Medical Breakthrough: ‘Patient-Specific’ Embryonic Stem Cells Achieved By Cloning

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Human cell-line colony being cloned in vitro through use of cloning rings. Own work - photo credit: Bob Walker in 2006

A team of reproductive biologists led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov at the Oregon Health and Science University (Beaverton, OR) have successfully created ‘patient-specific’ embryonic stem cells (ESCs) through cloning. The improved cloning technique used by the team is much more efficient than previous approaches that have achieved only partial successes. The breakthrough will surely reignite ethical debate over the controversial technique that has long-promised cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, to name just … Read More

Dolphin Detected Woman’s Cancer?

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Image Credit: Henry A-W, Wiki Commons

A news story about a woman who swam with dolphins and was somehow inspired to visit a doctor who identified a cancer tumor, has speculated a dolphin might have helped. A Panama City Beach, Florida woman went on a dolphin cruise and once in the water with about 15 dolphins something strange happened. One male dolphin stayed near her and even bumped her. Then it did a flip in front of her. She told the … Read More

Insecticides Cause Slow Starvation In Aquatic Organisms, Discovery Shows Limits Of Conventional Toxicity Tests

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Image Credit: EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

A very commonly used insecticide, imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid), has now been found by new research to be extremely toxic to aquatic organisms, often leading to their death. It’s very important to note that the “slow starvation” caused by the insecticide is undetectable by conventional toxicity tests, which are done on a much shorter time frame than the new research was. Which means that many chemicals which are now considered to be “non-toxic”, in various regards, … Read More

97% Of Research Papers Say Global Warming Is Manmade

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Image Credit: Public Domain

A recent study of research papers published from 1991 to 2011 that took a view on human-related climate change found 97% of them were agreement that humans are a factor. The study was published in Environmental Research Letters, Volume 8, Number 2. A large team of researchers made up the study group, which had affiliations with quite a number of organizations, such as the University of Queensland, Australia, the School of Psychology, University of Western … Read More

Long-Predicted Fractal Energy Pattern Observed For First Time By Physicists

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The Hofstadter Butterfly

Forty years ago, a mysterious and beautiful “butterfly-shaped” magnetic energy pattern was theorized by famed physicist and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Douglas Hofstadter. But due to previous limitations in the laboratory technology used to generate strong magnetic fields, this pattern had here-to-fore never materialized. Today, two separate but cross-collaborating research teams — one of which is from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) at Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida) — reported the first ever observations … Read More

Fish Species Moving North Due To Climate Change

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Image Credit: Public Domain

University of British Columbia scientist William Cheung has documented a gradual shifting of some fish species further north than their typical ranges. Some tropical commercial species are being found by fishing boats in waters near New England. Ocean water in the tropics is becoming too warm due to climate change, so they are seeking cooler places. If tropical waters continue to increase in temperature, habitat for local fish will shrink and they may not be … Read More

Save Polar Bears By Reducing Driving Speeds

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Image Credit: Alan Wilson, Wiki Commons

Sea ice has been in a decline recently, and that is very bad news for polar bears. They conduct much of their lives on sea ice, including locating mates and reproducing. ‘Sea ice extent averaged for the month of April 2013 was 14.37 million square kilometers (5.54 million square miles). This is 630,000 square kilometers (243,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average for the month, and is the seventh-lowest April extent in the … Read More

Commonly-Used Poultry Drug Increases Levels Of Toxic Arsenic In Chicken Meat

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Image Credit: Poultry via Flickr CC

The meat from chickens raised with arsenic-based drugs contains considerably higher levels of inorganic arsenic, a very toxic carcinogen, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health has found. While it may sound obvious that if chickens are administered drugs containing arsenic than their bodies will retain and contain some of that arsenic, it has actually long been argued that they would not… Especially with … Read More

Earthworms Protect Gardens From Slugs, Research Finds

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Garden Swiss chard

Earthworms, when present in healthy numbers in a garden’s soil, effectively protect the plants there from being consumed by slugs, according to new research from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. An interesting finding, for those of us that like to garden. Slugs can be quite the pest from what I’ve heard, though I’ve only had issues with them once — with regards to cucumbers. And that was remedied pretty easily … Read More

Solar Flare Bonanza — Third X-Class Solar Flare Within 24 Hours Erupts From The Sun

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"These pictures from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory show the three X-class flares that the sun emitted in under 24 hours on May 12-13, 2013." Image Credit: NASA/SDO

Another powerful X-class solar flare just erupted from the Sun — the third within only 24 hours. the solar flare registered as a X3.2, making it the most powerful solar flare of the year. This third flare peaked in intensity at about 9:11 pm EDT on May 13, 2013. The previous two flares, an X1.7 and an X2.8, peaked at about 10 pm EDT on May 12 2013, and 12:05 pm EDT on May 13 … Read More