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Could Clouds be Zapped by Laser to Stop it Raining? Scientists to Discuss Plans to Control the Weather

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Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

We may have all dreamt of zapping away the rainclouds when it’s damp and miserable outside. But it seems that one day, the dream could actually come true.

Scientists are hopeful that lasers could be used to guarantee a cloudless sky – and will gather next month to discuss the possibility of shooting pulses of light into the heavens to control the weather.

In laboratory tests Swiss researchers have succeeded in using the technology to promote cloud formation. In theory, it could be used to trigger rainfall far out at sea or over uninhabited land – and keep it away from a major event.

The technique has also been used to control lightning, with the long-term aim of diverting it away from built-up areas.
Controlling the weather has been attempted before, most famously during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when scientists apparently fired chemicals into the sky to disperse cloud for the opening ceremony.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Grow New Teeth Out of Urine

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Photo Credit: MSNWhatever the reason, you may be missing a tooth. But a typical dental implant costs several thousand dollars — and as much as $10,000 if there are complications or bone grafts are needed. And most dental insurance policies don’t cover the bulk of implant costs.

So, the news from China about new research showing that new teeth can actually be grown is nothing short of astounding, and such a process could remake dentistry as we currently know it. As Medical News Today reports, Chinese scientists have successfully used stem cells to grow solid organs, including teeth, from stem cells. The study, first published in the journal Cell Regeneration, also details just how the organs and teeth were regrown: Using stem cells from . . . urine.

The scientists mixed mouse cells and human cells to create the different types of cells that make up a human tooth: pulp, dentin and enamel. The little creations were physically and structurally “quite similar” to human teeth, the study says, though they are not as strong — yet — as natural human teeth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Down’s Syndrome Cells ‘Fixed’ in First Step Towards Chromosome Therapy

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesScientists have corrected the genetic fault that causes Down’s syndrome – albeit in isolated cells – raising the prospect of a radical therapy for the disorder.

In an elegant series of experiments, US researchers took cells from people with DS and silenced the extra chromosome that causes the condition. A treatment based on the work remains a distant hope, but scientists in the field said the feat was the first major step towards a “chromosome therapy” for Down’s syndrome.

“This is a real technical breakthrough. It opens up whole new avenues of research,” said Elizabeth Fisher, professor of neurogenetics at UCL, who was not involved in the study. “This is really the first sniff we’ve had of anything to do with gene therapy for Down’s syndrome.”

Around 750 babies are born with DS in Britain each year while globally between one in a 1000 and one in 1100 births are DS babies. Most experience learning difficulties.

Despite advances in medical care that allow most to live well into middle age, those who inherit the disorder are at risk of heart defects, bowel and blood disorders, and thyroid problems.

Read more from this story HERE.

Japanese Scientists to Grow Human-Animal Chimeras to Harvest Organs for Transplant

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Photo Credit: Alamy

Photo Credit: Alamy

A panel of scientists and legal experts appointed by the government has drawn up a recommendation that will form the basis of new guidelines for Japan’s world-leading embryonic research.

There is widespread support in Japan for research that has raised red flags in other countries. Scientists plan to introduce a human stem cell into the embryo of an animal – most likely a pig – to create what is termed a “chimeric embryo” that can be implanted into an animal’s womb.

That will then grow into a perfect human organ, a kidney or even a heart, as the host animal matures.

When the adult creature is slaughtered, the organ will then be harvested and transplanted into a human with a malfunctioning organ.

“This recommendation is a very important step forward and one that has taken us three years to achieve,” Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi, head of the centre for stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the University of Tokyo, told The Daily Telegraph.

Read more from this story HERE.

So Much for Evolution: Scientists Say People are Getting Dumber

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The average intelligence level of a Victorian-era person was higher than a modern-era person, a European research team posits in a report published last week in the journal Intelligence.

The research flies in the face of current assumptions of the Flynn Effect, which states that basic intelligence levels — measured through IQ tests — have risen since the 1930s.

IQ tests have been criticized, however, for reflecting bias toward certain cultures and education levels, while reaction times to stimuli might reflect “true intelligence” — the shorter the reaction time, the smarter the person.

European researchers Michael Woodley, Jan te Nijenhuis and Raegan Murphy compared reaction times to stimuli between people in the Victorian-era and modern-era people between 1884 to 2004.

Read more from this story HERE.

Electrical Brain Boost Can Make You Better at Math

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Photo Credit: ALAMYFor anyone who struggles with dividing the bill at the end of a meal, there is now a way to give your brain a boost.

Scientists have shown they can improve people’s ability to perform mental arithmetic for up to six months by giving them a short course of harmless electrical stimulation on their scalps.

Volunteers who received rapid pulses of electrical current – equivalent to that from an AA battery – for just 20 minutes a day for five days saw their ability to solve calculations improve by 28 per cent.

The enhancement, which made them faster at carrying out sums and other mathematical tasks, lasted for up to six months after receiving the electrical treatment.

The researchers, who are based at the University of Oxford, believe stimulating the brain in this way could be used to help people who struggle with performing mental arithmetic.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oregon Scientists Clone and Kill Human Embryos for Dubious Research

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsBy David Prentice. Scientists in Oregon announced today that they had created cloned human embryos, and then destroyed the embryos to extract embryonic stem cells.

The cloning technique is essentially the same one used to create Dolly the cloned sheep, with some modifications to make cloning work using human eggs and human cells. This is the first claim of growing human embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos since the fraudulent claims in 2004 and 2005 of Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk. The report, published online in the journal Cell, also highlights the fact that women are a target for raw materials for the cloning technique, since “premium quality” eggs are required to make their human cloning technique work.

It’s a grave concern that some scientists are still pursuing human cloning, a technology that will open the door to human engineering and a brave – but highly dangerous – new world. Human cloning by this technique requires the specific creation of a new individual, albeit cloned, at the embryo stage, using human eggs and human tissue cells.

Modern science has passed this by, especially in regards to stem cells. Creating and destroying cloned human embryos to extract their embryonic stem cells is unethical, and the entire faulty concept of using the cloning technique has been superseded by uncontroversial techniques. Read more from this story HERE.

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Study: Scientists Clone Stem Cells From Human Skin Cells

By Michael Allen. Human stem cells were cloned from adult human skin cells by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), according to a study published in the scientific journal Cell today.

According to a press release, OHSU scientists removed the DNA from donated egg cells and replaced it with DNA from an adult’s skin cells.

The researchers hoped that the stem cells would grow in the cloned embryo and would be a match for the skin cell donor. This process could help doctors perform reconstructive surgery on the skin donor.

Lead researcher Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipo said that the stem cells (that grew in the embryo) were able to change “into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells.”

Dr. Mitalipov told NPR that to get the stem cells growing, researchers use some electricity and a small amount of caffeine. Read more from this story HERE.

Facebook Causes ‘Psychotic Episodes and Delusions’, Claims Study

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Photo Credit: Mike KempFacebook and other social networking sites can actually send you mad, according to scientists in Israel.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have linked psychotic episodes in patients to internet addiction and delusions caused by virtual relationships cultivated on social networking sites.

Although all the participants had underlying problems of loneliness, none had any history of psychosis or drug abuse, the team say.

Lead researcher Doctor Uri Nitzan of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Centre said: ‘As internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies.

‘Computer communications such as Facebook and chat groups are an important part of this story.’

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Find Way to Turn Stem Cells Into Brain Cells

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Photo Credit: US NewsScientists have discovered an antibody that can turn stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow directly into brain cells, a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurological diseases and injuries.

Richard Lerner, of the Scripps Research Institute in California, says that when a specific antibody is injected into stem cells from bone marrow—which normally turn into white blood cells—the cells can be triggered to turn into brain cells.

“There’s been a lot of research activity where people would like to repair brain and spinal cord injuries,” Lerner says. “With this method, you can go to a person’s own stem cells and turn them into brain cells that can repair nerve injuries.”

Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that the immune system uses to help identify foreign threats to the body. They bind to foreign invaders in the body in order to alert white blood cells to attack harmful bacteria and viruses. There are millions of known antibodies.

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Climate Change Science Poised To Enter Nation’s Classrooms

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Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks

New national science standards that make the teaching of global warming part of the public school curriculum are slated to be released this month, potentially ending an era in which climate skepticism has been allowed to seep into the nation’s classrooms.

The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nonprofit Achieve and more than two dozen states. The latest draft recommends that educators teach the evidence for man-made climate change starting as early as elementary school and incorporate it into all science classes, ranging from earth science to chemistry. By eighth grade, students should understand that “human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming),” the standards say.

They’re “revolutionary,” said Mark McCaffrey, programs and policy director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit that defends evolution and climate education and opposes the teaching of religious views as science.

The 26 states that helped write the standards are expected to adopt them. Another 15 or so have indicated they may accept them—meaning climate change instruction could make its way into classrooms in 40-plus states.

James Taylor, a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute, which is developing a school curriculum that promotes climate skepticism, said the standards’ stance on climate change is based on “unscientific speculation and hype.” But he also said the group has no plans to fight their adoption by the states.

Read more from this story HERE.