Extra credit to anyone who can use “dendritic spines” in a story and enable us to understand what’s going on.
Maia Szalavitz pulls it off today on Time magazine’s website, where she reports on a study from Science magazine that is showing how cocaine alters gene expression in the brain.
Repeated cocaine use supresses a brain protein called G9a, which normally shuts down genes that shouldn’t be on. Without enough G9a, some genes become overactive, causing brain cells “to generate more dendritic spines, which are the parts of the cells that make connections to other cells.” She notes that this study opens up a new area of research that could lead to desperately needed treatment for cocaine addiction.
Reuters doesn’t do nearly as well, tossing off a quick, short one-source piece that doesn’t explain much. And there is no indication in the version I’ve linked to that the reporter talked to the people who did the study. Instead we have several quotes from the NIH scientist whose institute funded the work.
AFP does a slightly longer piece which seems to be surprised that cocaine can produce genetic changes “without changing the brain’s gene sequence.” Sheesh. We’d be in kind of a mess if stuff we put in our mouths (or noses) could change our genetic sequence. Too many Froot Loops could turn a kid into a raspberry. (Artificially flavored and colored, of course.) And, again, AFP relies heavily on an interview with NIH.
Otherwise, not as many stories as I would have expected. A lot of newspapers and blogs evidently passed on this one.
Grist–NIH press release. (This presumably explains why some reporters called NIH. The NIH press folks did a good job of grabbing the credit on the story, but reporters should not have been so quick to follow their lead.)
– Paul Raeburn
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