June 21, 2005
Further steps towards artificial eggs and sperm
Human embryonic stem cells have been coaxed in the lab to develop into the early forms of cells which eventually become eggs or sperm, UK researchers have revealed.
Work by several groups has shown that a tiny proportion of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) spontaneously develop into primordial germ cells when allowed to differentiate in a dish. In this latest study, Behrouz Aflatoonian and colleagues at the University of Sheffield, produced primordial germ cells which began to express the proteins characteristic of sperm cells, while others resembled eggs.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 08:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Home >> A-LifeMay 29, 2005
The future is a chip inside your head
Imagine a world where you can never lose your mobile phone because the technology has been implanted in your jawbone; a future where elite football teams play to neurally downloaded tactics and where everything you buy comes with GPS software to help you keep track of it. It may sound like science fiction but, according to a leading academic based in Scotland, it could soon be fact.
Andy Clark, a shock-haired professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, believes his finger is on tomorrow’s pulse. He burst into the academic stratosphere with the 2003 publication of Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence. That book explored the way human minds might interact with emerging technology, instantly becoming both a key scientific text and a crossover hit in the United States, casting Clark in the role of scientific seer.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 04:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Home >> A-LifeMay 07, 2005
Animals that are part-human
On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.
The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can’t wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus’ brain about two months ago.
Read Also: The New Ethics Guidelines
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 06:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Home >> A-LifeNovember 29, 2004
Purdue researchers align nanotubes to improve artificial joints
Researchers at Purdue University have shown that artificial joints might be improved by making the implants out of tiny carbon tubes and filaments that are all aligned in the same direction, mimicking the alignment of collagen fibers and natural ceramic crystals in real bones.
The researchers already have shown in a series of experiments that bone cells in Petri dishes attach better to materials that possess smaller surface bumps than are found on conventional materials used to make artificial joints. The smaller features also stimulate the growth of more new bone tissue, which is critical for the proper attachment of artificial joints once they are implanted.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 06:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Home >> A-LifeSeptember 04, 2004
Brain research? Pay it no mind
Scientists who have been trying to understand the brain have recently tried to measure neural activity of Republicans and Democrats to see if political affiliations had anything to do with brain chemistry.
The results were inconclusive. (I think the Democrat brains were more active in the "I feel your pain" part of the limbic system.) What really caught my eye about a New York Times Magazine article on the topic was the following statement: "One of the most celebrated insights of the past 20 years of neuroscience is the discovery — largely associated with the work of Antonio Damasio — that the brain's emotional systems are critical to logical decision-making. People who suffer from damaged or impaired emotional systems can score well on logic tests but often display markedly irrational behaviour in everyday life."
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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