Chromosome Readings, $650 to Know When You’ll Die

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Max Dolan

Don’t let your chronological age get you down–let your biological age determine when to have your midlife crisis!

In five to ten years medical researchers believe that a $650 test which measures the length of your telomeres will be available to the public. What are telomeres? They are “structures” located at the tips of your chromosomes and by measuring the length of them you can figure out how long you have left to live!

Via: The Independent

When your telomeres get contrasted to the normal length of a telomere found in the human body, scientists are able to deduce whether you are more susceptible to desises, such as heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis, cardiov ascular disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer; as well as if your just inherently going to die early.

While this crystal ball process is still in the works, it brings up ethical and personal issues. Should man ever really know how long he has to live? Would you change your financial and sexual habits? Would you actually stop smoking? My personal fear: what if my life insurance company gets a hold of the results…

Via: independent.co.uk

Got Human Milk?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Max Dolan

Well cows do.

Flickr: MShades

Just when you thought that mankind couldn’t abuse the Bos taurus in any other way, apparently Chinese scientists got bored and decided to insert 300 human genes into a cow to make it produce what they call ’human milk’.

What was surely a drunken bet between two scientists has developed into a highly controversial issue.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Animals as well as Helen Wallace, the director of GeneWatch, join natural breast milk stock holders in thier concern about the genetic alteration of cows.

The leader into the frontier of ‘human-like-milk’, Professor Li, claims

Human milk contains the ‘just right’ proportions of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins for an infant’s optimal growth and development.

And not only is it good for your children, but Li’s got plans:

We aim to commercialize some research in this area in coming three years. For the “human-like milk”, 10 years or maybe more time will be required to finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer’s cup.

Photo: uned.es

Got that? In tens years mothers’ breasts across the world will be liberated from their children! The scientific drive to eradicate any maternal connection among man perseveres!

Human embryos: Now with barcodes

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Mark Baard

The news is the bar codes that will be added to embryos (no RFID, here) are “biologically inert”:

The bar codes, which carry unique binary identification numbers, are biologically inert: they do not affect the rate of embryo development and are shed before the embryos implant into the wall of the uterus. The technique aims to simplify individual embryo identification, streamlining in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer procedures.

via Short Sharp Science: Fertilised eggs get microscopic bar codes.

UB boffins craft cells that never age

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Mark Baard

Photo: Bob Bobster (LIC)/Flickr CC

In a big step toward human superlongevity, University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) boffins have made adult stem cells that *do not age.*

The UB researchers anticipate their finding could result in “cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.”

Smoothing wrinkles blunts emotions

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Mark Baard

If you treasure your very soul, but are tempted to buy a new(er) face, here’s my advice: Run, run like an outlaw Sandman, from the plastic surgeon. (The iconic, Farah Fawcett-plastic surgery scene from Logan’s Run, appears, below.)

Because so much of our human emotions are tied to our bodies’ abilities to express them, it makes sense that docs are reporting a measurable, soul-sucking effect of cosmetic procedures:

“For at least some emotions, if you take away some part of the facial expression, you take away some of the emotional experience,” says study researcher Joshua Ian Davis, PhD, a term assistant professor in the department of psychology at Barnard College in New York City.

via Botox May Affect Ability to Feel Emotions. Thanks to the Secret Sun for continuing inspiration, and to River Bottom Video, for putting Logan’s Run back in my brain.

Darwin: victim of bad breeding

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Mark Baard

Photo: Michael Bridgen/Flickr CC

A new article in the journal, BioScience, strikes me as being one about a ruthless, not a hapless, family. — MB

The Darwin family’s inbreeding created some misery for its youngest members, a new report suggests. (Charles Darwin, who married his first cousin, is the son of Susannah Wedgwood, the daughter of third cousins.)

“Three of Charles Darwin’s 10 children died before reaching adulthood, one from childhood tuberculosis at age 10 and one from unknown causes as an infant. A third child, who died in infancy of scarlet fever, appears in a photograph to have developmental abnormalities…Furthermore, three of Darwin’s six children with long-term marriages left no offspring. Unexplained infertility may also be a consequence of a consanguineous marriage.

Oddly, the scientists offer up this bit, as if to say, the Darwin-Wedgwood breeding effort was worth it, despite the dead babies:

“On the other hand, three of Darwin’s sons were fellows of the Royal Society and were knighted by Queen Victoria.”

via Inbreeding may have caused Darwin family ills.

Times get tough, and the mob turns nasty

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Mark Baard

Unlucky? Photo: Conny Liegl/Flickr CC

Attacks on redheads and albinos are one the rise, everywhere, as the rabble lock on to scapegoats, to blame for their increasingly bad luck.

Since 2007, at least 44 Tanzanian albinos have been killed and 14 in Burundi. Some organizations have put the number at more than 50 in Tanzania.

via Report: Scores of albinos in hiding after attacks – CNN.com.

In parts of Africa, albinos are believed to bring bad luck to their families. But in pieces, they are good luck charms.

(The associate rector at St. Michael’s Church in Milton, Mass., is headed with his wife to Tanzania, meanwhile. I wish them well.)

Back in the States, it’s all about “Kick a Jew Day,” and “Kick a Ginger Day.”

Massachusetts recently has seen its share of Nazi imagery, and several flashes of anger directed toward its substantial Jewish population. (There have been 15 hate crimes reported in Newton this year.)

Readheads in this densely Irish state, have not been targeted.

Stop "cruel" McLean monkey study, docs demand

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Mark Baard

sam.nasa A physicians ethics group in Washington wants to put the kibosh on a Harvard professor’s scheme to zap monkeys with radiation, to help NASA with its lame, manned Mars mission effort:

The experiments, to be conducted by McLean Hospital drug addiction researcher Jack Bergman,

would be one giant leap backward for NASA.

Calling the proposal “unnecessary” and “cruel,” (the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) maintains that Bergman’s research would violate NASA’s stated principles regarding animal ethics.

Bergman — no stranger to dosing primates with nasty chemicals — will use his share of the $13.7 million in grants announced last month by NASA, to see how spider monkeys irradiated at the Brookhaven National Laboratory respond to the poisoning.

This appears to be Bergman’s first time dosing monkeys with radiation. But he has tortured the poor creatures before, with cocaine, morphine, speed, withholding food, and electric shock.

Excerpt via Scientific American.

Our betters are shooting blanks

Posted on August 30, 2009 by Mark Baard

Photo: Erik Mill. Flickr/CC

The question is, who is defining “high quality,” here:

“The results support the suggestion that genes that are good for males may often be bad for their mates. Therefore, in beetles at least, multiple mating does not award females with genetic benefits,” says Göran Arnqvist.

via Males Of High Genetic Quality Are Not Very Successful At Fertilizing Eggs.

Scientists advance safety of nanotechnology

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Mark Baard

Photo: CC/US Army

Nanoparticles being used in medicine are deadly if inhaled. But they’ve got a drug for that, already:

In a study published online today Thursday 11 June in the newly launched Journal of Molecular Cell Biology [1] Chinese researchers discovered that a class of nanoparticles being widely developed in medicine – ployamidoamine dendrimers PAMAMs – cause lung damage by triggering a type of programmed cell death known as autophagic cell death. They also showed that using an autophagy inhibitor prevented the cell death and counteracted nanoparticle-induced lung damage in mice.

via Scientists advance safety of nanotechnology.

The Sci-Tech Heretic

Science, fiction and news through the conspiratorial lens. By Mark Baard in Boston.

Tag Archives: Bioethics