Discovery Institute | Page 658 | Public policy think tank advancing a culture of purpose, creativity, and innovation.

Promise of Fiber Optics Justifies Bet on Battered Telecom Stocks

Original Article In case you haven’t noticed, the market has pretty much been treading water since I called attention to the postelection euphoria of a few weeks ago. I’ve noticed the big market moves recently have come in short-term bursts of trading, which make it more important than ever to anticipate trends. Even in a market of short attention spans, Read More ›

Out to Lunch at Treasury?

If the major departments of government were baseball teams, the Treasury Department would be the New York Yankees. Historically, from the time of Alexander Hamilton, most of the best and brightest in government were in Treasury. Treasury was viewed as the class act. Treasury officials were treated with the respect that officials of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) could only Read More ›

Florida Northwest

Original Article The country dodged a repeat of the 2000 Florida election debacle this year because George W. Bush’s margin in the decisive state of Ohio was 136,000 votes. But the one out of 50 Americans who live in Washington state are living through a Florida-style nightmare, with Republican Dino Rossi clinging to a 42-vote lead over Democrat Christine Gregoire Read More ›

Welcome To Cascadia

Original Article Nearly three decades before the 2004 elections, author Ernest Callenbach asked a prescient question: If we Oregonians, Washingtonians and Northern Californians were in charge, what would we do? His answer: We’d leave the United States to its own self-created woes and build Ecotopia, our independent utopian society. The idea was a fringe notion in 1975, when Callenbach’s classic Read More ›

Scott McCallum: Voter ID will restore election integrity

Did George Bush win fairly in 2000? According to a USA/Gallup poll, 48 percent of Americans thought so. While that number increased to 74 percent in regard to the 2004 election, it still leaves a sizeable group with doubts. And there are equal doubts on the flip side. Did John Kerry really carry Wisconsin? As lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, I Read More ›

Wealth Creators vs. Protectors

A major reason the liberal elites so hate President Bush is the policies he pushes will reduce their power and influence. Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrats, claim they are the protectors of the little guy and the middle class. Yet their proposals are designed to protect the elite like themselves who inherited rather than created wealth. Much Read More ›

Scientists Defend School Board’s Use of Evolution Disclaimer Sticker

Calling evolution “a theory in crisis,” more than two-dozen scientists have come to the defense of the Cobb County, Ga., Board of Education. The scientists, all Ph.D.’s, portray evolution as “a live and growing scientific controversy.” Among them are professors of microbiology, biochemistry and biophysics, who have filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the school board’s 2002 decision to place Read More ›

Snow Will Remain at Treasury, Tackle Tax Changes, Officials Say

Original Article U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, who visited 23 states to promote George W. Bush’s economic agenda and help him win re-election, will remain in the president’s cabinet at least through the middle of next year, administration officials said. Snow, 65, will stay to help Bush fulfill a campaign pledge to simplify the 3,000-page tax code, said the officials, Read More ›

Key Law Review Articles About Teaching Darwin, Design and the Origins Controversy

“Teaching the Origins Controversy: Science, Or Religion, Or Speech?” (PDF file) By: David K. DeWolf, Stephen C. Meyer, Mark Edward DeForrest Utah Law Review (2000): 39-110. “A Liberty Not Fully Evolved?: The Case of Rodney LeVake and the Right of Public School Teachers to Criticize Darwinism.”(PDF file) San Diego Law Review 39.4 (Nov/Dec 2002): 1311-1325. David DeWolf, John West, and Read More ›

Multidrug resistant bacteria inside a biofilm
Antibiotic resistant bacteria inside a biofilm, 3D illustration. Biofilm is a community of bacteria where they aquire antibiotic resistance and communicate with each other by quorum sensing molecules

Genetic Analysis of Coordinate Flagellar and Type III Regulatory Circuits in Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract: The bacterial flagellum represents one of the best understood molecular machines. Comprised of 40 parts that self-assemble into a true rotary engine, the biochemistry and genetics of these systems has revealed an unanticipated complexity. An essential component to assembly is the subset of parts that function as a protein secretory pump to ensure and discriminate that the correct number of protein subunits and their order of secretion is precisely regulated during assembly. Of further interest is the recognition of late that a number of important plant and animal pathogens use a related protein secretory pump fused to a membrane-spanning needle-like syringe by which a subset of toxins can be injected into target host cells. Together, the flagellar and virulence protein pumps are referred to as Type III Secretion Systems (TTSS). The archetype for TTSS systems has been the pathogenic members of the genus Yersinia which includes the organism responsible for bubonic plague, Y. pestis. Our interest in the Yersinia centers on the coordinate genetic regulation between flagellum biosynthesis and virulence TTSS expression. Y. enterocolitica, for example operates three TTSSs (motility, Ysa, and Yop), but each is expressed under defined mutually exclusive conditions. Y. pestis has lost the ability to assemble flagella (the genes are present on the chromosome) and expresses only the Yop system at 37oC, mammalian temperature. Using a combination of microarray analysis, genetic fusions, and behaviors of specific engineered mutants, we demonstrate how environmental factors influence gene expression of these multigene families, where the influence is exerted within each system, and propose why segregating these systems is critical for the organism. Our model further offers an explanation as to why an important subset of human pathogens has lost motility during their histories. Read More ›