Clipmarks | wildcat's health, medicine collection

Michael Phelps: ‘Naturally’ transhuman

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:37:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: * He has proportionately short legs relative to his long, powerful trunk; this large upper body is the engine that powers his long arms. Moreover, his unique physique reduces drag through the water and allows for maximum propulsion.
* Phelps has a greater-than-average lung capacity allowing him to execute his underwater dolphin kicks longer than the competition.
* He has a genetic advantage that cause his muscles to produce 50% less lactic acid than other athletes. This means he can work at higher work loads for longer periods.
* With a low body fat of 4%, he is better able to convert his effort into speed.

Looking at this list it’s as if Phelps was designed to swim.

Which leads to an interesting question: Given the potential for genetic modification and gene doping, should it be acceptable for other athletes to acquire the same physiological endowments through artificial means?

If not, what makes it so acceptable to come by these traits ‘naturally?’ And how

Clip Source: ieet.org

Watching Michael Phelps swim you quickly realize that he’s not like the others. He’s clearly in a league of his own.

Or more accurately, he’s swimming in a genetic pool of his own. Phelps has a number of fortuitous physical endowments that have enabled him to dominate like no other. Simply put, he is the perfect swimmer.

Here’s what Phelps has going for him:

Most people have a wingspan that matches their height. Not Phelps. He may be 6’4” tall, but his arms extend outward to a total of 6’7”.

The average shoe size for a person the size of Phelps is 12; he wears a size 14 which gives him a 10% advantage over the competition.

He also has a larger than average hand size which allows him to move more water.

Phelps is double-jointed in the chest area; this enables him to extend his arms higher above his head and pull down at an angle that increases his efficiency through the water by as much as 20%; this also allows him to have quicker starts and turns.

Tags: natural, transhuman

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:21:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The race's DNA is changing faster than ever; what it means for our descendants

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

If you judge the progress of humanity by Homer Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Girls Gone Wild videos, you might conclude that our evolution has stalled—or even shifted into reverse. Not so, scientists say. Humans are evolving faster than ever before, picking up new genetic traits and talents that may help us survive a turbulent future.

Much remodeling has gone on since the dawn of agriculture about 10 millenniums ago. "People who lived 10,000 years ago were much more like Neanderthals than we are like those people," says John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. "We've changed."

Hawks is among a growing number of scientists who are using whole-genome sequencing and other modern technologies to zero in on just how we've changed. Their research is helping illuminate not only how humans became what we are but also where we might be headed

Humans will continue to change to cope with new diseases, if history is any guide

Tags: dna, mutations, evolution

They're Putting Anti-Aging Enzymes in the Water

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:42:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: io9.com

Within about 10 years, you might be drinking anti-aging enzymes with your bottled water. California biochemists have a plan to keep the world younger and healthier by using nanotech to deliver an enzyme called CoQ10 to our drinking water. This coenzyme is naturally produced by the body, but in smaller and smaller amounts as we age. And yet it's vital for the body's basic functioning, as it helps our cells convert sugars to energy. Perhaps if we boost its presence in our bodies as we age, our organs will remain productive and healthy for much longer.

Chemists like UC Santa Barbara's Bruce Lipshutz, who studies CoQ10, hope that in the future we will also accept the idea that CoQ10 comes in drinking water, perhaps along with several other vital vitamins and enzymes. So even if you want to grow old and die in the old-fashioned way, you may not be able to — at least, if you plan to drink water.

Nanotechnology Adds Vital Enzyme to Drinking Water [via ZDNet]

Tags: anti-aging, enzymes, water

Is There a Laziness Gene?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:59:57 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.time.com

Have you ever wondered why you can't get off the couch and exercise — despite paying for an expensive gym membership, despite your New Year's resolutions, even despite the doctor's scolding at your last check-up? Turns out that your inertia may be coded right into your genes.

Based on some intriguing, preliminary studies in animals, J. Timothy Lightfoot, a kinesiologist, and his team at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, suggest that genetics may indeed predispose some of us for sloth. Using mice specially bred and selected according to their activity levels, Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandem to influence activity levels in mice — specifically, how far the animals will run

genes may affect either the way muscles work — perhaps causing them to use energy more efficiently and preventing fatigue — or some higher-order biochemical circuit in the brain, such as levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine or serotonin

Tags: laziness, genetics

Please Help Scientists By Participating In National Orgasm Day July 31st

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:05:04 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: So, Britain, privatize your National Health Services and cut the welfare - tell those people in Manchester the steel industry is never coming back so they should get other jobs. Then you could put money toward science studies that really count, like this.

After all, this is not a gender-specific issue. Having British women famous for lack of orgasms really doesn't make the men there look all that great either.

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

I'm taking a moment away from crafting "Journey To The Center Of The Uterus", my opus on reproduction and culture, to discuss something of equal import - namely, orgasms.

It will shock you to know this, but nearly 50% of British women don't have orgasms. Are they frigid? No, not at all, as my 1999 layover at Heathrow can attest. Science funding is the issue, as we shall see.

As we have discussed in articles like The Science of Orgasms and Would Female Orgasms Kill Men?, (1) orgasms are tricky business but scientists know what they are doing. Fewer scientists means fewer orgasms. Britain is in the throes of a science funding meltdown so the problem for British women will only get worse. With fewer scientists there can be fewer studies on important stuff like this.

What are we talking about?

To celebrate National Orgasm Day on July 31, concerned groups in the UK have been conducting a survey on female orgasms - and the results are not good

Tags: humor, britain

The Coming Death Shortage

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:33:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Why the longevity boom will make us sorry to be alive" a must read.
Though I fail to agree with many of the premises of this article, the critical views it presents are important and the issues need be taken into consideration seriously

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

Stem-cell banks, telomerase amplifiers, somatic gene therapy—the list of potential longevity treatments incubating in laboratories is startling. Three years ago a multi-institutional scientific team led by Aubrey de Grey, a theoretical geneticist at Cambridge University, argued in a widely noted paper that the first steps toward "engineered negligible senescence"—a rough-and-ready version of immortality—would have "a good chance of success in mice within ten years." The same techniques, De Grey says, should be ready for human beings a decade or so later. "In ten years we'll have a pill that will give you twenty years," says Leonard Guarente, a professor of biology at MIT. "And then there'll be another pill after that. The first hundred-and-fifty-year-old may have already been born."

The critical issue, in Goldman's view, will be not the costs per se but determining who will pay them. "We're going to have a very public debate about whether this will be covered by insurance," he says

Tags: longevity, death, economy, future, public debate

How one day we may all be eternally young

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:44:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "We found a normal developmental programme that works in young animals, but becomes unbalanced as the worm gets older. It accounts for the lion's share of molecular differences between young and old worms." If ageing is not a cost of unavoidable chemistry, but is instead driven by changes in regulatory genes, the ageing process may not be inevitable, he added.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Growing old may not be mandatory after all. Failing eyesight, loosened teeth and greying hair could be driven by regulatory genes that determine when it is time to shuffle off our mortal coil, rather than being indicators of the ravages of age.

American scientists have challenged the conventional view that ageing is caused by wear and tear – like rust on an old car. Instead, they suggest specific genetic instructions drive the process. If they are right, science might one day find ways of switching the signals off and halting or even reversing ageing.

Researchers at Stanford University Medical Centre raised questions about the conventional theory of ageing on the basis of observations in the animal world. Stuart Kim, a professor of developmental biology, said: "Everyone has assumed we age by rust. But how do you explain animals that don't age?" Some tortoises lay eggs at the age of 100, there are whales that live to be 200 and clams that make it past 400 years, he said.

Tags: aging, genetics, biology

How Many Silicon Valley Startup Executives Are Hopped Up On Provigil?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:37:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

Is someone you work with taking Provigil to give them an extra competitive edge? I’ve spoken with one executive who says he uses it regularly to work twenty hour days, and the buzz lately is that it’s the “entrepreneur’s drug of choice” around Silicon Valley. Over the last week two separate entrepreneurs have mentioned it casually in conversation, and one said he tried it once and loved it.

Provigil (aka Modafinil) is marketed by Cephalon in the United States and is available by prescription only. It’s only approved use in the U.S. is to treat narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder. But since the main effect of Provigil is to keep you awake and able to concentrate, a lot of people who get their hands on it use it to be able to work longer hours, even though it has not been deemed safe for that kind of use.

What’s so funny is that entrepreneurs apparently aren’t interested in typical drugs - instead they find the one that gives them a mental and stamina advantage

Tags: provigil, cognitive enhancement

Intel: Human and computer intelligence will merge in 40 years

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:52:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: On the company's anniversary, a future of sensors, robots and new thinking

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

At Intel Corp., just passing its 40th anniversary and with myriad chips in its historical roster, a top company exec looks 40 years into the future to a time when human intelligence and machine intelligence have begun to merge.

Justin Rattner,

CTO and a senior fellow at Intel, told Computerworld that perhaps as early as 2012 we'll see the lines between human and machine intelligence begin to blur. Nanoscale chips or machines will move through our bodies, fixing deteriorating organs or unclogging arteries. Sensors will float around our internal systems monitoring our blood sugar levels and heart rates, and alerting doctors to potential health problems.

Virtual worlds will become increasingly realistic, while robots will develop enough intelligence and human-like characteristics that they'll become companions, not merely vacuum cleaners and toys.

Most aspects of our lives, in fact, will be very different as we close in on the year 2050

Tags: intel, future, sensors, robots

Grow New Body Parts in Your Own Abdomen

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:21:29 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: cloningmagazine.com

The term “stem cell research” has stirred up a great deal of controversy in recent years and this controversy is something that can be easily misunderstood. There are two major types of stem cells, embryonic and adult, and it is only embryonic stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos. Many people—including President Bush—object to such destruction on religious grounds. They hold that an embryo is, in essence, a human being and that destroying it for research purposes is tantamount to murder. No such objections are raised against adult stem cell research because this involves only the destruction of a few cells of living human beings. Given that many scientists see an enormous medical potential in stem cell research, work with adult stem cells is proceeding all over the world and this research is beginning to yield practical medical applications.

Adult stem cell research doesn’t involve the destruction of embryos

stem cell research is already yielding benefits

Tags: stem cells, cloning, research, benefits

“Metabolically Dominant Soldier.”

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:57:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

$3 billion super soldier program: 10 times muscle endurance, 7 foot vertical leap, wall crawling, personal flight and more

DARPA today has a long-term, $3 billion program to help make such a “Metabolically Dominant Soldier.” In other words, the military is studying how to use technology and biology to meld man and machine and transcend the limits of the human body. Described the project director, “My measure of success is that the International Olympic Committee bans everything we do" The $3 billion program is definitely trying to achieve transhuman performance goals.

The wearable gear would enable running at 100 meter olympic sprinter speed for hours and the 7 foot vertical leap, the wall crawling, personal flight, invisibility, greatly enhanced strength, better body armor and carrying bigger and more powerful weapons.

The drugs and genetic enhancements and some technology which gets applied would allow for regeneration, faster healing

endurance of an Alaskan sled dog

cognitive enhancement

Tags: super soldier, human body, enhancement

Hunger Can Make You Happy

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:29:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The researchers think that hunger-induced happiness is an adaptive measure. Getting food, especially in the wild, requires concentration, clear-headed perception and often cooperation.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Contrary to the moans of many dieters, being hungry may make you happy. Or, at least, it can be a serious motivator whose evolutionary intent was to help you find dinner instead of becoming dinner.

When our bodies notice we need more calories, levels of a hormone called ghrelin increase. Ghrelin is known to spur hunger, but new research suggests this may be a side effect of its primary job as a stress-buster.

Researchers manipulated ghrelin levels in mice through a variety of methods, including prolonged calorie restriction, ghrelin injection and a genetic modification rendering the mice numb to ghrelin’s effect.

Mice who had limited ghrelin activity seemed depressed. If pushed into deep water they made no effort to swim. When introduced to a maze, they clung to the entryway. And when placed with other mice, they tended to keep to themselves. (These behaviors were reversed when the mice were given a low-dose antidepressant commonly prescribed to humans.)

Tags: hunger, happy, ghrelin

Addicted to Grief?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:07:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: When time doesn't heal, the brain's reward system may be playing a role

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Losing a loved one is always painful, but for most people time eventually heals the wounds. For about 10 to 20 percent of the bereaved, however, accepting and getting over a loss remains extremely difficult, even years later. Now researchers have come a step closer to elucidating the neurobiological underpinnings of this condition called complicated grief (CG). A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, published online in May in the journal NeuroImage, shows that in CG patients reminders of the deceased activate a brain area associated with reward processing, pleasure and addiction.

While in the scanner, the women saw pictures and words that reminded them of their loved one. Brain networks associated with social pain became activated in all women, but in the CG patients reminders of the deceased also excited the nucleus accumbens, a forebrain area most commonly associated with reward.

Tags: grief, mind, healing, time, brain

The Future of Babies: Artificial Wombs and Pregnant Grandmas

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:44:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Artificial wombs and experiments on human embryos grown in the lab will be commonplace and no big deal ethically in 30 years, several scientists predict.

They envision a scenario just like test-tube babies, which shocked us 30 years ago but now are fairly routine and acceptable to most people.

That is one of many predictions about the future of assisted reproduction and other baby-related medical advances in a special news report, "Making Babies: The Next 30 Years," in the July 16 issue of the journal Nature.

Newborns and 100-year-olds alike could have children. Infertility will be eradicated.

Labs will be able to generate sperm and eggs for anybody.

Human embryos will be made from sperm and egg cells derived from pluripotent stem cells (the kind that can develop into any of the body's cell types).

Fetuses will freely float in artificial placentas or uteruses of fluid, with umbilical cords attached to machines.

"Genetic cassettes" will be inserted at the embryonic stage to correct diseases

Tags: the future, babies, artificial wombs, pregnant

Scientists uncover secret of eternal youth

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:11:12 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: A revolution in the making

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

A new scientific study has uncovered the secret of eternal youth. Roger Highfield reports.

The secret of eternal youth, at least at the cellular level, has been uncovered by scientists.

The work is of fundamental importance for understanding the self renewing properties of embryonic stem cells, "parent cells" in the early embryo that have the potential to turn into more than 200 specialised cell types, which are being studied by many groups worldwide as the basis of new treatments for a vast range of conditions, from Parkinson's Disease to stroke.

Studies are now under way to back the hope that the fundamental discovery will help to grow them in the laboratory and to improve an embryo free method of making stem cells, developed in Japan, to make sure that adult cells, for instance skin cells, can be turned into an embyronic form so patients can be treated with their own cells.

"Our study suggests that what we believe about how embryonic stem cell self-renewal is controlled is wrong,"

Tags: youth, stem cells, embryonic stem cells