Drug Shows Promise for Slowing Down’s Syndrome Mental Decline
November 19, 2009
(ChattahBox)—Scientists have discovered that an experimental drug, currently being tested to treat fibromyalgia in humans, may hold the key to restoring cognitive function to older individuals with Down’s Syndrome, experiencing dementia-like symptoms. Although the study was used on mice, the results show promise for increasing the quality of life for older Down’s Syndrome patients. Read more
Study: Males Have More Personality Than Females
November 18, 2009
(ChattahBox)—Researchers from the University of Exeter have expanded classic research on sexual selection and evolutionary traits to theorize that males throughout the animal kingdom, including humans, have developed distinct personality differences from females. The more aggressive personalities, as well as physical differences in males, such as the brighter plumage of male birds, are seen as evolutionary traits developed to attract mates. Read more
Whiskey Of Ernest Shackleton May Be Rescued From Antarctica
November 17, 2009
Antarctica (ChattahBox) - Two cases of whiskey belonging to infamous explorer Ernest Shackleton has peaked the interest of researchers, who have petitioned for permission to drill down to the liquor.
Functional Penis Regrown in Rabbits - Potential to Someday Treat Severe Erectile Dysfunction in Men
November 9, 2009
(ChattahBox) – Reporting online in the Nov. 9-13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine say they’ve found a way to replace penile erectile tissue and function in animals, after experimenting with rabbits. I was a little worried how they got the poor lab rabbits in a state where they needed a new penis, but apparently they used just the cells from rabbits to grow replacement penile tissue in the laboratory for the animals.
“The major challenge is that the penis is a solid organ,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest. “With this project, it was also a challenge to determine the ideal mix of smooth muscle and endothelial cells that would allow for normal function.”
Dr. Atala’s team first created a scaffold using the penis of a rabbit, and removed all the living cells from it, leaving only cartilage. They then took a small piece of tissue from the penis of another rabbit and grew the cells in a lab dish. After the cells had matured, the scaffolding and the newly formed penile spongy tissue, called corpora cavernosa, was surgically implanted into the rabbits’ penises. About a month later, the tissue began to reconstitute itself, forming new blood vessel structures necessary for proper functioning, while nerves from the existing penile tissue integrated into the new tissue. In time, Atala said, the collagen structure was reabsorbed, and the cells built their own collagen structure.
Atala said the work has taken his team 18 years to complete. “We had to find the right growth factors, the right soup to grow the cells in,” he said.
Rabbits with the engineered penises attempted to have sex with females within a minute of the time they met and were able to produce offspring. Rabbits that had not been given the implanted tissue did not attempt copulation, in most cases. When the animals with the engineered tissue mated with females, vaginal swabs contained sperm in eight of 12 instances and four of the 12 females were impregnated.
Though a human application is a ways off, Dr. Atala says the technique could one day be used to treat severe erectile dysfunction in men:
“We were able to show the tissue was able to integrate and function in the long term, which means we can start planning clinical applications [in humans]. Our hope is to be able to treat patients with many conditions, including congenital abnormalities of the penis, traumatic injuries, penile cancer and severe cases of erectile dysfunction that don’t benefit from drug treatments.”
Sources: BreakThroughDigest Medical News & USNews
Crazed Dolphin Mob Seen Violently Attacking Porpoise
November 9, 2009
(ChattahBox)—For several years, dead harbor porpoises have turned up bloody and battered on California beaches, with marine biologists unable to solve the mystery of their deaths. Now, a video shot by a conservation group offers an explanation for the porpoise deaths, and it’s not what biologists expected. The video shows mobs of crazed male dolphins ganging up on a lone porpoise and beating it to death. Read more
Babies Cry in Accents Heard in the Womb
November 7, 2009
(ChattahBox)—A new study suggests that the cries of newborn infants are quite similar to the speech patterns of their parents, heard while in the womb and very early after they are born. This study reveals a surprising degree of linguistic control mastered by newborns in their early cries, which illustrates that a baby’s cry is indeed a remarkable first attempt at language and communication. Read more
Large Hadron Collider foiled by bread crumb dropped by passing bird
November 7, 2009
(ChattahBox) — In another cosmic turn of the surreal, the Large Hadron Collider -LHC the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator (16.8 mile), suffered serious overheating in several sections after the small piece of baguette dropped by a passing bird, landed in a piece of equipment on the surface above the accelerator ring. The controversial device, housed in the gigantic CERN laboratory in the Jura mountains just outside of Geneva, on the border of France and Switzerland, would allow scientists to re-create conditions that existed a trillionth of a second after the big bang, as well as prove the existence of the spooky “Higgs boson” entity, also called the “God Particle” which give “things” their mass. Read more
Oregon Caves Yield Rare Pre-Clovis Artifact 14,230 Years Old
November 6, 2009
(ChattahBox)—A series of caves and rock shelters located in the Summer Lake Basin north of Paisley in south-central Oregon, may hold evidence of the earliest Native Americans living in North America that has ever been discovered. An unassuming scraper-like tool fashioned from bone, found in one of the Paisley Caves, has been definitively carbon-dated as 14,230 years old, which is the oldest and only pre-Clovis artifact ever found in the Americas.
This exciting discovery lays waste to a still predominant theory that the earliest human inhabitants of North America, referred to as the Clovis culture, arrived here 12,900 to 12,400 years ago, while crossing the Bering Strait. Read more
Study: Grumpiness Sharpens Our Thinking
November 3, 2009
(ChattahBox)–An Australian psychologist has conducted a study showing that grumpy people tend to display more critical thinking skills and are more tuned in to the external world, compared to happier individuals. But people with elevated moods demonstrated greater creativity and flexibility in their thinking. Read more
Giant Rift in Ethiopia Will Someday Form a New Ocean
November 3, 2009
(ChattahBox)—An international team of scientists has descended in the desert of Ethiopia to witness the birth of a new ocean, as a geographical rift in the earth begins to form an ocean-ridge, which will one day be filled with waters from a parting Red Sea. The 35-mile crack in the earth is providing scientists with a natural ocean-ridge laboratory, to study how early oceans are formed. Read more