Europe and around the world
. strengthen Europe's economy and to promote solidarity around Europe by working in partnership with national, regional and local government
. make it easy for Europe's citizens to live and work throughout the Union
. promote equality and tolerance of diversity in Europe
. promote and facilitate cooperation between Europeans, at individual, local, regional and national level, and in both the public and private sectors
. protect Europe's environment
. ensure that Europe's voice is heard in the world
. listen to its citizens, be accountable to them and work for them in a transparent and decentralised way.

The EU has its own official flag. It consists of a circle of 12 golden stars on a blue background. The number of stars (12) represents completeness while their position in a circle represents unity. The EU adopts Beethoven's Symphony Number 9 'The Ode of Joy' as their official anthem, conveying the idea of freedom, peace and unity.

(extract from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXuhvzbQ5EI&feature=related)

The Fox and the Vineyard

Once upon a time, a fox passed by a vineyard and saw plenty of big and mouth-watering grapes inside. "Let me go and have a great meal." He said to himself. He squeezed himself through the lattice and entered into the vineyard. "I'm so glad I'm in. Yummy! Yummy!" The grapes were so fresh, delicious and juicy and the fox ate and ate and ate. The fox felt very satisfied and wanted to get out of the vineyard. "It was wonderful. Let me go back now." But then he found he had eaten too much and become so fat that he could not get through the lattice. So the fox had to stop eating and drinking for three days and three nights until he became thin again. Finally he squeezed through the lattice and got outside the vineyard. The fox felt disappointed as he discovered he was only what he was before entering the vineyard.

The moral, from one perspective - 'We come with nothing and we leave with nothing. We can't take away any fame and fortune we accrued in life. So, don't take it too serious.'
Or perhaps we look from the other perspective - 'Sometimes it's not the result we should bother, but rather it's the process we should enjoy.'