James Eberwine, PhD, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology, Tae Kyung Kim, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues report their findings online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (for those that want their brain to explode). This approach offers the possibility for cell-based therapy for cardiovascular diseases.

“What’s new about this approach for heart-cell generation is that we directly converted one cell type to another using RNA, without an intermediate step,” explains Eberwine. He has a lot of work to do and won’t be looking for any retirement rv towing anytime soon I imagine.

Giving such things as healthy, certified organic fruit baskets has never been easier, and it is getting easier to find organic foods. The demand for organic foods is increasing drastically and is starting to show up in many more places, but many of us can’t find it easily. So finding a place like Cherry Moon Farms, who is USDA Certified Organic you have found a place.

All the psychology arguments aside that people who smoke have an oral fixation, or addictive personalities which may cause them to substitute smoking for food when they quit, there are other factors that are physical.

Nicotine activates a small set of neurons in a section of the hypothalamus that signals the body has had enough to eat, the researchers report in the June 10 issue of the journal Science. Nicotine accomplishes this trick by activating a different set of receptors on the surface of neurons than those that trigger a craving for tobacco.

“Unfortunately, smoking does keep weight off,” said Marina Picciotto, the Charles B.G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, professor of neurobiology and pharmacology and senior author of the paper. “Many people say they won’t quit smoking because they’ll gain weight. Ultimately, we would like to help people maintain their body weight when they kick the habit and perhaps help non-smokers who are struggling with obesity.”

I wouldn’t say it is “unfortunate” that it keeps weight off, but I have heard the excuse. Doesn’t mean it is a real excuse though since people are actually addicted. It’s just something some people say so they can justify it in some way that doesn’t show weakness. If there are benefits that can be taken from it I would hardly say it is unfortunate. Especially to these guys that are probably planning on getting rich off this research .

First of all, what exactly are electronic cigarettes? If you haven’t seen one they look just like a cigarette except that they are metal. Close to a one-hitter if you have ever seen one of those things that “tobacco” shops sell for you to stuff a tiny amount of “tobacco” into without having to pack an entire “pipe”.

The tech behind the electronic cigs is a little more interesting. It in effect heats, or in some cases uses ultrasonics, to vaporize a propylene glycol- or glycerin-based liquid solution into an aerosol mist, similar to the way a nebulizer or humidifier vaporizes solutions for inhalation. Nicotine, if present in the liquid solution being used, is absorbed through membranes of the mouth and lungs. Here is a better history.

So the main purpose of all this is to make smokers feel like they are smoking, and still give them some nicotine, but greatly reduce some of the health risks involved. It is marketed more as a quit smoking item, than something else.

Oddly enough, there is some controversy about selling this product. Unlike soemthing like hgh supplements. A number of anti-smoking groups have argued that e-cigarettes should not be sold because they have not been shown to be effective for smoking cessation, and several states — including New York — are considering banning e-cigarettes altogether.

Quite a ridiculous claim when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) includes propylene glycol on its list of substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), and it meets the requirements of acceptable compounds within Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

“Banning this product would invariably result in many ex-smokers returning to cigarette smoking,” said Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences and lead author of the study above. “Removing electronic cigarettes from the market would substantially harm the public’s health.”

U.S. researchers have coaxed stem cells into becoming a type of brain cell that dies off early in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

The new technology would provide a ready supply of cells for use in testing new drugs or even transplants to help restore lost memory, the team reported on Friday in the journal Stem Cell.

While most Alzheimer’s research is done in genetically modified mice, the new technique would allow researchers to study a key aspect of the disease in human cells.

“These are cells that are critically important for memory functions,” said Dr. Jack Kessler of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who worked on the study.

This is crazy. Stem cell research never fails to amaze me. Truly even more than cheap car insurance in this day and age.

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science they had some discussion about breaking down the barriers between mind and machine. More down to Earth stuff we all have known about like limbs for amputees was discussed, but other really cool ideas came on too.

A guest during the session discussed a Fringe-like (TV show where one character has a realistic prosthetic arm) arm. Former army sergeant Glen Lehman lost his arm in Iraq. But he can still pick up small objects with fine motor control, thanks to a bionic appendage wired to his remaining nerves. “Just by believing I’m moving my phantom limb,” he said, “the arm is in tune with my thoughts.”

Although prosthetics and other brain-powered devices have been around for some time, José del R. Millan of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, said that one difficulty is the amount of continuous concentration required to use them. His goal, he said, is to perfect brain-computer interfaces so that their control is as natural as writing or driving a car.

Olaf Blanke, also of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, on the other hand is more tuned into the ideas of the sci-fi nature we discussed earlier. He has made progress trying to understand what defines “self,” and how self-awareness can be transferred into a robot or avatar. His research recreates out-of-body experiences. By touching a volunteer on his real body while he viewed a virtual representation of himself on a computer, Blanke and colleagues were able to change the volunteer’s perception of where he was in space. The volunteer believed his consciousness had been transferred to the avatar. The researchers then flipped genders, giving a male volunteer a female avatar, but this didn’t seem to affect the outcome. The only aspect important for the transfer of consciousness, Blanke said, was that the avatar had a vaguely human shape. You probably wouldn’t even need diet supplements since you could look like Brad Pitt. Awesome stuff here.

If you want to check out something pretty interesting you can actually talk to Olaf Blanke Sunday. Science will be hosting a live chat with Olaf Blanke and Jose del R. Millan at noon EST on Sunday, 20 February. Not sure if you are allowed to throw questions, but I imagine you can.

Conventional lasers, which were first invented in 1960, use a so-called “gain medium,” usually a semiconductor like gallium arsenide, to produce a focused beam of coherent light — light waves with the same frequency and amplitude that are in step with one another.

Last summer, Yale physicist A. Douglas Stone and his team published a study explaining the theory behind an anti-laser, demonstrating that such a device could be built using silicon, the most common semiconductor material. But it wasn’t until now, after joining forces with the experimental group of his colleague Hui Cao, that the team actually built a functioning anti-laser, which they call a coherent perfect absorber (CPA).

Abstract from their report published this month:

In the time-reversed counterpart to laser emission, incident coherent optical fields are perfectly absorbed within a resonator that contains a loss medium instead of a gain medium. The incident fields and frequency must coincide with those of the corresponding laser with gain. We demonstrated this effect for two counterpropagating incident fields in a silicon cavity, showing that absorption can be enhanced by two orders of magnitude, the maximum predicted by theory for our experimental setup. In addition, we showed that absorption can be reduced substantially by varying the relative phase of the incident fields. The device, termed a “coherent perfect absorber,” functions as an absorptive interferometer, with potential practical applications in integrated optics.

Stone believes that CPAs could one day be used as optical switches, detectors and other components in the next generation of computers, called optical computers, which will be powered by light in addition to electrons. Another application might be in radiology, where Stone said the principle of the CPA could be employed to target electromagnetic radiation to a small region within normally opaque human tissue, either for therapeutic or imaging purposes.

Theoretically, the CPA should be able to absorb 99.999 percent of the incoming light. more

A team led by researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Administration that were investigating how stress affects gastrointestinal function may have found a chemical compound that induces hair growth by blocking a stress-related hormone associated with hair loss — entirely by accident.

Hair loss has all kinds of sources, but stress has been one that many point to when talking about causes. Almost any remotely effective “cure” for baldness is one of the most sought after vanity secrets there will be.

“Our findings show that a short-duration treatment with this compound causes an astounding long-term hair regrowth in chronically stressed mutant mice,” said Million Mulugeta, an adjunct professor of medicine in the division of digestive diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a corresponding author of the research. “This could open new venues to treat hair loss in humans through the modulation of the stress hormone receptors, particularly hair loss related to chronic stress and aging.”

UCLA and VA researchers injected the astressin-B into the bald mice to observe how its CRF-blocking ability affected gastrointestinal tract function. The initial single injection had no effect, so the investigators continued the injections over five days to give the peptide a better chance of blocking the CRF receptors. They measured the inhibitory effects of this regimen on the stress-induced response in the colons of the mice and placed the animals back in their cages with their hairy counterparts.

About three months later, the investigators returned to these mice to conduct further gastrointestinal studies and found they couldn’t distinguish them from their unaltered brethren. They had regrown hair on their previously bald backs. more

Speaking February 4 at the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (Academy), dermatologist Brett M. Coldiron, MD, FAAD, clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, presented new statistics pointing to an increase in non-melanoma skin cancer and why young people are at an increased risk of developing this disease.

“While the American Cancer Society estimates more than 2 million new skin cancers will be diagnosed this year, our research shows that the annual incidence in 2008 could actually have been 3.7 million,” said Dr. Coldiron. “This is especially troubling as our estimate only includes Medicare patients, which means this could be even higher when young people are included in the count.”

Dr. Coldirn wanted to give warnings to young people that were ready for their annual spring break trips by throwing all kinds of warnings and a kitchen sink at the press. Tanning for vanity cause many young people to assume greater risks. The fact is that ultraviolet (UV) light exposure (both natural and artificial) has been proven to be the most preventable risk factor for skin cancer.

“As dermatologists, we know that it is hard to change behavior, even in the face of proven scientific evidence,” said Dr. Coldiron. “Attitudes about tanning are no different, as studies have shown that even though people know that overexposure to ultraviolet light can lead to skin cancer, they still tan. We need young people to realize that tanning for cosmetic reasons now will ultimately negatively affect their appearance later and even increase their risk for skin cancer.” Tips for prevention listed here.

Just look at some of the history of studying this issue. This article from 2006 claims they pose no risk. Claiming: “Long or short-term cell phone use is not associated with increased cancer risk, according to a study in the December 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.” I think we can guess where that thought process of turnign it into a joke came from…hmmmm?

Over the last couple years it is mentioned as possible, but there is no real data to show it other than saying that the results don’t necessarily show increased brain tumors from cellphone use.

Today, the highest-quality research data available suggests that long-term exposure to microwaves from cellular phones may lead to an increased risk of brain tumors, reports a paper in the November/December issue of Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography.

Although debate continues, independent studies with long-term follow-up strongly suggest an increased risk of brain tumors related to the use of cellular or cordless phones. “We conclude that the current standard of exposure to microwave during mobile phone use is not safe for long-term exposure and needs to be revised,” conclude the study authors, led by R.B. Dubey of Apeejay College of Engineering, Sohna, Gurgaon, India.

The linked article even goes as far to say that it may DOUBLE after 10 years of prolonged use. Luckily for many of us our cell use has probably gone down. I know mine has. A lot more texting, and using a headset has certainly been my usage the past few years. I rarely spend a lot of time actually talking with it up to my head.

There is increasing public concern about the potential cancer risks from microwave emissions related to wireless phones — not only cellular phones and base stations (transmission tower antennae), but also home cordless phones. Some studies have reported that long-term wireless phone users have increased rates of brain tumors, including malignant gliomas and benign acoustic neuromas. However, other studies have found no association

We’re all gonna die. Eventually…so take the time to smell the Flowering trees and look at the rainbows friends.