Category: Uncategorized
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The humble Tardigrade makes the news so often for its amazing survival on the moon, or in space, or exposure to 5,000 Gy of gamma rays. Now scientists propose to give humans the tardigrade’s radiation-resistance genes to help us survive in space. Specifically, the Dsup gene, which was shown to protect tardigrade DNA. What do…
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3D printing of living organs takes a step forward, with a new printing process reported in Science. The organs are printed out as a scaffold of collagen (cell matrix connective protein). The collagen is printed as a “bioink” of hydrogel (protein gel in liquid form) containing suspended living cells. The hydrogel needs a signal, usually…
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Mice move over: Human-chimp chimeras are exactly what the Elysians make in Daughter of Elysium. Of course, this story has all the elements of the “forbidden science” theme: It’s not done here (of course not) but in China (how many reports of humans cloned in China, back in the day). If human-chimp chimeras are actually…
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Would it be ethical to construct a mouse with a human brain? It sounds too impossible to worry about. Yet various kinds of “humanized mice” are not just possible, but routinely for sale at breeding centers such as Jackson Laboratories. For example, a mouse’s population of bone marrow stem cells can be replaced with human…
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Those virus genes are all up to tricks again—treating rare diseases.Muscular Dystrophy type 1A is a disease of wasting muscle, in early childhood. Skeletal muscle and nerves deteriorate for lack of a cell matrix protein LAMA2—that is, a kind of structural strap that holds cells together in tissue. To edit this protein is a challenge…
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Did you ever wonder how Rudolph grows new antlers so fast—and regenerates them? To say nothing of pronghorns, muntjacs, gazelles and buffaloes? The only completely regenerable organ found in mammals. And they don’t get cancer. So what can we learn here about bone regeneration and fighting cancer? A large group of scientists, mostly in China,…
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This summer has been tough for me, with the passing of two scientists I knew well. The first is my father, the physicist John Slonczewski, 1929-2019. As Wikipedia helpfully says, “Not to be confused with Joan Slonczewski.” Back in the 70s, John wrote the Britannica article on magnetism. A lifetime theoretical physicist at IBM, John…
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Where to begin, with this “Frankenstein of the week” story? The recluse spider, whose brew of toxins perhaps earns it an overly bad rep? True, humans occasionally pick up the Hybrid toxin, its name perhaps inspired by a Marvel superhero.Malaria is arguably the world’s most debilitating microbial disease, for human and animal death and morbidity,…
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Any serious plan to solve the carbon problem, to stop global warming before the planet cooks, must include carbon capture. That’s because, even as we replace CO2-releasing energy technologies, it won’t be enough: The CO2 up their already will continue to bake the planet, with irreparable harm for ocean food chains. What will it take…
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A bacteriophage (virus that infects bacteria) may have cured a patient dying of multidrug-resistant bacteria. NPR The patient, Isabelle Carnell-Holdaway of Faversham, UK, had a lung transplant, as a result of cystic fibrosis, a condition in which the cilia lining the lungs are paralyzed and bacteria build up. The lung transplant required suppression of the…
Joan Slonczewski 