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  Blind Could Benefit from First Stem Cell

  posted 20 November 2009, 9:58 am ET | in Health | submitted by Robert Roy Britt

  What's being billed as a "new and controversial transplant operation using stem cells derived from spare human embryos left over from IVF treatment" could benefit people with macular degeneration, which causes blindness. Biotech company Advanced Cell Technology has applied for a license from the FDA to do clinical ... More

  What's being billed as a "new and controversial transplant operation using stem cells derived from spare human embryos left over from IVF treatment" could benefit people with macular degeneration, which causes blindness. Biotech company Advanced Cell Technology has applied for a license from the FDA to do clinical trials on people, the Independent reports.

  Age-related macular degeneration is a disease that damages the eye's macula, located in the center of the retina, causing a loss of sharp, central vision needed for tasks like reading and driving. It affects about 1.8 million Americans over age 40.

  Experiments in the lab have been positive, the company states.

  "We certainly expect them [the FDA] to come back with comments and questions but our hope is that we will start sometime early next year," said Robert Lanza, the company's chief scientific officer. "We're optimistic and certainly confident in our own data."

  Trials, if approved, could begin in the spring.

  Other attempts to improve vision and help the blind see involve implanting computer chips in the eye. It's been done on humans and also a cat. Last year, a blind dog got sight via a corneal implant.

  Here's how one setup (for humans) works: A camera is built into a pair of glasses that sends signals to a tiny chip implanted in the back of the retina and stimulates nerves that lead to the vision center of the brain [See Video].

  Separately, a new "seeing machine" uses an LED-based device to paint an image on a person's retina.

  Email | Get Link Comments (1) | Recommend (5)

  Comment:

  jmk5260 wrote:
  posted 20 November 2009, 12:51 pm ET

  Of course the key statement here is whether or not it is approved. I understand that different interest groups, in ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Nearly Blind Seal to Get Surgery

  posted 19 November 2009, 3:15 pm ET | in Animals | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  A young seal with cataracts is expected to get top-notch treatment. The male seal, named KP2 (Kauai Pup 2), was abandoned at birth by its mom and raised in captivity until the animal was ... More

  A young seal with cataracts is expected to get top-notch treatment.

  The male seal, named KP2 (Kauai Pup 2), was abandoned at birth by its mom and raised in captivity until the animal was strong enough to be released near Molokai in Hawaii. But just recently, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found the now 18-month-old seal has cataracts and is 80 percent blind, according to news reports.

  The seal will reportedly be flown to a facility at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where KP2 will undergo state-of-the-art surgery, says Hawaii News Now. It's not likely the seal will be released into the wild after surgery.

  This wouldn't be the first time doctors performed high-tech procedures to help an animal gain back eyesight. In 2007, researchers implanted microchips into the eyes of Persian cats to cure a hereditary eye disease. And gene therapy recently showed promise in curing color blindness in two male squirrel monkeys.

  Read the full story on KP2 at Hawaii News Now.

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  Have something to say about this? Post a Comment

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  Clearing Out the Brain's Inbox

  posted 15 November 2009, 10:54 am ET | in Health | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  Despite the longstanding belief that the human brain doesn't grow new neurons as we age, studies in recent years have found that it does (our brains are shriking over the ... More

  Despite the longstanding belief that the human brain doesn't grow new neurons as we age, studies in recent years have found that it does (our brains are shriking over the generations, however.)

  But scientists weren't sure what the new neurons do.

  A new study indicates they clear away the remnants of old memories to make room for new ones, ScienceNOW reports. The brain's hippocampus acts like an inbox for memories, which then must be shuttled elsewhere for permanent storage. One purpose of new neurons, the study suggests, is to clear out the inbox once memories are filed.

  More research is needed to verify the results, however.

  Read full story at ScienceNOW

  Email | Get Link Comments (5) | Recommend (2)

  Comment:

  tennesseetuxedo wrote:
  posted 15 November 2009, 5:14 pm ET

  GREAT,I have 3 ex-wives!Not to mention Viet Nam.Bye Bye old mem's.....
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Cloned Cows: Less In, More Out

  posted 15 November 2009, 10:40 am ET | in Strange News | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  Food from cloned animals was approved last year by the FDA, and so too is it okay in Japan and the European Union. Now cow cloning is getting serious, Reuters reports. One farm in Oklahoma has ... More

  Food from cloned animals was approved last year by the FDA, and so too is it okay in Japan and the European Union.

  Now cow cloning is getting serious, Reuters reports. One farm in Oklahoma has 22 cows you can't tell apart on the outside or via their identical DNA (as opposed to the other 400 or so that just look alike).

  Those doing the cloning say the the most productive animals can be cloned, so that we get more beef for our buck, with less feed (and thus fewer pesticides) needed on the input side of the farming equation.

  "Just like they improve the genetics of corn, so they can produce more bushels per acre, we're trying to do that same type of thing by using cloning and superior genetics to produce more meat with less input."

  The big question on many mind, of course: Is it safe?

  Read full story at Reuters

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  Comment:

  antoinetterys wrote:
  posted 17 November 2009, 11:38 pm ET

  I understand that this may be an ethical issue. But I do not carry any religious beliefs but I believe in the balance ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  How to Make a Hermaphrodite

  posted 15 November 2009, 10:28 am ET | in Animals | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  A worm called Caenorhabditis elegans has a mating system in which individuals are either males or hermaphrodites (that make both eggs and sperm). However, the mating system in ... More

  A worm called Caenorhabditis elegans has a mating system in which individuals are either males or hermaphrodites (that make both eggs and sperm). However, the mating system in these nematodes arose from a progenitor that had only male and female individuals.

  Now scientists have a better understanding of how things changed.

  Female nematodes can be turned into hermaphrodites with the modification of just two genes, researchers reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

  Chris Baldi and colleagues turned females of the C. remanei species into hermaphrodites through the modification of two genes, one involved in making sperm and another involved in activating them, the journal explaiend in a summary.

  The authors propose that the evolution of the C. elegans mating system occurred in two steps. First, a mutation in the sex-determination pathways caused individual with two X chromosomes to produce sperm, and then a second mutation allowed the immature sperm to self-activate.

  Read full story at BBC

  Email | Get Link Comments (2) | Recommend (2)

  Comment:

  Penman wrote:
  posted 15 November 2009, 5:46 pm ET

  Sex organs, arms, legs, it's all the same--body parts. I find it interesting in that we need to accept this with ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Hawaii's Beaches Shrinking

  posted 15 November 2009, 10:18 am ET | in Environment | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  What's Hawaii without its beaches? Well, tourist officials may be worrying about that with news that a fourth of Oahu's sandy shores have disappeared while more than half o ... More

  What's Hawaii without its beaches? Well, tourist officials may be worrying about that with news that a fourth of Oahu's sandy shores have disappeared while more than half o Kauai's beaches are eroding, AP reports. The problem may get worse as seas rise, geologists say.

  Hawaii is changing in many ways. Volcanoes constantly alter the landscape and even create new coastline. Lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has in recent years added about 500 acres of new shore.

  On Oahu, non-native plants now number about the same as native.

  Did you know Hawaii might have been formed as the result of an asteroid impact? Possible, but it was ultimately volcanoes that built the peaks sticking up out of the sea.

  Read full story at Yahoo

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  Comment:

  SnakeIRye wrote:
  posted 15 November 2009, 5:06 pm ET

  You should take your own advise on consuming junk science. Do you make unsubstantial remarks on every article that is ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  New Method to Regrow Breasts After Surge

  posted 12 November 2009, 11:21 am ET | in Health | submitted by Jeanna Bryner

  Women who have undergone a mastectomy may be able to regrow their breasts in the future with a new stem-cell approach, the Guardian reported today. The method would involve ... More

  Women who have undergone a mastectomy may be able to regrow their breasts in the future with a new stem-cell approach, the Guardian reported today.

  The method would involve biodegradable scaffolding contoured to match a woman's natural breast shape and filled with stem cells from her own fat tissue. The hope is for such stem cells to divide and grow, recreating the permanent fat found in breasts.

  The scientists have tested a procedure in preclinical trials in animals. They plan to begin human trials with a non-biodegradable prototype in the next three to six months, according to the Guardian.

  The procedure could replace reconstruction surgery or breast implants for woman who have had mastectomies.

  Our Bad Medicine columnist has noted such post-mastectomy surgeries are complex and risky. For instance, one reconstruction method involves using muscle, fat and skin from other parts of the body to reform a removed breast. The surgery can require more than a year of recovery and results in lost muscle strength in areas where the tissue was removed, typically the abdomen.

  And the breast-implant option has its own risks, including infection, as well as breakage and slippage of such implants, which slowly inflate over many months and are different from those used in cosmetic augmentations.

  Read the full story on the new breast-regrowth method at the Guardian.

  Email | Get Link Comments (1) | Recommend (1)

  Comment:

  Blackcloud161 wrote:
  posted 13 November 2009, 12:35 am ET

  This is fantastic! Imagine if they could re-grow the entire breast, muscle skin and all. That would be a great help to ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Scheme Thwarts Pacemaker Hackers

  posted 11 November 2009, 7:05 pm ET | in Technology | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  Pacemakers and other implantable devices increasingly have wireless capability. Some worry about possible hacking. Now researchers have a plan to protect the devices against wireless ... More

  Pacemakers and other implantable devices increasingly have wireless capability. Some worry about possible hacking. Now researchers have a plan to protect the devices against wireless attacks. The scheme uses ultrasound waves to determine how far any possible wireless reader might be from the device.

  Read full story at Technology Review

  Email | Get Link Comments (3) | Recommend (0)

  Comment:

  neoheraclitan wrote:
  posted 12 November 2009, 2:05 pm ET

  Why divide attempted murder from murder? The "attempted murder" charge just leads to a lighter sentence, usually so ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Golf Balls = Lot of Litter

  posted 11 November 2009, 9:21 am ET | in Strange News | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  Just about anyone who loves golf has, at least a time or two, whacked a ball somewhere where golfing is not exactly sanctioned. Just ask the researchers who used a submarine to search for ... More

  Just about anyone who loves golf has, at least a time or two, whacked a ball somewhere where golfing is not exactly sanctioned.

  Just ask the researchers who used a submarine to search for the Loch Ness monster and instead found ... you guessed it. Locals are using the loch as a driving range.

  There's even some golf balls on the moon (courtesy Alan Shepard, 1971).

  Thing is, all these balls — including many near golf courses that get lost and not found — take a century and perhaps up to 1,000 years to decompose, CNN reports. And when they do come apart, they release zinc that can poison the soil.

  Here's our favorite tee shot:

  A Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin set a new record for the longest golf drive in history in 2006 after hitting a lightweight ball into orbit from the International Space Station. Tyurin shanked it, but it still traveled about 1 million miles before falling into the atmosphere and burning up.

  Read full story at CNN

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  Comment:

  uno_king wrote:
  posted 11 November 2009, 10:43 am ET

  Hopefully Obama has some intern running after his slices and diving into the water traps. Wouldn't look good for our ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Vatican Ponders Alien Life

  posted 11 November 2009, 8:59 am ET | in Culture | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  Four centuries ago, the Vatican locked up Galileo for espousing his crazy idea that the planets revolved around the sun, not around Earth. Now Rome is ready to ponder the implications of ... More

  Four centuries ago, the Vatican locked up Galileo for espousing his crazy idea that the planets revolved around the sun, not around Earth. Now Rome is ready to ponder the implications of alien life.

  "The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

  Last year Funes said believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God because aliens would be God's creatures and ruling them out as a possibility would be akin to putting limits on God's creative freedom.

  Read full story at AP

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  Comment:

  ThisNameTaken wrote:
  posted 11 November 2009, 2:24 pm ET

  Are they prepping us for the inevitable? Yup! One of these days here, we%u2019re going to find life. Just like a ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  King Tut's Tomb to Get Makeover

  posted 11 November 2009, 8:50 am ET | in History | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  The boy king Tutankhamen was laid to rest more than 3,000 years ago. In 1922, his tomb was found with all the riches intact. It is the smallest of the 26 royal tombs known so far in the ... More

  The boy king Tutankhamen was laid to rest more than 3,000 years ago. In 1922, his tomb was found with all the riches intact. It is the smallest of the 26 royal tombs known so far in the Valley of the Kings. It is also the most visited. And that may be causing some damage to the site. So researchers plan a 5-year restoration project, Discovery News reports. Total aside: In recent years, researchers have concluded the pharaoh preferred red wine and likely had twins.  

  Email | Get Link Comments (2) | Recommend (0)

  Comment:

  rreilly656 wrote:
  posted 14 November 2009, 3:45 pm ET

  It's CHER!
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Top 10 Smartest Mammals*

  posted 05 November 2009, 11:50 pm ET | in Strange News | submitted by Robert Roy Britt

  Elephants have much heavier brains than we humans, but when it comes to a neuron count, we tie with the pachyderms. Who knew? Okay, so Dave Deamer, doing what we might call ... More

  Elephants have much heavier brains than we humans, but when it comes to a neuron count, we tie with the pachyderms. Who knew?

  Okay, so Dave Deamer, doing what we might call some daydeaming, pondered this and more, and he asked some ScientificBlogging readers to pick the smartest mammals.

  Below is the list that resulted. But ignore the list below. Just go straight to Deamer's thorough musings on this topic. Fun stuff.

  [Editor's note: The links below go to really interesting articles about intelligence of each of these creatures. Sorry, but we didn't have any pertinent link for No. 10.]

  1. Human (NOTE: No chimps or dolphins or elephants were allowed to vote)

  2. Chimpanzee

  3. Dolphin

  4. Gorilla

  5. Elephant (No. 5?!)

  6. Horse (Okay, no links. But you've heard of "horse sense," right? 'Nuff said.)

  7. Dog

  8. Cat

  9. Rat

  10. Opossum

  11. Mouse (Yes, this was billed as a Top 10 list, but when I saw the opossum ranked above the mouse, I began to question the intelligence of the voters, none of whom were chimps or dolphins or elephants. Or mice.)

  *This list is highly suspect and should not be posted to a science site. (By the way, It's incredulous that killer whales were not on the list.)

  Read full story at ScientificBlogging

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  Comment:

  bmljenny wrote:
  posted 06 November 2009, 11:00 am ET

  Limiting to mammals discriminates against cephalopods. Probably just as well - if people knew how smart octopi are ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  What's Crawling on Your Skin

  posted 05 November 2009, 5:34 pm ET | in Health | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  The human body home to countless microorganisms of various species, and a new study of these diverse microbial communities finds each has its place. For example, forearm microbes don't ... More

  The human body home to countless microorganisms of various species, and a new study of these diverse microbial communities finds each has its place. For example, forearm microbes don't grow as well on the forehead, but forehead microbes grew just fine on the forearm.

  The scientists figured this out by studying 27 different body sites including the gut, mouth, ears, nose, and up to 18 skin surfaces on a handful of healthy adults on four separate occasions. And they moved microbes from one location to another and between participants.

  Previous research has found that the microbial community in your stomach is as diverse as any found in Earth's seas or soils, numbering up to 100 trillion individuals and representing more than 1,000 different species.

  The new study found that body site, not individual personal differences, has the greatest influence on the composition of microbial communities dwelling at specific skin sites, confirming similar previous work.

  Some skin locations, like the index finger or back of the knee, often harbored more diverse microbes than the gut or mouth, the researchers report in the journal Science.

  As far out the outside of the body, where do microbes like it best? As Healthday put one aspect of the findings: "Palms, feet and forearms are a veritable United Nations of germs."

  Yeah, wash your hands, and then some.

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  Comment:

  reuevnir wrote:
  posted 09 November 2009, 7:19 am ET

  Indeed, there are more microorganisms in our body than there are people on Earth. Most of us spend millions of dollars ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Apps Gone Wild: iDriver Drives a Car

  posted 05 November 2009, 9:01 am ET | in Technology | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  It's not clear why you'd want to do this, but it's amazing you can. As Technovelgy reports, the iDriver remotely works the steering, brakes and gas. A video camera on the ... More

  It's not clear why you'd want to do this, but it's amazing you can. As Technovelgy reports, the iDriver remotely works the steering, brakes and gas. A video camera on the dashboard allows the "apperator" to see where he's not really going. The ultimate gift for the remote-control freak who already has everything from Radio Shack?

  Email | Get Link Comments (3) | Recommend (6)

  Comment:

  RamblinglyVeryBored wrote:
  posted 06 November 2009, 4:30 pm ET

  Why would you want to do this? Let's break down some reasons. 1. To be like James Bond. 2. To be like Batman. 3. To ...
  More » | Read All Comments »

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  Scared of Flying? New App May Help

  posted 03 November 2009, 3:45 pm ET | in Technology | submitted by LiveScience Staff

  If you get the jitters while sitting on the runway waiting for your flight to take-off, rather than squeeze your flying buddy, you can press a button on your iPhone. That's ... More

  If you get the jitters while sitting on the runway waiting for your flight to take-off, rather than squeeze your flying buddy, you can press a button on your iPhone.

  That's because, Virgin Atlantic Airways has just launched an application for its Fear of Flying course for Apple's iPhone and iTouch devices, according to a press statement.

  About 25 million people in the United States suffer from some form of flying fear, ranging from a little anxiety to so-called aviophobia, which can keep a person off airplanes at any cost.

  According to the company's Web site, the app will include: A video introduction by Sir Richard Branson, frequently-asked questions, relaxation exercises and fear therapy, a fear attack button for emergencies with breathing exercises and quick tips, and a "My Program" section where each user can rate their personal fears and add future flights to prepare them for their next trip.

  Other forms of treatment for flying fears also exist. For instance, virtual reality therapy encourages patients to evaluate the flying situation logically rather than emotionally and when feeling panicked to practice relaxation methods.

  Read more about the app here.

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  Comment:

  msalp wrote:
  posted 04 November 2009, 3:49 pm ET

  Kind of ironic seeing as they don't allow electronic devices during take off and landing!
  More » | Read All Comments »

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