A white humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Atlantic Ocean, Svalbard, Norway, August 2012

A white humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was observed on several occasions off Svalbard, Norway, during August 2012. The animal was completely white, except for a few small dark patches on the ventral side of its fluke. The baleen plates were light-coloured, but the animal's eyes had normal (dark) colouration. This latter characteristic indicates that the animal was not an albino; it was a leucistic individual. The animal was a full-sized adult and was engaged in “bubble-feeding”, together with 15–20 other humpback whales, each time it was seen. Subsequent to these sightings, polling of the marine mammal science community has resulted in the discovery of two other observations of white humpback whales in the Barents Sea area, one in 2004 and another in 2006; in both cases the observed individuals were adult animals. It is likely that all of these sightings are of the same individual, but there is no genetic or photographic evidence to confirm this suggestion. The rarity of observations of such white individuals suggests that they are born at very low frequencies or that the ontogenetic survival rates of the colour morph are low

Past environmental sun exposure and risk of multiple sclerosis: A role for the Cdx-2 Vitamin D receptor variant in this interaction

Multiple studies have provided evidence for an association between reduced sun exposure and increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), an association likely to be mediated, at least in part, by the vitamin D hormonal pathway. Herein, we examine whether the vitamin D receptor (VDR), an integral component of this pathway, influences MS risk in a population-based sample where winter sun exposure in early childhood has been found to be an important determinant of MS risk. Three polymorphisms within the VDR gene were genotyped in 136 MS cases and 235 controls, and associations with MS and past sun exposure were examined by logistic regression. No significant univariate associations between the polymorphisms, rs11574010 (Cdx-2A > G), rs10735810 (Fok1T > C), or rs731236 (Taq1C > T) and MS risk were observed. However, a significant interaction was observed between winter sun exposure during childhood, genotype at rs11574010, and MS risk (P = 0.012), with the 'G' allele conferring an increased risk of MS in the low sun exposure group (</=2 h/day). No significant interactions were observed for either rs10735810 or rs731236, after stratification by sun exposure. These data provide support for the involvement of the VDR gene in determining MS risk, an interaction likely to be dependent on past sun exposure