Renthal, an expert in insect sensory perception, received UTSA’s first stimulus funding award – $390,000 to study the purpose and function of four different parts of an insect pheromone receptor’s structure. Pheromone receptors detect the chemical communication signals insects use to attract a mate, signal danger or identify a food trail. Renthal expects his research to give scientists a better understanding of how to use pheromones to attract beneficial insects or repel harmful insects to protect the nation’s food supply and to control insect-borne diseases.

Renthal has served on UTSA’s faculty since 1975 and credits the South Texas Technology Management (STTM) Proof of Concept: Roadrunner (POCrr) grant he received in April 2008 with helping him to obtain stimulus funding. The $25,000 STTM grant funded Renthal’s background studies on the insect pheromone receptor, giving him preliminary data to include in his proposal to the NIH. Learn more about STTM’s Proof of Concept program here.

Lopez-Ribot, a medical mycologist specializing in the fungus Candida albicans, has been awarded a $550,000 grant to study biofilms formed by the fungus, which causes infections called candidiasis. Candidiasis can be life-threatening in immunosuppressed patients and is the third most frequent infection in hospitals both in the United States and abroad. Biofilms are microbial communities attached to surfaces and help an infection progress by providing microorganisms a safe place from which they can invade tissue, start new infection sites and resist treatment efforts. These surfaces can include medical equipment, such as catheters and other types of implanted biomaterials.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 is an economic recovery package adopted to help states stabilize budgets and stimulate economic growth. Stimulus funding will be allocated, in part, to modernize health care, improve schools, modernize infrastructure and invest in the clean energy technologies of the future.

]]> http://discountspharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=7 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=8 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=8#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000 admin medicine health http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=8 Scientists from Scotland and Singapore have unraveled a mystery that has perplexed scientists since red wine was first discovered to have health benefits: how does resveratrol control inflammation? New research published in the August 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), not only explains resveratrol’s one-two punch on inflammation, but also show how it—or a derivative—can be used to treat potentially deadly inflammatory disease, such as appendicitis, peritonitis, and systemic sepsis.

“Strong acute inflammatory diseases such as sepsis are very difficult to treat and many die every day due to lack of treatment,” said Alirio Melendez, senior lecturer on the faculty of medicine at Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre in Scotland and one of the researchers involved in the work. “Moreover, many survivors of sepsis develop a very low quality of life due to the damage that inflammation causes to several internal organs. The ultimate goal of our study was to identify a potential novel therapy to help in the treatment of strong acute inflammatory diseases.”

In this study, researchers administered an inflammatory agent to two groups of mice. One group was pretreated with resveratrol and the other group was not. The mice that were not pretreated with resveratrol experienced a strong inflammatory response, simulating disease in humans, while the group pretreated with resveratrol was protected from the inflammation. The scientists then examined the tissues of the mice to determine exactly how resveratrol was able to protect the mice from inflammation. They found that resveratrol used a one-two punch to stop inflammation in the mice by preventing the body from creating two different molecules known to trigger inflammation, sphingosine kinase and phospholipase D. This finding suggests that resveratrol may be harnessable as a treatment for inflammatory diseases and may also lead to entirely new resveratrol-based drugs that are even more effective.

“The therapeutic potential of red wine has been bottled up for thousands of years,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, “and now that scientists have uncorked its secrets, they find that studies of how resveratrol works can lead to new treatments for life-threatening inflammation.”

Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fasebjournalreaders.htm. The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The journal has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. FASEB comprises 22 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB advances biological science through collaborative advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and lead to improvements in human health.

Details: Priya D. A. Issuree, Peter N. Pushparaj, Shazib Pervaiz, and Alirio J. Melendez. Resveratrol attenuates C5a-induced inflammatory responses in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting phospholipase D and sphingosine kinase activities. FASEB J. 2009 23: 2412-2424. doi: 10.1096/fj.09-130542; http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/8/2412

“It has been shown that zinc supplementation significantly reduces the duration and severity of childhood diarrhea, lower respiratory infections, and incidence of malaria in zinc-deficient children,” said report co-author, Robert Cousins, Ph.D., who also is the director of the Center for Nutritional Sciences within the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at the University of Florida. “Age-related declines in immune function have also been related to zinc deficiency in the elderly.”

Scientists administered either a zinc supplement or a placebo to healthy volunteers to assess the effects of zinc on T cell activation. After isolating the T cells from the blood, scientists then simulated infection in laboratory conditions. Results showed that T cells taken from the zinc-supplemented group had higher activation than those from the placebo group. Specifically, cell activation stimulated the zinc transporter in T cells called “ZIP8,” which transports stored zinc into the cell cytoplasm where it then alters the expression of a T cell protein in a way needed to fight infections.

“As the debate over zinc supplementation in healthy individuals continues,” said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, “studies like this help shed light on how zinc may enhance the ability of our immune systems to fight off foreign invaders. Equally important, this work points toward new possible targets for entirely new drugs to help augment immune function and prevent or stop infections that might be resistant to traditional antibiotics.”

The Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) publishes peer-reviewed manuscripts on original investigations focusing on the cellular and molecular biology of leukocytes and on the origins, the developmental biology, biochemistry and functions of granulocytes, lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes and other cells involved in host defense and inflammation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is published by the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

Details: Tolunay B. Aydemir, Juan P. Liuzzi, Steve McClellan, and Robert J. Cousins
Zinc transporter ZIP8 (SLC39A8) and zinc influence IFN- expression in activated human T cells. J Leukoc Biol 2009 86: 337�. http://www.jleukbio.org/cgi/content/abstract/86/2/337

“The old argument was that they retained short legs to help them climb trees that still were an important part of their habitat,” says David Carrier, a professor of biology. “My argument is that they retained short legs because short legs helped them fight.”

The study analyzed leg lengths and indicators of aggression in nine primate species, including human aborigines. It is in the March issue of the journal Evolution.

Creatures in the genus Australopithecus – immediate predecessors of the human genus Homo – had heights of about 3 feet 9 inches for females and 4 feet 6 inches for males. They lived from 4 million to 2 million years ago.

“For that entire period, they had relatively short legs – longer than chimps’ legs but shorter than the legs of humans that came later,” Carrier says.

“So the question is, why did australopiths retain short legs for 2 million years? Among experts on primates, the climbing hypothesis is the explanation. Mechanically, it makes sense. If you are walking on a branch high above the ground, stability is important because if you fall and you’re big, you are going to die. Short legs would lower your center of mass and make you more stable.”

Yet Carrier says his research suggests short legs helped australopiths fight because “with short legs, your center of mass is closer to the ground. It’s going to make you more stable so that you can’t be knocked off your feet as easily. And with short legs, you have greater leverage as you grapple with your opponent.”

While Carrier says his aggression hypothesis does not rule out the possibility that short legs aided climbing, but “evidence is poor because the apes that have the shortest legs for their body size spend the least time in trees – male gorillas and orangutans.”

He also notes that short legs must have made it harder for australopiths “to bridge gaps between possible sites of support when climbing and traveling through the canopy.”

Nevertheless, he writes, “The two hypotheses for the evolution of relatively short legs in larger primates, specialization for climbing and specialization for aggression, are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, selection for climbing performance may result in the evolution of a body configuration that improves fighting performance and vice versa.”

Great Apes’ Short Legs Provide Evidence for Australopith Aggression

All modern great apes – humans, chimps, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos – engage in at least some aggression as males compete for females, Carrier says.

Carrier set out to find how aggression related to leg length. He compared Australian aborigines with eight primate species: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, black gibbons, siamang gibbons, olive baboons and dwarf guenon monkeys. Carrier used data on aborigines because they are a relatively natural population.

For the aborigines and each primate species, Carrier used the scientific literature to obtain typical hindlimb lengths and data on two physical features that previously have been shown to correlate with male-male competition and aggressiveness in primates:

• The weight difference between males and females in a species. Earlier studies found males fight more in species with larger male-female body size ratios.

• The male-female difference in the length of canine teeth, which are next to the incisors and are used for biting during fights.

Carrier used male-female body size ratios and canine tooth size ratios as numerical indicators for aggressiveness because field studies of primates have used varying criteria to rate aggression. He says it would be like having a different set of judges for each competitor in subjective Olympic events like diving or ice dancing.

The study found that hindlimb length correlated inversely with both indicators of aggressiveness: Primate species with greater male-female differences in body weight and length of the canine teeth had shorter legs, and thus display more male-male combat.

There was no correlation between arm length and the indicators of aggression. Carrier says arms are used for fighting, but “for other things as well: climbing, handling food, grooming. Thus, arm length is not related to aggression in any simple way.”

Verifying the Findings

Carrier conducted various statistical analyses to verify his findings. First, he corrected for each species’ limb lengths relative to their body size. Primates with larger body sizes tend to have shorter legs, humans excepted. Without taking that into account, the correlation between body size and aggression indicators might be false.

Another analysis corrected for the fact different primate species are related. For example, if three closely related species all have short legs, it might be due to the relationship – an ancestor with short legs – and not aggression.

Even with the corrections, short legs still correlated significantly with the two indicators of aggressiveness.

The study also found that females in each primate species except humans have relatively longer legs than males. “If it is mainly the males that need to be adapted for fighting, then you’d expect them to have shorter legs for their body size,” Carrier says.

He notes there are exceptions to that rule. Bonobos have shorter legs than chimps, yet they are less aggressive. Carrier says the correlation between short legs and aggression may be imperfect because legs are used for many other purposes than fighting.

Humans “are a special case” and are not less aggressive because they have longer legs, Carrier says. There is a physical tradeoff between aggression and economical walking and running. Short, squat australopiths were strong and able to stand their ground when shoved, but their short legs made them ill-suited for distance running. Slender, long-legged humans excel at running. Yet, they also excel at fighting. In a 2004 study, Carrier made a case that australopiths evolved into lithe, long-legged early humans only when they learned to make weapons and fight with them.

Now he argues that even though australopiths walked upright on the ground, the reason they retained short legs for 2 million years was not so much that they spent time in trees, but “the same thing that selected for short legs in the other great apes: male-male aggression and competition over access to reproductively active females.”

In other words, shorter legs increased the odds of victory when males fought over access to females – access that meant passing their genetic traits to offspring.

Yet, “we don’t really know how aggressive australopiths were,” Carrier says. “If they were more aggressive than modern humans, they were exceptionally nasty animals.”

Why Should We Care that Australopiths Were Short and Nasty?

“Given the aggressive behavior of modern humans and apes, we should not be surprised to find fossil evidence of aggressive behavior in the ancestors of modern humans,” Carrier says. “This is important because we have a real problem with violence in modern society. Part of the problem is that we don’t recognize we are relatively violent animals. Many people argue we are not violent. But we are violent. If we want to prevent future violence we have to understand why we are violent.”

“To some extent, our evolutionary past may help us to understand the circumstances in which humans behave violently,” he adds. “There are a number of independent lines of evidence suggesting that much of human violence is related to male-male competition, and this study is consistent with that.”

Nevertheless, male-male competition doesn’t fully explain human violence, Carrier says, noting other factors such as hunting, competing with other species, defending territory and other resources, and feeding and protecting offspring.

University of Utah Public Relations

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]]> http://discountspharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=1 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=2 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=2#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000 admin medicine health http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=2 (La Jolla, CA, March 11, 2007)

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold great promise for
benefiting degenerative diseases, and do so by invoking multiple
mechanisms. Such cells can be grown in a manner compatible with clinical
use (i.e., without animal feeder layers) and even without the need for
immunosuppression. These were a few of a number of conclusions arrived
at by an international collaboration led by Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D.,
and spearheaded by a member of his lab, Jean-Pyo Lee, Ph.D., of the
Burnham Institute for Medical Research (”Burnham”). The study, to be
published in Nature Medicine, will be made available by advanced
publication at the journal’s website on March 11, 2007.

To determine whether stem cell biology might play a role in
benefiting degenerative diseases, the investigators first chose to
approach, as proof-of-concept, a mouse model of a representative lethal
neurodegenerative disease. Next, they used mouse neural stem cells
(NSCs), a type of “adult” stem cell, to establish the parameters of what
might or might not be achievable in this disease. Then, having
demonstrated success with mouse cells, they extended those insights to
stem cells of human origin, both human neural stem cells and human
embryonic stem cells, and, in fact, had the opportunity, for the first
time, to compare those two types of controversial stem cells
head-to-head in the same model. The results, described in more detail
below, in fact prove to be the first successful use of human embryonic
stem cells in treating a degenerative disease, significantly preserving
function and extending life.

The mouse model chosen falls in a class of genetic diseases
that afflicts 1 in 5000 patients, typically children (called lysosomal
storage diseases, described in more detail below), but which is often
used to model an array of adult neurodegenerative diseases such as
Parkinson’s, ALS, Alzheimer’s - particularly those with a genetic
component. The mouse used here has mutation in a gene that makes the
housekeeping enzyme hexosaminidase (”hex”) deficient and, therefore, has
Sandhoff’s Disease, a lethal genetic disease related to Tay-Sachs
Disease. When stem cells were implanted — at simply one time point –
into brains of newborn Sandhoff mice, the onset of symptoms was delayed,
well-being and motor function was preserved, and lifespan was extended
by >70%.

The researchers discovered that their implanted neural stem cells, which
migrated and integrated extensively throughout the brain, did much more
than replace brain tissue destroyed by the disease. Some of the
transplanted cells replaced damaged nerve cells and transmitted nerve
impulses, offering the first evidence that stem cell-derived nerve cells
may integrate electrically and functionally into a diseased brain. The
transplanted cells also boosted the brain’s supply of the enzyme Hex,
which reduced the lipid accumulations in the treated animals. The
experimental treatment also dampened the inflammation that typically
occurs in the brains of most degenerative diseases, including
Sandhoff’s, and likely contributes to disease progression.

“Our studies suggest that functional neuronal replacement can
be complemented and, under some conditions, eclipsed by a range of other
stem cell actions that nevertheless exert a number of critical
stabilizing forces,” said Dr. Snyder, director of Stem Cells and
Regeneration at Burnham. “In fact, our study offers the first evidence
that stem cells employ multiple mechanisms — not just cell replacement
- which collaborate to benefit disease. These findings also raise the
possibility - somewhat counter-intuitively — that stem cells may
inherently exert an anti-inflammatory influence in degenerative
diseases,” said Snyder.

To demonstrate that a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms
of stem cell action may permit the development of rational combined
synergistic therapies, the investigators then gave the mice a simple
oral drug that permitted the amount of enzyme provided by the engrafted
stem cells to work even more efficiently by presenting them with a
smaller burden of material to metabolize. The lifespan of the mice
doubled. (Neither treatment could work as effectively on its own. In
fact, the effect was more than simply additive). This was a
demonstration that stem cell efficacy could be enhanced even without the
need for genetic engineering. (The drug, a glycosphingolipid
biosynthesis inhibitor, is in a class of compounds called “substrate
reduction therapy” drugs.) This part of the study not only represented
the first “multidisciplinary” use of stem cells against a degenerative
disease, but also highlighted the fact that, in the future, the most
successful therapies - including those employing stem cells — will
likely invoke the use of multiple strategies in concert. Indeed, the
stem cell may be the “glue” that ultimately holds these therapies
together in an effective manner by virtue of its fundamental biology.

The researchers then sought to extend their insights to the use of human
stem cells - either stem cells turned into neural progenitors from human
embryonic stem cells - or isolated directly from the nervous system
(called “adult” stem cells to distinguish them from embryonic stem cells
even though they are taken from developing brain tissue). Both types of
human stem cells were actually somewhat more effective than the mouse
neural stem cells. And, they were equally as good as each other - in the
first head-to-head comparison ever done between embryonic and “adult”
stem cells, although the embryonic stem cells were somewhat easier to
“scale up” into large quantities. Both types of human stem cells invoked
the same range of multiple, collaborative mechanisms. Neither type of
human stem cell created tumors, deformation, a worsening of symptoms, or
gave rise to inappropriate cells types. Neither cell type was rejected
by the immune system. In fact, no immunosuppression was needed at all.
Finally, the human embryonic stem cells were grown without mouse feeder
layers and in a “defined” culture medium that is compatible with
clinical use and demonstrating for the first time that such preparations
are consistent with a therapeutic impact.

Sandhoff results from a genetic mutation that reduces the body’s supply
of an enzyme, called hexosaminidase (”hex”), used by brain cells to
metabolize excess fatty material called lipids. Onset is typically at
six months in human infants. The accumulation of lipids in brain tissue
destroys the brain cells instrumental in controlling and coordinating
body movement and results in inexorable deterioration of the brain and
spinal cord. Children suffering with Sandhoff rarely see their sixth
birthday. Sandhoff mice are similarly affected. Tay-Sachs is predominant
to Ashkenazi Jewish populations, while Sandhoff, a severe form of
Tay-Sachs, is not limited to any ethnic group. Both diseases are marked
with deficient Hex enzyme functioning and are among a known group of
about 50 diseases rooted in the inability to metabolize lipids or other
materials. While Sandhoff and Tay-Sachs are relatively rare, one person
in 5,000 is affected by a disease that falls into a category of
lysosomal storage diseases.

Currently there is no treatment for Sandhoff or Tay-Sachs. Given that
the human stem cells used in this study-both human neural and embryonic
stem cells-were safe and effective in so many mice, the researchers
believe that their study may serve as a springboard for development into
a clinical trial.

These diseases are part of a much more common group of diseases called
“neurogenetic diseases”. These findings contribute fundamental basic
knowledge about stem cell biology that will help inform medical
scientists in their quest for understanding diseases such as
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS, and a host of other neurological
diseases.

“Dr. Snyder’s team has extended the promise of stem cell
therapies to children with special-needs, including those with Sandhoff
disease.” said Fia Richmond, founder of

Children’s Neurobiological Solutions Foundation and mother of a
brain-injured child. “The CNS Foundation is proud to have contributed
major funding for this research along with A-T Children’s Project on
behalf of the 14 million special-needs children in this country alone.”

This study is the culmination of a long-standing collaboration between
Drs. Frances Platt and Mylvaganam Jeyakumar of the University of Oxford
in Oxford, UK and the Drs. Evan Snyder and Jean-Pyo Lee of Burnham.

Support for this study includes grants from the National Institute of
General Medicine, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
Stroke, and National Institute of Child Health Development, of National
Institutes of Health; the Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford;
and the Wellcome Trust. Private philanthropy played a significant role
in supporting these studies, with funding from National Tay-Sachs and
Allied Diseases Foundation; the Late-Onset Tay-Sachs Foundation;
Children’s Neurobiological Solutions; the A-T Children’s Project; the
Barbara Anderson Foundation for Brain Repair; Project ALS; March of
Dimes; and Hunter’s Hope.

About Burnham Institute for Medical Research

Burnham Institute for
Medical Research conducts world-class collaborative research dedicated
to finding cures for human disease, improving quality of life, and thus
creating a legacy for its employees, partners, donors, and community.
The La Jolla, California campus was established as a nonprofit, public
benefit corporation in 1976 and is now home to three major centers: a
National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, the Del E. Webb
Center for Neurosciences and Aging, and the Infectious and Inflammatory
Disease Center. Burnham today employs over 750 people and ranks
consistently among the world’s top 20 research institutes. In 2006,
Burnham established a presence at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, led by Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, Distinguished Professor. Burnham
is also establishing a campus at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida that will
focus on diabetes and obesity research and will expand the Institute’s
drug discovery capabilities. For additional information about Burnham
and to learn about ways to support its research, visit www.burnham.org.

]]> http://discountspharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=2 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=3 http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=3#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000 admin medicine health http://discountspharmacy.org/?p=3 The “raging hormones” of puberty are known to produce mood swings and stress for most teenagers, making it difficult to cope with this period of life. Until now, the specific causes of pubertal anxiety have not been identified, making it harder to understand and treat adolescent angst.

In the current edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers led by Sheryl S. Smith, PhD, professor of physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, report findings demonstrating that a hormone normally released in response to stress, THP, actually reverses its effect at puberty, when it increases anxiety.

This hormone normally acts like a tranquilizer, acting at sites in the brain that “calm” brain activity. In the adult, this stress hormone helps the individual adapt to stress, with a calming effect produced half an hour after the event.

Specifically, the GABA-A receptor is the target for steroids, such as THP (or allopregnanolone), which reduce anxiety. GABA-A receptors calm activity in the brain. As such, they are the targets for most sedative, tranquilizing drugs.

One sub-type, GABA-A receptors containing the delta subunit, such as alpha4-beta2-delta, has the highest sensitivity to steroids. In order to study its role in puberty, the researchers used a mouse model that reliably predicts the human condition. In this rodent model, the alpha4-beta2-delta receptor normally has very low expression, but increases dramatically at the onset of puberty in the part of the brain that regulates emotion. Paradoxically, THP reduced the inhibition produced by these alpha4-beta2-delta GABA-A receptors, increasing brain activity to produce a state of increased anxiety. Stress also increased anxiety at puberty, due to the paradoxical effects of this hormone that is released by stress.

Dr. Smith and colleagues identified the site on human recombinant alpha4-beta2-delta GABA-A receptors that produced the anxiety response, and were able to mutate the site to prevent the novel effect of the stress hormone. In contrast, neither the receptor nor the necessary conditions exist for this anxiety-producing effect of the stress hormone before puberty, because the expression of the receptor is dependent upon hormonal transitions, such as those that occur at puberty. This new finding of a change in the effect of a stress hormone sheds new light on the “mood swings” of puberty.

And yet here we are in the middle of the “information age” and a lot of us still lack the basic knowledge we need to keep ourselves alive, much less about reaching our full potential for rich, joyful sex lives.

According to a survey published this week by FPA, the U.K.-based Family Planning Association, almost a third of British adults thought that a woman could use post-coital exercising, douching or urinating to prevent pregnancy.

Half the participants didn’t know that sperm can live for a week in a vagina, and a quarter didn’t know that pre-ejaculate does indeed contain sperm.

“People don’t come out of school armed with a really good foundation of basic information (about sexual health),” says Rebecca Findlay, FPA spokeswoman. “They draw from a variety of sources, the media, friends, family or wherever, and because they don’t have a solid foundation, the myths start coming together.”

So on one hand, we have various groups on the sexual frontier, forging a world of sexual acceptance and pleasure, challenging our binary ideas of gender and relationships, and building communities where people with “alternate” tastes can come together.

On the other hand, we have smart, otherwise educated adults making elementary mistakes around sex that can have serious consequences, like unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Anne Weyman, chief executive at FPA, says that one in five pregnancies end in abortion in the U.K.; that’s about the same as in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute. I simply cannot believe that all or even most of those women prefer to terminate rather than prevent a pregnancy. So why aren’t they taking precautions?

Maybe they thought they were.

It’s hard to reconcile how easy it is to find good, solid information about sex — online and elsewhere — with how uninformed a large group of people seem to be. Part of it is that we don’t know what we don’t know, so we don’t go looking to fill the gaps. Another is that we don’t treat sex as a normal everyday activity that almost everyone will engage in at some point, and therefore worthy of continuous education.

Sex saturates our media, drives new technologies, enters the economy in creative ways and heavily influences who we choose as mates and parents of our future children. It’s a basic human need. But we can’t teach it with any kind of thoroughness because someone might get offended, and woe betide the teachers who stray from reproductive biology into more complex questions of relationships, gender, politics or pleasure.

“In the U.K., we have this strange relationship with sex,” Findlay says. “It’s everywhere, but we get embarrassed talking about it. We talk about it in moral terms or like it’s something funny. We don’t talk about it as a normal fact of life and just get the information so we can have an enjoyable, pleasurable sex life without the worry and without the risk. It makes it more difficult for people to act normally about sex.”

I’ve always taken the position that the internet is the catalyst for a major cultural shift in how we treat sexuality — and that the shift will be toward healthier, more relaxed attitudes about the whole shebang.

And yet here we are in the middle of the “information age” and a lot of us still lack the basic knowledge we need to keep ourselves alive, much less about reaching our full potential for rich, joyful sex lives.

According to a survey published this week by FPA, the U.K.-based Family Planning Association, almost a third of British adults thought that a woman could use post-coital exercising, douching or urinating to prevent pregnancy.

Half the participants didn’t know that sperm can live for a week in a vagina, and a quarter didn’t know that pre-ejaculate does indeed contain sperm.

“People don’t come out of school armed with a really good foundation of basic information (about sexual health),” says Rebecca Findlay, FPA spokeswoman. “They draw from a variety of sources, the media, friends, family or wherever, and because they don’t have a solid foundation, the myths start coming together.”

So on one hand, we have various groups on the sexual frontier, forging a world of sexual acceptance and pleasure, challenging our binary ideas of gender and relationships, and building communities where people with “alternate” tastes can come together.

On the other hand, we have smart, otherwise educated adults making elementary mistakes around sex that can have serious consequences, like unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Anne Weyman, chief executive at FPA, says that one in five pregnancies end in abortion in the U.K.; that’s about the same as in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute. I simply cannot believe that all or even most of those women prefer to terminate rather than prevent a pregnancy. So why aren’t they taking precautions?

Maybe they thought they were.

It’s hard to reconcile how easy it is to find good, solid information about sex — online and elsewhere — with how uninformed a large group of people seem to be. Part of it is that we don’t know what we don’t know, so we don’t go looking to fill the gaps. Another is that we don’t treat sex as a normal everyday activity that almost everyone will engage in at some point, and therefore worthy of continuous education.

Sex saturates our media, drives new technologies, enters the economy in creative ways and heavily influences who we choose as mates and parents of our future children. It’s a basic human need. But we can’t teach it with any kind of thoroughness because someone might get offended, and woe betide the teachers who stray from reproductive biology into more complex questions of relationships, gender, politics or pleasure.

“In the U.K., we have this strange relationship with sex,” Findlay says. “It’s everywhere, but we get embarrassed talking about it. We talk about it in moral terms or like it’s something funny. We don’t talk about it as a normal fact of life and just get the information so we can have an enjoyable, pleasurable sex life without the worry and without the risk. It makes it more difficult for people to act normally about sex.”

On the federal level, Congress last week received the proposed Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 (.pdf), which would add e-mail addresses and instant message handles to the list of information sex offenders must supply to the national registry.

Amid the media flurry around sex offenders and social networking, we are failing to notice a crucial landmark in our Quest to Protect the Children: Sexual abusers have undermined their own power by taking their activities online.

Their tricks and lies are no longer secret. Their threats are no longer surprising. And their existence is no longer hushed up for the sake of the community.

It used to be terrifying to approach your parents or teacher or some other grown-up and accuse a local adult of molesting you. You feared that you would not be believed — it was your word against theirs. You worried that you would destroy your family if the offender was a relative or close friend.

You could end up in the paper if your assailant was clergy or worked for a youth-service organization or taught chemistry at the high school. And if you liked the person, you might feel an additional burden of guilt and shame. Guilt for “tattling” and shame for liking someone when you know what they’re doing is wrong.

You might even blame yourself, especially if your body responded to the inappropriate touching with pleasure or arousal, as bodies often do. And in some cases you might not even be able to articulate that what is happening to you is damaging; you might wonder what was wrong with you that you were uncomfortable with the situation, or even whether it was somehow “your fault.”

But now, with all of the attention paid to online sexual encounters, the tactics used to attract adolescents have become common knowledge. Youths are more aware that adults asking for photographs or phone numbers are likely to have ulterior motives. Just knowing about teen pop culture and empathizing with a teen’s problems make an adult seem suspicious online.

It’s going to be harder to convince a young person that you have “something special” with them when they’ve already heard the stories — and read the instant-message logs — about online creeps from their peers. (Never mind the media. Peer experience is what counts.)

And as young people become more savvy about online sexual abuse, they begin to recognize it more clearly offline as well. They may no longer be the passive victims they might otherwise have been.

If a guy in a trench coat — or Uncle Richard — approaches a 13-year-old today with “Don’t tell anyone but I’m going to show you something,” he just might hear, “Ew! Get away from me, you pervert!” rather than a timid “OK.”

The political frenzy around online sexual solicitation has fueled public hysteria about unsavory strangers preying on kids on the internet. And yet young people are now receiving significantly more online solicitations from people they already know — and fewer from strangers — than they were five years ago, according to the “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later” (.pdf) report published last year by the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Even so, relatively few youths are propositioned about meeting an adult offline. Researchers found that only 4 percent of online youths received requests to meet an adult in person, although 13 percent received some form of unwanted sexual overture overall.

The Florida legislature is considering adding a new crime to the state books: using the internet to lure children to offline encounters, punishable by 15 years in prison. In Virginia and Colorado, legislators are debating whether to require sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and screen names with state authorities.

On the federal level, Congress last week received the proposed Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 (.pdf), which would add e-mail addresses and instant message handles to the list of information sex offenders must supply to the national registry.

Amid the media flurry around sex offenders and social networking, we are failing to notice a crucial landmark in our Quest to Protect the Children: Sexual abusers have undermined their own power by taking their activities online.

Their tricks and lies are no longer secret. Their threats are no longer surprising. And their existence is no longer hushed up for the sake of the community.

It used to be terrifying to approach your parents or teacher or some other grown-up and accuse a local adult of molesting you. You feared that you would not be believed — it was your word against theirs. You worried that you would destroy your family if the offender was a relative or close friend.

You could end up in the paper if your assailant was clergy or worked for a youth-service organization or taught chemistry at the high school. And if you liked the person, you might feel an additional burden of guilt and shame. Guilt for “tattling” and shame for liking someone when you know what they’re doing is wrong.

You might even blame yourself, especially if your body responded to the inappropriate touching with pleasure or arousal, as bodies often do. And in some cases you might not even be able to articulate that what is happening to you is damaging; you might wonder what was wrong with you that you were uncomfortable with the situation, or even whether it was somehow “your fault.”

But now, with all of the attention paid to online sexual encounters, the tactics used to attract adolescents have become common knowledge. Youths are more aware that adults asking for photographs or phone numbers are likely to have ulterior motives. Just knowing about teen pop culture and empathizing with a teen’s problems make an adult seem suspicious online.

It’s going to be harder to convince a young person that you have “something special” with them when they’ve already heard the stories — and read the instant-message logs — about online creeps from their peers. (Never mind the media. Peer experience is what counts.)

And as young people become more savvy about online sexual abuse, they begin to recognize it more clearly offline as well. They may no longer be the passive victims they might otherwise have been.

If a guy in a trench coat — or Uncle Richard — approaches a 13-year-old today with “Don’t tell anyone but I’m going to show you something,” he just might hear, “Ew! Get away from me, you pervert!” rather than a timid “OK.”

The political frenzy around online sexual solicitation has fueled public hysteria about unsavory strangers preying on kids on the internet. And yet young people are now receiving significantly more online solicitations from people they already know — and fewer from strangers — than they were five years ago, according to the “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later” (.pdf) report published last year by the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Even so, relatively few youths are propositioned about meeting an adult offline. Researchers found that only 4 percent of online youths received requests to meet an adult in person, although 13 percent received some form of unwanted sexual overture overall.

What if we threw a DVD format war and nobody came?

Oh wait. We did.

I don’t know why anyone cares what DVD format the adult industry picks. This supposed “war” between HD-DVD and Blu-ray in porn is just fantasy. Invented to put “porn” in newspaper headlines and to give adult studio heads a chance to be quoted in mainstream press. Hyped because of porn’s legendary role in VHS’ triumph over Betamax.

But it makes no sense to compare DVD formats to porn’s influence on videotape 30 years ago. Physical media simply doesn’t have the same importance it did then.

We can download as much video on demand as we need. It might take some advance planning (and a full night) to download a feature-length, high-def film, but we can easily acquire enough clips to get us through the evening. Digital storage is cheap enough that we can build a collection of hand-picked scenes without worrying if the kids will stumble over a box of DVDs in the closet.

Meanwhile, our 60-inch, flat-panel, high-def televisions with our 5.1-channel surround sound systems and dual-format DVD players are usually in our family rooms. Unless you live alone, I doubt you have much opportunity to watch porn on the big screen.

I won’t deny that DVDs are convenient packages. They make good gifts, they are easily portable for group movie nights and they are ideal for mail-order rentals. Hollywood will depend on the familiarity of discs for many years yet.

But for porn? I can’t see it mattering for long. Just look at how adult content has changed in the past five years.

Content that once lurked underground is now standard fare. What was kinky is now merely edgy; what was taboo is now extreme — but available. We expect to skim and hop and experiment, to go from busty schoolgirls to Japanese three-ways to the art of bondage as the mood takes us. Not to be locked into the same scenes with the same talent unless we buy another DVD.

The naughty pictures we once sneaked are now an acknowledged, if not entirely accepted, part of our culture. The anti-porn movement is only as visible as it is because mass media has become so sexualized.

We can interact with performers and subscribe to their video archives. Surf for free erotica. Join webcam chat rooms. Hire aural sex professionals to caress our minds while our avatars act out the fantasies. Play naughty games on our mobile devices. TiVo late-night cable or pay-per-view.

Some erotic virtual worlds have video-streaming capabilities so you can host a porn party in your online house. So do Paltalk adult communities, where you can chat in text, audio and video while watching the porn stream along with everyone else in the room.

You can watch porn passively or you can develop relationships with talent and audience — not through fan clubs but in real-time. Women like Seska Lee (NSFW) earn a living not just as performers but also as educators, advisors, even as a kind of internet friend.

You just can’t get that from a DVD. And the roles of performer and fan become ever more slippery as our interactive tools become more sophisticated and our culture becomes more socially networked, more about sharing than consuming.

I have a friend who belongs to a couple of indie webcam sites. For him, the shows are more about the conversation — real talks about current events, movies, sexuality, the entertainer’s personality and her life beyond the camera — than about her explicit performances.

Editor’s note: Some links in this story lead to adult material and are not suitable for viewing at work. All links of this nature will be noted with “NSFW” after them.

What if we threw a DVD format war and nobody came?

Oh wait. We did.

I don’t know why anyone cares what DVD format the adult industry picks. This supposed “war” between HD-DVD and Blu-ray in porn is just fantasy. Invented to put “porn” in newspaper headlines and to give adult studio heads a chance to be quoted in mainstream press. Hyped because of porn’s legendary role in VHS’ triumph over Betamax.

But it makes no sense to compare DVD formats to porn’s influence on videotape 30 years ago. Physical media simply doesn’t have the same importance it did then.

We can download as much video on demand as we need. It might take some advance planning (and a full night) to download a feature-length, high-def film, but we can easily acquire enough clips to get us through the evening. Digital storage is cheap enough that we can build a collection of hand-picked scenes without worrying if the kids will stumble over a box of DVDs in the closet.

Meanwhile, our 60-inch, flat-panel, high-def televisions with our 5.1-channel surround sound systems and dual-format DVD players are usually in our family rooms. Unless you live alone, I doubt you have much opportunity to watch porn on the big screen.

I won’t deny that DVDs are convenient packages. They make good gifts, they are easily portable for group movie nights and they are ideal for mail-order rentals. Hollywood will depend on the familiarity of discs for many years yet.

But for porn? I can’t see it mattering for long. Just look at how adult content has changed in the past five years.

Content that once lurked underground is now standard fare. What was kinky is now merely edgy; what was taboo is now extreme — but available. We expect to skim and hop and experiment, to go from busty schoolgirls to Japanese three-ways to the art of bondage as the mood takes us. Not to be locked into the same scenes with the same talent unless we buy another DVD.

The naughty pictures we once sneaked are now an acknowledged, if not entirely accepted, part of our culture. The anti-porn movement is only as visible as it is because mass media has become so sexualized.

We can interact with performers and subscribe to their video archives. Surf for free erotica. Join webcam chat rooms. Hire aural sex professionals to caress our minds while our avatars act out the fantasies. Play naughty games on our mobile devices. TiVo late-night cable or pay-per-view.

Some erotic virtual worlds have video-streaming capabilities so you can host a porn party in your online house. So do Paltalk adult communities, where you can chat in text, audio and video while watching the porn stream along with everyone else in the room.

You can watch porn passively or you can develop relationships with talent and audience — not through fan clubs but in real-time. Women like Seska Lee (NSFW) earn a living not just as performers but also as educators, advisors, even as a kind of internet friend.

You just can’t get that from a DVD. And the roles of performer and fan become ever more slippery as our interactive tools become more sophisticated and our culture becomes more socially networked, more about sharing than consuming.

I have a friend who belongs to a couple of indie webcam sites. For him, the shows are more about the conversation — real talks about current events, movies, sexuality, the entertainer’s personality and her life beyond the camera — than about her explicit performances.