Ava Wilson. Log In. House Science Committee: Remove Rep. Paul Broun. What the Doctor Ordered: Building New Body Parts. Spray-on skin, made-to-order muscle, and print-out kidneys aren't just science fiction anymore. Dr. Anthony Atala and Dr. Stephen Badylak, two pioneers of regenerative medicine, talk about the latest methods for building new body parts, and the challenge of growing complex organs like the heart, liver or brain. Note: If you'd like to sign up for the Traumatic Limb Muscle Loss Clinical Trials, please contact Allyson LaCovey at 412-624-5308 or lacoveya2@upmc.edu. More information about the trial can be found on this study recuitment flyer, at the trial website, or Dr.
Badylak's laboratory website. Hot Climate Could Shut Down Plate Tectonics. A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place. "The heat required goes far beyond anything we expect from human-induced climate change, but things like volcanic activity and changes in the sun's luminosity could lead to this level of heating," said lead author Adrian Lenardic, associate professor of Earth science at Rice University. "Our goal was to establish an upper limit of naturally generated climate variation beyond which the entire solid planet would respond. " Lenardic said the research team wanted to better understand the differences between the Earth and Venus and establish the potential range of conditions that could exist on Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. The findings may explain why Venus evolved differently from Earth.
Science Vs. Religion explained. Gorillas Seen Using "Baby Talk" Gestures—A First. Lowland gorillas converse with each other primarily through nonvocal gestures. While researching how captive gorillas communicate during play, study leader Eva Maria Luef noticed that animals older than three years had a special way of interacting with younger gorillas. (See lowland gorilla pictures .) With infants, the older gorillas used touch and repeated gestures—such as grabbing or stroking the infant's jaw—more frequently than they did when communicating with their peers. "We were surprised that ...
[gorilla] infants are addressed differently," said Luef, of the Department of Education and Psychology at Berlin's Freie University. The behavior is evidence of a "gestural motherese," according to the study, published in June in the . Human motherese, or baby talk, is a universal mode of connection between adults and infants. So far, the rhesus macaque is the only nonhuman primate known to use vocal baby talk . (Also see "Monkeys Recognize Poor Grammar. " ) (See "Wild Gorillas Groom U.S. Epigenomes of newborns and centenarians differ: New clues to increasing life span. An international study sheds important new light on how epigenetic marks degrade over time. Since epigenetic lesions are reversible, it would be possible to develop drugs that increase the life span, the research suggests.
What happens in our cells after one hundred years? What is the difference at the molecular level between a newborn and a centenarian? Is it a gradual or a sudden change? Is it possible to reverse the aging process? The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has now published results from an international collaborative research project led by Manel Esteller, director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, which provides a vital clue in this field: the epigenome of newborns and centenarians is different.
Black Holes are Everywhere | Life, Unbounded. Holes are everywhere, if you look... This post is the second in a series that accompanies the upcoming publication of my book ‘Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos’ (Scientific American/FSG). Black holes, even the really hugely massive ones, are tiny – positively microscopic pinpricks scattered throughout the vastness of spacetime. Even the largest, perhaps ten billion times the mass of our Sun, have event horizons (the surface from within which no light can ever emerge) that reach to only about the orbit of Neptune. That’s a mere 4.5 billion km (or 0.00047 light years), absolutely nothing compared to the scale of galaxies – whose stellar components may reach across more than 100,000 light years. And nothing that massive exists in the Milky Way, where the very largest black hole is only some 4 to 5 million solar masses, lurking close to the galactic center.
Artist's impression of Cygnus X-1 (Credit: ESA) ….to be continued. The wages of pseudoscience. I completely missed the disgraceful hokum the Animal Planet channel aired last week, Mermaids: The Body Found, a completely fictional pseudodocumentary dressed up as reality that claims mermaids exist. You can watch it now, though, until Animal Planet takes it down. It’s genuinely awful. Total nonsense, gussied up with more nonsense: would you believe it justifies the story with the Aquatic Ape gobbledygook? Brian Switek has torn into it, and of course Deep Sea News is disgusted. How could the channel have so disgraced themselves with such cheap fiction? Here’s the answer: Brace yourselves. Skin cells reprogrammed into brain cells.
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have for the first time transformed skin cells -- with a single genetic factor -- into cells that develop on their own into an interconnected, functional network of brain cells. The research offers new hope in the fight against many neurological conditions because scientists expect that such a transformation -- or reprogramming -- of cells may lead to better models for testing drugs for devastating neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
This research comes at a time of renewed focus on Alzheimer's disease, which currently afflicts 5.4 million people in the United States alone -- a figure expected to nearly triple by 2050. Yet there are no approved medications to prevent or reverse the progression of this debilitating disease. "Many drug candidates -- especially those developed for neurodegenerative diseases -- fail in clinical trials because current models don't accurately predict the drug's effects on the human brain," said Dr.
Science Magazine: Sign In. Tiny genetic variations led to big changes in the evolving human brain. Changes to just three genetic letters among billions contributed to the evolution and development of the mammalian motor sensory circuits and laid the groundwork for the defining characteristics of the human brain, Yale University researchers report. In a study published in the May 31 issue of the journal Nature, Yale researchers found that a small, simple change in the mammalian genome was critical to the evolution of the corticospinal neural circuits. This circuitry directly connects the cerebral cortex, the conscious part of the human brain, with the brainstem and the spinal cord to make possible the fine, skilled movements necessary for functions such as tool use and speech.
The evolutionary mechanisms that drive the formation of the corticospinal circuit, which is a mammalian-specific advance, had remained largely mysterious. Most mammalian genomes contain approximately 22,000 protein-encoding genes. Other Yale-affiliated authors of the paper are Kenneth Y. Radical Life Extension Is Already Here, But We're Doing it Wrong - Ross Andersen - Health. We've already tacked three decades onto the average lifespan of an American, so what's wrong with adding another few decades? A centenarian riding his bike in Long Beach, California (Reuters). So far as we know, the last hundred years have been the most radical period of life extension in all of human history.
At the turn of the twentieth century, life expectancy for Americans was just over 49 years; by 2010, that number had risen to 78.5 years, mostly on account of improved sanitation and basic medicine. But life extension doesn't always increase our well-being, especially when all that's being extended is decrepitude. There's a reason that Ponce de Leon went searching for the fountain of youth---if it were the fountain of prolonged dementia and arthritis he may not have bothered. Not everyone is thrilled by the prospect of radical life extension. But there is another, deeper argument against life extension---the argument from evolution. Foddy: The sky is sort of the limit there. At least double NASA’s annual budget to one penny for every government dollar spent.
The Most Astounding Fact About The Universe. Jem Melts Rock Using Sunshine - Bang Goes The Theory - Series 3, Episode 5 Preview - BBC One