Scientists grow primitive liver from pluripotent stem cells

Japanese scientists may have found the way to address the global organ transplant shortage. According to new research published by Yokohama City Unversity Graduate School of Medicine, scientists have succeeding in growing primitive livers from pluripotent stem cells. The nascent livers, dubbed by the scientists “liver buds”, are the product of mixing three different cell kinds - liver, endothelial and mesenchymal- in a fashion akin to what happens in developing human foetuses. To the surprise of the researchers the cells bound together and developed into a primitive liver. Researchers transplanted the buds into mice with liver failure, and found that the primitive organs helped the mice to survive. In addition, the buds began secreting liver-specific proteins, producing human-specific metabolites and after hooking up with nearby blood vessels. They continued to grow after transplantation. Co-author Takanori Takebe was pleased but circumspect. He said that while the technique looks "very promising" and represents a huge step forward, "there is much unknown and it will take years before it could be applied in regenerative medicine." The research has made headlines around the world. Matthew Smalley of the European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute believes that it holds "real promise for a viable alternative approach to human organ transplants". The liver buds can also be used for drug development. Source: Bioedge

Read More........→September 24, 2013

World's 1st talking robot astronaut set to go to space

Wellington, June 27 (ANI): Japan is set to send the world's first talking robot-astronaut to space. Yorichika Nishijima, the Kirobo project manager - named after "kibo" or hope in Japanese and "robot - said in Tokyo that Russia was the first to travel outer space, the US was the first to reach moon, but they wanted Japan to the first to send a robot-astronaut, which has the ability to communicate with humans, the University of Tokyo, Robo Garage and Toyota. CEO of Robo Garage and associate professor at the University of Tokyo, Tomotaka Takahashi, said that he hopes that robots like Kirobo, which can hold conversations, will eventually be used to assist astronauts who work in the space. Kirobo is just about 34 centimetres tall and weighs about 1 kilogram and is set to be launched from the TanegashimaSpace Center on August 4, this year. (ANI),  Source: News Track India

Read More........→June 27, 2013

Dream reading: Scientists in Japan decode sleeping minds

RESEARCHERS have found a way to "read" people's dreams for the first time, according to a breakthrough study published in the journal Science. A team of scientists from Japan's ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology used MRI scanners to work out what images people were seeing in their dreams as they fell into sleep. Seconds after the scientists' three volunteers began to doze off inside the machines, they were woken up by researchers, and asked to describe what they had seen. Scientists recorded every detail of the images they mentioned, from bronze statues to ice picks, and the experiment was repeated more than 200 times for each participant. The answers were then compared with the brain maps the MRI scans had produced and scientists built a database for each participant based on the results. Researchers then scanned volunteers again while they were awake and looking at different images on a computer. The results showed what parts of their brains were active when they looked at each picture. When they next scanned the volunteers during sleep, they found they could predict what participants were dreaming about 60 per cent of the time. Although the experiment did allow researchers to "read" some dreams, ATR's Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani, who headed-up the team, explained there was a long way to go. "I believe this result was a key step towards reading dreams more precisely", he told AFP. "[But] there are still a lot of things that are unknown." Each volunteer had a different decoding pattern so their database of MRI scans and their meanings has to be generated for each participant. Neurologist Dr Robert Stickgold, of Harvard Medical School told Science the experiment was "probably the first real demonstration of the brain basis of dream content". He added: "Up until this moment, there were no grounds on which to say we don't just make up our dreams when we wake up". The team now hope to research deep sleep, where it is thought the most vivid dreams occur. Source: The Week UK

Read More........→April 07, 2013

Hoax - Picture of 'World's Largest Tortoise'

The Wolrd largest Tortise found in Amazon river its age around 529 /Hieght-59/Weight- 800 Pounds

Outline : Social media message claims that an attached photograph depicts the world's largest tortoise, found in the Amazon River, being transported along a roadway strapped to the bed of a large truck. Brief Analysis: The "tortoise" is not real. The picture is a scene from the 2006 Japanese movie "Gamera the Brave" which features a giant turtle creature. At one point in the movie, the wounded Gamera is transported via a military truck to a research facility. The circulating image is apparently taken from this part of the movie. Detailed Analysis: According to this message, which has circulated widely via Facebook and other social media websites, an accompanying photograph depicts the world's largest tortoise being transported on the bed of a truck. The message claims that the massive tortoise was found

Galapagos Tortoise ( Image credit: Matthew Field, Wikimedia Commons)

in the Amazon River, weighs 800 pounds and is 529 years old. Not surprisingly, the picture does not depict a real tortoise or turtle or even a "tortise". The picture is in fact taken from a 2006 Japanese movie titled "Gamera the Brave". The movie is one in a series of titles that feature a gigantic turtle with special powers. In this film, a young boy finds an egg that hatches a small turtle. The turtle grows very quickly and later flies away and does not return after the boy and his friends move him to an abandoned shack. Later, the "kaiju" (strange beast or monster"), now enormous, reappears to do battle with the malevolent monster Zedus. However, the juvenile Gamera is bested by Zedus in the battle and is wounded. An article discussing the film on ScifiJapan.com explains what happens after the battle: People line the streets to see Gamera. Before long, a military unit arrives and the unconscious kaiju is loaded onto a truck and transported to a research facility in Nagoya for scientific examination. Kousuke and Toru follow, and soon learn that the scientists have information that will hopefully help them to revive Gamera.Presumably, the circulating image is taken from this portion of the film. The same snapshot is included in several articles about the movie. Incidentally, if the massive beast shown in the picture was actually real, it would almost certainly weigh much more than 800 pounds as claimed in the message. The Galápagos tortoise, the largest living species of tortoise, reach weights of more than 550 pounds, although they are considerably smaller - around five feet or so for the larger animals - than the monster depicted in the picture. Although the Galápagos tortoise cannot fly or battle deadly monsters like Gamera can, they are remarkable creatures that can live for more than 100 years in the wild. And, unlike Gamera, they actually exist in real life. References: Gamera the Brave, Dead Channels - Gamera the Brave, Black Hole - GAMERA THE BRAVE, Galápagos Tortoise, Surce: Hoax-Slayer

Read More........→March 09, 2013

Giant underwater isopod fasts for 4 years, feels great

A creature known as “the scavenger of the deep” has surprised its keepers at an aquarium by “fasting” for more than four years. The giant male isopod, called No. 1 to distinguish it from the two other giant isopods kept at Toba Aquarium in Mie Prefecture, last ate in January 2009, when it was fed a whole horse mackerel.

The isopod devoured the fish, bones and all, in just five minutes. But it has not eaten anything since, with Feb. 10 marking 1,500 days without food. The crustacean was brought to the aquarium from the Gulf of Mexico in September 2007, measuring 29 cm and weighing 1 kg, and despite its lack of food still looks perfectly healthy, the keepers say. “We have done all we possibly can,” said Takeya Moritaki, who is responsible for the creature. Moritaki said he has tried an assortment of food items, including squid
tentacles and saury, but the isopod has ignored them all. Little is known about the biology of the creatures, which live in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean and which live off dead creatures and fish. It remains a mystery why the isopod suddenly stopped eating and why it has remained healthy. “Giant isopods are always in a state of semihibernation because they don’t know when they can eat, so they limit their energy on breathing and other activities,” said Taeko Kimura, a marine ecologist at Mie University. “For that purpose they sometimes keep a large amount of fat in their livers, so maybe No. 1 still has a source of energy in its body, and that’s why it still has no appetite.” The isopods are kept in a tank that uses artificial seawater so it is highly unlikely to generate organic substances such as plankton and sea algae that No. 1, which is about the same size as its peers in the tank, can feed on. The aquarium was previously home to a giant isopod that died of natural causes, despite having a healthy appetite, making No. 1′s good health even more mysterious. Voice of Russia, The Japan Times, Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........→February 27, 2013