Beauty of Math

Brushes and paints are tools of the past to create an appealing art. These days scientists use rules of Mathematics and the computational power of computers to achieve the same result.

Random browsing can be very enlightening.

Comic Strips on Stem Cells

I found a few comic strips on Stem Cells and I'm posting a couple that are funny.

George W Bush:



Legal system's stance on stem cells, relatively:

Green?land

As long as 120,000 years ago, Greenland was apparently covered with lush forests, according to the latest findings detailed in this article. By analysing ice cores that are almost a mile deep, scientists have been able to find intact DNA belonging to conifers and a collection of insects. It is remarkable how the ice has so artistically preserved the genetic data, almost as if they were waiting to be discovered.

So far, the knowledge of the past environments of such ice-covered regions has been very limited, because the fossil evidence, if any, may be hidden. This study, however, has unearthed the possibility that many deep ice cores might contain genetic information about the environments of the region in their basal layers of ice. The result is also promising because there are many more ice covered areas on the earth, whose ecology and life forms can be studied by extending this technique. With facilities available to analyse DNA and identify species on a large scale, this offers a whole range of areas to be explored on a manageable time scale.

Burp less to fight global warming

Seems to be true for cows, atleast. This Reuters article suggests that the bovine belch can generate an average of 100-200 litres of methane a day! Staggering, to say the least. Given that methane is almost 25 times as potent a global warmer as carbon dioxide, reducing methane emissions could bring down global warming significantly.

Researchers are now frantically trying to find new plant-based diets for these cows so as to make them belch less. Usually, a poorer quality diet results in significantly more methane gas. It could be because cattle feed, these days, is less chewy, and cows are not able to break it down well before it reaches the stomach. This leads to incomplete processing, and therefore, more methane, which comes out in the belch.

On the positive side of things this emission of fuel may fuel better regulations on what these animals will be fed.

Eternally Sweet-16

The fact that we are at the brink of a bio-technological revolution is substantiated by researchers' finding drugs that combat aging! Think about it - why would scientists try to find drugs to stop aging? Is it a disease? Have we solved and cracked the cures for all the other diseases in the world that we are jobless enough to start combating aging? Soon, I think, we will find scientists researching drugs for reducing a person's age!

Jokes apart, it is an earth-shattering finding that a chemical found in food products, as common as red-wine, is anti-aging, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and life-prolonging. Yes, life-prolonging. The miracle chemical is resveratrol. The consequences of the discovery of this drug have tentacles that seek to explain the French Paradox. The paradox is that French have a very low incidence of coronary heart disease inspite of diets with very high saturated-fat content. The explanation is that the resveratrol present in red-wine offers its benefits as an anti-oxidant to promote over-all health.

According to CNN's article on resveratrol:

Resveratrol is the ingredient in red wine that made headlines when scientists demonstrated that it kept overfed mice from gaining weight, turned them into the equivalent of Olympic marathoners, and seemed to slow down their aging process. Few medical discoveries have generated so much instant buzz - even Jay Leno riffed about it in his opening monologue.

One of the first companies to invest in this chemical is Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. There have been animal studies to buttress the working of the chemical and it is yet to be established that this works in humans. The company was started by a few Harvard alumni with Professors from MIT and Harvard on the advisory committee. They even went public end May.

How does someone find so much promise in such an inceptive concept as to give up lucrative jobs/careers to start-up? I understand that is what starting-up entails, but still, sometimes it is hard to see how people take so much risk. I admire their passion and hunger for more success, and I wish I develop such instincts and passion someday.

Meanwhile, let's all party, mind you though on red-wine only so that we may all live longer. Long live...