Biology and Medicine

Advances in the investigation of the physical universe we live in.
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Antipatros
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Antipatros »

Very interesting. I am gratified to confirm that I have a lower BMI than 52% of Canadian males in my age range.

I was musing yesterday on the proportion of obese people at Costco. (Most of them were chowing down at the annoying sample booths that clog the aisles.) Only the incredible concentration of redheaded women at Ikea improved my mood. ;)
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
Seek not to count the future waves of Time;
But be ye satisfied that you have light
Enough to take your step and find your foothold.

--T.S. Eliot
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Typhoon
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Typhoon »

Antipatros wrote:
Very interesting. I am gratified to confirm that I have a lower BMI than 52% of Canadian males in my age range.

I was musing yesterday on the proportion of obese people at Costco. (Most of them were chowing down at the annoying sample booths that clog the aisles.) Only the incredible concentration of redheaded women at Ikea improved my mood. ;)
In Japan, I've observed what I can the MacDonald's effect. A small, but non-negligible, part of the young female population are overweight by Japanese standards. More females than males for some reason.

More on the topic.

Image

Economist | A [global] map of sloth

Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy

Abstract:

[Get off your arse.]

____

I've place my laptop on a support arm that allows me to raise and lower it in various positions. So I now spend about half of my working day standing.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Typhoon wrote:
Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy

Abstract:

[Get off your arse.]

____

I've place my laptop on a support arm that allows me to raise and lower it in various positions. So I now spend about half of my working day standing.
Excellent idea Typhoon! Now get yourself a ball chair or a dynamite stool for even more physical benefit and mental sharpness.

The down side of prosperity......, which most people can't seem to handle for more than a few continuous years. Be careful what you wish for is still great advice.
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Antipatros
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Antipatros »

Typhoon wrote:
Economist | A [global] map of sloth

Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy

Abstract:

[Get off your arse.]

____

I've place my laptop on a support arm that allows me to raise and lower it in various positions. So I now spend about half of my working day standing.
A campaign called ParticipACTION started with this commercial:

ParticipACTION - The 60-year old Swede (1973)
PMD35tUh-Ek

Dozens of ads promoting the benefits of physical fitness have followed up to the present day.

There was never any hard data to support the "30-year-old Canadian = 60-year-old Swede" assertion, but there's no doubt of the need for greater fitness in the population.
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
Seek not to count the future waves of Time;
But be ye satisfied that you have light
Enough to take your step and find your foothold.

--T.S. Eliot
Demon of Undoing
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Those dang nanodoohickies are never going to work.
Hepatitis C now kills more Americans than HIV and, while there's increasing progress towards finding a reliable vaccine, results can't come soon enough. Now, researchers have developed a nanoparticle that effectively eradicates hepatitis C 100 percent of the time.

Researchers from the University of Florida have developed what they call a "nanozyme". Based around gold nanoparticles, these things have their surface coated with two biological agents. One is an enzyme that attacks and kills the mRNA which allows hep C to replicate, while the other is a short string of DNA which identities the disease and sends the enzyme off to kill it.

While current hep C treatments attack the same replication process, they only work on about 50 percent of patients treated. In lab-based tests, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Univeristy of Florida researchers showed that their approach was 100 percent effective in both cell cultures and mice. They observed no side effects in the mouse models, either.
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Apollonius
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Apollonius »


Took the test:

You have a lower BMI than 94% of males [in your age category] in your country

You have a lower BMI than 82% of males aged [in your age category] in the world

If everyone in the world had the same BMI as you, it would remove 38,937,422 tonnes from the total weight of the world's population

You're most like someone from Indonesia
Demon of Undoing
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Always hated that test. By BMI, if the Wii board is to be believed, I should be 157 pounds or some such rot, when the reality is that, at 10% body fat, I'm 240 lbs.
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Typhoon
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Typhoon »

Simple Minded wrote:
Typhoon wrote:
Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy

Abstract:

[Get off your arse.]

____

I've place my laptop on a support arm that allows me to raise and lower it in various positions. So I now spend about half of my working day standing.
Excellent idea Typhoon! Now get yourself a ball chair or a dynamite stool for even more physical benefit and mental sharpness.
Credit for the idea goes to a N Am friend. Apparently it's a bit of a trend [fad?] based on recent medical studies.

I'm thinking of adding a treadmill, as standing without moving is a bit tough for extended periods of time. We have evolved to walk most of the day, after all.

The problem is that most treadmills are far too complex and bulky. Still looking for the right one.

Not sure about the ball chair. A man chair that provides proper support? :wink:

Had to look up "dynamite stool" assuming that it meant something other than an especially satisfying bowel movement or explosive diarrhea:

a one legged stool invented by Alfred Nobel to keep his workers from dozing off and blowing up the dynamite plant.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Simple Minded wrote:The down side of prosperity......, which most people can't seem to handle for more than a few continuous years. Be careful what you wish for is still great advice.
Indeed. First world problems and all that . . .
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Typhoon wrote: Not sure about the ball chair. A man chair that provides proper support? :wink:
Or depending upon how you're bent, you might prefer the vibrating female version...... ;) Might cut down on your coffee consumption....
Typhoon wrote:
Had to look up "dynamite stool" assuming that it meant something other than an especially satisfying bowel movement or explosive diarrhea:
Sorry, after I typed that I thought "Maybe I should clarify that.... dynamite stool might bring to Typhoon's mind a political/religious discussion between Mr. Perfect and Dioscuri......."

Note to self: shake the mental image of the two naked guys wrestling in Borat.....
Typhoon wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
You be welcome, us lazy bastards living in the first world gotta stick together.... in a platonic kinda way..... other wise the barbarians or the fat molecules will get us......
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Typhoon,

Here ya go: http://www.fitter1.com/

I have an Indo board at home and a wobble board at work. Used to have a small trampoline (not the Cher kind) at work.

The body blade and the slackline look pretty cool. Might have to get one of each plus a bongo board.

Send us a video of you using the body blade and doing your best Jet Li imitation.
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Endovelico
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Endovelico »

Clues to Nervous System Evolution Found in Nerve-less Sponge
June 18, 2012

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– UC Santa Barbara scientists [Cecilia Conaco and Kenneth Kosik] turned to the simple sponge to find clues about the evolution of the complex nervous system and found that, but for a mechanism that coordinates the expression of genes that lead to the formation of neural synapses, sponges and the rest of the animal world may not be so distant after all. Their findings, titled "Functionalization of a protosynaptic gene expression network," are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"If you're interested in finding the truly ancient origins of the nervous system itself, we know where to look," said Kenneth Kosik, Harriman Professor of Neuroscience Research in the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, and co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute.

That place, said Kosik, is the evolutionary period of time when virtually the rest of the animal kingdom branched off from a common ancestor it shared with sponges, the oldest known animal group with living representatives. Something must have happened to spur the evolution of the nervous system, a characteristic shared by creatures as simple as jellyfish and hydra to complex humans, according to Kosik.

A previous sequencing of the genome of the Amphimedon queenslandica –– a sponge that lives in Australia's Great Barrier Reef –– showed that it contained the same genes that lead to the formation of synapses, the highly specialized characteristic component of the nervous system that sends chemical and electrical signals between cells. Synapses are like microprocessors, said Kosik explaining that they carry out many sophisticated functions: They send and receive signals, and they also change behaviors with interaction –– a property called "plasticity."

"Specifically, we were hoping to understand why the marine sponge, despite having almost all the genes necessary to build a neuronal synapse, does not have any neurons at all," said the paper's first author, UCSB postdoctoral researcher Cecilia Conaco, from the UCSB Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) and Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI). "In the bigger scheme of things, we were hoping to gain an understanding of the various factors that contribute to the evolution of these complex cellular machines."

This time the scientists, including Danielle Bassett, from the Department of Physics and the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, and Hongjun Zhou and Mary Luz Arcila, from NRI and MCDB, examined the sponge's RNA (ribonucleic acid), a macromolecule that controls gene expression. They followed the activity of the genes that encode for the proteins in a synapse throughout the different stages of the sponge's development.

"We found a lot of them turning on and off, as if they were doing something," said Kosik. However, compared to the same genes in other animals, which are expressed in unison, suggesting a coordinated effort to make a synapse, the ones in sponges were not coordinated.

"It was as if the synapse gene network was not wired together yet," said Kosik. The critical step in the evolution of the nervous system as we know it, he said, was not the invention of a gene that created the synapse, but the regulation of preexisting genes that were somehow coordinated to express simultaneously, a mechanism that took hold in the rest of the animal kingdom.

The work isn't over, said Kosik. Plans for future research include a deeper look at some of the steps that lead to the formation of the synapse; and a study of the changes in nervous systems after they began to evolve.

"Is the human brain just a lot more of the same stuff, or has it changed in a qualitative way?" he asked.

http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=2742
Darwinists will have a hard time explaining this. It seems panspermia proponents, who defend that genes are acquired before there is a need for them, may be right after all...
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Thanks for the post Endovelico. I have long thought that panspermia made more sense than Darwinism. Fascinating the mental leaps we take in the absence of information.
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Typhoon
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Typhoon »

The problem I have with the panspermia hypothesis is that it shoots the question of how did live evolve off into outer space.

In the sense that it does not provide any explanation of how life may have originated elsewhere.

As for the article itself, it's not clear to me why it would provide a challenge for Darwinian evolution and be evidence in favour of panspermia.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Parodite
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Parodite »

Panspermia maybe more is kind of a male's wet dream...
Deep down I'm very superficial
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Parodite wrote:Panspermia maybe more is kind of a male's wet dream...
All good theories are part inspiration and part gratification...
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Endovelico
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Endovelico »

Typhoon wrote:The problem I have with the panspermia hypothesis is that it shoots the question of how did live evolve off into outer space.

In the sense that it does not provide any explanation of how life may have originated elsewhere.

As for the article itself, it's not clear to me why it would provide a challenge for Darwinian evolution and be evidence in favour of panspermia.
1. Life exists, so it must have originated somewhere. The point is that there doesn't seem to have been enough time for it to have originated on our planet, and also the fact that it appeared far sooner than it should be expected, seeing the complexity of the process. So, there is a good chance that it originated elsewhere, and then migrated to Earth - and certainly to lots of other places.

2. For Darwinism biological changes are random and only prevail if they prove advantageous to the species. A sponge, which doesn't have a nervous system, showing many of the elements needed to build such a system, cannot be explained by Darwinistic mechanisms. Even if random changes might have created a few of those genes, why would they persist in the species - one of the oldest living beings on Earth - if they serve no purpose? Panspermia proponents say that genetic building blocs come from space and may end up integrated in a variety of species. As long as those blocs of genetic information are not detrimental to the species, they may be preserved. But one thing is keeping something which doesn't harm you, another is building, piece by piece, due to spontaneous mutations, something which serves no purpose. Specially if those same complex mutations appear in different species. It would mean stretching credibility a little too far.

Panspermia proponents also believe that genetic blocs may be laterally transferred from one species to another, probably by means of viral infections. Life's building blocs arriving from space and lateral gene transfer, are the two mechanisms which would explain life's quick appearance and complexity on our planet.
Simple Minded

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Simple Minded »

Typhoon wrote:The problem I have with the panspermia hypothesis is that it shoots the question of how did live evolve off into outer space.

In the sense that it does not provide any explanation of how life may have originated elsewhere.

As for the article itself, it's not clear to me why it would provide a challenge for Darwinian evolution and be evidence in favour of panspermia.
I agree that Panspermia (parodite's wet dream...) does not solve the riddle of which came first, the intergalatic chicken or the intergalactic egg? But IIRC, there are some big gaps in Darwinism, and our solar system is in the third youngest (?) group in terms of star age.

So if more time is needed, look elsewhere, and if you can't find enough answers in your backyard, look elsewhere.

Darwinism make sense inside a species (different breeds of dogs), but jumping between species seems problematic to my small cranium.

Plus, now that we know how to breed dogs, and genetically modify tomatoes, who is to say we (or some species on Earth) are not someone's science experiment?

Several years ago, we designed and built some equipment for NRAO http://www.nrao.edu/ . It was interesting that they would not discuss the issue of intelligent life in the universe. I prodded quite a bit, and was finally told that if we talk about anything like that, we will lose our government grants.

They were primarily concerned with radiation frequencies, wavelengths, and ages of stars. Looking at the universe for answers and limiting your field of vision to what you will acknowledge.......... bizarre........
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Typhoon
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Typhoon »

Endovelico wrote:
Typhoon wrote:The problem I have with the panspermia hypothesis is that it shoots the question of how did live evolve off into outer space.

In the sense that it does not provide any explanation of how life may have originated elsewhere.

As for the article itself, it's not clear to me why it would provide a challenge for Darwinian evolution and be evidence in favour of panspermia.
1. Life exists, so it must have originated somewhere. The point is that there doesn't seem to have been enough time for it to have originated on our planet, and also the fact that it appeared far sooner than it should be expected, seeing the complexity of the process.
Oh? There are two issues here:

1/ the origin of life; and

2/ the evolution of life

How the latter, evolution, occurs we have some understanding of including the rise of complexity, however, the former, how life originated, is still and open question.

Evolution: Tree of LIfe

We would first need to understand how life originates before being able to conclude that there has not been enough time for it to have originated on our planet.
Endovelico wrote:So, there is a good chance that it originated elsewhere, and then migrated to Earth - and certainly to lots of other places.
Do not follow from your argument.
Endovelico wrote:2. For Darwinism biological changes are random and only prevail if they prove advantageous to the species. A sponge, which doesn't have a nervous system, showing many of the elements needed to build such a system, cannot be explained by Darwinistic mechanisms. Even if random changes might have created a few of those genes, why would they persist in the species - one of the oldest living beings on Earth - if they serve no purpose?
Rather later species evolved a set of genes which coordinated genes that sponges already had to produced synapses. Evolution.
Endovelico wrote: Panspermia proponents say that genetic building blocs come from space and may end up integrated in a variety of species. As long as those blocs of genetic information are not detrimental to the species, they may be preserved. But one thing is keeping something which doesn't harm you, another is building, piece by piece, due to spontaneous mutations, something which serves no purpose. Specially if those same complex mutations appear in different species. It would mean stretching credibility a little too far.
Oh? Examples?
Endovelico wrote:Panspermia proponents also believe that genetic blocs may be laterally transferred from one species to another, probably by means of viral infections. Life's building blocs arriving from space and lateral gene transfer, are the two mechanisms which would explain life's quick appearance and complexity on our planet.
Not novel to panspermia. It's been know for some time that organisms incorporate viral DNA due to infections.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
noddy
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Bionic Eyes

Post by noddy »

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technol ... 251nu.html
A blind woman can now see spots of light after being implanted with an early prototype bionic eye, confirming the potential of the world-first technology.
Australian researchers have been working for years to develop the bionic eye, in which electrodes are inserted into the retina of vision-impaired patients.
Dianne Ashworth, 54, was the first patient fitted with the device in surgery at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in May.
ultracrepidarian
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Antipatros
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Re: Bionic Eyes

Post by Antipatros »

noddy wrote:http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technol ... 251nu.html
A blind woman can now see spots of light after being implanted with an early prototype bionic eye, confirming the potential of the world-first technology.
Australian researchers have been working for years to develop the bionic eye, in which electrodes are inserted into the retina of vision-impaired patients.
Dianne Ashworth, 54, was the first patient fitted with the device in surgery at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in May.
Outstanding. That holds enormous promise. I'm not so sure about some of the alternatives, such as the BrainPort work-around:

Blind Learn To See With Tongue
fF7mWIJQUQw

Jose Neto walks with BrainPort
zR0Dv1c4jsQ

Background on Jose Neto
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
Seek not to count the future waves of Time;
But be ye satisfied that you have light
Enough to take your step and find your foothold.

--T.S. Eliot
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Typhoon
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Typhoon »

Nature | How to confuse a moral compass
People can be tricked into reversing their opinions on moral issues, even to the point of constructing good arguments to support the opposite of their original positions, researchers report today in PLoS ONE.
9-k5J4RxQdE
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
Hoosiernorm
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Hoosiernorm »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... n-key.html

Scientists have found a sure-fire way for men to live longer - but most red-blooded males will find the method unpalatably painful.

Researchers in Korea have shown that eunuchs - castrated men living centuries ago - outlived other men by a significant margin.

They say their findings suggest that male sex hormones are responsible for shortening the lives of men.
Been busy doing stuff
Jnalum Persicum

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Jnalum Persicum »

Hoosiernorm wrote:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... n-key.html

Scientists have found a sure-fire way for men to live longer - but most red-blooded males will find the method unpalatably painful.

Researchers in Korea have shown that eunuchs - castrated men living centuries ago - outlived other men by a significant margin.

They say their findings suggest that male sex hormones are responsible for shortening the lives of men.


Castration Adds Years to Men's Lives


.
PROBLEM: It's suspected that there is a biological trade-off between reproduction and longevity, the theory being that our mechanisms of repairing damaged genetic material are limited and thus relegated to the most evolutionarily advantageous repair work. Propagating our genes, it would follow, trumps living to see/attempting to control the lives of proceeding generations. The male sex hormone is implicated in this theory, and taking into account that fact that women tend to live significantly longer than men, may be responsible for limiting men's lifespan.

METHODOLOGY: Because sometimes you can't offer enough cash or college credit to put together a randomized control experiment, researchers did a (very) retrospective study of Korean eunuchs from the Chosun dynasty, which stretched from the late 14th to the early 20th century. The eunuchs, a class of nobles employed as guards at the royal palace, preserved their lineage through the adoption of castrated sons and kept detailed genealogical records, which the researchers cross-verified with other historical accounts.

RESULTS: Averaging a lifespan of 70 years, the eunuchs lived about 14 to 19 years longer than cohorts from a similar socio-economic background. The group of 81 eunuchs included three centenarians among their ranks -- making them 130 times more likely to celebrate their 100th birthday than, for example, men in the present-day U.S.

CONCLUSION: The seniority achieved by the eunuchs supports the theory that the male sex hormones decrease men's lifespan.

IMPLICATOINS: Another study that used data from a population in a mental hospital also indicates that castrated men live longer, although a third looking at castrati singers did not show an increase in lifespan along with their expanded vocal range. While these new findings may not be enough to make anyone seriously consider asking whether added years at the expense of one's genitals are worth living, they may lead to further understanding of the relationship between reproduction and aging.
.


.
Jnalum Persicum

Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Jnalum Persicum »

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Apollonius
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Re: Biology and Medicine

Post by Apollonius »

US scientists aim to make human sperm from stem cells - Regan Morris, BBC News, 8 October 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19879113

US researchers say they will redouble their efforts to create human sperm from stem cells following the success of a Japanese study involving mice.

A Kyoto University team used mice stem cells to create eggs, which were fertilised to produce baby mice.

Dr Renee Pera, of Stanford University in California, aims to create human sperm to use for reproduction within two years, and eggs within five years. ...
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