Science Ahead

Every year, millions of children are born across the world. Of these newly born babies, a sizable amount are born with a number of inherent metabolic disorders that require bone marrow transplants as the only viable option to keep them alive.

However, despite advancements in medical science and technology, it is extremely difficult to find donors with matching bone marrow profile that would reduce the potentially fatal graft-versus-host disease occurring when the donor cells perceive the recipient’s tissues and organs as foreign body.

Stem cell researches have gone a long way is solving this problem. Recent researches have found umbilical cords to be rich source of stem cells and it has the added advantage that unlike bone marrow transplants, umbilical cord blood transplants from unrelated donors can help save millions of babies every year.

Researches have shown that the risks of the fatal conditions that occur as an after-effect of heart attacks can be reduced by transplanting genetically engineered cells into the heart. It has been found that the main reason behind the sudden death that follows a heart attack is an abnormally fast heart rhythm, called Ventricular tachycardia.

The transplants of skeletal muscles were initially done in mice. This was done so as to produce a specific protein that prevented Ventricular tachycardia.In order to conduct the research, such mice were tested that had been induced to have heart attacks.

Male mice are fiercely protective about their territories. The method by which the male rodents become aware of a rival trying to sneak into their territory is rather unique. Particular odor emanating from their rival rodent’s urine warns them whether the sneaking male is a danger or not - that is whether the male mouse is castrated or potent.

For long scientists were aware that something in the urine of these highly territorial rodents triggered aggressiveness. Scientists from Scripps Research Institute in California have finally been able to detect at least two chemicals that mice excrete in their urine that can be easily picked up by the nerves in the nose of their rival males.

If you think you are smarter than a chimp you are wrong. A study conducted in Japan recently proved the fact that the Chimps are smarter than humans. It was Chimpanzees versus College kids. A 5-year-old Chimp managed to beat college kids during this challenge! Researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa proved the fact that humans are inferior to chimps. The memory challenge was something like this: Nine numbers were displayed on the computer screen. Upon touching the first number the other eight turned to white squares.

Nature always is primed with surprises - astounding, amazing or amusing! Scientists, all armed to come up with newer bewilderments each day, are yet again been surprised by a ‘bacterial nature’ - the microscopic life are found to employ a type of DNA modification never ever seen in nature.

For scientists, it has always been possible to modify synthetic oligonucleotides (short strands of DNA) in the lab — by adding sulfur to the sugar-phosphate DNA backbone as a phosphorothioate, in a bid to make them DNA-resistant to nucleases.

Cancer cells have been of much interest to the researchers. Various studies have been conducted on them. The latest research used nanotechnology to determine which cancerous cell is softer. A research team from the UCLA conducted this research. The team was made up of multidisciplinary scholars.

Nano science has helped the UCLA team detect the cancerous cells. Most importantly, the metastatic cells were detected during this research. Live cancer cells from patients were used for the purpose. Metastatic cells are the ones which actually travel through the body and infect body parts. These cancer cells are presumed to be softer because they enter the bloodstream and travel through tight corners.

MIT Holding, Inc., a Savannah, Ga., pharmaceuticals distributor has come out with an alternative in fighting against diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile with its PROVECTOR ‘flower’. The conventional methods used in fighting these diseases are treating people with preventive medications which can have side-effects, the treatment of those infected or the application of pesticides, all being quite expensive. Eventually these methods become less effective with the parasites and mosquitoes becoming drug-resistant and insecticide-resistant.

The never ending quest to look young make men and women spend thousands of dollars on anti-aging products each year. If the new findings are to be believed we may soon see older people basking in the ‘fountain of youth’. Yes, Stanford scientists have been successful in reversing the aging of skin in the mice, making it look and behave like new skin.

The researchers have discovered NF-kB, a protein that plays a role in the aging of the skin. A lotion was used to inhibit the protein in genetically engineered mice. The skin of the older mice had a genetic profile of younger skin two weeks later. The skin that was treated with NF-kB blocking solution was measurably thicker and also showed a series of genetic changes.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has generated a new material that repels water better than any other natural material. The material uses hydrophobic-effect, which causes water to bead up, to unnatural heights by restructuring the material’s surface at the nanoscale level!

The ability of the material to part water lies in the ‘Moses effect’ due to which surface always remains coated with a thin layer of air, even if it comes into contact with water. This will allow this material to be used on a wide range of articles from waterproof clothes to the coatings of ships and boats.

Researchers of Kent State University, Summa Health System and IC-MedTech have developed a drug based on the pharmacologic properties of Liquid Crystal Pharmaceuticals (LCP) that can fight cancer and other diseases. Liquid crystals are substances that flow like liquid, but maintain the ordered structure characteristic of crystalline solids. Organic substances like DNA, lipids of cellular membranes and proteins are examples of lyotropic liquid crystals.