Nematodes!!! Duh Duh Duhnnnnnn....

"I was just editing my latest montage and this huge spider came out, so I sprayed it and killed it, then this fricken alien worm came out,"

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4E5vUUtSWT4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Parasitic Worm VIDEO Shows Huge Nematode Emerging From Dead Spider Host, Biologist Says

When YouTube user Brent Askwith saw a freakishly large worm slither out of a spider he had just killed, he recorded the ghoulish event and appropriately named the video "WTF IS THIS?!?"

"I was just editing my latest montage and this huge spider came out, so I sprayed it and killed it, then this fricken alien worm came out," Askwith wrote in the video's description.

That "alien worm" is actually a parasitic nematode, also known as a roundworm. While the nematode in the YouTube video is larger than most, Harvard University entomologist Dr. Brian Farrell told The Huffington Post that every human is infested with thousands of tiny nematodes.

"Most have no obvious effect on us, and we are mostly unaware of their presence," he wrote in an e-mail, "but a few are large enough to cause diseases such as trichinosis."

In addition to looking strange, nematode parasites can cause their hosts to do strange things. Dr. Farrell gave the example of some nematodes that prey on ants -- the parasite makes its host climb a tree and wave its butt in the air in order to catch the eye of a bird. The bird then nabs the ant, allowing the parasite to escape through the ant's abdomen and spread to other potential hosts.

"My personal favorite is Toxoplasma gondii," Dr. Farrell wrote, "the protozoan that infects cats (and is the reason pregnant women should not be around cats). Toxoplasma also infects rats and makes them unafraid of cats, so they get eaten and the parasites are able to then infect the cats they desire. Weird."

Oh dear god. I love this thread so much and bugs don't really make me squeamish much, but that one had me grossed out.

This is not related to our flame war from earlier, but seriously -**** you.

LMFAO. Sorry, but that struck me funny,

Did you find my genetic material sprinkled about your mother again? I'm sorry I can't help it.

Your momma's so fat, she has other fat women orbiting her in a geosynchronous orbit of over 36,000 km.

Potential cure for AIDS. No word on whether that includes AIDS tree accidents... Sorry about the 1 sentence formatting..

Scientists from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have made a breakthrough that could lead to a potential cure for AIDS.

Associate Professor David Harrich says they have discovered how to modify a protein in HIV so that, instead of replicating, it protects against the infection.

"I consider that this is fighting fire with fire," he said.

"What we've actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus needs to grow, and we've changed this protein, so that instead of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly."

"This therapy is potentially a cure for AIDS," he said.

"So it's not a cure for HIV infection, but it potentially could end the disease.

"So this protein present in immune cells would help to maintain a healthy immune system so patients can handle normal infections."

More than 30,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Australia.

If clinical trials are successful, one treatment could be effective enough to replace the multiple therapies they currently need.

"Drug therapy targets individual enzymes or proteins and they have one drug, one protein," Associate Professor Harrich said.

"They have to take two or three drugs, so this would be a single agent that essentially has the same effect.

"So in that respect, this is a world-first agent that's able to stop HIV with a single agent at multiple steps of the virus lifecycle."

He says the new treatment has the potential to make big improvements in the quality of life for those carrying HIV.

"I think what people are looking for is basically a means to go on and live happy and productive lives with as little intrusion as possible," he said.

"You either have to eliminate the virus infection or alternatively you have to eliminate the disease process and that's what this could do, potentially for a very long time."

Professor Harrich says animal trials are due to start this year and early indications are positive.

"This particular study is going to have some hurdles to jump through, but so far every test that we have put this protein through has passed with flying colours," he said.

"This particular year we're moving this into animal models, and based on the preliminary data we have done we expect that this will proceed really quickly."

The research is published in the journal Human Gene Therapy.

The big corporations are going to swoop in there and shut this thing down faster than you can say "gay butt sex" /bump

Why would you say that? Corporations certainly have too much power these days, but they don't have the power or scope to completely prevent a cure from being released. Especially for something global like AIDS.

What about cancer? They have been doing that since the 50s.

That seems to be a popular belief. But there's really not much truth to it. Cancer is being worked on by thousands upon thousands of independent researchers and scientists every day. And again, the power and scope of control necessary to keep something like that under wraps is just not possible.

And keep in mind that cancer cannot be cured by any universal magic bullet solution. It's far from being that simple. Cancer is actually composed of about 200+ different degenerative diseases. Each cell in your body can produce a different form of cancer. And each one acts and reacts in different ways. So something that would be effective against colon cancer could be completely ineffective against lung cancer. I really doubt that there will ever be something seen as a "Cure" for cancer, until we have nanotechnology available that can regulate any and all cell degeneration. But really once we reach that point, we're going to see all sorts of current human ailments disappear and see average life spans shoot up several hundred years at the least.

Cancer is to difficult an animal to tackle for a magic bullet. Best I've heard about it is the ability to train and attack the cancer you have so if it comes back later in your life that particular kind of cancer will be a non-issue

Cancer is a virus and ever time you get a vaccine you get another dose of cancer causing viruses and foreign DNA in your body that your body attacks. Why has cancer seen over 1000 fold increase since the 1950s when vaccination become wide spread? Every researcher that has figured this out has been forced out and shunned and had their research and funding removed from them. Cancer has become the drug makers cash cow. Go do your own research there. Go ask any medical doctor and if they would take chemo I have asked several myself and so far I have yet to find one that will.

Cancer incidence has gone up due to the ability to fight other diseases more effectively. Not as many people dying of heart disease = more cancer as it has the time to develop. Plus massively unhealthy lifestyles from recreational drugs and diet has a far greater impact.

Come on now. Cancer is not a virus. That goes completely against how cancer works and how viruses work. Viruses are actual "Living" particles that attach to normal cells, and introduce their own genetic instructions to the cell to make it do what it wants the cell to do. Viruses reprogram the cells to make more cells with the altered genetic code of the virus. Cancer is very different in that it's a deformation in an otherwise normal cell's own structural DNA. Cancer doesn't change the cell to do something different, it simply halts what the cell should normally be doing. In addition, it prevents the cell from dying and being replaced by new cells. The mutated cells remain and clump together to form a tumor that the body can't naturally deal with. There's a huge difference.

You don't get cancer from vaccines. You are completely wrong about that. The increase in cancer incidents can be attributed to the increase in knowledge of the field and better diagnoses of cause of death. Before the 50s, many people died inexplicably without a cause of death being identified. No differently than the increase of cancer in animals. How many people do you know who've had a dog get cancer? How prevalent do you think that was before the 50s?

And I personally know a doctor that's undergoing chemo right now. Certainly do your own research. But make sure you're researching correctly, because there's tons of misinformation and straight up bullshit out there about the subject.

I've actually read that viruses aren't alive at all; they're just strands of DNA or RNA encased in a protein shell. They can't even reproduce without invading a living host first..

"Viruses exist in two distinct states. When not in contact with a host cell, the virus remains entirely dormant. During this time there are no internal biological activities occurring within the virus, and in essence the virus is no more than a static organic particle. In this simple, clearly non-living state viruses are referred to as 'virions'. Virions can remain in this dormant state for extended periods of time, waiting patiently to come into contact with the appropriate host. When the virion comes into contact with the appropriate host, it becomes active and is then referred to as a virus. It now displays properties typified by living organisms, such as reacting to its environment and directing its efforts toward self-replication".

So it's not "Alive" in the same sense that you and I consider ourselves alive. But it satisfies enough criteria by reacting to its environment and promoting replication to be considered living by the most basic interpretations of "Life". Would you consider a tree to be "Alive"? It can't reproduce until coming in contact with a "Host"(soil, water, minerals).

First off, cancer is not a virus. Secondly, the primary reason for cancer rates being higher than in the 1950's is that people are living much much longer. Given enough time, free radicals, which are a naturally occuring process of aging, will cause cancer.

Ever wondered if this is accurate?

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3716/hyperspace.jpg

Turns out it's not...

Students calculate what hyperspace travel would actually look like

The two Star franchises (Wars and Trek) and countless science fiction movies have given generations of armchair space travelers an idea of what to expect when looking out the window of a spaceship making the jump to light speed. But it appears these views are – if you’ll excuse the pun – a bit warped. Four students from the University of Leicester have used Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity to calculate what Han and Chewie would actually see as they made the jump to hyperspace.

The fourth year physics students – Riley Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle, and Cameron Scoular – say that the crew wouldn’t see star lines stretching out past the ship during the jump to hyperspace, but would actually see a central disc of bright light. This is due to the Doppler effect, specifically the Doppler blue shift, that results in the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, shortening as the source of the light moves towards the observer.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4946/hyperspace0.jpg

As the spaceship makes the jump to hyperspace, the wavelength of the light from the stars would shift out of the visible spectrum into the X-ray range. Meanwhile, Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR), which is thermal radiation that is spread fairly uniformly across the universe and is thought to be left over from the Big Bang, would shift into the visible spectrum, appearing to the crew as a central disc of bright light.

“If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable,” said Connors. “On top of this, the ship would need something to protect the crew from harmful X-ray radiation.”

Taking their investigations one step further, the students calculated that, despite being the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon would also need to pack some extra energy to overcome the pressure exerted from the intense X-rays from stars that would push the ship back and cause it to slow down. The students say the pressure exerted on the ship would be comparable to that felt at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

“Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high speed travel into account in their forthcoming films,” said Dexter, referring to the fact that Disney last year bought Lucasfilm for US$4.05 billion and plans to add to the Star Wars franchise with another trilogy.

That appears unlikely, not only because it would break with the precedent set by the existing movies, but because star lines look a hell of a lot cooler than a disc of light.

Some of these articles need an idiot reading guide accompanying them.

Here's a neat tour aboard the International Space Station. It shows the science stations, workout area, kitchen, sleeping quarters, docking areas, and even the shitter(at 9:20). So if you were ever curious how an astronaut poops, there ya go. Evidently space causes crazy lady hair.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/doN4t5NKW-k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Watched the whole thing. Amazing.

It looks like Pioli to me!

Good to Know: Most People Only Breathe out of One Nostril at a Time

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/1...upkidsnose.jpg

Another bizarre human body related fact: Did you know that around 85% of humans only breathe out of one nostril at a time? This fact may surprise you, but even more remarkable is the following: our body follows a pattern and switches from breathing out of one nostril to the other in a cyclical way. Typically, every four hours it switches from left to right, or right to left.

So how does this “nasal cycle” work? Similar to a penis or clitoris, erectile tissue can be found in the nose. During “a switch,” erectile tissue swells up in one nostril, mostly blocking it, while the erectile tissue in the other nostril shrinks, opening it up for breathing. It is thought that this mechanism is regulated by the autonomic nervous system.

So why should you care? Interestingly, the nostril you use for breathing can actually affect the way you are thinking at a given moment. And you can use this to your advantage. Do you want to boost your creative thinking? Force breathing through your left nostril. This makes the right hemisphere more active, which is your creative side. Vice versa, breathing through your right nostril activates the left, “logical” side of the brain, which will, for example, help you make rational decisions.

The amazing part of that video to me, is the concept of Americans flying in and out of the ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft. To this day, I still have the "space race" mindset. I'm old.

I have two college married college friends that went on to doctorate degrees in chemistry and something to do with biochemistry (**** if I know what she's doing). Anyway, I went to visit them over Christmas, and one of them was bitching that otherwise intelligent people think that we can cure cancer. She cited that everybody in research is competitive. Everybody would jump at the opportunity to be the one that cured it.

I then brought up your second point, that cells are structurally different, and different types of cancer are accordingly different. Jesus christ. You would have thought I would have blessed them with the best news they'd ever heard, they were talking over each other and all oogly eyed because I understood that concept.

I know virtually nothing about human physiology. I'm a lot better with plants, but still, I'm far from a cancer doctor. But particularly the biochemist (apparently. According to her anyway) struggle with basic understanding of biological concepts that leads to entirely too many conversations resulting in, "they have the cure for cancer...."

I'm a fairly dumb human, but come on people.

people are dumb. enough said.

Truth.

I continue to be amazed at the depth of stupidity.

Comets to buzz the Earth in 2013
 

http://www.examiner.com/article/two-...of-the-century

I also use this in class for animations. The guy does well.

http://shadowandsubstance.com/

The second one should be awesome.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1T4XMNN4bNM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The note at the end about wildlife and endangered species taking refuge and flourishing in Chernobyl is pretty crazy!

OK, so maybe we can be a *little* frightened.
By Phil Plait | June 18, 2009 7:00 am

If you can’t take a bloody nose, go home and crawl under your bed.
It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous,
with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross…
but it’s not for the timid.
-Q

In my book, Death from the Skies!, I don’t spend much time discussing magnetars. Although terrifying — able to generate truly mind-numbing outbursts which I’ll describe in a moment — they are simply too rare and too far away to be much of a threat.

Yeah, well, I might’ve been wrong. A little wrong, I mean; there’s no reason to panic. Life on Earth won’t be snuffed out by some rogue magnetar blasting away our atmosphere or anything like that. But one of my main premises for feeling completely safe has been eroded a bit, and to be fair I should talk about it.


Magnetars are neutron stars, superdense balls of tightly packed neutrons left over from the collapsed core of a massive star that’s gone supernova. Neutron stars have about the mass of the Sun but are only a few kilometers across, making them fantastically dense and giving them surface gravities that can be billions of times the force you feel standing on the Earth. They also can possess magnetic fields literally trillions of times stronger than the Earth’s. And in some cases, young neutron stars can be even more powerful: their field strength might be a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) times the Earth’s! These beasts, called magnetars, probably lose that field strength rapidly, decaying in only a few thousand years. That makes them rare on a galactic scale.

Still, several are known to exist. And they can have a nasty, nasty temper.

See, the magnetic field is coupled to the crust of the neutron star. The crust is extremely rigid and under vast pressure from the gravity of the star. If the crust cracks — a starquake, if you will — the energy released makes the strongest earthquake ever recorded on our planet look like a friendly pat on the back. I once calculated the strength of such a starquake, and it would register as magnitude 32 on the Richter scale. This ultraviolent blast shakes the magnetic field of the star, which in turn reacts by slamming around subatomic particles… the bottom line is that such an event can trigger a phenomenal release of X-ray energy from the star. And by "phenomenal" I mean "pants-wetting terrifying".

In December 2004, the magnetar SGR 1806-20 underwent such a starquake. In one-tenth of a second the subsequent blast released something like 2 times 1046 ergs of energy — equal to about 50 trillion times the Sun’s output during that same period.

Holy crap.

This star sits about 50,000 light years from the Earth: literally halfway across the Milky Way galaxy from us. Yet, even from that forbidding distance, this titanic event was able to physically affect the Earth. It compressed our magnetic field and partially ionized our atmosphere, causing it to puff up measurably.

Mind you, it was 500 quadrillion kilometers (300 quadrillion miles) from us at the time.

So you can see why these things are a bit unnerving. But really, this one is so far away! Sure, it can hurt us, but at that distance really all it can do is what it did; we don’t expect it can have a bigger event, so we’re safe enough. Moreover, these objects are so bright in X-rays that we think we’ve found all the really big bruisers in the Galaxy. If one were closer to us, there’s no way to hide it. We’d see it.

Yeah, about that…

Astronomers have announced they found a new magnetar, named SGR 0501+4516, and it’s only 15,000 light years away. It turns out to be dark most of the time, emitting very little energy, which is how it escaped detection. But it had an outburst last year that lasted four months, allowing scientists time detect it and to get a good long look at it. This event was far less violent than the one from SGR 1806 in 2004, but still nothing to sneeze at.

Is it capable of an SGR 1806-like event? Probably not — that was an extraordinary event — and I certainly hope not! At 1/3 the distance, the effects on Earth would be nine times as strong. That could damage satellites and possibly even cause some effects on Earth itself — probably nothing that would be too big a deal, but still. Yikes.

The thing is, in Death from the Skies!, I said we’re safe from these things because they’re far away, and it’s not possible to hide any closer to us. Yet here is this one, three times closer than SGR 1806. It makes me wonder if there are any closer still. If one were, say, 5000 light years away and had a blast like the one in 2004, the effects would be 100 times larger! There could be serious satellite damage, and possibly even blackouts on Earth due to electric currents induced in our power grid.

Let me be clear: I seriously doubt there’s anything that close to us. This new one at 15,000 light years is something of a fluke, and it’s entirely possible it’s not capable of the same kind of explosive event as its more distant cousin. The odds of one being even closer are pretty small, so I’m not too concerned about it. If I were, believe me, I’d let you know!

The point here is that we have to be careful when we talk in absolutes, and it’s always good to question assumptions. If there’s one thing we know for sure about the Universe, it’s that it’s capable of some pretty good surprises, and not all of them need be the happy fun kind. We’re almost certainly safe from this particular threat… but maybe a little kick in the complacency isn’t always such a bad thing.

Heh.........

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Klgp_qDiRhQ?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thou shalt not deny Dr. Neil.

Pretty awesome week.....

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3...6957542217.jpg

Additional info on each:

Tractor beam: http://bit.ly/Y7vF0i
Temperature of the universe: http://bit.ly/XZB9tQ
DNA storage: http://bit.ly/WnyLLj
Dung beetles: http://bit.ly/Y9XLIf
Proto-bird: http://bit.ly/14e5k4V
Quadruple helix DNA: http://bit.ly/VQmZf6

Fish, this thread delivers. Love reading this shit. :thumb:

You know it's rather amazing to me... that a small beetle, who's entire life consists of rolling around a little ball of turd, still has the capacity to use the light from the band of the milky way in the night sky for navigation. Most people's knowledge of astral positions consists of trying to find the Big Dipper(Which isn't even the correct name of the constellation). And we consider ourselves the smartest life forms by a huge margin. Yet here's these little shit beetles doing things that the vast majority of humans cannot currently do. But it's not for lack of ability. So why is it that we've stopped looking up and stopped noticing the amazing infinite universe swirling around us, only to focus more and more attention downward to our own silly insignificant creations?

Maybe we're not as smart as we think we are.....

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lewGkp-0g0c?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

AKA.. Why visiting extraterrestrial life wouldn't consider us anything more than ants. To an outside observer with no knowledge of Earth, we're barely 1% "Smarter" than chimps. And considering the way we view/treat chimps as lower life forms despite only a 1% difference, that's some scary shit....

Have you seen the redhead thread?

Anyone want to explain to me the significance of discovering quadruple helix DNA?

Cancer

<div style='text-align:center'>

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://pshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?sid=281&width=560&height=345&playList=517652967'></script>

<br/>

</div>

That's really cool. Thanks for the heads up.

In other news, I found that chick to be profoundly hot. Not normally my type, but she tripped my trigger.

Another neat example of other animal intelligence....

This one coming from our brainy finned mammal friends from the ocean. This wild dolphin approached a group of divers off Kona, Hawaii who were out on a manta ray watching expedition. This dolphin approaches the divers, who see that it has fishing line in its mouth, and wrapped around it's fins. The hook from the line is embedded in its fin, and the fishing line is restricting the dolphin's movement. This dolphin ignores instinctual fear, and allows the divers to remove the hook and fishing line. Almost like he was asking for help...

There have been many reports of dolphins helping people in the ocean, usually by running off sharks and such. So it's nice to see an example of a dolphin actually trusting a human for help. I think these animals are infinitely smarter than what we give them credit for...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CCXx2bNk6UA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So hard to imagine...

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3...1615702490.jpg

NASA launch earlier tonight...

NASA Launches Rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia
01.29.13

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/5...ainimg0057.jpg

WALLOPS ISLAND, VA – NASA successfully launched a Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital rocket at 5:50 p.m. EST this evening from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

During the flight, two red-colored lithium vapor trails were produced. Reports from those viewing the launch or vapor trails came from as far away as the Outer Banks, N.C.; eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Two different methods for creating the lithium vapor were tested to determine which configuration is best for observing various science phenomena in space.

NASA has two missions later this year that will use lithium trails to assist scientists in observing events in space. The first is scheduled for April in the central Pacific Ocean from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and the second will occur in June at Wallops.

In the technology test launch, two canisters in the rocket’s payload section contained solid metal lithium rods or chips embedded in a thermite cake. The thermite was ignited and produced heat to vaporize the lithium. The vapor was released in space to be detected and tracked optically.

The lithium combustion process posed no threat to the public during the release in space. When heated, the lithium rods change to lithium vapor and small amounts of lithium oxide. The thermite reaction produces iron and aluminum oxide.

The next rocket launch from the Wallops Flight Facility is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-March.

One day this jellyfish could allow your descendants to live thousands of years or more... This jellyfish is immortal. Seriously. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation. Cell transdifferentiation is when the jellyfish "alters the differentiated state of the cell and transforms it into a new cell". Essentially, this jellyfish has overcome cellular breakdown to indefinitely give itself new cells.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7...6228159187.jpg

Dr. Neil ****ing Tyson....

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wiOwqDmacJo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Man I ****ing love Tyson

Heh.... melt your brain... here's Tyson talking about the possibility of multiverses with Joe Rogan....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ybNCE5Y5JDQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Other parts available too if you're interested...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lD08CuUi_Ek?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Behold... the mighty penis mole....

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2...8235779413.jpg

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/964...akedmolera.jpg

It can also remain erect for over 4 hours without consulting a physician.

ROFL

This is really cool.

However, it will not "allow your descendants to live thousands of years or more", mainly because we don't have a polyp stage, we are far more complex, and our cells are governed by different processes.

Not yet.

Joke or serious?

In theory, it could totally happen. You would just have to alter all the processes governing cell differentiation and cell death.

Not to mention you would have to do this in the cells in almost every vital organ, which all have dramatically properties.

Other than that, you're golden.

Yeah, I didn't mean that humans would develop a polyp stage. Just that our research into how this animal does this could have considerable impact in the future. There are correlations between the way the jellyfish goes about cellular differentiation, and the way human stem cells do the same thing. I wouldn't be so hasty to say we can learn nothing because we are such different species....

First source isn't very informative at all. He basically says because we have the ability to differentiate at the embryonic level, and adult SC's can be manipulated into the differentiation process of embryonic SC's and used for the treatment of spinal cord damage, and these hydra have a similar process without manipulation, that we could "learn some basic things" about it.
That guy basically provided a muddy parallel without linking the two. he didn't really provide any evidence for his soft conclusion.

Second one comes from a much better source. What they are basically saying, however, is we can use them as model organisms for the process. We have several model organisms in genetics, but that does not mean we can adopt their characteristics into our genetic functional repertoire and call it good. There are far more steps involved in that.

Similar genome does not mean we have similar processes. Suffice it to say that it's far more complicated, and gene therapy has many obstacles. Promising, but many obstacles.

The bolded is the entire point. I wasn't making any specific claims beyond that. Similar processes aren't exactly necessary for understanding the underlying processes. We currently introduce DNA from all sorts of different plants, animals, and even bacteria, into other plants, animals, etc., that otherwise have little to nothing in common. For example, we now introduce E. Coli DNA along with mouse DNA to hog embryos strictly to reduce the hog's phosphorus output, making them much more environmentally friendly. We introduce scorpion venom DNA into cabbage, to produce cabbage that has a natural resistance to pests. These are only a few examples.

How your brain works....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JiTz2i4VHFw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I like NDT as much as anyone, but that was no schooling. That was 'this is what you think, but I bet you're wrong.' I could do that.

Yeah, except for the powerful "may allow your descendants to live much, much longer" claim, no specific claim was made.

And yes, I am aware that those have been done. Unfortunately, we are more complex than a plant, e coli, etc. despite similar regions of our genome. Gene therapy for us has been inching toward progressive treatments, and has been met with some disappointing obstacles in humans.

We can't even begin to fathom the claim you made at this point in gene therapy research.

"One day could allow". That's my claim. Nothing more. You're welcome to continue to dispute what you think I meant beyond that. But to say that we can't fathom that cellular differentiation processes might one day play a part in human longevity falls rather short of the truth. We're already doing what others said couldn't be fathomed just decades ago.

This probably explains the expectations in a manner better than I did... Explained by the lovely Cara Santa Maria...

<div style='text-align:center'>

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://pshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?sid=281&width=560&height=345&playList=517542158'></script>

<br/>

</div>

I'm disputing this: "One day this jellyfish could allow your descendants to live thousands of years or more"

Not: "But to say that we can't fathom that cellular differentiation processes might one day play a part in human longevity falls rather short of the truth".

That's not what you initially said, and you have since changed your tune.

Sure, one day I could be a billionaire. The prospects are highly unlikely, and there are huge limitations but it could occur one day (fingers crossed!!!). However, it's probable that I will be a millionaire based on my current outlook. Those are two very different statements, right?

The human body has inherent limitations that are affecting our longevity.

In the near future, we might see people living to 100 more frequently, and it has nothing to do with an immortal organism.

I watched about 30 seconds of that. The Huffington post has no place as a source in a scientific discussion.

You're simply arguing the semantics of my own description. And you're not even doing it very well. You haven't even bothered to attempt an intelligent rebuttal. But whatever. Science been overcoming what people like you call impossible, for quite a while now, and it will continue to do so.

And by the way, the video you casually dismissed because of its source was done by someone with a Masters in neuroscience who has published research in neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology. She makes a living teaching science.

Why don't you try and contribute something besides snarky doucheness?

I'm guessing snarky doucheness was just all he was going for. That and he is probably going to be a millionaire.

No, I'm arguing the accuracy of your description. Science has been overcoming people like me? What? I'm a medical student.

A brief history in genetic therapy from a lecture series presented by a well-published MD/PhD:

1960’s
Researchers foresaw manipulations of chromosomes and genes for "desired" genes
Must be cautious to control genes until we completely understand effects
1970’s
Began experimentation on humans
Tried treating people with arginemia virus that would cause reduction of arginine in blood
Aftermath of ethical issues caused pessimism over gene therapy
1980’s
Tried to treat patients with beta-thalessemia without IRB approval
Lead to resignation and penalties to UCLA
1990’s
Infused gene into bone marrow cells
Could put cells into subjects, but not at a high enough level to be effective
Another experiment killed a patient because of serious problems with experimental setup
2000’s
Successful treatments of melanoma, color blindness in squirrel monkeys, partial vision to blind, CLL (leukemia)

Yes, we have come a long way. But we've tried manipulating genes as a treatment for a while now, with many obstacles. These are the obstacles I have been referring to.

Barriers to Gene Therapy
1. Therapy must be applied frequently due to poor half-life
2. Viral vectors used to apply treatment can cause immune response
3. Unintended cosequences, such as inflammatory responses
4. Target other tissues that aren’t desired
5. Poor efficiency- even if they target the appropriate tissue, doesn’t always work well

There's your contribution.

Sincerely,
Snarky Douche

OK. That's a start. Now tell us why those barriers to gene therapy might still be present in 200 or so years. Why do you think those things are not able to be overcome?

Scale..........

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1...4551609114.jpg

Welp... thanks for that. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the night wondering about the universe and what's "outside" it.

What's the one limitation to any potential SC transplant? The brain. We may make progress in every vital organ (heart included), but the neural structure of the brain is far too complex.

Let's say, hypothetically, that we made enough progress to harvest and transplant every organ using ECM and mesenchymal stem cells. Cool, right? We could help a lot of people. But what we'll end up seeing is a higher incidence of dementia/Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders. We have already seen that in the past 20-30 years simply because people are living longer.

Add in the fact that SC therapies are in the early stages, and most pt's who receive them are put on lifelong immunosupression. Essentially, you're trading one disorder for another at this point.

And I'm not saying those barriers will exist in 200 years. We will overcome and account for most of those (hopefully), but the end result may not be what you're expecting. We'll have a powerful tool in the treatment of certain disorders, which will be the priority over addressing longevity.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/8fd74b530...h5u7o3_500.png
http://24.media.tumblr.com/4f027f991...h5u7o2_500.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/bb463d7f4...h5u7o1_500.png

I'll take cancer, liver disease, and a relatively short lifespan to not have to look likw a dick with teeth