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Rsearchers find easier way to make stem cells

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:14:38 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Great

Researchers find easier way to make stem cells

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers trying to find ways to transform ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells said on Sunday they found a shortcut by "sprinkling" a chemical onto the cells.

Adding the chemical allowed the team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Massachusetts to use just two genes to transform ordinary human skin cells into more powerful induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells.

"This study demonstrates there's a possibility that instead of using genes and viruses to reprogram cells, one can use chemicals," said Dr. Doug Melton, who directed the study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Melton said Danwei Huangfu, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab, developed the new method.

"The exciting thing about Danwei's work is you can see for the first time that you could sprinkle chemicals on cells and make stem cells," Melton, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, said in a statement.

Tags: stem, cell, science, skin

DNA test proves it--baby shark has no father

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:41:23 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: This is wild!

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

updated 2:52 a.m. EDT, Fri October 10, 2008

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DNA test proves it -- baby shark has no father

Story Highlights
Pup carried by a female blacktip shark contains no male genetic material
Scientist: "This is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."
Virgin birth has been proven in some bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds
Virginia aquarium case is nation's second; first was in Nebraska
Next Article in U.S. »

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male.

The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Nebraska, zoo.

Tags: baby, asexual, shark

Farewell to Opus

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:05:08 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: I am going to miss that penguin!

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Farewell Opus; Hello Pete, The Perfectly Practical Pig

All Things Considered, October 6, 2008 · This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip Opus to focus on children's books instead.

That announcement signals the end of Opus, the charming penguin who has entertained comics readers for nearly 30 years, starting with Bloom County. Though Breathed has retired the character before, this time, he says, he means it.

"I'll be leaving Opus in a way that it should be very clear that this time there's no going back home," says Breathed.

Breathed says that he's not usually sentimental about his characters. Still, he found himself "unrealistically emotional" about drawing the final strip, taking pains to make sure the penguin's last pose was perfect.

Tags: opus, penguin, berke, breathed

Mice overcome fear depression with natural prozac

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:39:57 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Time to meditate

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Mice overcome fear, depression with natural Prozac

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The brain can produce antidepressants with the right signal, a finding that suggests that meditating, or going to your "happy place," truly works, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Mice forced to swim endlessly until they surrendered and just floated, waiting to drown, could be conditioned to regain their will to live when a tone they associated with safety was played.

The experiment suggests that there are good ways to teach people this skill, and points to new routes for developing better antidepressants, said Dr. Eric Kandel of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Columbia University in New York, who led the research.

"The happy place works. This is like going to the country," Kandel said in a telephone interview.

This shows how effective psychotherapy, meditation and other stress-reduction tools may be, and it could help in the design of new drugs, Kandel said.

EU Scientist launch new unbreakable encryption system

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:28:12 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: We know the Department of Defense will be interested in this

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

EU scientists launch new, 'unbreakable' encryption system

VIENNA (AFP) - A new encryption system, which its creators say is unbreakable, got its first test run Wednesday in Vienna, scientists from the European Union project SECOQC announced.

"Potential users of this network, such as government agencies, financial institutions or companies with distributed subsidiaries, can encrypt their confidential communication with the highest level of security," said a SECOQC statement.

Until now, quantum cryptography has been used simply to transmit information from one point to another, rather than as part of a network.

Encrypted data, including a videoconference, was transmitted via standard optical fibre to six different centres, some as far as 82 kilometres (50 miles).

The demonstration took place during a three-day international conference in the Austrian capital to demonstrate the system.

Stardust evidence points to planet collision

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:49:44 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: so pretty and yet so deadly

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Stardust evidence points to planet collision

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Masses of dust floating around a binary star system suggest that two Earth-like planets obliterated each other in a violent collision, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

"It's as if Earth and Venus collided with each other," Benjamin Zuckerman, an astronomer at the University of California Los Angeles, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"Astronomers have never seen anything like this before; apparently major, catastrophic, collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system."

Writing in the Astrophysical Journal, the team at UCLA, Tennessee State University and the California Institute of Technology said it spotted the dust orbiting a star known as BD +20 307, 300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aries.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles. So the observations are, in essence, looking back in time 300 years.

Tags: stardust, planet, collision

Damage to new collider forces 2 month halt

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:15:52 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Hmmm maybe Fermilab can catch up now

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

CERN: Damage to new collider forces 2-month halt

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher — which was launched with great fanfare earlier this month — has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months, its operators said Saturday.

Experts have gone into 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border to examine the damage that halted operations about 36 hours after its Sept. 10 startup, said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

"It's too early to say precisely what happened, but it seems to be a faulty electrical connection between two magnets that stopped superconducting, melted and led to a mechanical failure and let the helium out," Gillies told The Associated Press.

He said it would take "several weeks minimum" to warm up the sector.

"Then we can fix it," Gillies said. "Then we cool it down again."

Tags: cern, collider, atom

First Beam Circles Large Hadron Collider Track

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:34:55 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Now its Fermi Labs turn to put the smack down on CERN!!!!!

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

First Beam Circles Large Hadron Collider Track

The Large Hadron Collider fired its first beam around the machine's full track at 10:28 AM local time (1:36 AM Pacific time).

No actual atoms were smashed today -- that won't start for weeks -- and no results are expected for months, at the earliest. Still, like first light in a telescope, the first beam in the particle accelerator is a landmark moment for a program that has spanned more than 20 years and involved tens of thousands of scientists.

"What has been shown today is that technically it all works," said Jos Engelen, chief science officer for CERN, the European scientific research agency directing the efforts, in a live webcast from Geneva.

The proton beams that raced around the 17-mile mile track begin a scientific relay that is likely to last for more than a decade. Scientists hope the discoveries made possible by the LHC will open new frontiers in physics and provide a new fundamental understanding of the universe.

Tags: hadron, collider, cern, atoms, black holes

Largest particler collider conducts successful test

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:22:23 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Largest particle collider conducts successful test

GENEVA - The world's largest particle collider successfully completed its first major test by firing a beam of protons around a 17-mile underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:36 a.m. indicating that the protons had traveled the full length of the $3.8 billion Large Hadron Collider.

Champagne corks popped in labs as far away as Chicago, where contributing scientists watched the proceedings by satellite. Physicists around the world now have much greater power than ever before to smash the components of atoms together in attempts to see how they are made.

The organization, known by its French acronym CERN, began firing the protons — a type of subatomic particle — around the tunnel in stages less than an hour earlier.

Tags: cern, atoms, particle, collider, black holes

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:12:10 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: We should have beat them to this......

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang

GENEVA - It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.

Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.

The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion created the universe.

The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories.

CERN hopes to recreate conditions in the laboratory a split-second after the big bang, teaching them more about "dark matter," antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time.

Tags: cern, big, bang, atom, smash

2,100 year old gadget tracked olympics

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:42:22 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Wow!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

2,100-year-old gadget tracked Olympics

ATHENS, Greece - An astronomical calculator, considered a technological marvel of antiquity, was also used to track dates of the ancient Olympic games, researchers have found.

Experts from Britain, Greece and the United States said they have detected the word "Olympia" on a bronze dial, as well as the names of other games in ancient Greece on the device known as the Antikythera Mechanism.

The 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism was recovered from an ancient shipwreck in 1901 near Antikythera, a small island off Greece's south coast.

Its insides look like a clock. About 30 bronze gears were cranked to calculate phases of the moon, eclipses and other celestial information specific to a certain date. Results were displayed on dials on the front and back of the mechanism.

The ongoing research project into the Antikythera Mechanism is being led by Mike Edmunds, professor of astrophysics, and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Britain.

Tiny Shetland island declares independence

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:41:51 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: Power to the people errr ummm man!!!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Tiny Shetland island declares independence

LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of a tiny island in off Scotland declared its independence from the United Kingdom on Saturday, saying he wanted the territory, population one, to be a crown dependency like the Channel Islands.

In a declaration on his Web site, Stuart Hill, who owns the 2.5 acre island of Forvik in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea, said he no longer recognised the authority of the government or the European Union, and cited a centuries-old royal marriage dowry deal as the basis for his claim.

"Forvik owes no allegiance to any United Kingdom government, central or local, and is not bound by any of its statutes," Hill wrote.

Hill, 65, has lived in the Shetland Islands on the edge of the Atlantic since 2001, when his boat capsized there during an unsuccessful attempted to circumnavigate Britain.

Tags: shetland, island, man

See a huge moon illusion Wednesday

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:05:40 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

See a Huge Moon Illusion Wednesday

As the full moon rises this Wednesday evening, June 18, many people will be tricked into thinking it's unusually large

The moon illusion, as it's known, is a trick in our minds that makes the moon seem bigger when it's near the horizon. The effect is most pronounced at full moon. Many people swear it's real, suggesting that perhaps Earth's atmosphere magnifies the moon.

But it really is all in our minds. The moon is not bigger at the horizon than when overhead.

The illusion will be particularly noticeable at this "solstice moon," coming just two days before summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason, according to NASA, lies in lunar mechanics: The sun and full moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging moon and a strong, long-lasting version of the illusion.

If it's any consolation, space station astronauts report the same effect.

Tags: moon, big

Elephant Legs Woman finds hope outside of China

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:45:54 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ

Clip Source: www.weirdasianews.com

‘Elephant Legs’ Woman Finds Hope Outside of China

Wang Cheng, a 24 year-old Chinese girl often referred to as ‘Elephant Legs’, has a rare medical condition of elephantiasis, which has caused her legs to swell nearly three times their normal size.

Wang has suffered from the condition since the age of 6 and currently cannot even wear pants because of the pain it causes her 110 pound legs.

“I cannot go out to work. Nor can I wear trousers as normal people.” Wang said while sitting in her bed at Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital waiting for an upcoming operation.

Living with a paralyzed father and an unemployed mother in China, Wang was given a blessing when she was offered an opportunity to receive free surgery that would cut away some of the lymphatic tissue in her legs.

Taiwanese Buddhist group Fo Kuang Shan is paying for the travel expenses to Taiwan and non-medical expenses while the 10-hour operation and related care, estimated at $17,600, is being provided free by the hospital.

Prince Charles pays off royal debt...350 years late

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:16:54 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: better late than memory.....who says history doesn't pay off?

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Prince Charles pays off royal debt ... 350 years late

LONDON (AFP) - Heir to the throne Prince Charles on Tuesday paid off a family debt incurred more than 350 years ago -- but was spared the accumulated interest that could have run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Charles handed over 453 pounds and 15 pence (572 euros and 20 euro cents, 885 dollars and four cents) which King Charles II failed to pay to the Clothiers Company in Worcester, central England, in 1651.

The king had commissioned uniforms for his troops to fight the republican forces of Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester the same year.

The modern-day Charles handed over the cash on a visit to the former headquarters of the royalist troops in the Faithful City, so-called because it remained loyal to his ancestor during the English Civil War.

"I suspect that it will not have escaped your notice, however, I am resisting the immense temptation to pay the debt with full interest. I was not born yesterday."

Tags: debt, charles, pay, prince, money

Clipmarks | LisbethJ's clips

Rsearchers find easier way to make stem cells

Researchers find easier way to make stem cells

DNA test proves it--baby shark has no father

Share this on:

DNA test proves it -- baby shark has no father

Farewell to Opus

Farewell Opus; Hello Pete, The Perfectly Practical Pig

Mice overcome fear depression with natural prozac

Mice overcome fear, depression with natural Prozac

EU Scientist launch new unbreakable encryption system

EU scientists launch new, 'unbreakable' encryption system

Stardust evidence points to planet collision

Stardust evidence points to planet collision

Damage to new collider forces 2 month halt

CERN: Damage to new collider forces 2-month halt

First Beam Circles Large Hadron Collider Track

First Beam Circles Large Hadron Collider Track

Largest particler collider conducts successful test

Largest particle collider conducts successful test

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang

2,100 year old gadget tracked olympics

2,100-year-old gadget tracked Olympics

Tiny Shetland island declares independence

Tiny Shetland island declares independence

See a huge moon illusion Wednesday

See a Huge Moon Illusion Wednesday

Elephant Legs Woman finds hope outside of China

‘Elephant Legs’ Woman Finds Hope Outside of China

Prince Charles pays off royal debt...350 years late

Prince Charles pays off royal debt ... 350 years late