tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339808022024-03-14T06:36:25.351-04:00Science Ripsaw - Cutting with grain of rational thoughtA blog full of sophistry and cant, science and sarcasm. Here lie the thoughts of a vagabond scientist who has drifted through many of the life sciences, in search of not answers, but questions.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-84232400237420599462009-12-01T10:21:00.002-05:002009-12-01T10:24:52.367-05:00SPF GBRCoral soaks up the UV rays to protect the reef citizens.UV has a habit of zapping DNA and triggering thymine dimers, pretty much irreversible snags in the flowing template of life. Apparently that calcium carbonate isn't just for swanky-looking underwater condominiums, it can protect in any form right down to ground up slurry.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com87tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-9382928210252682442009-11-30T20:05:00.002-05:002009-11-30T20:07:52.001-05:00Running down rogue cells with the handcuffs.Zapping cancer cells with magnetic nanodiscs.Reminds me of this obscure JLA character named Pulse 8, who could drop attach these discs to people magnetically and then increase the weight exponentially.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-75743951226503053552009-11-28T08:59:00.001-05:002009-11-28T09:00:51.973-05:00Talk about panoramic...Hammerheads have 360 degree vision.Guess there's no sneaking up these guys.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-17108991206278311872009-11-23T14:19:00.005-05:002009-11-23T22:21:32.672-05:00A turkey never voted for an early Christmas or a biochemical albatrossI always remember a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George become addicted to playing with an antique toy collection belonging to Jerry's girlfriend, and use wine and turkey to drug her into naps. What's that thing in turkey that makes you sleepy, George and Jerry? Tryptophan!So it hazards a chance that sometime after your family Thanksgiving meal, when the kids have long left the table and the Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-75470802461372560912009-11-17T10:51:00.000-05:002009-11-17T10:53:07.949-05:00Calm down and protect the ticker.New study finds meditation cuts down heart attack risk.Sorta reminds me how the Dalai Lama can apparently surge his stem cell count through sheer thought.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-60007187970985273082009-01-05T20:13:00.002-05:002009-01-05T20:32:21.566-05:00Via Pharyngula:15 Evolutionary Gems: A body of evidence published in the last decade that flexes the considerable intellectual muscle of Evolutionary Theory.1. The discovery of Indohyus, an ancestor to whales.2. The discovery of Tiktaalik, an ancestor to tetrapods.3. The origin of feathers revealed in creatures like Epidexipteryx.4. The evolution of patterning mechanisms in teeth.5. The Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-49460549766354641142008-06-17T22:06:00.004-04:002008-06-17T22:29:37.841-04:00Stimulant SurpriseSometimes you just need that extra oomph to get through the day.Today's NY Times had an interesting article about the smell of coffee and how that scent alone can have a gene-activating effect on the brain. The reality is the vast majority of our genes are almost always mothballed away, tightly bound to inhibit and regulate their expression by methyl groups and G-C rich zippers. However, get the Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-68158215266316874982008-02-15T13:11:00.004-05:002008-02-15T20:35:28.793-05:00Playing with food never felt so artistic.Enjoy here the bizarre and outright wild stylings of the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, a group that generates its music exclusively from specialized produce they pick up from the grocer the day of the show. The instruments require occasional lubrication during the performances, as the hot lights of a stage performance will begin to dry the raw plants, and that can apparently change the sound Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-82708544953630138972008-02-12T13:32:00.001-05:002008-02-12T13:43:08.442-05:00Fabulous Games and Prizes - in the lab.I'm sure many readers are aware of the X Prize for various goals reached in commercializing the space race, as illustrated by the landmark (spacemark?) achievement by SpaceShipOne in 2004. But did you know there are X Prizes for cell crushers too?There's another cool 10 million bucks out there for the ability to cut the cost of genomic sequencing into the affordable range, that is, to sequence Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-7862714242391410382008-02-11T13:08:00.000-05:002008-02-11T13:22:42.509-05:00Like a big 'You Are Here' signI'm sure you've heard of the news last month of UFO sightings in Stephenville, Texas. One of my colleagues queried me if I felt there was any legitimacy to the story - could the UFO actually be some intelligent and advanced alien life? Unfortunately, my answer is a dull almost certainly no. I feel there is plenty of good evidence to suggest life as we know it could arise independently across the Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com254tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-84411856884177587372008-02-08T15:21:00.000-05:002008-02-08T15:31:57.129-05:00The Six Million Watt Man (1.2 million miles of travel not included)A research team unveils a device that convert leg energy into electrical energy. In principle its exactly how hybrid cars can use the deceleration of a car by braking as a harvest point for gathering up some extra electrical juice. As the team reports tomorrow in Science, the braces produced 5 watts of power--enough to run 10 cell phones. Now we're talking. I'd love to have a little bioelectric Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-63450353011906917972008-02-07T16:12:00.000-05:002008-02-07T16:16:57.315-05:00Weather didn't do this Atlantis inAtlantis lifted off this afternoon despite threats both from gloomy weather and a faulty fuel sensor. This is a huge mission as the Atlantis shuttle is taking up the Columbus science lab, a five billion (with a BUH) dollar module built by ten European nations. The lab is going to more than double the amount of science that can be done on the international space station once the Atlantis crew getsLishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-38959844947387302892008-02-06T13:33:00.000-05:002008-02-06T13:43:59.482-05:00Micro Machines - Fast Talking Spokesman not includedIn Korea a research team has built a really tiny robot. This robot, with six crab legs and being no thicker than a fingernail, is powered by rat cardiomyocytes, heart cells coated over its body. When the cells contract, the legs are pulled together, and the mini-cyborg inches forward, averaging about 100uM a second and close to 50 meters in a week. The robot is fabricated the same way we mold Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-29632753600424784862008-02-05T12:47:00.000-05:002008-02-06T13:32:23.723-05:00A bucket of coke and a better built house: Fat AmericaA fantastic new book out, the Fattening of America attempts to get a real headlock on the hard questions as to why and how Americans have become so alarmingly obese. This is the first book I've read that takes a moment to ask a question most books gloss right over: Is a big Fat America a bad thing? In the book, Eric Finkelstein, a health economist argues that our economy, with its massive Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-46175413095193813142008-02-04T13:03:00.000-05:002008-02-04T13:52:51.734-05:00He Wnt that wayToday marks the beginning of Just Science 2008! The Sequel! To kick things off at the Ripsaw, we're delving into a crossover of some of the work I currently research as well as one of my favorite topics, signal tranduction. Organization within a multicellular body like ourselves or sea cucumbers means we have a lot of cells that all need to be coordinated together, which if you try to think aboutLishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-91131758319110836052008-01-29T22:38:00.000-05:002008-01-29T22:48:13.262-05:00The Caffeinator (He'll be back real quick)We at the Ripsaw enjoy a strong, punch-in-the-face type cup of coffee in the morning, be it Sumatran, Ethiopian or plain or Starbucksy Arabica Breakfast Blend. Indeed, caffeine is often hailed by yours truly as a brain enhancer, a focus accelerant and an all around answer to life in the early hours of the day.=New research, however, shows there is a darker side to caffeine, and it's not all Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-29013652848099861002008-01-28T20:19:00.000-05:002008-01-28T20:22:46.642-05:00You wonder who funds them.America's Funniest home videos wacky science papers.I'm not sure how farts keep one's personality together, but I'm listening.Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-59083490098242305832008-01-27T20:52:00.000-05:002008-01-27T22:07:10.151-05:00At the corner of vanity and therapy.Stem cells give a peak into a possible melanoma breakthrough. This is actually follow-up research on another breakthrough, the demonstration of a group of receptors, the, yes - ABC family - are key markers for tumor cells. In essence, this can be a unifying tag on the surface of tumor cells that set them apart from the rest of the normal, noncancerous cells in the body. Based on that tag, a Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-42801705896427581362008-01-23T13:25:00.000-05:002008-01-23T13:30:46.852-05:00Hopefully we can remember where we put those extra cellsNew preliminary research out of UC-Irvine shows the discovery of a creator gene responsible for differentiating cells into brain tissue. This is a key element in creating a stem cell line of cells that could be used to regenerate brain tissue in patients with diseases like Alzheimer's. These genes are highly selective, and likely only operate in a small window of time during early development. ItLishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-65813486286930525592008-01-17T21:56:00.001-05:002008-01-17T22:03:16.838-05:00Exciting new frontiersHey there!Between a rush of holiday activity and a near month of malaise the Ripsaw had gone dark. Hopefully I'll be able to bring you the tasty science news you desire in the future. In the meantime, the world of stem cells has been all a quiver...Human heart tissue grown from stem cells. A real great leap given the times, this is the leap from mere bits of progenitor cells towards something Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-90061077558221852562007-11-20T21:14:00.000-05:002007-11-20T21:38:23.164-05:00Another big hurdle.Two research groups form human embryonic human stem cells from somatic tissues.The actual data can be found here and here.Woooo boy. This is potentially a big jackpot for science, as it would have a twofold effect. One, the techniques described are fairly simple where any cell lab with tissue culture facilities could likely generate these lines. Two, it would probably get the religiously outragedLishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-10826393414638954722007-11-09T21:42:00.000-05:002007-11-09T21:55:28.921-05:00When one of my cultures die, I die a little inside, too.Scientists construct a stem cell scaffold from seaweed products.Now, as compared to yesterday's antics, this kind of technology is taking a credible step towards legitimate therapeutic applications. Stem cells in culture are notoriously picky; they typically like to be fed only from one side, need to have their media changed routinely and need to be grown on special membrane substrates. Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-41862903231912416752007-11-08T22:21:00.000-05:002007-11-08T22:49:59.658-05:00FecundoCapitalismHey, Ladies.Are you worried your monthly miracle is going down the drain? Literally? C'elle to the resuce! For a mere $1500 a year this company will take your glorious discharge and all its potential stem cells and keep it nice and safe in the event you might want it back, to, uh....well really, there's nothing you can do with it right now. Honestly, this venture is long on optimism and short on Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-88894405593453571792007-11-07T21:50:00.000-05:002007-11-07T22:10:04.520-05:00Taste the BrainbowStem cells may secret brain repair substance. What happens when you take a deficient rodent brain and inject it with stem cells? Brain rescue, at least in Alzheimer's-like mice models. This is a more elaborate variation on seminal work from last year.Rather, the group speculates that the transplanted cells secreted protective neurotrophins, proteins that promote cell survival by keeping neurons Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33980802.post-59792023147458362202007-10-22T23:23:00.000-04:002007-10-22T23:33:24.414-04:00You bet ShirazPerhaps we overhyped reseveratrol.Not that it's going to stop me from a leisurely glass of wine with dinner or my philosophical ruminations, but the article makes a good point: the mouse model can only carry us so far before we really can't corroborate effects on to us. Reveratrol has been hailed for all sorts of indications, from cancer to diabetes to just plain old being plain old. All that Lishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991712547531436286noreply@blogger.com0