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“Medical Miracles Slipping Away as Extinction Claims Species
SINGAPORE, April 23, 2008 (ENS) – New new cancer treatments, new painkillers, a new generation of antibiotics, new treatments for HIV, thinning bones, kidney failure, and macular degeneration – even ways to regrow limbs – may all be lost unless the present alarming rate of biodiversity loss is halted, according to a new book containing the work of more than 100 experts.
The core of the book explores seven threatened groups of organisms valuable to medicine, including amphibians, bears, cone snails, sharks, nonhuman primates, gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces, and horseshoe crabs. It illustrates what is lost to human health when species go extinct.” ~ ENS
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Rheobatrachus silus, the southern gastric brooding frog, is now extinct. (Photo courtesy Wikimedia) |
Resources About Species Extinction From Around the Web:
10 Most Amazing Extinct Animals – The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. …
The Amphibian Extinction Crisis: Will Humans Rise to the Challenge? – Of the ~6000 described species, 32% are threatened with extinction, likely in our lifetimes. Another 23% are so poorly known, and likely also threatened, that we can only call them Data Deficient. And with estimates of another 3000-6000 …
Beyond a ’speed limit’ on mutations, species risk extinction – … limit” on the rate of molecular evolution in organisms, and the magic number appears to be 6 mutations per genome per generation — a level beyond which species run the strong risk of extinction as their genomes lose stability. …
Species extinction threatens discovery of new medical treatments – Singapore – The alarming rate of biodiversity loss and species extinction threatens the discovery of new avenues of medical research and treatments for a wide range of diseases, a new book said on Wed…
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