A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
In a controversial achievement, Japanese scientists announced on Wednesday they had created the world’s first transgenic primates, breeding monkeys with a gene that made the animals’ skin glow a fluorescent green.
Continue reading… “Japanese Scientists Create World’s First Transgenic Primates”
New research suggests that a common infection affecting 60 to 99 per cent of adults could result in high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries – leading causes of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Continue reading… “Scientists Warn Virus Could Cause Heart Disease In Adults”
For millenniums, microbes have been a staunch technological ally. They have leavened our bread and cured our cheeses. Now, engineers are asking them to convert carbon dioxide into fuel and to build a new generation of batteries. Some of the smallest life forms with which we share the planet are helping us cope with the energy challenges of the 21st century.
Continue reading… “How Microbes Can Fuel America In The Future”
(CNN) — Remember the dire predictions surrounding the “millennium bug?” The doom-and-gloom scenarios bandied about by security analysts on how computers could act when their clocks turned to January 1, 2000? Continue reading… “Cornficker “The New Millennium Bug?””
Tobacco isn’t famous for its health benefits. But now scientists have succeeded in using genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes. The research is published in the open access journal BMC Biotechnology.
Continue reading… “Tobacco Plants Genetically Modified To Produce Medicine”
The body’s immune system is often likened to an army, and vaccines to training exercises that build up defenses against pathogens. By exposing the immune system to inactive forms of a virus or bacteria, a vaccine trains antibodies to fight off a real pathogen in the event of an invasion. However, while vaccines prepare antibodies to identify an attacker, they often don’t give specific instructions on exactly how to bring it down. Some antibodies may successfully hit a pathogen’s weak spot, while others may miss the mark entirely. That’s part of the reason why it normally takes several weeks or months for some vaccines to build up an effective immune response.
Continue reading… “Instant Immunity From A Vaccine”
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The Ark Film is a short computer animated film by Grzegorz Jonkajtys and Marcin Kobylecki. The film is based on a fairly complex and symbolic storyline reflecting the dramatic nature of life and the inevitability of certain events.
Continue reading… “The Ark Film: Award Winning Computer Animated Film”
If you thought the airport denizens of the TSA were already obnoxious, wait until they get their mitts on a Sick Traveler Detector. It’s a software idea by Belgian company Biorics, which can determine if travelers are sick by the sound of their coughs. If you frequently get sick after flying, you might welcome such an intrusive technique that singles out hacking, virus-spreading passengers.
Continue reading… “Sick Traveler Detector”
Every year, millions of people are diagnosed with cancer – a remarkably high number. But what about the flipside of those statistics? That is, two out of three people never get cancer, and more than half of heavy smokers don’t get cancer, either. A recent study points out this overlooked fact, and suggests that researchers might discover something by asking why so many people are resistant to the often deadly disease.
Continue reading… “Why Are A Majority Of People Resistant To Cancer?”
Are you concerned about having a baby with asthma? Well, you may want to hold off on when to conceive. A new study has shown that children born about four months before the height of the cold and flu season are at a higher risk of developing asthma.
Continue reading… “Fall Babies At Greater Risk Of Asthma Study Shows”
On Tuesday, search giant Google released an experimental tool that tracks the intensity and movement of the influenza virus across the United States by monitoring the number of times that people search the Web using terms related to the disease.
Continue reading… “Google To Track Flu Virus”
Evolution, by the very meaning of the word, is generally thought to be a process that slowly unfolds over time, without outside interference.
But now scientists from Rice University are trying to force certain viruses to evolve erratically, in an attempt to kill them. The technique is called “lethal mutagenesis,” and while it may sound vicious, it could be a last resort of self-defense against contagious viruses that attack humans.
Reconstruction of a rotavirus particle. Credit: Graham Colm.Reconstruction of a rotavirus particle. Credit: Graham Colm.Rice bioengineer Michael Deem explains that genetically engineering a virus to mutate in a specific way could change entire sets of the organism’s genes. In their recent study, the Rice scientists develop a formula that can be used to predict exactly how certain mutations alter evolution.
Continue reading… “Evolving Viruses To Death”
