Category: Uncategorized
-
In 2003, the Human Genome Project claimed completion of the first DNA sequence of “the” human genome. Just fifteen years later, hospitals can sequence an entire baby’s genome literally overnight. Typically 19 hours, at the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, holder of the Guinness World Record, up there with the world’s largest origami rhinoceros…
-
CRISPR, the gene editing tool that sounds like something out of a fridge, is now talked about for every genetic disease and just entered a clinical trials to treat cancer. What is it? In a cell, a complex of proteins and RNA that can cut a gene, in some cases cutting out one gene and…
-
The Galápagos islands are an unfinished project of volcano building, perhaps going on for the past 90 million years. A plate of mantle moves southeast above a magma chamber that fountains new rock, creating new land. The result provides the equivalent of a testing ground for evolution of new species. Here on Isabela Island, Punto…
-
Back from the Galápagos Islands, I’m still getting the “sea legs” feeling out of my brain. I’ll take just a moment to reveal things they never tell you in the nature books. The animals of course are all protected, off limits. Many signs tell humans to keep six feet away from them. What does that…
-
The next two weeks I’ll be away on a tour of the Galápagos islands. I’ve read and taught about the islands, including Vonnegut’s novel of that name, for the past twenty years. So it’s exciting to actually get there. The islands have formed out of volcanic activity over the past eight million years; some are…
-
We’ve all heard of 3D printing, the computer-controlled buildup of a material into a three-dimensional form. So what is 4D printing? Basically, the buildup of a material that has special functional properties. A simple example would be a material that can be induced by a signal to deform or fold itself. The signal can be…
-
We couldn’t clone Gay and Joe, but we sure tried! Jeanne and Johnna, too. What a great time we had–from human CRISPR to health-improving lentiviruses, microbial invention of metazoans to 3D-printed humans. Gut bacteria fight depression, if you’re Belgian or Dutch. And the truth about the hygiene hypothesis. Meanwhile, who could beat the diverse fauna…
-
The gut-brain axis means your intestinal bacteria can influence the brain. But does the brain talk back and regulate the gut? According to West Virginia University researchers, that is what happens.In experimental animals, a brain stroke (brain cells die due to injury) leads to disorganization of the gut lining, for weeks afterward. And the proportion…
-
Most of the news for butterflies is terrible, with monarchs and others in exponential decline. But for one species, the painted ladies swarm by the billions past LA. www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-butterflies-desert-explosion-20190312-story.html Of course this species is a generalist, feeding on any sort of plant. And it’s common for environmental disruption to favor certain populations for overgrowth, while…
-
An idea going back to Fantastic Voyage is that physicians can shrink to microscopic size and travel through the blood vessels to treat the site of a patient’s illness. Today, we’re not shrinking human physicians, but nanomachines. This research team at University of Tokyo focuses on a particular challenge for nanomedicine, getting the therapeutic agents…
Joan Slonczewski 